Writing persuasive proposals

A bid document is not a technical specification, a price quote or an overview of your company, it's a sales document that should move an opportunity through towards the winning of work.

The decision-makers evaluating the bid will be asking:

• Am I getting what I need? 
• Can they really do it? 
• Does the pricing represent good value? 

The document needs to persuade the decision-makers to respond with a confident 'yes' to all of these questions. 

Your document needs to be structured to persuade the reader and obtain their preference. As a general rule the document content should follow this basic sequence (NOSE).

1. Needs - demonstrate your understanding of the client, their business, their objectives and their requirement.

• Decisions are not always as logical, rational and detailed as we would like to think; they are often quick and based on first impressions. Therefore, what you say first in a bid, the reader will assume reflects are your primary interests and values i.e. you should start with them (the client) and not yourself.

2. Outcomes - identify outcomes and results from meeting their needs.

• These outcomes should be meaningful and valuable to the client. 
• Show a positive business impact of these outcomes e.g. impact on operational efficiency, revenue generation etc. 

3. Solution - Recommend a specific solution.

• Show that you have thought about the requirement and what it means to them and offer something beyond a generic service description. 

4. Evidence - Build credibility by providing examples of where you have done this before.

More bidding - devising a winning strategy

Following a successful pre-qualification stage of a tender, or in some cases as a first stage, you may be asked to provide a detailed proposal document.

When poorly prepared, these bid documents can become simply a generic collection of facts and figures about your firm. While this may be sufficient to win smaller tenders, in more competitive situations you may need to produce a more tailored proposal and take a more client centric approach; showing your understanding of the client and demonstrating your ability to provide value and benefit. 

Success at this stage is to a large extent dependent on your capability and efficiency in communicating your knowledge and offer. Operating in a competitive market means many firms are offering relatively similar services. To win, your proposal needs to clearly and persuasively present a positive business impact to the client. If the client does not perceive superior value from your offer, they will be more likely to choose based on price. 

Creating a bid strategy 
1. Setting up the team: The bid team should include the people best qualified to meet the needs of the bid (and the client). Identify a lead partner, who will be the main point of contact for the client and organise a timeplan for the bid (allocate time for future team meetings, deadlines etc). 

2. Researching the bid: Your understanding of the client's needs and their business should be demonstrated throughout the bid document. What work (if any) are you doing with them already? Who are the key decision-makers? Does anyone in the firm have a relationship with key decision-makers?

Consider contacting the client; would it be possible to arrange a pre-bid meeting with them to discuss requirement/background/criteria of assessment? Not only could it uncover vital information but it will also demonstrate your enthusiasm to the client.

Who are you competing with? Establish customer perceptions of competition/ relative positions of competing firms to inform your response.

3. Devising a strategy: To create client preference, the client must recognise the unique benefits and value of your proposal. You should aim to sell the client solutions rather than selling a range of generic services.

Analyse the requirement, distinguishing between: 

• Core requirement - the basic service the client is seeking. 

• Expected extras - what the client expects. 

• Added potential - where you can add real value to the client. 

Then, when you have done this, you should be in a position to devise your value proposition (what makes your proposal distinctive and attractive to the client). 

To bid or not to bid … that is the question

Deciding to bid can be a huge investment of time and resource - you need to make sure you are investing wisely. Your win rate could also be greatly improved by identifying and eliminating bidding opportunities that you have little chance or interest in winning.

Key questions

Do we want to win the work? Can we win the work?

Acting quickly 

The key to making the bidding decision is to make it quickly. Timescales for submitting bids are often short and the quality of your submission (and hence the chances of you winning) can be reduced by delaying and producing a bid at short notice.


Making the decision 
Consider:

Capability: Your ability to demonstrate that you can perform the work better than your competitors.

Probability of winning: Based on existing relationships, the competition, the client's motives behind the tender and your ability to put together a document in the time available.

Strategic fit: How well the opportunity fits with our objectives and interests as a firm.

Feasibility: How well you can respond to the requirement based on the client's criteria.

Risk: Would this work expose your firm to any risks (that you are not happy can be effectively managed)

Opportunity cost: What (if any) would be the impact of declining the opportunity to tender.

