How To Win More Business

WWP#021 : Part 5 of the 12 Step Process for developing RFP Proposal Responses – Using Style Sheets

Michel Theriault — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:11:05 +0000

This is Part 5 of my series on the 12 step process from my book. Last time, I discussed Step 6 and 7 – Your Service Solution and your Management Solution. If you missed it, visit my website.

In this episode, I’m continuing the series with step 8, which is using a Style Sheet to makes it easier to get consistent material from contributors and much quicker to assemble it into a full proposal response.Now before I start talking about the style sheet, keep in mind you should do this along with my advice on getting material from your contributors, which can be hard to do and I’m sure you can relate to poor writing, slow response, inconsistent information, lack of details or too much detail, no thought about the client’s needs and more. For more info on Extracting Material from Subject Matter Experts, listen to Podcast #14 and combine it with a Style Sheet for the best results.

The reason for a Style sheet is to make it as easy and painless as you can for yourself and your contributors, whether they are internal subject matter experts, operational staff, suppliers or subcontractors.

They are busy with their own priorities and it’s usually a fight to get good material from them you can use to win with – if you make it easy, you are much more likely to get material you need and material that’s easy to integrate into your overall proposal.

Reviewers simply don’t like to see different sections written with different styles, formats, levels of detail and other tell tale signs that make it look like boilerplate material instead of a customized response.

So the Style Sheet is a great tool you can use to write better proposals. Some of it will be the same from one proposal to another while other things will be completely customized to the specific proposal.

Your style sheet provides information to your proposal contributors and ensures consistent information, correct terminology, consistent use of titles, how and which acronyms are to be used, how to use headings and bullets, headings, naming of illustrations, and even instructs on the response’s tone and approach.

This is particularly important with a large proposal where many different groups, internal or external, will be contributing to the RFP response.

By using a style sheet, you reduce errors, provide a more cohesive proposal to the client, and save a lot of time at the end of the process when you are under pressure to finalize the proposal.

The style sheet should be accompanied by a copy of the template document I mentioned earlier, to be used by everybody writing the proposal. A template saves time, energy, and reduces errors. It ensures your contributors are developing consistent material using the same format and structure. It will mean less work and less time consolidating the various contributions to the proposal.

The style sheet itself provides guidelines on what and how they write material for you, including guidance on the strategy and more. It should include the following key elements, however you may include other requirements that are relevant to your specific industry or the bid itself:

Basic background information on the client and the overall scope.
Document and file naming and numbering conventions.
Writing techniques to be used, such as when to expand acronyms, use of headings, formatting of information, etc.
How to refer to the client and your company in the written response.
Descriptions of the key management and service solutions, including processes, names of systems and products, responsibilities, org charts, titles, etc. that contributors should use when writing.
Client’s terminology, acronyms, position titles and other information that needs to be referred to accurately and consistently throughout the proposal.
Terminology or issues that should not be discussed or used due to sensitivities or possible negative interpretations by the client.
Key elements to include in each section or to be answered in questions, such as benefits, examples, process diagrams, etc., to maintain consistency.
Hot buttons and issues that should be covered in each section where possible.
Format and naming or reference conventions, as well as the format of attachments, images, diagrams and screen shots used in the proposal.

The size and complexity of your RFP response will influence how much information you need to include in your style sheet, as will your approach to the writing exercise and the resources you have available. Even if you use dedicated writers or editors to help you with your proposal, you will save time and effort by having the source material developed using the style sheet.

I’ve just covered Step 8 of the 12 step process. In my next podcast, I’ll deal with Step 9, the Project Plan and Step 10 – Version Control

WWP#021 : Part 5 of the 12 Step Process for developing RFP Proposal Responses – Using Style Sheets is a post from: How To Win More Business

Our Book "Win More Business - Write Better Proposals". is now available at Amazon in many countries, including the USA, Canada, UK, Japan, Germany and France. You can also order it directly from the author on this website

WWP#020 : Part 4 of the 12 Step Process for developing RFP Proposal Responses – Service & Management Solutions

Michel Theriault — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:00:16 +0000

This is part 4 of the 12 step process you should use to develop a winning bid. In this part, I’m continuing the series with steps 6 and 7 which are your Service Solution and your Management Solution. Yes, they are different.

