Posts filed under 'Proposals & Presentations'
As a consultant, I’ve seen an unintentional decision playing out among large service contractors (those with dedicated sales resources) and smaller firms as well. Most of these firms are committed to improving sales, but they’re focused almost exclusively on improving efficiency, not effectiveness.
Sales effectiveness and efficiency can sound like vague generalities, but deciding which to improve first greatly affects the size of results and when they’ll be seen.
Yet most service contractors say they’re working on both at the same time – they’re multitasking to improve sales effectiveness and efficiency.
Multitasking is a myth
Multitasking, whether in computers (single core processors) or humans, is in reality a swapping of attention/activity. It’s one thing, then another, then back to the first, giving the appearance of two things being done simultaneously.
Unfortunately, human multitasking doesn’t produce the expected results. The brain shows severe interference when even very simple tasks are performed at the same time.
And that’s the case with service contractors. The efforts to improve sales are not really getting done as successfully as they could if addressed one at a time, in order.
Definitions first
Before making a case for placing either sales effectiveness or efficiency first, let’s define them.
Effectiveness is the capability of producing the desired sales result, i.e. winning the bid, getting an appointment or a return call, etc.
Efficiency is making good use of sales resources, not wasting them, which translates to producing lots of sales activities, i.e. lots of bids, cold calls, direct mailings, etc.
Simply put, effectiveness is about winning each attempt regardless of what it takes, and efficiency is about producing a lot of attempts with minimal effort or waste.
The point is…
The purpose of both sales effectiveness and efficiency is to raise revenue – more is better, and earlier is better than later.
But because resources are always limited, a choice has to be made of which aspect to work on first: effectiveness or efficiency.
Effectiveness first
Logic wins out.
By improving effectiveness first, more of the early opportunities that present themselves will be won. Efficiency should be improved too, but only after effectiveness has been raised to optimal levels.
By making the intentional choice to first improve effectiveness, contractors will:
- See larger revenue faster
- Fund later improvements for the efficiency of sales activities
- Increase results (revenue) exponentially as a higher win ratio is more efficiently generated (when efficiency is optimized after effectiveness)
How to improve Effectiveness
- Uncover the voice of your customer via qualitative research (this is what your ideal customer is seeking & values)
- Acquire feedback from lost bids, closed customer accounts, departing employees
- Upgrade proposal content, templates & appearance (from informational to persuasive proposals)
- Invest in sales training
How to improve Efficiency
- Automate proposal production, such as with SalesProposals.com (this is an affiliate partner)
- Manage prospect / customer data in CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solutions via online services or company applications
- Automate tracking & reporting of sales activities
- Measure throughput, activity & effectiveness
Early, fast wins through intentional decisions
Get intentional about which aspect of your sales efforts you improve first. You’ll be positioned for the larger, earlier, and easier wins. That equates to record revenue increases.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Revenue-IQ
* Acquire feedback from lost bids, closed customer accounts, departing employees
March 19th, 2010
I asked a contractor-friend of mine what his biggest pain in contract sales was.
His answer was “not getting the opportunity to make a presentation after submitting a proposal in response to an RFP.” After all, he’d spend 20+ hours preparing a proposal and then not get the chance to present.
Wasn’t there an implied reciprocity with customers that he’d at least get the chance to present it in person? He felt he should be showcasing his firm’s differentiation, he had the better service and knew he was cost competitive.
He knew how important making the presentation was because he measured it. When his firm was able to make a presentation they won 88% of the time (and that’s very impressive).
However, when his firm didn’t get to present, they only won 15% of the bids (less than half the industry average*).
So, it’s obvious. Get more presentation opportunities.
But customers didn’t always see it his way – they saw it their way.
How to Get More Presentations
The number of presentation opportunities you get is determined by two factors:
1) Your customer wasn’t planning to allow a presentation – no matter how many hoops contractors had to jump through
-or-
2) You, as the contractor, didn’t make the cut. The customer judged, and they judged you lacking.
Overly simplistic, yes, but this is reality. Let’s look at each of these and see what can be done.
1) Your customer didn’t allow presentations
This happens because:
1.1) Inexperienced customer – they’re too green and didn’t know they should have held a presentation (doesn’t happen often, but it does happen)
-or-
1.2) Customer intentionally chose not to hold presentations, because:
* They decided to make a decision solely on the submitted proposal
-or-
* They were not really going to make a change, but had to fulfill a rebid compliance issue. In other words, they were going through the motions and it was a Hollow RFP.
What to do if a customer wasn’t going to allow presentations?