It's time to detox: flush out your bad bidding habits

Bids, pitches, proposals, tenders, beauty parades … whatever you call them, they can dominate the working lives of business development teams. And most of us have a love-hate relationship with them. Whilst winning is incredibly rewarding, bids are also the aspect of the job most likely to involve late-night pizzas in the office and tear your hair out frustration as the deadline gets closer.

To be competitive in a challenging market place and continue to win more work, firms need to be bidding selectively, effectively and efficiently at all stages (from pre-qualification questionnaires, through to more detailed documents and presentations.) I know, easier said than done. Everyone is under pressure to win more work and procurement teams seem to be on a mission to make this as difficult and time-consuming as possible. Which is why it is so important that your bid process (the way you identify and manage tender opportunities) delivers winning results.

And this means recognising and addressing bad bidding habits. I have listed a few of the big ones below - some may seem familiar!

Panic! - bidding sporadically and hastily for everything rather than focusing your time, energy and money on winning the best opportunities.

Cloning - cutting and pasting from old documents (come on some originality and thought please!)

Convenience over quality - moulding old documents/information to fit new requirements. Is that really going to persuade a client you are the firm with their best interests at heart?

The "thud factor" - the more is better approach. How would you feel about reading the bids you produce. Inspired? Or bored?

Poor document structure - savvy bidders will be thinking about how to craft a persuasive document that will keep their readers hooked.

Self-centric corporate blurb - you know the 'we-are-great-me-me-me' blurb you roll out in every pitch document. Too many bids read like corporate brochures. What the client is interested in is themselves and how you can specifically help them to save money, resolve a problem, make them more profitable etc.

Have you got a reputation?

More to the point, is it the reputation you want? No. Oh dear. You shrug, sit back and do nothing, tightly crossing your fingers, saying a little prayer and hoping for a miracle. Unfortunately miracles don’t happen while you wait. 

What you can do is start working more proactively to manage and shape your reputation through your communications internal and with the outside world.

It’s easy for businesses to get pigeon-holed based on their origins and history. But where you’ve come from and what you did to get there, are often very different from where you want to be and what you want to do in the future. Times change, ambitions grow. And to achieve these goals you sometimes need to leave an old reputation behind and build a new one.

So, is it time to ask?

• What is your reputation?
• What are you known for doing?
• What do you want to be known for?
• What does your PR and marketing currently say about you?
• What are others saying about you?

When you understand this you can proactively start to shape your business personality and build a reputation that fits your future.

Make every word count

In the hectic urgency of creating a brochure, website or flyer, it’s tempting to spend all of your creative time on the design. The task of writing good quality, persuasive copy often gets overlooked, which means a mad panic, rising stress levels and rushed wording.

“An attractive design, an eye-catching image, an amusing graphic; the aesthetics of your marketing materials are what first grab a potential new customer’s attention,” Laura Jane Johnson, a freelance journalist and copywriter admits. “But dull, sloppy or clumsy content will soon turn them away. Design is important, but it needs to be supported by compelling content if you want a reader to actually be convinced to take action and make the move to get in touch with you.”

Copywriting is something many of us try our best to avoid. With so many other things to do in a working day, it’s easy to relegate writing the content for a new web page or newsletter to the bottom of a long to do list. But it’s getting harder to escape. The rise of social media, blogging and various other online communications has made copywriting more important than ever. Search engine optimisation (SEO), rankings, Tweets and all those other baffling terms are becoming impossible to escape. And the secret to all of this is a professional understanding of how to apply writing techniques that enhance your visibility in a crowded virtual world.

“It’s an exciting time; especially for writers, whose skills are increasingly in demand,” Laura says. “Social media and online communications when used cleverly are extremely powerful marketing tools. They offer the interactive elements that many people now expect, an effective way to improve Google rankings and increase the number of visitors to your website.”

They’re also cost-effective methods of marketing, something that is welcomed by many businesses struggling to build their market profile on a minimal budget.

As the economy is slowly struggling out of recession, more businesses are daring again to consider growth and the future. As we get less prudent, marketing will once again find itself nearer the top of the agenda. But for a small business, without the luxury of a marketing department, this can present challenges in terms of the availability of the time and skills to deliver projects.

