10 Steps to Winning Proposals

April 13, 2008

It’s almost embarrassing to admit how long ago I learned about proposals. Where do all of those years go? I got my feet wet in the business of proposals when I worked in the business development office of Lockheed Martin. One eye-popping gander at a proposal for a government contract, and you will be really happy about the proposals you write.

Imagine this. A 12 x 14 window-less room with lights out filled with six foot fold-up tables that line the walls. It’s dark in there, too. By keeping the lights off, we can see the 32 inch Mac monitors much easier. There’s a team of about 20 people working on different sections all at once. What are we all doing? Filling more than 32 three-inch binders with responses to the government RFP (request for proposal).

Now that I’ve filled your mind with a horror story about proposals (which is all true, by the way) surely you are feeling much better about your proposals.

Over the years I’ve noticed a few things about companies of all sizes.

I’ve noticed:

There’s usually no proposal strategy in place, and if there is, it isn’t consistent
The proposal process is much harder than it has to be
Typically no one knows what the proposal “numbers” are - wins, losses, percentage and by which type of client
There’s usually no follow-up for lost proposals, and if there is, it’s not consistent

These are just the marketing side of the house. There are many other danger points in the proposal process on the business side, including… Do we know this job will be profitable? Do we have the staff to fulfill this job as quoted? And many more… But this is only a primer, so we’ll stop there.

When I coach or teach business owners about the basics of proposals it is really exciting because this is one area where you can almost immediately impact revenue. For example, years ago when I first started working in an accounting firm the firm’s proposal win rate was an industry blockbuster at 22% (at the time industry average was a scary 11%). Using the techniques I’m going to share with you here we were able to boost the win rate to 68%. We even were able to get it as high as 75% at one point. Now that is something to get excited about!

Here are the 10 steps to improving your proposal win rate:

Step 1 - Ensure you have an ideal client profile that works for your company [link to this article on TYM blog]. If you are not proposing to the type of company that your company works best with, then you are burning daylight on booking the wrong business.

Step 2 - Create tracking for your proposals. There are lots of fancy software packages out there. I believe you can use Act! as well. I simply use a spreadsheet with the following columns:

Prospect Company Name
Prospect Contact Name
Our Contact (list the names of the members on your team)
Services Proposed
Prospect Needs/Hot Buttons
Date Proposal Delivered
Date Followed-up
Won? / Lost?
Date of Win/Loss
Follow-up Date

Step 3 - Go back and look at previous proposals. Pull proposals from the last 12 months. Select the proposals that you used to win business from your favorite clients. Take a look at those proposals and make a template. This is your starting point proposal.

Step 4 - Enter all of the proposals you sent out in the past year into your simple spreadsheet. Sort by Won? / Lost? and then look at the lost proposals. Follow-up on those in the next week to see where they are and how they are doing.

Step 5 - Take the template proposal and put the proposal elements in this format:

Current problem
How this current problem is affecting the prospect
What solving this problem means for the prospect
How you can solve the problem for the prospect
The investment it will take to solve it
Comparison of investment to what the prospect will get when the problem is solved
Timeline for solving the problem and the methodology of how you are going to solve it (action-oriented people love this - they can ’see’ how fast their problem can go bye-bye)
Team that will be working on the problem
Terms of investment

NOTE: I deliberately say “problem” here because that is the point of a proposal - to point out pain and for you to show how you can make the pain go away. However, in your proposal, you will want to address an ‘problem’ with the word ‘challenge’ because no one likes to talk about problems.

Step 6 - If your proposals currently are more about your company and less about fulfilling the proposed client’s needs and resolving their problems, then you might also need to revamp how you conduct prospect interviews. Use the sections below to ask prospects questions such as:

What is your current challenge?
How is this challenge affecting the organization? Do your best to quantify this - ask how much it costs the company, how it affects the team, what impact it has on productivity, etc.
What would solving this challenge mean to the company? What could you do if you weren’t dealing with this? These are questions that stimulate thinking of what could be better and also ignite desire to take action.
Do you have a budget in mind? If not, ask how much longer can you continue to deal with this challenge as it is?
Do you have a timeline in mind? This will tell you how serious the company is about solving this challenge. This can also be a good place to weed out clients that are indecisive. Indecisive clients typically are not as profitable. If you decide to take on an indecisive client, be sure to add to your proposal amount for this quality!
What will you do next after this challenge is addressed? This can be a great way to find out how you can propose for more services. Build these into your proposal in a menu format.

Step 7 - Put it all together by using the system on the very next proposal. When writing the proposal talk directly to the prospects - second person using “you” and more conversational language. Be sure you speak your customer’s language. If you work with analytical types use numbers and percentages with estimates on ROI (return on investment). If you are working with creative types, boil down large chunks of text into easy to understand graphics and tables. Add graphics where you can to cut down on text. Get creative and have fun. Once you have a good template, the hard part is over. Enjoy the process.

Step 8 - Put it out for review. Typically no one does this because no one wants to admit that they don’t know everything about proposals. Here’s a secret. There are as many ways to write a proposal as there are people on the planet. The basics of an effective proposal are the same: FOCUS ON THE PROSPECT and SOLVING THE PROSPECT’S PROBLEM. Ask a trusted colleague to read it through and give you feedback. Most people can ‘imagine’ that they are your prospect and give you sound feedback.

Step 9 - Put it into action. Take your new proposal for a test spin and see what happens. Note what worked and what didn’t then build in improvements into your proposal process.

Step 10 - Ask for feedback from your prospect after the win or loss. Ask what they liked and what they didn’t like. Ask if they have any suggestions that could make the process easier or better. You will be amazed at how people love to be asked for their opinion and how people really love to help. Plus, the bonus is that you get to look like not only do you have a great company, but you have a super customer satisfaction process!

One last word on proposals. A great designer can take your proposals to another level, too. If all of this seems overwhelming or if you don’t really have a proposal to being with, network with colleagues and see if you can snag ideas from them. If you are in an industry that has an association, call the association and see if there are sample proposals available. If you are in a member organization, ask other members to see their proposals. The web can offer you many samples too.

Remember, this is one of the very best investments you can make in your marketing efforts. All of the time and effort it takes to propose means less if you win more of what you propose on!

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