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!