“When it comes to developing a website, brochure, flyer or newsletter, most businesses wouldn’t think twice about employing a graphic designer,” Laura says. “But many cut corners when it comes to developing the content; they take a DIY approach rather than employing the professional skills of a copywriter.”

As a result, many businesses are not creating that great first impression they’d hoped for and are missing an opportunity to communicate their skills, messages and key differentiators loud and clear to new customers. Laura warns:

“Just crossing your fingers and hoping an eye-catching design will distract readers from the content is not enough. The world is not quite as shallow as you may think – most people can see beyond a pretty exterior!”

Laura Jane Johnson works with publications and businesses to create commercial copy and editorial that captures the interest and imaginations of their target audience. For more information on Laura and to get in touch visit www.laurajanewrites.co.uk.

You got it! You got the meeting

You are triumphant. After some savvy networking and diligent keeping in touch, you have been invited in; you have your first sales meeting in the diary with a new customer. Yipee. But restrain yourself from punching the air and breaking into your favourite celebratory jig just yet. Firstly, because, well, we don’t want you to embarrass yourself by revealing your David Brent tendancies.  And secondly, because there is lots to do before the meeting. It’s not just a case of turning up at the right time and rambling on about how great your organisation is.

To help you along here are a few reminders:

1. Do your research. Find out as much as you can about your prospective customer – get their accounts, scan the press, research your contact, does anyone else at your organisation have any information that could help you? Think about their issues, their problems and how you can help them. Then prepare some good open questions.
2. Set your objective. What information do you want to have by the end of the meeting? What outcome are you aiming for? And then think about open questions that can help you achieve this.
3. Consider preparing an agenda and sending it in advance for their feedback and additions. It gives the meeting an objective and ensures both parties are clear about their intent.
4. Prepare your introduction; it will give you confidence. In your introduction focus on the value you can bring to the person you are talking to rather than simply your job title.
5. What messages do you want to get across? Remember to focus on benefits rather than features – don’t just run them through your product list, think about what value you can specifically offer their business. 

And finally, if you really need to do that air punch and jig thing, maybe head to the toilet and get it out of your system in privacy!

Feel the fear ... and network on

Take a few deep breaths. Give yourself a quick, silent, confidence-boosting pep talk. You can do it. Rehearse your introduction line and pray nerves don't induce any embarrassing stuttering and stumbling. Double-check your pocket for business cards. Readjust and straighten your name badge one final time, hoping it’s in an appropriate and visible position. And go.

Walking into a room of strangers, armed with nothing more than a wodge of business cards and a name badge for comfort is daunting, but business networking has become an unavoidable recession reality for many people. In the world of competitive job-hunting and promotion-seeking, the old rule applies more than ever; it's often not just what you know but who you know. So, instead of looking on enviously at a colleague who always seems to know all the right people, it’s time to start investing time in building your own personal network. A well-stocked network could provide a vital lifeline in the event of redundancy and will help bring in the new business opportunities you’re feeling under pressure to deliver.

A few confidence tips for the nervous networker

• Arrive early - it's harder to enter a crowded room where everyone is already settled in conversations.
• Smile.
• Prepare open questions in advance to avoid awkward pauses and to generate conversation. 
• Be interested. Listen to answers to your questions. Nerves can cause you to focus completely on what you're going to say next rather than pick up on hooks to build interesting conversations.
• Set targets. How many people would you like to meet? Don't get too comfortable with one person, keep moving and keep to your objectives. Having a structure gives you a mission rather than floundering aimlessly (or hiding in a corner, then sloping off early).

And when the event is over don't just breath a sigh of relief and pat yourself on the back,  go over the business cards you've commected and plan your follow up actions to ensure you get the most from your networking effort.

Go on, show them you care

Selling professional services has distinct challenges.  Knowledge is undoubtedly a hard thing to sell.  Buying decisions in this sector are based on building trust, demonstrating understanding and personal chemistry.  So, a successful sale is unlikely to be achieved through a cheap and cheerful generic email shot or price driven special offers.  It’s all about relationships.  And with all firms raising their game, it’s harder than ever to compete and differentiate your offer.