Step 6 – Service solution

Your service solution outlines how you’re going to deliver the product or service, as well as the type and specifications of the product or the organizational structure and processes for the service. Knowing what the solution is at the beginning of the proposal process makes it easier to develop the written proposal response. Without it, your written response won’t be as effective, or you will need to re-write some of it after you’ve finalized your solution.

The solution must effectively match the strategy, client needs and the compelling examples and explanation you will provide to demonstrate why your solution is the best.

Sometimes your solution will be developed in parallel with the writing. While this is far from ideal, if you have to do it this way, carefully manage the process so the right information is available for the written response when it is needed.

So how do I know this? I learned the hard way. We were writing a proposal response for a service without knowing the final organizational structure or how the services would be delivered. Generic processes and information with placeholders were included in the proposal at first, which meant a re-write was necessary just before submission to align the writing with the final solution. This wasted effort, used up time we should have spent fine-tuning the response, and left room for errors.

To make an effective and compelling written proposal, you need to describe how the service will be delivered and why it matters to the client. This must be done at the beginning of the process to take full advantage of an effective proposal writing process.

While most RFPs require you to respond to requirements based on specific service levels and performance or technical specifications, some proposals will ask for service options and suggestions for efficiency and lower cost. This is your opportunity to provide alternatives that may be more attractive to the client, and make you more competitive.

If the client has not asked, and unless they specifically prohibit it, you should propose alternate service options that may be attractive to the client. There may be services they haven’t considered, or a different way of providing the results they want. Do this in addition to the clients stated services and scope, with any related costing clearly identified as optional.

This can include a proposal for the basic requirements the client has asked for, as well as either an increase in scope, or absorbing other contracted services, for instance, which may enable you to provide more scope for less cost than the client spends on multiple providers. It may also be beneficial to propose a reduced scope that still meets the client’s basic requirements, particularly if you know cost is an issue. Sometimes the requirements the client documents don’t reflect real conditions. The more you know about the client’s business, the better you’ll be able to propose alternative service solutions.

Step 7 - Management solution

So, in addition to the service solution, you should provide a compelling management solution that goes beyond the technical approach to your service and meets or exceeds the client’s requirements.

Whether they formally ask for it or not, make your management solution clear by Specifically address the customer/supplier relationship and how you will manage the service or product delivery over the life of the contract, including quality assurance, auditing, reporting, and client interfaces.

More extensive RFPs include questions that cover this are. If they do, put as much effort into answering them as you do for the service solution or pricing. The reason the client issued an RFP is to get the best solution, not just a price. How you manage the service is important to the overall solution.

Consider your technical solution and pricing approach in addition to your understanding of the client when developing the interfaces, management and reporting approaches and service management tools that will be part of your proposal. These must be of interest to the client and attract them to your overall solution.

For a service, particularly when it’s a key support to the client’s core business and success, the relationship, accessibility, culture, reporting, quality management and supplier relationship management approaches should be developed and proposed in a way that enhances your offering and provides benefits to the client.

I’ve just covered Step 6 and 7 of the 12 step process. In my next podcast, I’ll deal with Step 8 – using Style Sheets for consistent writing.

WWP#020 : Part 4 of the 12 Step Process for developing RFP Proposal Responses – Service & Management Solutions is a post from: How To Win More Business

WWP#019 : Part 3 of the 12 Step Process for developing RFP Proposal Responses – Pricing

Michel Theriault — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 16:19:20 +0000

In an earlier blog, I listed the 12 step process you should use to develop a winning bid and in my last podcast, I talked about the Strategy Session and Kick-Off steps. If you missed it, visit my website.

Now, I’m covering Step 5 – Pricing. While my book focuses on the written proposal response, Pricing is obviously important, not just from a price perspective, but because it drives your overall strategy and your solution.

While a well-developed, persuasive proposal is a prerequisite for winning a scored RFP response, pricing could be the tipping factor. The RFP approach used by the client can provide you with insight on how this will factor into the final decision and how to develop your overall strategy. Whether the client will take the price as-is or negotiate with a preferred proponent is the key issue to identify.