Even a small increase in the number of presentations can reap huge rewards. And you know there are no sure things, but consider trying the following. These tactics are in 2 scenarios, depending on your situation:
Scenario A) They’re not likely to change their minds and allow presentations:
* Get out before you spend the time and effort writing up a proposal. This means qualifying the heck out of them up front, which really means:
* Asking tough questions during your first contact and getting firm, unambiguous answers to how they work their bid processes
* Asserting yourself to get their commitment to hearing your presentation if you provide a proposal
* Doing both the above without upsetting the customer contact and making an enemy for life
-or-
Scenario B) You believe you can change their minds:
* Get them to see the value in holding presentations. Of course, if you persuade them to take your presentation you’re also probably getting your competition the opportunity too. But why not? Your persuasive aren’t you?
2) What to do if you didn’t make the cut?
Unfortunately, this probably happens more often than our egos care to believe.
The good news is that it means the customer was at least going to hold presentations. And it’s also good news in that contractors can work to improve this area.
If you don’t make the customer’s short list for presentations:
* Get outside yourself. Have new eyes to look at your proposal responses and get their help.
* You can do the above with a team of trusted colleagues from your firm. Task them with reviewing, rating and critiquing your latest proposals. Heads up: this path can be political and time consuming although it won’t cost you anything.
* Get an outside consultant to do an assessment (a bit of self-serving promotion here) to find areas of improvement. Heads up: this will mean investing money, but it can happen faster and with a greater insight into the industry than your in-house colleagues may have.
* The bottom line in this situation is to improve the persuasiveness of your proposal document. As importantly, to improve your sales intelligence gathering skills to acquire the essential customer info needed for a persuasive proposal.
RFPs always lead somewhere
It’s true, but you just may not want to go where they lead. So to the best of your ability, figure that out at the start. Then if you do decide to take up the challenge, make sure you’re doing it with the best chance of success.
Good Luck
* This is a very rough industry average based on an informal survey we did several years ago. If you think it’s a good idea to recheck that number and would like to participate in a new survey, let me know. If there’s enough interest we’ll try it again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Revenue-IQ
February 9th, 2010
Staying the same never is. We exist in a constant state of decision making. Not making a decision, is making a decision. Not taking action is making a decision.
Healthcare reform is a good example. Not making a decision in 2009 will cost.
In 2008 the U.S. is expected to have spent $2.4 trillion on healthcare, that’s 16.6% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product).
By not making a decision for reform (i.e., the system works now and doesn’t need fixing) healthcare costs are expected to reach $4.4 trillion annually, or $20.3% of U.S. GDP by 2018.
That’s a Lost Opportunity Cost (LOC) of $2,000,000,000,000 over 10 years.
In the service contract world, as in healthcare reform, there are no guarantees the selected solution will avoid all of those costs.
It is certain there is a cost for keeping the status quo.
The Largest Invisible Elephant
LOC is the largest unspoken element in sales conversations with customers.
Salespeople rarely get to the LOC because they’re too busy spouting about their competitive advantages (see “Crossing the Line“)
Intelligent salespeople get distracted in their search for ROI from services as operating expenses. That’s a dog chasing its tail (see “ROI: Facility Services’ Holy Grail“) .
LOC is Everywhere, All the Time
LOCs are incurred when the current situation continues without change, a result of no decision.
Nature abhors a vacuum, and when a challenge or threat is seen, not deciding doesn’t prevent nature from continuing on its merry way. Non decisions get flattened by the momentum of the steamroller anyway.
Using LOC to Sell Services
LOC is a persuasive tool for sales proposals and presentations.
One that needs some sensitivity as you’re presenting a painful reality (lost money) to customers.
Additionally, you have to make some best guesses. At best LOC is a ballpark number. As you’re guesstimating about future costs, you’ll need to shape your language that way, e.g.
“…based on our understanding, your current situation can be estimated to lose more than $$$,$$$ over the next year…”
Always include your formula and cost assumptions used. They don’t need to be placed next to the LOC estimate, but can be referenced in a footnote, or endnote.
Calculating LOC
To calculate LOC, deep dive into customers’ issues during your sales due diligence.
Identify how NOT fixing those issues costs customers money. For example, seek LOC estimates in:
- Work that could have been avoided
[the current state] – [your solution] = LOC, or
[(labor $/hr + payroll burden) x (# of wasted hours)] – [your way] = LOC
- Vendor management time that could have been avoided (same formula as above)
- Product, supply, or equipment purchases that could have been avoided
[current purchases] – [your solution] = LOC
How are you presenting Lost Opportunity Costs?
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Revenue-IQ
November 19th, 2009
When internal sales talk crosses the line to become outside customer conversation, your perspective and word-choice can leave you fully exposed and vulnerable.
The words used in customer conversations are a dead give away for how you see the world, and how customers will see you.
Customers intuitively pick up on your approach to solving their problems and serving their needs. They’re deciding if you should be their supplier based on your communications, which are driven by your choice of words.