But let’s not get too preoccupied with the challenges.  Self-absorbed analysis of the difficulties and procrastination are not remedies.  It’s a proactive approach and positive solutions that will drive successful sales activity.  Although it’s easy to be reactive and take the “they’ll call me if they need me” approach, in a competitive market place you can’t rely on this to deliver.  Focus needs to shift to getting out there, understanding the issues your clients face and proactively providing them with solutions – good reasons to buy your services. 

It’s more important than ever to keep contact going with your clients – existing and potential.  If you’re not talking to your contacts regularly, there’s a good chance one of your competitors is.  Many businesses are facing tough times.  It’s a slight cliché but people buy people.  We prefer to work with people we like and who care about what we are trying to achieve.  So, why not call a contact and ask how things are going? Offer congratulations or a sympathetic ear depending on the tone of their news; people will remember who supported them through the bad times as well as the good. 

And don't make the contact a one-off. Keep it regular, keep it relevant and keep it coming!

  

My article in this month's Professional Marketing Forum magazine

Take a few deep breaths. Give yourself a quick silent, confidence-boosting pep talk. You can do it. Rehearse your introduction line. Be prepared to say no, fight your corner and be impervious to the incredulous stares you are likely to get when you present the facts. It’s time to go. It’s time to talk marketing plans and budgets with your partners.

As we trudge into the final quarter of a particularly difficult year, the time has come to contemplate a new future. Like every other year, your managing partners will be encouraging you to set up marketing planning meetings with your department heads and sector leaders. The format and conclusions of these meetings are predictable. You uncomfortably wince at overspend caused by unplanned, expensive partner pet projects (of dubious value). Everyone at the meeting makes solemn commitments to be more rigorous, more robust and more measured in the year ahead. Then drained of all inspiration due to the depressing reality that budgets are going to be slaughtered once again, you resign yourself to do the same as last year but more economically: a few seminars, minimal advertising, refreshed brochures and an entertainment box at the firm’s favourite sporting event. Long disillusioned sighs are audible across the professional services marketing world.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. 2009 has been a landmark year; the most difficult of decades and not one we are easily going to forget. Is now the time to break the cycle and inject some originality into our marketing plans? Redundancies, recessionary caution and spending cuts have changed the face of business. An adapt or die mentality has got the survivors this far and the same commitment will accelerate prosperity in the recovery era.

During the boom times marketing became an ego-driven pursuit of supremacy; shouting about successes and demonstrating superiority over competitors with over the top hospitality. For marketing, some of our biggest decisions involved pondering whether to choose pricey champagne or whether a good cava would be acceptable. But gone are the days of endless rounds of drinks frivolously consumed in the name of business development, extravagant hospitality packages for events favoured by partners (rather than their clients) and expensive gimmicky campaigns (that were forgotten far quicker than hoped). Tried and tested formulae of previous years suddenly seem insensitively outlandish, a little crass, unjustifiable and far too predictable. With our comfort blanket whipped from under our noses, things could now get interesting.

The case for originality is clear. The delivery will be more challenging. Originality is not about eye-catching gimmicks; it’s about getting the basics right and delivering carefully crafted messages that will attract and engage clients and targets.

What do your clients really want?

Imagine the scenario: you’re in a marketing planning meeting when an enthusiastic partner buoyantly jumps into the conversation. “Why don’t we do something different this year?” Great, a breakthrough. “How about we abandon a few of our regular seminars and hold a cocktail party instead; get a high profile speaker and show everyone just how strong and resilient we are by making a bit of a splash?” Oh. Your heart drops. Not exactly the inspired idea you’d hope for. Instead you face a bitter battle to prove that a cocktail party is probably not the best option.

Our clients’ needs can be overlooked when developing new marketing ideas. We are often too focused on delivering projects based purely on what one partner thinks their firm should do to make them look bigger and better than their competitors. Instead the focus should be on delivering relevant, timely and insightful information that facilitates new enduring relationships with clients and prospects. Let’s take an example:

Through client service reviews you’ve learnt that a number of your clients, forced to cut their teams due to redundancies, are now under-resourced. Your contacts are struggling to juggle their workload and have limited time to coach the junior members of their team that they desperately need to rely on. Providing a helping hand would definitely win you favour. A chat over a glass of wine at a lavish drinks reception will only offer a short-term distraction from the problem, a whole day out at the races could actually make it worse and a secondment may seem politically inappropriate and costly. But if it’s a common trend amongst your clients maybe you could develop a mentoring offering, where fee-earners are trained as mentors and made available to help your clients develop their junior talent. For your stressed-out clients, this could relieve pressure on their time and present a compelling incentive to appoint you on bigger projects in the future.