Understanding the pricing structure and considering what level of detail the client is asking for and why will also help you with your approach. Sometimes details are requested to verify that you adequately priced the service delivery, and wise clients won’t want to award a contract to a company who won’t be able to afford to provide the necessary services.

For some services that are very labor-based, asking for the proposed hours and the related labor rates lets a client to reverse engineer your pricing and make sure you’re pricing the full service you’re proposing.

Asking for pricing details is also a way to more appropriately compare different bidders and facilitate negotiations on pricing.

Although you need to clearly understand the pricing model, the client expects that as part of the proposal submission and you will provide it to them in the format and structure they require. However, you may want to propose an alternate model based on your own experience and advantages.

The pricing model in the RFP may be based on what the client feels comfortable with for best pricing, and so that the client can get information they can use for the negotiation process.

There may be better ways to handle pricing that reduces risk or makes service changes more flexible. In addition, if your product or service approach is different, there may be pricing models that make them more attractive.

By making an alternative proposal, and clearly identifying the reasons for it – as long as it isn’t prohibited in the RFP – you could have the advantage.

It’s important, however, to provide pricing in accordance with RFP requirements to avoid being disqualified or disadvantaged. If a client doesn’t get what they expect and can’t compare you with others the way they expect, the client may not look favorably on your approach, even if you have a compelling reason for your alternate methods.

From a strategic perspective, if you feel that your costs and therefore your pricing won’t be the lowest, take the time to explain it in your proposal in a way that makes the reviewers question the other lower bids.

I’ve just covered Step 5of the 12 step process. In my next podcast, I’ll deal with Step 6 – Your Service Solution

WWP#019 : Part 3 of the 12 Step Process for developing RFP Proposal Responses – Pricing is a post from: How To Win More Business

WWP#018 : Part 2 of the 12 Step Process for developing RFP Proposal Responses

Michel Theriault — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 03:15:27 +0000

In an earlier blog, I listed the 12 step process you should use to develop a winning bid and in my last podcast, I talked about the Pre-RFP and RFP Review steps. If you missed either of them, be sure to read them.

Now, I’m covering Step 3 – Strategy Session and Step 4 – Kick-Off. For Strategy in particular, this is only part of what you need to do. It’s such an important part of winning, I also cover a lot more in the book.Step 3 – Strategy Session

A strategy is one of the most important things you need. Strategy sets the direction and provides you with the information and approach you need to manage and write a successful proposal. Much of this will stem from the proposal review process that you’ve undertaken.

One way to start this process is to hold a strategy session that includes key senior people, as well as a range of subject matter experts, operational staff, subcontractors, and anyone else who can provide input add value to your strategy.

As an example, I used this strategy approach with a non-profit organization submitting a proposal for funding. I facilitated a focused strategy session with members of the organization. It helped them focus their efforts, including determine what the funding agency was looking for, how to interpret the submission requirements, who the evaluators would be – and what they would care about, and other things that would maximize their chances of being awarded the funding. We did this well before they started writing. It guided the final submission and they secured their funding as a result.

Of course, you should consider this part of the process as ongoing. Set up several sessions during the proposal development process to reconfirm and incorporate new material and insight that may have been discovered along the way.

Your strategy includes a number of elements you need to take the time to assess and develop. This includes themes to use when writing your proposal, client hot buttons you need to address, and a gap-analysis.

I’ve just touched on the strategy session , but strategy is a large part of a successful bid. I talk more about it in other podcasts and extensively in the section of the book titled ‘Prepare for Battle – Strategy for Success”

Step 4 – Kick-Off

Getting everyone on the same page makes it easier to develop an effective proposal. A kick-off meeting gets a proposal project started by giving everyone the information they need, and confirming resources and priorities.

The kick-off meeting includes individuals from other departments who are involved in delivering the product or service, as well as subcontractors or other partners. You should also invite anyone who will be preparing material for your proposal. Don’t limit these meetings to the senior people or heads of departments. Get front line resources involved. They can often contribute the details and subtle information that will make your proposal more successful.

