Service contractors have their reasons for choosing how their proposals are bound.
Customers receiving those proposals have other needs.
So, beyond keeping 100s of proposal pages from littering the floor, what’s the best choice for binding proposals?
It depends (what a surprise). There’s not a single best choice. However, here are some thoughts that may help you choose how to bind proposals (if you’re a contractor), or how to specify how you want proposals bound (if you’re writing an RFP).
3-Ring Binders (Stock) with Clear Overlay
These are those binders that have a clear cover that allows you to insert a printed page in the cover and spine.
PROs
- Allows customers to pull pages out for copying, or to keep only pages of interest
- Allows contractors to customize text & images on title & spine to the specific customer & bid for a little sizzle
- Are relatively inexpensive & easily purchased in small quantities by contractors
- Can be re-used by customers for other purposes
CONs
- Looks like what it is, may feel cheap, less professional
- Available sizes may be too large for a small proposal with few pages
- Can be re-used by customers for other purposes
3-Ring Binders (Custom) with Printed Covers
These binders are printed with the contractor’s name and logo, and in its brand colors.
PROs
- Seeks to send a professional, more committed image to customers
- Shows contractors brand for easier recognition
- Allows customers to easily pull out pages of interest
- Can be re-used by customers for other purposes
CONs
- Can’t customize text & images on title & spine to the specific customer & bid (but there can be limited foil stamping)
- Available thicknesses may be too large for contractors’ small proposals with few pages
- Production runs may be large requiring contractor to hold high inventories
- Producing multiple size thicknesses (1″ – 1.5″ – 2″) is costly to contractors
- Outdated design & brand may result from high inventories contractors must use before producing new ones
Fixed Binding Systems (Wire, Plastic Comb, Glued)
PROs
- Enables using a soft cover with pre-printed contractors’ brand, logos & designs
- Enables cost-effective printing of soft covers for contractors’ different vertical markets, matching imagery to industry
- Easily fits whatever number of pages & size of contractors’ proposals
- Easy for customers to carry around, flexible & bendable
- Seeks to send a contemporary, modern image to customers (e.g. tech companies)
CONs
- Customers can’t easily easily pull out pages of interest
- Contractors can’t customize text & images on title & spine to the customer & specific bid
- May send message to customer that contractor is too informal
Digital File Only
PROs
Adobe Acrobat PDFs are the standard (when you get forms from the IRS you know its the standard), here’s why:
- Keeps documents’ images & formatting from slipping askew
- Provides great navigation with hyperlinks
- Great search capabilities
- Provides control to enable/prevent copying or printing
- Provides security to open or edit
- Compresses file size with images
- Enables selection of print quality & editing security
CONs
Contractors’ proposals and RFP responses should never be sent to customers in Microsoft Word. Unless of course a misguided customer requires it.
To see the downside of Word files take almost every pro listed for Acrobat PDFs and make it a negative. That’s why proposals shouldn’t be sent as Word files.
Online Bid/Auction Tools
PROs
No PROs about binding. There isn’t any
CONs
No ability to add sales and marketing sizzle, but that’s what customers are trying to avoid with online tools.
How do you bind your magnum opus?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Revenue-IQ
September 24th, 2009
Reference selection for a proposal can be like nitroglycerin – choose the wrong ones and start looking to the next bid because you’ve just obliterated this one.
Who would have thought your reference choices could be so dangerous? But they are.
Now, I’m guessing David Letterman doesn’t know why the references you choose can hurt your chances of winning. If he did, he’d put them in a Top 10 list and count them down to 1.
Dave was busy, so here are 5 reference killers. Avoid them, or else.
#5
All the references you provide are significantly smaller than the job your bidding
#4
None of the references you provide are in the same industry as your prospective customer
#3
You provide a reference with a contact who’s no longer working there
#2
You provide a reference your prospective customer is in life-and-death competition with and they could never hire you because you work for their competition
And now, for #1
You provide a reference who has just fired you
(so what if you didn’t know it at the time?)
Lessons to be Learned
If you avoid the above killers, or even better, do the opposite you’ll have improved your chances of winning bid competitions.
What other reference killers have you come across?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Revenue-IQ
September 17th, 2009
Service contractors can work long and hard, sometimes years, to get on customers’ bid lists.
