Proposal Writing Articles
Proposal Writing: Stop Wasting Your Time
Proposal writing, many times, leads to wasted time, wasted effort, and
wasted information. All this waste occurs when salespeople mistake an
RFP for an immediate call to write a proposal.
Before you begin the proposal writing process, carefully consider what
RFP means to your clients or prospects. You might save yourself a lot of
time, money, and effort.
RFP - REQUEST FOR PRICING
Many sales people confuse request for pricing with request for proposal.
Request for pricing simply means the company is comparison-shopping.
They might not even be ready, willing, or able to place an order.
Salespeople who mistake this as a proposal writing opportunity often
waste time, effort, and information.
Send a price quote, a big response, or, sometimes, do nothing.
Whatever you do, don't spend time creating a proposal when your chances
of receiving the order or contract are limited.
RFP - REQUEST FOR POSITIONING
Many times, prospects will ask for a proposal to determine if the
company they plan to award the order or contract to is actually giving
them the best price or value. They will use your information to justify
their decision to go with someone else.
RFP - REQUIRED FOR PUT OFF
Prospects sometimes use the RFP ploy to limit your access to them.
This can mean many things. It could mean they already plan to use a
preferred vendor. Or, they know little about your company, or, they have
received bad, although unfounded, reviews of your organization.
They may also have had a bad experience with a previous salesperson or
principle from your company. The reasons are endless in terms of why
they might not want to deal with you.
But, they need to keep up the appearances of being fair.
After all, strange things can happen during and after the process of
vendor selection, and they might be compelled to use someone else as a
last resort.
THE OTHER THREE Rs
The true benchmark for whether to respond to a request for proposal can
be found in the Other Three Rs.
In school, you learned the 3Rs that should help you with proposal
writing - reading, writing, and arithmetic.
You do need to read your clients and customers to see if you have a
chance at being awarded the order or contract.
Proposal writing does involve a significant amount of understanding the
writing process.
The arithmetic comes in when you have to decide how you are going to
price the proposal in order to win the award and show a profit.
Let's examine the other 3Rs.
RESEARCH
If your sales force or Principles are doing their jobs, they should know
the programs, plans, or projects planned by your clients or prospects
far in advance of the RFP.
The more you know about the company, its plans, its goals, its way of
doing business and the thought processes of its leaders the better your
chances of becoming successful in your proposal writing efforts.
RAPPORT
Creating the best written proposal that displays the best value and
pricing and one that meets all of the requirements of the requesting
company does not always mean you will be awarded the contract.
Developing rapport with the decision-makers in the requesting company
many times can prove more powerful than lowering your prices or
standards in a proposal.
Success in proposal writing starts long before the requesting company
issues a request for proposals.
ROI
Obviously, ROI measures the financial success of the proposal you
submit. The ultimate success of your proposal writing efforts comes from
bottom line profits.
But ROI can also be measured in the information you gather as a result
of submitting your proposal.
You can capture much of this information from a post-selection briefing.
At this post-selection briefing, you should be able to walk away with
information that will lead to better chances of success in future
proposals.
This information would include such items as:
* Why you were not the selected vendor
* Who was selected and why
* What were the deal breakers?
* Names of decision-makers
* Future planned projects
With this information, you can outsell (out benefit) your competitors on
future proposals.
Proposal writing represents a valuable sales tool that could and should
increase profits. However, you should carefully examine your client's or
prospect's meaning of RFP before beginning the proposal writing process.
Contact Al Now
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Al Borowski,
MEd, CSP, PP
Certified Speaking Professional
Professor of Positivity
al@proposalwritingsuccess.com
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Proposal Writing Success
PO Box 24505
Pittsburgh, PA 15234
412-561-7628
877-902-3314 Toll Free
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