In the kick-off meeting, outline the results of your RFP review and any initial strategy you’ve developed. Provide the project plan and discuss information the group needs to know in order to help with the proposal.

At this meeting, clearly identify the responsibilities and time lines required for a successful proposal. Some of the individuals present may have already been included in the strategy sessions.

The Agenda should include the following elements at a minimum:

Review the technical proposal requirements (format, etc.) and establish action items if required.
Review the proposal response content requirements, and determine the required proposal format, instructions to writers, etc.
Discuss and assess the response areas to validate and communicate the related hot buttons, key messages and opportunities.
Identify and assess potential internal and external resources who should be followed up to gain adequate information and nuances regarding client needs, expectations and their agenda.
Assign key research activities required, both to gain outside information, and for internal information required to respond to the proposal itself.
Provide an initial ‘straw-man’ organization and solution for the proposal, including both staff and methodology for the service delivery model around which the proposal writers will frame their written material.
Provide writing guidelines, styles, logistics, etc.
Establish writing assignments.
Generate an initial list of questions for the client.

I’ve just covered Step 3 and 4 of the 12 step process. In my next podcast, I’ll deal with Step 5 – Pricing so be sure to subscribe to the podcast or visit again soon.

WWP#018 : Part 2 of the 12 Step Process for developing RFP Proposal Responses is a post from: How To Win More Business

WWP#017 : 12 Steps You Can Use to Develop Your RFP Proposal Response

Michel Theriault — Tue, 25 May 2010 13:00:51 +0000

In my last blog entry, I talked about a 12 step process to ensure you don’t end up submitting a losing bid because you didn’t have a plan. If you missed it, read the blog.

In this and the next few podcasts, I’ll outline the 12 steps.Step 1 : Pre-RFP issue

The more you prepare before a formal RFP is issued, the better off you’ll be. While you won’t know about all RFPs before they’re issued, your marketing and sales staff should be tracking potential clients and know when current supplier contracts are coming up for renewal or re-bid.

Most formal RFPs include limitations on contact with the client and their staff once the RFP is issued, which limits your ability to gather information that can be useful to your proposal response. In many cases, making unauthorized contact with the client during an RFP process can get you disqualified from bidding.

For less formal or non-competitive proposal submissions, this will be less of an issue, but making contact during the process is risky. It’s better to start preparing in advance if you know about an upcoming RFP.

For formal RFPs, you can use the pre-RFP issue phase to make contact with individuals in the organization, gather more information, or introduce key individuals from your company to the organization. This makes it easier for you to respond to the proposal once it’s issued, and the client will have more of a connection with the people in your company.

Another advantage to engaging clients before the RFP is released is to educate them on other issues and considerations related to the service, and give them ideas and information they could include in the RFP itself. This can include building in requirements you can easily meet, additional services you can provide, specifications you already work with or criteria that match your capabilities.

While sharing information and making introductions is valuable, you can also use the pre-RFP period to do more research on the issues, the client and the service and, if relevant, align yourself with the right subcontractors, service providers and even technical or writing assistance for the proposal itself. The more of this you do in advance, the more time you can spend during the RFP phase on your proposal response strategy and the crafting of an effective written proposal.

Step 2: RFP review

Once you receive the RFP documentation, carefully review the entire RFP to prepare for developing the response, and to identify issues, concerns or details that will impact your proposal.

While it depends on your services and the RFP itself, here are typical things you should look at to ensure you can prepare your proposal effectively. Sometimes simple things like missing a mandatory site visit, not having the insurance requirement in place, or other details will disqualify you.

Some of the things you should look for include:

The RFP process
Overall timelines
Mandatory requirements
Scoring, evaluation criteria and weighting
Process for submitting questions, including deadlines
Sources of additional information, such as a data room or online source
Site tour dates and other client meetings
The actual scope of work
Specifications and service levels
Financial proposal submission requirements, forms, etc.
Technical (written) proposal requirements
Submission (delivery) requirements
Insurance and bonding requirements
Minimum experience requirements
Page count, margins and type size requirements

If the client provided a sample contract as part of the RFP, review it carefully to see what may impact your service solution or pricing. Some RFPs require you to accept their contract as-is while others invite comment and modification through a specific process. Use care when objecting to clauses in the contract. Be sure they really matter, otherwise you risk creating a negative impression by objecting to insignificant issues.

