Creating a Winning Proposal
â˘Download as PPTX, PDFâ˘
7 likesâ˘6,731 views
This document discusses developing a winning proposal strategy. It recommends creating a customer-focused outline mapped to winning themes. Theme statements should link discriminating features to customer benefits. The proposal team should develop storyboards to share the strategy and turn themes into focused theme statements before writing begins. Organizing content around an informative structure and highlighting key points will help evaluators easily find important information.
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (20)
Viewers also liked
Viewers also liked (15)
Similar to Creating a Winning Proposal
Similar to Creating a Winning Proposal (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Creating a Winning Proposal
- 1. India Chapter Best Practice Webinar Creating the Winning Proposal David Warley PPM.APMP
- 2. Our previous webinar topic: Choosing the right opportunities Establishing Requirements Developing Strategy Proposal Strategy Development Teaming Identification Winning Price Development Managing Time, Cost and Planning the Proposal Phase Communicating your Plan Quality Learning from Experience How are we going to win?
- 3. Creating the winning strategy: Solution Teaming Strategy Strategy Customer Competitive Analysis Analysis Price Proposal Strategy Strategy
- 4. Base your strategy on discriminators: the differences that matter to the Customer. Sour Spot ⢠Mitigate Our ⢠Neutralize Weaknesses Our Their Their Weaknesses Strengths Strengths STRATEGY Customerâs Needs STRATEGY Their ⢠Highlight Our Our Strengths Weaknesses ⢠Ghost Their Strengths Weaknesses STRATEGY STRATEGY Sweet Spot
- 5. SMART Actions, memorable themes: ⢠Ghost competitor 1âs weakness in space usage. Show that our solution needs 30% less space Win Stress extra cost and delivery risk with larger kit Strategy ⢠Experience: Show compliance, provide references show (What and experience of team How ⢠TCO: Neutralise Competitor 2 strength on price by stressing sentences) early benefits and savings over the full cycle ⢠Ghost Competitor 2âs delivery performance by showing that our systems are shipping and in service now Major: Win ⢠Compact cost effective solution Themes ⢠Early delivery, early benefits (Key ⢠Savings available this year messages) Minor: ⢠Proven resilient solution ⢠Experienced team
- 6. Getting the strategy into the proposal: Choosing the right opportunities Establishing Requirements Developing Strategy Planning the Proposal Phase Communicating your Plan Managing Time, Cost and Quality Outline Development Requirements Identification Compliance Checklist Development Storyboard Development Executive Summary Development Learning from Experience The Foundation Exam
- 7. Learning objectives: In this unit we are going to look at: Creating a customer focused Outline Mapping your win themes to the Outline Planning winning content for the writing team Developing and using Theme Statements Proposal Guide 251
- 8. Creating and using an Outline
- 9. Simple three step process ⢠Follow RFQ ⢠Weight by ⢠Allocate Win Develop instructions Add customer Annotate Themes to ⢠Create top priority Top Level level detailed ⢠Develop your sections Outline structure Outline ⢠Guidance for headings and informative writers numbers headings
- 10. 1 Table of Contents 2 Executive Summary The top- 3 Technical Responses level, topical 4 Pricing outline might start 5 Delivery Schedule like this 6 Terms and Conditions 7 Compliance Matrix 8 References and Testimonials Proposal Guide 125
- 11. And develop like this⌠Section Typical Contents 1 Table of Contents 2 Executive Summary 3 Technical Response 3.1 System Architecture 3.2 Performance Analysis 3.3 Availability 3.3.1 Reliability 3.3.2 Reparability
- 12. Assign or allocate all other response requirements within the topical outline. That is, for all requirements that werenât dealt with in the top- level topical outline, consider how they can be incorporated. When adding structure: ⢠Confirm compliance with the customerâs instructions ⢠Do not interfere with the âcoreâ numbering system and/or naming conventions ⢠Announce organisation; then follow it ⢠Order points in decreasing order of importance ⢠Group similar ideas Try to maintain a balance when extending the topical outline.
