Five_Key_Steps

Five Key Steps First, you’ll need to analyse the proposal to determine what must be covered in your response. This will indicate how much work is required. You’ll also need to determine what resources are needed to create a response. This may seem obvious, but it’s worth emphasizing: don’t try and create a full response if you don’t have the time or resources to do it. After determining how much work the response requires, you’ll need to determine what’s required in order to meet the client’s specific needs and requirements. If the opportunity doesn’t come with a formal request for proposal, those requirements may be poorly articulated or, often, not expressed at all. Only then can you determine if you can do what the requester is asking for. Now you’re ready to decide how you should respond. There’s no point in responding to this opportunity unless you have the time to create a good proposal and also have the resources available to deliver on that proposal. If both of these conditions aren’t true then the right response may not be a full proposal. Instead, the right response is a polite acknowledgment that you’ve received the request and, while you’re not responding to this request, you would be interested in subsequent opportunities. An honest response looks much better than a perfunctory proposal. Writing a Successful Proposal: The Challenge You’re the last person in the office one night and the boss says to you, “Here’s an opportunity that needs looking after. Knock out a proposal, will you' They need it by Friday”. What’s your plan' To get started, you’ll want to avoid three common responses: Cloning, brain dump and avoidance. Cloning means you cut and paste from previous proposals rather than preparing a fresh response for a new opportunity. Such a proposal will not likely address the requester’s requirements (even though it might address a similar problem someone else once had). You’ll also want to avoid including everything you (and the marketing department) know about the request. This brain dump strategy requires that the customer find what matters to them in the mass of material you’ve provided, something the customer probably won’t have any time for or interest in doing. Finally, there is avoidance, or only responding perfunctorily. This is a sure-fire way to lose the opportunity altogether and makes it unlikely you will get another opportunity from that source. Assessing the Situation Before following the five key steps to creating an effective proposal, you must decide whether you should follow up on the opportunity Five Key Steps to Writing Successful Proposals If you’ve decided to respond, you can start working through the five steps to creating an effective proposal. unique value proposition in the area • What distinguishes you from the competition Closing • Time period that the bid and pricing is valid for • Who is dealing with the bid at your company • The proposal number cross-referenced with any of their reference numbers Step 2: Write the Proposal Write about the reader’s problem, not about how wonderful you are. The reader is interested in whether you understand their problem and if you can credibly fix it. Make sure to write in plain English. Five-dollar words may impress but they may also mislead the reader. Structure the document to fit your reader’s view of the problem, not your own. In other words, recognise that what you value may be different from what your reader values. Put what the reader values first in your response and even in individual sentences. Avoid: “A centralised domain model will enhance network management and provide users with a more reliable computing experience”. Try: “A more reliable computing experience will be provided for users by using a centralised domain model to enhance network management”. • You understand the client’s problem • You have the best solution for that problem • Your business is the best choice for the work With the preceding information at your disposal, the next time your boss asks you to respond to a request, you’ll be ready. It may not guarantee the success of your proposal, but it will guarantee that you create a better quality response than almost anyone competing against you. Step 3: Write an Executive Summary An executive summary is a short document that summarises your proposal, enabling readers to quickly acquaint themselves with the larger body of material without having to read all of it. This is a key piece of the proposal. (If you can’t make your proposal convincing in one page, you probably can’t make it convincing in fifty.) In addition to helping readers make a quick assessment, the executive summary is used by gatekeepers to help them decide if your proposal should be placed in the “keep” pile. The summary may actually be written before starting any other part of the proposal and can be used as an aid in making the bid/ no-bid decision. To ensure clarity and consistency, the executive summary will need to be revisited when the proposal is complete.