by Nick Wreden
“Send me a proposal.”
Those four words spark hope and dread in everyone who’s in sales.
On the one hand, you’ve made the short list for new revenue. On the
other, a proposal can also consume a tremendous amount of resources
with potentially nothing to show for the effort but a form rejection
letter.
Companies devote tremendous resources toward generating leads, then
fail to invest the time and effort required to close the “last
mile” between prospect and contract. Failure often results from
an inability to deliver an effective proposal.
That’s a shame. Proposals can be your best branding and sales tool.
But too often they are a boilerplate mishmash stitched together seconds
before the FedEx pickup.
Companies make the same mistake in proposals that they make in their
branding campaigns. The issue is not about you and your capabilities;
it’s about a solution for the prospect that reflects an understanding
of its business issues.
Just as important, it’s the start of a relationship and its ultimate
success may well depend on what is said in the proposal. Successful
proposals require both effectively communicating prospect understanding
and following a process that ensures accountability and
performance—well before FedEx is on the doorstep.
The seeds of failure are often planted before the proposal is
generated. Many proposals are written with the attitude and perspective
of a cocky fourth-grader with his hand in the air yelling, “Pick
me! Pick me!”
The proposal focuses on all the glowing reasons why the firm should
be picked—but that’s not what the prospect is looking for.
While companies think proposals are a fast track to selection,
prospects view it as a road to rejection. When prospects review a stack
of proposals, all making indistinguishable and unprovable claims about
“success,” “commitment” and
“satisfaction,” they first look for reasons to disqualify
proposals.
Didn’t follow the RFP (request for proposal) guidelines? Trash. Too long? Life’s too short. Full of boilerplate? Next!
To avoid being sidelined, put yourself in the prospect’s shoes as
soon as work starts on the proposal. Essentially, all successful
proposals fall into two camps. Either they create an opportunity or
they solve a problem more easily or cheaply than prospects could
themselves.
The entire proposal should be conceived, written and presented as if
a member of the prospect’s staff were making a case to senior
management. This eliminates the most common amateur
mistake—beginning a proposal with a recap of personal/corporate
capabilities or history.( An easy test: Compare the number of times
“we” and “you” are used. If “we”
outnumbers “you,” be sure to make a plea for recycling in
the cover letter.)
The proposal process often starts with an RFP. Read it carefully,
not once, but twice or even thrice. Then follow its guidance carefully,
down to the font, margin and binding requirements.
Pay particular attention to the order of the requirements. Prospects
use this order to speed development of a matrix that compares offerings
and capabilities side by side.
In fact, a useful tip is to develop a response matrix illustrating
prospect requirements, your own capabilities/solutions, a proposal page
reference and space for a check-off or comments.
If no RFP is available, call for additional information or
requirements. Be wary of prospects who won’t provide such data; it’s
probably a harbinger of a troubled relationship even if the contract is
awarded.
Spend as much time in research, planning and analysis as you do
writing the proposal. Be sure to include a go/no-go decision.
Generating a proposal can cost tens of thousands of dollars, and
sometimes the outcome or prospect is not worth the effort.
The planning should include budgets (proposal development should
never exceed 3% of the potential win), responsibilities and timetables.
Several vendors offer hosted solutions or software that facilitates
information collection, speeds reviews and workflows and tracks
revisions. These “virtual proposal” offerings are best
suited for high-volume proposal generation where the bid is likely to
be won or lost on price.
Despite all the work spent on a proposal, it’s likely that only
three elements will be read initially: cover letter, executive summary
and pricing.
- Use the cover letter to discuss the relationship and ask for the work.
- The executive summary is its own art form. It is neither an
introduction, nor a conclusion, but a precise recap of the proposal,
including pricing. - Be upfront with the pricing, but be sure to spell out what the price delivers.
Sometimes it helps to divide a project into phases, with future payment dependent on previous performance.
Other tips:
- Write simply: It’s said that one reason Ulysses
Grant won the U.S. Civil War was because he wrote, rewrote and revised
his battle instructions until there was no chance they could be
misunderstood by his field commanders. Write on a 10th-grade level, and
aim for the same clarity in your proposals. Banish phrases such as
“uniquely qualified,” which mean little to the prospect.
Write useful headings and subheads that communicate to those who scan.
Use pictures and charts to illustrate key points, and push extraneous
material (i.e., corporate histories) to the appendix. - Customize and personalize: Boilerplate sticks
out like spam. Customization should extend to client references, team
resumes and even your history. Avoid generalizations such as “our
team is dedicated to your success.” Better: “You will
receive a speaking opportunity at trade show XYZ and a minimum 10%
increase in customer retention.” Provide relevant details:
“A 50-page instructional manual with an online complement”
packs more punch than “education and training.” - Conduct a post-mortem: Win or lose, find out
why. Win reviews can help clarify client expectations and propel future
wins. Loss reviews identify missteps and potentially open the door to a
future relationship. Be sure to ask specific questions. “Did we
miss a target market?” is better than “why did we
lose?”
In the long run, success rates will increase significantly if there
is a process behind proposal generation. Although debate continues
about whether proposals should be generated inside or outside the sales
department, 60% of the responsibilities should center around proposal
development and submission, 20% to a proposal “library” for
research and generation, 10% to pipeline and proposal tracking, and 10%
to analysis, including post-mortems, win rates and proposal development
costs.