Competitive Advantage vs. Value Proposition
Consider this, if you’re describing your competitive advantage to customers your naked. Why?
Because, competitive advantage is “internal sales talk”. It’s needed when talking sales and marketing within your company. It identifies what you do against the competition and helps you design service offerings.
However, customers aren’t interested in hearing about your competitive advantage (read competitive comparisons).
They’re interested in what you’re going to do for them.
Specifically, how you’re going to:
- Lower their costs
- Improve their performance
- Make them look better
They’re interested in your value proposition.
Speak to customers about what they care about
Ultimately, customers seek what serves them best.
It won’t matter that you’re the world’s best in xyz, if customers don’t care about xyz.
For sales people that means not crossing the line, unless and until you’re communicating appropriately from the customer’s perspective, using words that show it.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Revenue-IQ
November 5th, 2009
Woody Allen, the ancient Greek poet Archilochus, and Sir Isaiah Berlin, a 20th century philosopher.
Strange group, but they all have an association with foxes and hedgehogs.
I’ll make that group a little stranger still by adding you to it. That is if you sell service contracts, or, if you buy them.
Sit tight and I’ll try and make sense of this. Starting chronologically:
He wrote a poem, long time ago you bet, saying that people can be divided into two groups: foxes and hedgehogs.
The difference being the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.
A historian and philosopher, his essay titled “The Hedgehog and the Fox“, grouped writers and thinkers into either one or the other.
His hedgehogs view the world through the lens of a single defining idea (examples include Plato, Ibsen, and Proust).
His foxes draw on a wide variety of experiences and cannot boil down the world down into a single idea (examples given include Aristotle, Shakespeare, and Joyce).
In his 1992 movie Husbands and Wives Woody had Judy Davis‘ character ponder which of her acquaintances were foxes and which were hedgehogs. She was trying to make sense of individuals’ behavior.
You
If you sell service contracts you’ve probably already identified yourself as one or the other. Doesn’t matter which, you decide for yourself.
Here’s why it matters when trying to sell service contracts.
You have to figure out which one your prospective customer is: fox or hedgehog.
Why?
Because that’s how you have to present your proposed service solution.
If your Prospect is a Hedgehog
Casting no aspersions here, there’s nothing wrong with being a hedgehog.
Remember, hedgehogs know one big thing.
As the sales resource your job is to find out what that one big thing is.
Then bring all your proposed service solution back to that one big thing.
For example, if your prospective customer is in the Petrochemical business the one big thing she knows is the importance of safety. Reasonable considering her firm’s work environment.
In that situation you can’t talk about safety only for hours at a time.
You can however present a comprehensive safety program first…
…then present the other aspects of your service solution…
…and at the end of each description, show how they tie back to your comprehensive safety program.
You can, and should, do this in your written responses in the customers’ Request for Proposal (RFP).
Even more importantly, you must do this when you make the short-list for presentations. This is where customers need to hear you “walk the talk” they read in your proposal responses.
If your Prospect is a Fox
Foxes, in this case, know many things, not necessarily that they’re carnivores.
As the sales resource your job is to find out what are all, or most, of those things they know.
Why?
Foxes will be looking at a wide range of areas that you, as a prospective supplier, must address.
Therefore, in your written RFP responses you must be more inclusive than narrowly focused.
When answering a question, make sure to list the multiple components of your service solution that solve that underlying issue.
Same with the short-list presentation. Make sure your preparation and performance addresses the range of components you offer, the multi-faceted solution you’ve designed.
Summary
There you have it. Foxes and hedgehogs in the service contract world.
Are these definitive guides from which to build a marketing campaign? Or base a sales plan around?
No and no.
They’re just a couple of sophisticated sales ideas that are easy to remember as animals.
What are you, fox or hedgehog?
~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Revenue-IQ
October 29th, 2009
You receive the following email:
Congratulations. You’ve been selected as one of the three supplier finalists in our RFP process for our (fill in the blank) service contract.
We’re requesting your firm make a presentation to our selection committee to help us make the final supplier selection.
You’ll have 45 minutes to present and another 15 minutes for Q&A. We’re requesting you address the following agenda:
- Tell us about your company
- Tell us how you’d approach serving our sites
- Your experience serving similar facilities as ours
- Describe the quality processes, safety programs & technology you use to support the delivery of your services
The Supplier’s Strategy Questions
So now you have to decide how you’re going to prepare for this presentation. And as importantly, how you’ll lead your presentation and your team. If I were you, I’d be asking myself the following questions. And since I am myself, I’ve answered them IMHO.
Q: How do we present all our firm has to offer in 45 minutes plus another 15 of answering questions?
A: You can’t.