The information you must provide and the questions you must answer in response to the RFP proposal tell you what background information you need and the resources you require to address them effectively. This is the time to source those resources and set deadlines internally.

In my next podcast, I’ll deal with the Strategy you need to develop before you start to write your proposal if you want to win more business.

Part of your strategy should be to ask me questions, so feel free to leave a comment on this or any other episode or send a note. I’d love to hear from you.

This topic comes from the book ‘Win More Business – Write Better Proposals’. To get the book, visit our website or search for it online at Amazon and many other on-line book sellers. To order for your marketing staff, your trade association or a conference, contact me directly and don’t forget to ask about my seminars, workshops and proposal review services.

WWP#017 : 12 Steps You Can Use to Develop Your RFP Proposal Response is a post from: How To Win More Business

WWP#016 : Address Potential Client Concerns in your Proposal or RFP Response Before Your Client Raises Them

Michel Theriault — Mon, 10 May 2010 12:44:09 +0000

The biggest mistake you can make is pretending negative issues or concerns the client may have about your organization, product or service don’t exist.

No matter how much you think your company and your product or service is superior, you can assume there are people who don’t agree. Unfortunately, some of these people may be evaluating your proposal.You must always consider what these concerns could be and negate them. When presenting to an audience, you have the ability to defend your statements and positions when objections are raised. In a proposal, you only have one opportunity – when you write it.

If you’ve read The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout, you may remember that the law of candor is the 15^th law of marketing. The authors explain that an effective way of getting a positive reaction is to admit a negative attribute and turn it into a positive.

And do you remember the commercials about the Volkswagen beetle starting in the early 60’s? They were immensely successful yet they brought attention to negative attributes with ad headlines like “Think Small”, “No point in showing you the 1962 Volkswagen, it still looks the same”, “The Last Thing You’ll Need is Power Steering” and “It’s ugly, but it gets you there”. Even with these negative attributes, the Volkswagen Beetle became the best selling model of all time at 21 million cars.

So Volkswagen’s approach is something we can learn from. By identifying issues and questions that may come up and dealing with them, you’ll ensure that client perceptions will be managed and you’ll be able to get your message across rather than having the client’s negative assumptions prevail. You can sometimes even turn what seems like a negative into a positive, like Volkswagen did very successfully.

Some of these negative issues will come out of your strategic analysis and you can use those findings to address the negative concerns. They may be based on how you compare to your competition, for instance. Others may be harder to find. Individuals in your organization may have heard things from contacts within the industry and even the client, but haven’t brought them to your attention. Seek out honest and frank opinions and observations from others. Hearing them may not be enjoyable, but not addressing them may lose business.

Other issues will be fairly obvious. You may be a new entrant into the marketplace and have some very specific disadvantages. If you’re generally more expensive, that could also be negative. If you lost a rebid or renewal recently, perhaps even with a competitor on this RFP, it will raise questions about why you lost the business. If your technology or sophistication is be lower than your competition, it you may look like less attractive. Always assume the perception will be negative, and find a way to deal with it.

In the book “Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive”, the authors outline a number of high-profile examples, including a study by Kip Williams, a social psychologist. Williams’s study revealed that juries were more likely to be favorable of the defendant if their lawyers raised minor weaknesses in the case before the prosecution did. Remember the Volkswagen ads? They all used a negative as headlines, then talked about why it was actually an advantage in the ad copy. “It’s ugly, but it gets you there” is a great example right in the headline.

Sometimes, you can find a negative issue or even what may seem like a competitive disadvantage and explain to the client why it isn’t negative at all. Even if you don’t fully convince the client, raising and acknowledging a negative issue the client is probably already aware of will make you appear more trustworthy. You may even make them look differently at your competitor’s claims.

