Making Your Proposal a Success

When you are spending your money on developing proposals, you want to increase the odds that you will win.? That spells success and business but from a financial perspective, it spells a good return on your investment (ROI).? Even though you likely get reimbursement of your bid and proposal costs through your contracts, you want to make wise use of those dollars.

Proposal failure is not in your vocabulary. So what increases the odds that your proposal will be a success, translating your proposal into a win??? You want to improve your chances of winning your next bid.? Here are a few points to keep in mind.

What questions would you recommend a company get the answers to before the RFP is released?

There is a never ending list of things you can get before an RFP is released.? Following a formal capture planning process is the most effective, proven, best practice for getting as many of these answers before RFP Release.?

At a minimum you should know:

1. Customer – know your customer:? who they are (organization chart – identify the key decision makers and influencers), and mission and vision for theme development.? And know your position with this client.? Is there time to build a relationship?? How well known are you?
2. Scope – understanding the background of the requirement from a program and technical perspective is key to determining risks from a business, contractual and technical standpoint.? What is the customer buying and asking you to price?? Has the client endorsed your solution?
3. Hot Buttons – what are the top three issues facing the client and how does your solution solve those problems?
4. Competitors – does a competitor have a stronger position or inside track?? Who are the top competitors and what is your strategy to counter their strategies?
5. Discriminators – what is unique or significantly different in your approach that will influence the customer to select you?
6. Win Strategy – what are the top five things you need to do to win this deal?
7. Other – how can you lose?? Are you challenging your assumptions?? Have you done a black hat or SWOT?? Do you know your vulnerabilities and issues?? And if so, what is your plan of action to mitigate these?? Do you have staffing challenges?? What is your pricing strategy?

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