Embracing change

Keeping up with change can be a challenge, particularly in the unsettling times we are experiencing. What may have worked six months ago could prove to have no relevance today. And who knows where we will be in the next six months.

As new communications channels have emerged, they have revolutionalised how we receive information, how we find it and how we interact. Traditional communications tools such brochures, press releases and seminars suddenly seem mundane, static and slow. Empowered by the internet, the rise of social media and our unnatural attachment to Blackberrys, everyone has the ability to get to the most current information quickly, when they need it, without even leaving their desk. We no longer rely on printed newspapers and trade publications for our news feed – more up-to-date information is always only a few mouse clicks away.

The internet has enabled the democratisation of information. As soon as anyone hears rumblings of a change in legislation or a rumour in the market, they have the power and the technology to find out more instantly, respond with their own views on comment boards and spread the news further. There are dangers associated with this, but also the opportunity to spread your news and opinion far quicker than via a press release, raising your profile and reaching whole new markets with minimal cost and effort.

Instead of focusing solely on traditional print media, savvy marketers will explore new ways to leverage the profile-boosting power of electronic word of mouth. So, look for new media outlets to channel your messages. Consider hosting a webinar (that clients can log into real time or at their convenience) instead of resorting to a static, traditional seminar. Maybe even post it on your own YouTube channel. Use social media (blogging, Twitter, LinkedIn etc) to boost the number of touch points you make with your clients, targets and other connections. Make bold, pithy, informed tweets and status updates an engaging way to attract your target audience’s attention, encourage interaction, drive traffic to your website and improve your search engine rankings. As new ways to communicate open up, work alongside the new emerging media and become a trusted source of reliable and timely information for your clients.

No firm is an island

Your firm doesn’t exist in isolation; it’s not untouchable, it’s not self-preserving, it relies on others to grow. Which is why strategic marketing alliances could be an interesting twist on the typically lone stance most professional services firms take to marketing.

Collaborating with competitors may seem a controversial step too far – although a lively, debate between a panel comprising representatives from competing firms would undoubtedly attract an audience of prospective clients eager to witness sparks fly. But alliances with clients or members of your referral network offer a safer place to start. Maybe hosting joint events (and sharing costs) with an intermediary you would like to develop closer ties with, making a client panel a focal point of an event, piggy backing a bigger brand to attract a wider audience, sharing targets with a multiplier with complimentary interests, arranging joint sales missions or seeking public speaking opportunities at esteemed industry events. Applied with thought, collaborations are a cost-effective and powerful way to boost your credibility and demonstrate thought leadership, without overtly selling.

Appeal to your clients’ emotions

We’ve all heard it before - people buy people and sales decisions are driven firstly by emotions and then the rational appraisal of capability. This is nothing new. But still so many marketing campaigns are stiff, formal and bland.

If you remove your logo what distinguishes your materials from that of your competitors? Often very little. In the days where print and post were the main medium of business communication this could be excused. However, with diverse multimedia platforms now at our disposal, the opportunity to inject our firm’s distinct personality into marketing is only limited by our willingness to experiment.

Most firms now have websites. But they are often little more than online corporate brochures. There is nothing wrong with this - it’s a good base - but there is potential to do more by using carefully applied audio, video, animation, blogs and comment boards to bring your brand to life. Your marketing should give prospective clients an insight into your people and style of working. Webinars, podcasts, Twitter feeds and video client testimonials are all ways to add colour, interest and personality to your communications. Used effectively, strategically and consistently, they can help initiate relationship building and ignite the preference of a prospect before you’ve even spoken in person.

Attracting new business and maintaining a favourable public profile is a top priority for professional services firms at the moment. Even those who were previously cynical about the value of marketing, have been infected with a sudden sense of urgency to present a competitive and compelling public profile. Maybe it’s time to capitalize on this willingness and push the boundaries.

So, back to those planning meetings. Is it time to shake things up? Yes. So, take a few deep breaths. Give yourself a quick silent, confidence-boosting pep talk. You can do it.