WWP#016 : Address Potential Client Concerns in your Proposal or RFP Response Before Your Client Raises Them is a post from: How To Win More Business

WWP#015 : Positioning ‘Value-Added’ Without Pricing Yourself Out Of the Competition In Your Next RFP Proposal Response

Michel Theriault — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 18:49:23 +0000

Value-added is something you may see being requested in RFPs and if not, you’re likely trying to figure out how to provide it in your proposals. The simple question is what ‘value added’ really means and whether it will have material impact on your proposal.When it comes right down to it, so-called value-added in a proposal should really be your competitive advantage. However, if it looks like it’s important to the client that you provide ‘value-added’, or the value-added is part of the evaluation criteria or scoring, you need to find things that the client will consider value-added.

This sometimes ends up being a pricing issue – what you want to provide as value-added services, and how much they impact the price, if at all.

Unless it’s explicitly identified how value-added services or features will influence the client to select you as the winner, assume that any value-added items you provide will simply give you the edge in the existing evaluation model.

Your main goal is to clearly demonstrate your capabilities and the fact that you’re the best choice to provide the requirements identified in the RFP.

Value-added can be the icing on the cake. However, you do need to consider the costs and impacts value-added may have on your final proposal price, and the impact on evaluation scoring. Start by focusing on ‘value-added’ that is simply part of how you operate your business efficiently.

If you can provide value-added without having a negative impact on your proposal price, either through technology, volume or efficiency, simply identify the value these items provide, and explain the results for the client.

Don’t make the mistake of pulling things out of your normal service and calling them value-added unless they’re clearly value-added items. This will be apparent to the client and cause you to lose credibility.

So here’s an example of successfully using ‘value added’ to win a proposal:

An RFP specifically required adhering to current practices, which were very manual and not assisted by a computerized system.

The pricing structure was for management and administration only, with the direct costs of labor as a flow-through to the client. This meant a computerized system would have added costs to the price, but the direct cost savings were not considered in the evaluation. Adding the computerized system would have been value-added, but the higher price would have lost the bid.

The bid was submitted with the base requirements, however the capability and experience of implementing and using a computerized system to drive efficiencies and reduce direct costs was clearly identified as a ‘Value-Added’ benefit to the client, without actually delivering it.

After the bid was won, the client requested implementation of a computerized system at the client’s cost. This strategy helped win the bid.

Here’s another, less successful example.

In a consulting RFP, where the scope was very open it left lots of room for so-called ‘added value’ for the client, most of which, as usual, came at a price. The bidder assumed the client wanted lots of added value and so their proposed scope included not only the base service, but many value-added elements. Clearly, the strategy was flawed, however, since it resulted in a price much higher than the winning bidder’s proposal, who probably simply priced a basic, workable scope of work in their proposal. Either that’s all the client actually wanted or all they could afford.

The message is that value-added doesn’t always need to be incorporated within your base price. One way to structure a proposal with significant value-added items is to provide an optional service with optional pricing.

Some RFPs will ask for options while others will not. Regardless of whether the clients ask or not, if you have some attractive options, you should propose them. Make it clear that they’re separate and distinct from your main proposal. Be sure to read the submission requirements carefully to ensure this approach won’t disqualify you.

This issue is why you need to develop your strategy around the entire bid process, including the technical solution and the pricing. It’s how you win more business.

WWP#015 : Positioning ‘Value-Added’ Without Pricing Yourself Out Of the Competition In Your Next RFP Proposal Response is a post from: How To Win More Business

WWP#14 : Getting Material from Subject Matter Experts for your RFP Proposal Response

Michel Theriault — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 17:31:22 +0000

Getting material from the subject matter experts within your organization, or from subcontractors and suppliers, can be challenging. There are a few reasons for this. Often, these individuals don’t know how to write effectively, and may not fully understand what’s expected of them. If they’re technical experts, their focus and interests may not match what you need to provide. These people are probably passionate about what they do, but don’t know how to sell that.In a personal example, one which clearly illustrates what not to do, I simply asked a subject matter to write a description of the processes they used in response to an RFP question. They gave me a 13 page document that demonstrated their passion with lots of technical details, but it was long, dense text that didn’t address the value or benefits to the client. I ended up editing it down to three pages in the final proposal – key benefits included.

In addition to internal experts, sometimes you rely on suppliers or subcontractors and they may be busy with their own current business, and not be as focused on the RFP as you.

