3 SURE-FIRE WAYS TO WIN YOUR NEXT PROPOSAL
Imagine you are sitting down for lunch, and you are reading a book about how to be a better writer.
A complete stranger excitedly informs you that he teaches a writing course. He launches into his writing course syllabus and all of the course's topics. He doesn't talk about his qualifications, and he most certainly doesn't ask about why you want to be a good writer.
You probably won't join his course. Instead, you'll probably pretend to receive a phone call so you can make an escape.
Now imagine you're sitting down for lunch with a good acquaintance. You talk to her about how you want to be a better writer; instead of talking about herself, she is really listening to you.
Eventually she tells you that she teaches a writing course. You learn she has a master's degree in professional writing and has been teaching for over five years. She tells you about her students' success stories. She then tells you how her course will help you personally with the specific writing skills you talked about earlier.
You would probably join her course.
It doesn't matter if the first stranger actually teaches a better writing course. Your acquaintance won your business because she took the time to establish credibility, and she provided repetition and focused on you instead of herself.
Writing proposals is exactly the same. If you prove credibility, provide repetition, and focus on the client's needs, you are going to win them as a customer.
Credibility
People rarely invest a lot of money into a product they have never heard of. If no one has heard of your company or product, they are probably not going to be interested in your proposal.
Marketing research says it takes at least seven to twelve exposures for most people (and companies!) to buy something. This is mostly because seeing something several times establishes credibility.
So if your proposal shows up on a CIO’s desk, and they are reading your company’s name for the first or even fifth time, your odds of losing are high.
If the decision maker hasn't spoken with your company before, don't assume they will take your proposal as seriously as the proposal from the company they have actually met.
Repetition
You must repeat your message. You must repeat your message.
Ok, but seriously, you need to repeat whatever the main messages you are trying to make in quite a few different ways, at different times throughout your proposal. In order to convince them your product is the best, you need to do so using multiple methods.
Some techniques of repeating your information include:
Customer stories
Engaging pictures
Quotes
Research, including graphs and charts
Focus on Their Specific Needs
The proposal isn't about you.
It's easy to start eagerly listing your product’s amazing functionality. Unfortunately, your potential customer isn’t going to care about the information you are excited about. They care about the information that fixes their problems and will help them reach their very specific goals.
Don't make your proposal a list about what your company does. Instead, create a story providing exactly the information the customer is looking for. If you flood them with a list of information about your service, you're making them search for the things they really care about – and they are less likely (and less willing) to find it.
Understand what they really need from you and what problems they are trying to solve. Tailor your proposal around how you're going to meet all of those needs and remove their pain points.
If you find yourself deviating into random services that you know they don't care about, remind yourself that you are a fantastic proposal writer, and fantastic proposal writers don’t do that sort of thing.
Reminders
Next time you start on responding to a new RFP, ask yourself these three things:
Have I established credibility?
Have I repeated myself in creative ways?
Have I focused on their specific needs?
If you can say yes to those three things, you are well on your way to winning that proposal.