Yet when the Request for Proposal (RFP) finally arrives, contractors submit proposals that cripple their chances to win the bid.
What’s with that?
Is it because contractors:
- Don’t have the time to properly respond?
- Don’t understand their customers’ needs?
- Aren’t aware of how RFPs are evaluated?
- Don’t believe proposals determine supplier selection?
- Expect new business to come to them because of who they are?
- Haven’t committed money, time & effort to proposal writing?
- Don’t know how often they win or lose because they don’t track their win ratio?
The answer is some, or all of the above.
Here are 6 DON’Ts and 8 DOs to help contractors’ show better in their responses to RFPs. Obviously this list doesn’t cover everything, but what list does? Here goes.
DON’T do these 6 Things, or you’ll Hurt your Chances to Win Bids
#1 DON’T make proposals based on volume
Too many pages. Too long of a response. This is one of the worst signals contractors send to customers, because customers think:
- I don’t have time to read all that
- It’s mostly filler
- That contractor doesn’t know what’s important to me
- That contractor didn’t care enough to find out what’s important to me
- That contractor thinks they can pull one over on me
- Where’s the price page?
IT SHOWS!
#2 DON’T answer an RFP question with only “see previous response”
“See previous response” is a very wrong contractor answer. It quickly gets customers against you because it communicates:
a) you think the customer is sloppy, lazy or dumb to repeat questions
b) you are sloppy, lazy or dumb because you didn’t think of a response
Sometimes an RFP question will seem redundant, but customers are seeking different information from different questions, even though some look like twins.
IT SHOWS!
(Hint: search for that difference – take your “best guess” and add text “Similar to what we’ve proposed in RFP question 5.2.3, here we plan to…<enter the different angle or info>)
#3 DON’T provide a jigsaw puzzle as a solution
Customers don’t have the time or understanding to make sense of a complicated solution.
For example, think about how you answer technology related questions – that’s an area where most contractors have cobbled together many different parts of software, hardware, and subcontractors.
Don’t expect customers to remember any of it.
It’s the contractor’s job to simplify a solution to the extent it can be easily communicated. Yes, you must provide enough detail to differentiate yours from the competition, but not so much as to lose your customers’ attention and retention.
Jigsaw puzzles look like what they are.
IT SHOWS!
#4 DON’T write “to be determined” as your sole response to a question
If in response to an RFP question you answer “to be determined”, or “requires more customer input” and leave it at that you’re sunk.
Customers know their final design requires more input – they know that.
They’re asking you for initial thoughts, considerations, caveats, things to accomplish or watch out for.
But if all a contractor responds with is “to be determined”, customers see them as:
a) contentious
b) adversarial
c) not smart enough
d) lazy
e) all the above
IT SHOWS!
#5 DON’T make grandiose, generalized statements about what/who your company is
Don’t start answering an RFP question with
” As the world leader in specialized flapjack flipping, XYZ Company will…<you finally get around to whatever the question had asked for>”.
Do you really think you’re building up credibility with customers? This is the most obvious, self-serving congratulations that actually turns your customers/readers against you. It pushes their BS reader off the charts.
IT SHOWS!
(Hint: answer the question immediately and directly in your written response – if you must, use your cover letter or executive summary to pose yourself peacock-like.)
#6 DON’T assume customers select you in spite of your proposal
If it’s an RFP process, customers are required to judge you on what you’ve presented in your proposal. Procurement requires them to justify their selection within their company.
It doesn’t matter if those same customers know you have all sorts of cool technology or advanced processes.
It’s only what’s in the proposal that counts.
IT SHOWS!
8 Things to DO to Avoid Self-Inflicted Proposal Wounds
#1 DO the thinking work
It may be hard for contractors to believe customers can tell the difference between cut-and-paste/brochure-text and a unique solution to their needs, but they can.
Do the thinking work first; analyze customers’ situations and needs, then design custom solutions. You are the experts, aren’t you?
IT SHOWS!
(Hint: a custom solution is not what you’re doing for everyone else – though some processes and products may be similar to other customers – they’re never the same – viva la difference!)