If your bid requires input from subject matter experts or subcontractors and suppliers, it’s important for these individuals to be at the table during the kick-off meeting and subsequent meetings where you discuss strategy and approach in areas that relate to them, as they may not have the full context of the RFP or the overall service. If necessary, hold a kick-off meeting especially for the subject matter experts or subcontractors and suppliers after your main internal meeting.

In addition, provide guidelines and guidance that these individuals can use when writing material. One way to do this is to provide them with a writing template. Not only will this make it easier for you to incorporate their material into your full proposal, it lets you give the writers the sub-questions and headings/topics they need to address so that they are consistent with the rest of the proposal. Include specific questions you want them to answer and headings that must be filled in, like ‘benefits to the client’, ‘how this addresses the specifications’, ‘how does this differentiate us from the competition’

Providing style sheets to them will also make it easier. They provide guidance to the writers on hot buttons, issues, themes, key messages and terminology. By taking this extra effort, you’re more likely to receive material that’s useable.

The style sheet will also ensure a cohesive and consistent writing style throughout the proposal. The consistency won’t be obvious to the client, but inconsistencies will stick out and detract from your proposal.

If your supplier performs a particular portion of the work and the response in your RFP on that service is completely different from the rest of the proposal, the client will wonder how you can work together and provide a consistent and seamless service delivery when you can’t even get it right on your proposal. In addition, large changes in style or structure will make the proposal harder to read.

After the material from the subject matter experts is edited, have the experts review the final text, particularly if the work has involved professional writers or other individuals who don’t fully understand the material.

By taking a planned approach to getting material from Subject Matter Experts instead of a shotgun approach, you’ll get better material and it will be easier to incorporate into your proposal.

It’s one more thing that will help you write better proposals and win more business.

WWP#14 : Getting Material from Subject Matter Experts for your RFP Proposal Response is a post from: How To Win More Business

WWP#013 : Differentiate Yourself – Listen to what Buyers are Telling You Before Writing Your Next Proposal0

Michel Theriault — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 23:50:15 +0000

This time, I’ll discuss some of the quotes from Part 8 of my book, which are directly from buyers and provide you with great guidance for your next proposal.

In this podcast, we’ll focus on the first group of quotes under the heading “Differentiate Yourself”

This is one of the most important things to get right. RFPs exist so clients can decide between various bidders and make a final selection. If you haven’t given the client what they need to differentiate you from others, you haven’t written a winning proposal.Here are some quotes and my take on them:

“Many of the good responses were from firms that quoted what was requested, but also highlighted additional benefits that differentiated them. The responses also provided alternatives, which were sometimes a better alternative for our needs.”

Since the client is coming to you for a solution through their RFP process, take the opportunity, whenever possible to give them alternatives or options if you think they’re in the best interest of the clients. Even if they don’t accept them, they can provide some good will and demonstrate that you are a solutions provider, not just a contractor.

“The bidder’s worst crime is failing to answer the key question, and instead regurgitating their key selling point.”

This buyer is lamenting the fluff and sales propaganda that many companies write in their proposals. Having reviewed many bids myself for clients, I know this isn’t how you win bids. Check out previous podcasts about fluff and answering the damned question for more info.

“Many features are discussed and identified by bidders, but there’s usually no corresponding, clearly identified benefit.”

It’s a common problem. Proposal writers sometimes have a hard time differentiating between a feature and benefit. I reviewed an RFP that failed to win business for a supplier recently and this was one of their problems. They didn’t link their features to the benefits that matter to the client. It’s a fundamental sales technique, but many proposal writers don’t see themselves in a sales role – to their detriment. They need to learn these basic sales techniques to write better proposals.

“There’s no consistent theme of ‘why us’ – lots of features and claims, but there isn’t anything that demonstrates their value.”

This is very similar to the last quote, but I wanted to focus on the question ‘why us’ . By asking yourself this question while you write your proposal, it will help you think of ways to differentiate yourself.

“What’s impressive is good format, solid answers and something a little out of the ordinary, such as insight into the industry that we haven’t seen from the other bidders. In other words, provide more than is expected.”