- 13. Allocate pages and additional structure according to the relative importance of the topic to the prospect. Determine relative importance, based on: Evaluation criteria Discussion with the prospect Judgement
- 14. Technical Evaluation Criteria Priority Pages Heat Output 6 0.5 Performance 1 2 Physical Footprint 5 0.5 Power Consumption 4 1 Reliability 3 1.5 Reparability 2 1.5 Add more detail (and pages) for higher priority topics Proposal Guide 128
- 15. Map your Win Themes to the Outline Section Heading 3 Technical Response 3.1 System Architecture 3.2 Performance Analysis Win Themes 3.3 Availability ⢠Compact cost effective solution 3.4.1 Reliability ⢠Early delivery, early benefits 3.4.2 Reparability ⢠Savings available this year 4 Pricing ⢠Proven resilient solution ⢠Experienced team 4.1 Investment Analysis 4.2 Price Schedule & Terms 5 Delivery & Implementation 5.1 Project Organisation 5.2 Implementation Schedule
- 16. To assist evaluators in finding information quickly, use telegraphic headings for top level sections. Use informative headings at section levels below those specified by the prospect. Informative headings can impart a positive message. EXAMPLES Telegraphic Headings Informative Headings Project Team Structure Proven Team Structure Reduces Risk Fire Protection Plan Proactive Fire Risk Management Cuts Losses Seismic Protection Plan Earthquake Readiness is a Priority
- 17. Use storyboards to share your strategy ⢠Create a template ⢠Provide a sample completed example ⢠Develop initial storyboards before the kickoff ⢠Review and revise storyboards as a team BEFORE you start writing
- 18. Review storyboards as a team Horizontal Review: Vertical Review:
- 19. Turn Themes into Theme Statements Š LORE Systems International
- 20. Develop the theme: Payback this Speed of Fast Early OPEX XYZCo case year implementation deployment reduction. study approach Reduced project costs 50% TCO Cost of space Small footprint Only 30% of Gartner reduction and power and low power space needed benchmark consumption and 50% of report power High support Lifetime No âbreak fixâ Financial charges warranty maintenance projection vs charges. (-15%) competition Š LORE Systems International
- 21. Theme statements link discriminating features to Customer benefits: âYou will be able to realise financial payback this year(GOAL), overcoming the problem of implementation speed (ISSUE) because of our rapid deployment approach(FEATURE). This will give you early OPEX savings and release space equivalent to twice the purchase cost. Your internal project costs will also be half what you could expect with a typical alternative (BENEFITS). After a similar project XYZCoâs Managing Director said âABC really delivered for us. The system was installed in half the time and paid for itself in 6 monthsâ. (PROOF)â. A Theme Statement can also be a GRAPHIC Š LORE Systems International
- 22. Organising section content Put the most important information first Introduce a structure ⢠Tell âem what youâre going to tell âem Follow the structure introduced ⢠Tell it to âem Add a conclusion ⢠Tell âem what you just told âem
- 23. Highlight your key content Page layout should make it easy for the evaluator to find key information. Use a consistent way to highlight your theme statements and section summaries. 1. Telegraph Headings Direct the reader to main sections. Forever Tomorrow Today Graphics. Will always 2. Informative Headings have greater impact Tell the reader why they should read. than just plain text.
- 24. Youâre ready to start writing! Clear strategy => focus Outline => compliance & easy evaluation Themes => responsive and focused Storyboard => team direction Page layout => easy evaluation
- 25. Quick Quiz Question: Which of these statements best describes a theme statement? Please click on your selection
- 26. Sorry! Try again. âTheme statements link strategy and solutionâ is not the best description because themes should tell prospects why they should select you. Strategy and solution say more about the seller than the prospect. âTheme statements link the advantages and benefit â is not the best description The best themes contain your because whilst important, unique discriminators. That is, these are saying more about something the prospect wants the prospect than they say which only you can offer. about why the prospect should buy from you. âTheme statements establish sales objectivesâ is not the best description because it says what the seller want to achieve for themselves.
- 27. Congratulations! A theme statement links a prospect benefit to the discriminating features of your offer.
- 28. In this session we have: Learned whatâs meant by a âcustomer focusedâ Outline Learned how allocate Themes to the Outline Learned how to share the strategy with the team Learned how to develop and use Theme Statements Proposal Guide 251
- 29. Thank you for listening! If you would like to hear more about our Accreditation distance learning course: FREE introductory webinar TODAY at 7pm bidtowin.webex.com
Editor's Notes
- The Bid Manager reviews the Bid Request and captures structure and with the help of the bid team filters out the requirements. This information contributes toward the outline.When identifying the requirements it will also be useful to create a compliance checklist which can be used in later reviews to check that the proposed solution complies with requirements and that a complete set of responses have been provided.The outline will assist in creating a schedule and assigning team members and authors to particular jobs. The Outline will also help in identifying the storyboards required to assist authors in their work.
- Letâs take a look at putting this together. We may start with a hand-written outline like this.copy the bid structure. The bid sometimes tells you how to structure your proposal â the outline will form your table of contents.Sometimes the Bid Structure is provided by the Bid Manager, who in turn has followed the prospects suggestions or Tendering Instructions - this is a good time to CHECK compliance.So far, weâve talked about following a prospectâs RFQ.Sometimes, a prospect may like the sound of a vendorâs idea and say âcan you give me a proposal on thatâ.In this kind of situation an outline is useful because it helps us to consider how to present our ideas and plan what we need to write.First Iâd start with a requirements checklist to make sure all the prospectâs requirements are covered.Then I would either develop it interactively with the prospect or just develop it logically making sure that everything was covered and in the right ordered. Doing this helps identify section headings and how we might split up the writing work.
- Ultimately our outline can be presented more formally. Essentially , itâs still a list but easier to read and edit.
- To assist in our estimates, we should consider allocating an appropriate number of pages to a topic depending on its relative importance to the prospect. We can determine this from the evaluation criteria, discussions and personal and bid teamâs judgement.
- Using the prioritised outline, you can startputting more in more detail.For example, by estimating the number of pages to be produced, and understanding whether the responses need to be created or adapted from existing material.Based on the number of pages to be produced, you may be able to estimate the amount of effort it will take to produce them.The table shows estimates for the Technical section.
- The GIFBP format comes from LORE Systems (Bacon and Pugh, âPowerful ProposalsâIts a useful way to create theme statements and value based arguments.
- P272