Knowing you can’t do it all provides the freedom to be creative and do what’s needed in the presentation.
Q: If we can’t present everything to the selection committee, what do we present?
A: Whatever is important to the decision makers.
Whatever they need to hear to help them make their decision in your favor.
Q: How do I know what that is?
A: Ask them.
Right there, right then, in the presentation, ask what information they’re specifically looking for. Each decision maker will have a slightly different interest, they bring their own agendas.
You’re job is to serve their data gathering needs in those few minutes you’ve been given. They’re looking for info about what you’ll bring to them.
If you’re highly capable in an area they’re interested in, but don’t get to bring it up because of poor presentation skills….well, too bad.
Those decision makers won’t think you cut the mustard. You’ve failed in the presentation, even though your firm is stellar in that area.
Ideally you’re due diligence had dug that info up pre-RFP, and you’d included it in your written proposal.
Q: How can I present the info they’re interested in when I don’t know what it is until I start the presentation?
A: Two requirements.
#1. You’re presentation slideshow needs to be interactive and client-driven. Think hyperlinks and navigation.
#2. You’re presentation team needs to engage decision makers in a conversation, not talking at them for 63 slides. Think dialog, not monologue. Think length and depth of spoken responses, concise and compelling. Think which of your team speaks on each topic.
Presentation Strategy Pitfalls
You don’t want to do these:
Follow the agenda without deviation
Good children do this and get a few points for following directions…while bad children win the contract by taking the agenda as a guideline from which to selectively deviate for their own good.
Try to cover too much
Honestly, what will decision makers remember when you’ve dumped 52 programs and processes on them?
Have your most senior team member speak a lot
Decision makers know that person won’t be doing the day to day work. It’s more likely to sound like the top dog is arrogantly stating their own self-importance.
What presentation strategy do you use when short-listed?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Revenue-IQ
October 17th, 2009
There’s always competition for service contracts*. You’d think contractor proposals were written with that in mind. Alas, not so often.
During an RFP process Procurement will pull responses from contractors’ proposals and place them side by side.
That’s where the comparison is really made. Side-by-side. You against your competition.
After all, customers can only choose from the proposals in front of them.
And when contractors try to “sell” themselves in the proposal they often end up removing themselves from consideration.
Customers are looking for a business case justification that tells them what they’ll get from a contractor. It’s the value proposition. But each contractor’s is slightly different, which always makes it a decision between apples and oranges.
But that’s the opportunity available for new business.
So, here are several areas for contractors to consider and/or address in their proposals. But only if they want to improve their chances of winning more contracts.
Here’s where we’re going:
- Breadth & Depth of Service Solution
- Specificity of Service Solution
- Lose the Sales Speak in Proposal Writing
Breadth & Depth of Service Solution
Some customers want a wide range (breadth) of services included in their solution. They’re looking for the full service solution, one-stop-shop approach.
They’re more likely to tell you this in person before the bid (if they know you and value what your firm offers). But the RFP rarely states it explicitly. So you need to figure this out before the RFP.
Some customers care more for a deep service offering, meaning they’re looking for technical expertise, industry best practices and subject matter experts (SMEs). They’re comfortable working with specialists and will take the overall service management duties on themselves.
Their RFPs may spell out requests for deep info. Again, you need to figure this out based on their management style before the RFP comes out, because the RFP may just breeze over areas they’re serious about.
Specificity of Service Solution
A proposal is not where customers want to be sold. They want information they can make a decision on.
They’re looking for descriptions and plans detailing what they’re going to get from a contractor. Then they’re evaluating the relevancy of that proposed plan. Relevant for the money it saves them, makes their life easier, their department more productive, their company more profitable and competitive.
They’re looking for specifics.
Contractors have to present their specific plan. Based on services, processes and results that are important to that customer at their locations.
Clarity and relevancy. The higher up the customer value chart the solution goes, the more likely that contractor will be chosen. And the easier they can justify it upstairs themselves.
Lose the Sales Speak in Proposal Writing
In side-by-sides, sales speak in the writing style hurt’s contractors’ chances of persuading decision makers.
You know what sales speak is. It talks a lot but doesn’t say anything specific. It sounds like this….
We’re the leading provider of xyz service in the U.S., with the best customer retention rate in the nation and lowest employee turnover in the industry. Our employees are our greatest asset and our service is second to none. Our hiring process for your account will include…
There’s too much garbage to wade through for decision makers to find what they’re looking for. They don’t have the time, so they don’t look. They move on to some other question.
And there goes a contractor’s best offering or solution, lost in sales speak.
How do you compare side-by-side?
____________________________________________
* If it’s not other contractors then its the inertia that keeps things the way they are. And that’s another story for another day.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Revenue-IQ
October 12th, 2009
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
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