The two key elements here are “insight” and “more than expected”. So many proposals I see make the claim that the bidder or their processes/technology are ‘best in class’ or that they are the ‘leaders’ in the industry but they don’t’ provide any insight that demonstrates this claim. To give more than expected, it’s as simple as trying to understand why the asked the question and thinking about what else they didn’t ask that you can answer and provide to pleasantly surprise them.

“We like bidders to be responsive to the questions, and do a little research on us, and then impress us with their insight.”

This is similar to the last quote, but the difference is the request for you to do some research. It’s easy to do online, so if you skip that step, you aren’t learning what you need to know to differentiate yourself. Research the company, their competition, the individuals involved in the procurement and the individuals who will be managing the service afterward and are likely on the evaluation team. By including details and insight from what you learn, it’ll resonate with the evaluators and as the quote says, “impress them with insight”

That’s it for now. This is just some of the advice in my book that’s directly from people who may be evaluating your bids. I’ll cover more of them in a future podcast but in the mean time, you can get the book to read all the quotes and get advice and strategies to help you give the evaluators what they want.

WWP#013 : Differentiate Yourself – Listen to what Buyers are Telling You Before Writing Your Next Proposal0 is a post from: How To Win More Business

WWP#003 : Keep the Fluff out of your RFP Proposal Response

WWP#012 : How Much Should You Write? Less is More when Writing an RFP Proposal

Michel Theriault — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 14:50:34 +0000

In this podcast, I’m covering a common question which is : How long should a proposal be?

The rule of thumb for how long your proposal should be is to make it as long as you need to get your point across without overwhelming the evaluators. More is not better. Consider the effort it takes by the reviewers to slog through long proposals.

In the words of Dr. Frank Luntz, author of the book Words that work, “… brevity, clarity, and simplicity are simply the hallmarks of good communication.”

In some RFP proposals, you’ll be given a page count limit that forces you to respond within pre-defined limits. This may even include specifying font size and minimum margins. If you’re given a page limit, write close to the limit without going over, unless the limit is simply longer than you need to tell your story – don’t just add filler to get it to the limit. In some cases, you’ll be given page count limits for specific questions or sections. It should give you some idea of the relative importance of each question or section.

If you’re given a limit, follow it. You’ll either be disqualified if you exceed it, or any pages over the limit will simply be discarded before they’re seen by the evaluators.

If no maximum page count is given, take a disciplined approach and make sure you don’t write too much. There’s a temptation to include all the material you can find. This tendency results in material that is not relevant to the actual evaluation of your proposal and may distract the reviewer from the messages that are most important.

If you aren’t given a page count limit in the RFP, assess what a reasonable limit would be and take a similar approach to page counts for various questions or sections. By providing a page count limit internally while you’re developing the proposal response, you’re much more likely to get concise information from your internal writers, subject matter experts and subcontractors.

A rough guideline for allocating space is to use the scoring matrix and allocate a page count to specific questions or sections based on their value in the scoring matrix. For instance, if you have a 100 page limit and a specific section is worth 20% of the total score, you would allocate 20 pages to that section. This is only a starting point, since there may be specific areas where you need more or less space to appropriately address the question and provide the required information. So, don’t be too rigid.

If you assess information and decide whether it’s important enough to include during the overall process, the size of your proposal will naturally develop. It’s important to take a critical eye and not be afraid to discard, summarize or shorten material that was provided to you by others.

Structure and formatting is very important and will be discussed in a future podcast, but don’t sacrifice a readable proposal to make a shorter one. Eliminating useful elements that may take additional space will defeat the purpose of communicating your message. This includes introductions, summaries, diagrams, bullet points, sub-headings and shorter paragraphs. Some companies reduce font size, spacing between paragraphs and margins to pack in more material. This makes it hard to read and defeats the purpose. Cull out the material that doesn’t really matter and make it easy for the evaluators to evaluate.

And yes, it is more difficult to write a shorter, tighter, better proposal than a long, bloated one. In a long letter to a friend, Mark Twain once said that he would have written a shorter letter, but he didn’t have the time.

WWP#012 : How Much Should You Write? Less is More when Writing an RFP Proposal is a post from: How To Win More Business