This is a common question I hear from many of the trainees and clients whom I consult for. This is because, as welcomed as new business prospects are to a business, writing business proposals is one of the things business people dread and even fear. There are many reasons for this feeling. These include the uncertainty about the proposal being accepted or rejected by the client, the pressures of bidding against other competitors, and the amount of effort and time it takes to develop a professional business proposal. Writing proposals becomes even more difficult when clients do not provide a clear scope of work for suppliers to use in preparing a proposal.
This is why many look for guidance to help them perform this tough task. One little known, but good, reference on the subject is a book by Deiric McCann entitled “Winning Business Proposals.” The close to three hundred page book comes with a CD-ROM that provides templates and tools to support readers in proposal development.
Before anyone jumps on the CD-ROM idea and rushes into buying the book for the templates it may have on the CD, let me say that the CD is not the main highlight of the book. In my opinion, the CD itself is not that spectacular. However, the textbook carries many important tips and tricks that are simple, yet effective in writing proposals.
To start with, I think the title of the book is, in itself, a lesson on the purpose of writing business proposals. Business proposals are written to win, according to the title. While this sounds like common sense, many seem to forget this simple fact when writing proposals. Somehow, personal aspirations, egos, and lack of focus clog the perspective of proposal writers and make them forget, that their goal is not to write complicated long or impressive proposals. In reality, most proposals are written for the sole purpose of winning the client’s business as the book suggests.
The book is divided into four parts. In part one, the author provides an overview about proposals and the decision-making process to bid or not to bid. A good deal of this part deals with the most common mistakes proposal writers make when writing business proposals. These include bidding for the wrong business, forgetting to sell, poor presentation of ideas, and failing to address the client’s business problem.
Part two of the book discusses the proper steps for writing a proposal. Two important steps are stressed by the author who emphasizes that these steps are usually ignored by sellers. They are analyzing the client’s requirements and selecting a proposal strategy. Most sellers immediately get over-occupied by what they have to offer, and forget that the proposal is not about their offering as much as it is about what the customer wants and needs. By analyzing customer requirements, the seller, who is making the proposal, can better understand the client’s needs or problems before attempting to solve them using his products.
As far as strategy, many businessmen get into writing proposals in detail when they have not figured out a high level strategy for their proposal. This high level strategy can be developed only after understanding client requirements, competitors, environment, and the market situation. Then, a theme for the proposal can be developed and a strategy can be set.
Only after the meat of the proposal is there can the proposal writer focus on the presentation and the fine tuning. In part three, the author shows how his templates and tools available on the CD can be used to format the proposal in a professional manner. This is not really the highlight of the book as there are many other tools out there that can help develop professional looking documents, including templates from Microsoft Word.
The final part of the book deals with important steps to be taken after the presentation is complete. For example, the author recommends that proposals should be presented, instead of being sent to the client to be read. He also points out that the work of the seller, as far as proposing, is not done by submitting a proposal. Follow up with client is also important, as well as learning from successes and failures. The author urges sellers to look into why they won a proposal when they win and to look into the reasons for not winning when they lose. He cautions against not learning from rejected proposals as they offer great learning opportunity for the organization for future projects.
The best idea of the book is to remind suppliers to always propose with the customer being the sole focus of the proposal. For example, many suppliers fill their proposals with information about how credible and wonderful they are as a company, forgetting that what the customer really cares about is knowing that the supplier is the best one out there able to help him solve his business problem.
Also, while many think of a proposal as a document that has to be thick, and the thicker the better, to support a hefty price tag, the book shows that proposals should focus on showing how a seller is in the best position to serve the customer better than any of the other competitors.
Thursday, February 22, 2007