Strategic Proposals provides 10 tips for winning tenders in 3 sentences or less: 1) Chase the right deals by qualifying opportunities based on whether they are real, if you can do the work, and if you want and can win the work. 2) Prepare for success with a robust pre-proposal planning process to develop your strategy, demonstrate your capabilities, understand the competition, and articulate why you are the best choice. 3) Tell a compelling story in your proposal that superbly articulates your strategy, capabilities, the customer's needs, and how you will beat the competition.

1. © Strategic Proposals 2010
Ten tips for winning tenders
Stavanger, 2 February 2010
Jon Williams PPF.APMP
Managing Director
Strategic Proposals

2. From common proposal challenges…
How can we Did we really
Is our bid improve our say that in our
always the win rates? tender?
best...?
Late nights,
cold pizza! I hate
writing
proposals!

3. … to strategic proposal excellence
Professional
Persuasive
First-class
Customer-
Compelling centric
Effective
Creative
WINNING!

4. Getting connected
Process &
organisation Benchmarking
development
Our
Pre-written expertise Live proposal
content support &
interim staff
Training and
accreditation

5. Working internationally, across all sectors
“I'd like to thank Strategic Proposals for
helping us to develop so rapidly and
successfully.
Their strategic guidance has been
invaluable, allowing us to embed best
practice from the outset and avoid many a
pitfall on the way.“
David Skinn
Head of Bids & Proposals
Aviva

6. Scene setting
Buyers’ views of proposals
Research survey presented
20 January 2010

7. (One) critical component of the sales process
“The primary means
by which
information is
communicated
between the buying
and selling
organisations” Director of procurement,
construction sector

8. Are proposals important?
“Very important”
“Critically important”
“Crucially important” “V important”
“Very important”
“Increasingly” “Very important”
“Extremely important”
“Critical” “Very”

9. Proposals: crucial in some markets…
“We evaluate
tenders solely on
the written
response”
Head of procurement, public sector

10. Narrowing down the field
“A way to cut
down the number
of potential
suppliers to a few
that can then be
assessed in
detail” Director, purchasing
consultancy

11. Contribute to the win… ensure that you lose?
Director of procurement,
“A good written construction sector
proposal might
not, in itself, win
you the business
but a badly
conceived and
badly written one
may put you out of
race”
the race

12. How good are proposals?
“Huge variation… some are
articulate, really have got under
my skin, are really convincing –
whereas others look mechanical,
dull, pre-written and could have
been meant for anyone.”
Procurement director, financial services

13. The ugly, the bad – and the (few) very good
5% are so bad they have just copied their
sales blurb
At least
do not actually answer the questions
15% posed, and try and shoehorn a ready
made answer to almost any question
have answered the questions without
The the hard sell, but have woven into the
bid reasons why you want to do Head of IT
best business with that organisation Procurement,
retail sector

14. Excellence is rare: an opportunity?
“They vary from
excellent (rare) to
awful (quite common).
But most of them are
mediocre.”
Chief purchasing officer,
telecoms sector

15. Development & benchmarking framework
AD-HOC TACTICAL STRATEGIC
Back-office ‘factory’ Centre of Excellence –
No proposal support
professional staff leading
Reactive to RFP proposal & presentation effort
Focus: “Get them a
document”
Focus: a complete, Focus: superbly articulate a
compliant document compelling story
Inconsistent output
Chase everything End-to-end, strategic process
Salespeople tied to
office
Low quality output High quality output
Maximise win rates
Optimise costs
Reduce risk

16. Tip 1
Chase the right deals
Is it
real?
Can Do we
we do Qualify! want
it? it?
Can
we win
it?

17. Tip 2
Prepare for success
A robust pre-
proposal
planning
process, or…?

18. Tip 3
Tell a story
Customer
A great proposal
superbly articulates
Strategy
a compelling story.
Capability Competition
‘Why us, why not them?’

19. Tip 4
Write professionally & persuasively

20. Tip 5
Make life easy for evaluators
Structure
Layout
Graphics
Packaging
Formats

21. Tip 6
Review proposals professionally
“The scariest moment of our bid?
When the customer told us we’d won!
”

22. Tip 7
Hire & empower proposal professionals
Tenders?
Too important to
be left to the
salesperson!

23. Tip 8
Train all of those involved
“All of those
involved in
proposal
development must
have the
necessary skills”
BJ Lownie

24. Tip 9
Equip the team with the right tools

25. Tip 10
Learn and improve
Client
Benchmarking
debriefs
Internal
Client audits
learning

26. Where could you improve?
1 2 3 4 5
Pre-proposal Design &
Qualification Strategy Writing
planning submission
6 7 8 9 10
Proposal
Reviews Training Tools Learning
team

27. Delivering tangible benefits
“Win more, win more easily”
Initial customer win rate
Win rate after Strategic Proposals intervention

28. As the great philosophers once said…
“The greater danger is not that our goals are
too high and we miss them, but that we aim
too low and reach them.”
Michelangelo
“Common sense isn’t all that common”
Voltaire
“If you are first you are first. If you are second
you are nothing.”
Bill Shankly

29. Questions now?
And we’d love to talk further after the event!
Jon Williams
+44 (0)781 333 2294
jw@strategicproposals.com