#2 DO write concisely & clearly
Customers don’t have time to wade through 100s of pages of bloated, disjointed regurgitation.
Q: When do customers get a chance to block out 5 days to read proposal responses?
A: Unless they read your proposal on their vacation, probably never.
They’re grabbing time to evaluate all contractors’ responses in the midst of busy, hectic days.
Less is more…as long as the less is dense information. Write, then edit down to the bare essentials. Then trust your customers. They’ll have a better chance of understanding and remembering your responses when they’re to the point.
IT SHOWS!
#3 DO paint a picture of your solution
If you do #1 and #2 above you’ll be able to tell your story – in your responses to individual RFP questions – so customers choose you over the competition.
Respond by describing your solution in place at the customer’s site, and it’s working to perfection. Be specific, clear and concise. When customers can see it as a whole solution, specifically designed for them – they’ll get it, and they’ll get you.
IT SHOWS!
(Hint: pet shop owners have customers hold the puppy to help them make up their minds. Give your customers a puppy to hold [your custom solution] then they’ll be more inclined to buy it/you)
#4 DO backup your claims
If you make a claim, such as “MyCompany is the leader in the blahblah industry”, or “Our employees are our greatest asset” provide evidence.
Point to the source. Outside sources are better than you’re own. The more easily recognized by customers the better, i.e. JD Powers.
Wherever possible quantify the claim and place it in context. It’s not enough to say “employee retention is 80%”, include “it’s risen each of the last 5 years at a compound rate of 14%”.
Make claims, but give proof.
IT SHOWS!
(Hint: consider this question – if you had to attribute every claim you made to some outside source, how many would you make, and which ones?)
#5 DO provide mockups and/or blind examples of reports
This is part of having customers hold the puppy before they buy it/you. Many contractors don’t do this, and for the ones that do…
IT SHOWS!
#6 DO get formatting right
Until your proposal can be wired telepathically into customers’ minds, they have to read a document.
Pay attention to how your document ends up, as poorly formatted documents lose readers.
A concise, easy to follow and navigate document is easier for customers to read, comprehend, and then buy your solution.
Get Microsoft Word training for your proposal production staff so they can really do it right – not just get it out the door.
IT SHOWS!
#7 DO make responses reader friendly
Break up long paragraphs of text into easily skimmed information. Use multiple heading levels, indentation, bullets, tables, charts and graphics, etc.
Time-pressed customers skim your response at about 700 words per minute, but with only 50% comprehension (compared to normal reading of 200 wpm and close to 100% comprehension).
Make content easier to read and customers will.
IT SHOWS!
#8 DO respect customers’ time
In all materials submitted, consider customers’ available time to read and digest responses. They’re not just reading yours, but all bid responses. Design, write and format with that in mind.
IT SHOWS!
How are you protecting your proposals from yourself?
~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Revenue-IQ
September 10th, 2009
If asked, most service contractors would say they want to improve sales.
But improving sales means changing something; the proposal, presentation, or even one’s thinking.
Improvement is change.
Change is difficult (healthcare reform anyone?).
(I was going to include the metaphor about the boiled frog here to point out our natural reluctance to change. You know the story.
If a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but if it’s placed in cold water that’s slowly heated, it won’t perceive the danger and will be boiled to death.
However, it’s not true.
It’s an interesting and helpful metaphor about humans’ inability to react to important changes that occur gradually.
The boiled frog might help us understand why service contractors don’t significantly improve their sales. Why they wait until they lose a large contract or revenue goes downhill before doing the work for better sales.
But the boiled frog story still isn’t true.
So instead here are 4 lessons learned that will significantly improve sales.
#1 Ask someone other than yourself.
You’re already doing what you know. Time for someone else’s take on it.
#2 Do what it takes.
Worthwhile change requires a significant commitment in time and money.
Accept that fact and commit.
#3 Measure it.
Baseline it before, and then measure it after.
(make it easy on yourself, create a quick baseline from last month, quarter, or year if you don’t have one now – use a win ratio, read Driving Blindfolded)
#4 Start now.
Change takes time. At a minimum do the exploratory stuff today, this week.
Consider the frog
Simple lessons, challenging work. But worthwhile and necessary.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Revenue-IQ
September 3rd, 2009
