This document discusses key ingredients for winning requests for proposals (RFPs). It recommends getting involved with prospects early in their buying process, selecting the right RFP opportunities, aligning your sales process to the customer's buying process, creating an efficient proposal center, focusing on win themes that separate you from competitors, and delivering proposals in innovative ways like electronically. An automated solution from SalesEdge can help centralize content, ensure its accuracy and ease of updating, and allow customization while streamlining the proposal creation process.

1. Building a World Class Proposal Center Kym Harrington SalesEdge LLC www.SalesEdgeLLC.com

2. Key Ingredients to Winning RFPs Get there first

3. Get There First Don’t wait for the RFP or Proposal to come to you. Engage your prospect early in their buy cycle Understand your prospects problem, need or goal. Map out how your solution will help your prospect achieve their goal Help them understand what success looks like Collaboratively create a requirement document Used to evaluate similar solutions in the marketplace

4. Key Ingredients to Winning RFPs Get there first Select the right battle

5. Pick the Right Battles Chose your RFP’s – Don’t let the RFP chose you Do you have a strong relationship with the prospect? Does the prospect fit your company’s Ideal Customer Profile? Will your offering help the prospect achieve their business goals? Have you effectively differentiated your offering from your competitors? Do you have access to the executive sponsors?

6. Key Ingredients to Winning RFPs Get there first Pick the right battle Align your sales process to the customer buy process

7. Align Sales Process to Customer Buy Process Identify the educational needs of your prospect during their buy process Build trust by ensuring the educational needs and requests of the prospect are met Understand the motivation and process driving the selection process Know who is involved in the selection process

8. Key Ingredients to Winning RFPs Get there first Pick the right battle Align your sales process to the customer buy process Create an efficient proposal center

9. Creating an Efficient Proposal Center Need: Create a winning selling document Sales Professional How good was this communication? How effective was it in delivering our message? Did it increase the opportunity to win business? Did it shorten the time to the customer purchase? Ask colleagues what they have Search files on the corporate server Fill in gaps with own content Check the Web Cut and paste from old content on laptop Hours or weeks later… Prospect/Customer

10. The Impact Too much time consumed by inefficient process Materials lack consistency Manual process prone to errors Documents do not reflect the level of professionalism the company wishes to portray

11. How you gain a competitive edge: Automate the process without compromising personalization and customization Ensure that information is up-to-date and accurate Accommodate individual preferences of individuals who generate documents Keep Sales coming back to “the source” and not recycle what’s on their hard drives?

12. The Pragmatech Solution offered by SalesEdge Individual pieces of content stored in central knowledge base KM features ensure content is actively maintained Users can locate what they need when they need it Hierarchical directory structure Powerful search engine Easy User Interface Designed for Usage and Adoption

13. Key Ingredients to Winning RFPs Get there first Pick the right battle Align your sales process to the customer buy process Create an efficient proposal center Focus valuable resources on win themes Select delivery options that separate you from your competitors

14. The Competitive Edge Do Your Proposals Looks Like This? Or This?

15. Innovative Ways to Deliver your Proposals Innovative Ways to Deliver your Proposal Rapidly Create, Deliver and Manage Electronic Communications Customize End User Experience Offer Reviewers Ease of Navigation Create an interactive proposal by incorporating multimedia, podcasts, and PowerPoint presentation. Reduce print costs while creating a strong and lasting impression

16. About SalesEdge Industry Leader in RFP and Proposal Automation Solutions Automated the creation of over 1 Million Documents 45 Years of combined experience helping Proposal Organizations streamline their RFP and Proposal Process Visit Us at www.SalesEdgeLLC.com or e-mail us at proposals@SalesEdgeLLC.com