nfold

To bid or not to bid?

The best kept secret in proposals is that you can double or even triple win rates by simply deciding whether or not to bid. Rather than bidding for everything, why not bid only for deals you can win? This way you can use your limited resources to make a bigger impact on your customers and improve the quality of your bids. The result will be a much higher win rate.
Consider this scenario; Widgets Incorporated takes the shotgun approach to bidding. They submit 100 bids, even though they can only win 50. Because their proposal team is so rushed, they do a shoddy job and only win 10 of the 100 bids. So their win rate is 10%. Acme Corporation takes the missile approach. They qualify their bids and identify that they can only win 50. Their proposal team has twice as much time to produce a better quality bid. Let’s say they win only 15 of the 50. Their win rate will be 30% - three times that of Widgets. Which would you rather be?
At nFold we use a matrix to help customers qualify whether or not to bid. We ask questions about how well this deal aligns to your strategy, how good is your relationship with the customer, how well you are positioned against the competition, what is the risk to your company, and how well can you deliver the bid in the time allowed. It’s a bit like playing 20 questions. As you can see, the stakes are high. So take the time to choose when to bid, then step back to enjoy the results.

First things First

The primacy principle holds that when people make a decision, they first look for the key factor that matters to them, then stop and decide. If we know this, then we can improve our sales proposals. We need to understand the key messages our customers need and put those first. Here are some ways that you can do this in your proposals…
ü Add a strong title to your proposal that relates to the key outcome your customer wants. For example, if he wants to cut costs, use these words in your title. This will help him to pick it up before any other proposals. He will read the first proposal with more attention and compare all other proposals to it. You want it to be yours.
ü Whatever she reads first is what she thinks the proposal is about, so use your customer’s name before yours in a sentence – and make it the first word of your proposal. For example, “Acme can cut costs by using our widgets, 10% cheaper than any others on the market.”
ü Put the customer’s pains and gains before your solution. This makes the customer relax, knowing that you understand what they want to achieve. That way, they trust you by the time they start reading about your solution, so you don’t have to be quite as persuasive. Don’t forget, once you’ve outlined your solution to point out to the customer how you are different from your peers.
ü Start each paragraph with a topic sentence that explains, similar to a headline, what the paragraph will be about. This will make your proposals easier to skim read. The easier and more pleasing your proposal, the more likely you will get the deal. Your customers are busy and have lots of other things to read and do. They will appreciate a short sharp proposal with key points up front.
ü There’s a reason our executive summary is at the beginning of the proposal. It’s our chance to make a business case to the customer. It needs to be persuasive and make an impact. It should entice the customer to read more to discover how we will do what we claim in it. Write it first because it will help you to get your messages clear and keep your proposal structure logical.
I’ll never forget seeing Stephen Covey demonstrate how he could fit more rocks in a fish tank by putting the big ones in first. This is not only a useful lesson in managing your time, but can also make a difference to your proposals. Always put the most important things first in your proposals - what’s most important to your customer, of course!

KISS Proposals

We all know by now that we need to love our customers. But kissing is important too. I mean KISS in the sense of Keep It Short and Simple, of course.
How do you keep it short? Well, use short words for a start. Never say 'accelerates' when 'speeds up' will do. Also, limit your sentences to 15-18 words and your paragraphs to 2-3 sentences, with a clear topic sentence up front. Keep your proposal short too. 25 pages is enough for most proposals, even if the value is millions. In fact, [the person] who wrote 'The one page proposal' claims one page is enough for billions too. For smaller deals, write smaller proposals. 1, 4 or 10 pages feels right for the average simple solution. I suppose it's a bit like your elevator pitch. If you can't grab the client's attention on the way up from the 1st to the 10th floor, then you might as well get out of the elevator.
Apart from short words, sentences and proposals, it's also important to keep your solution simple. People don't buy what they don't understand. Use pictures to explain complex ideas. Then use action captions to explain your pictures. Use stories or analogies to make your solution simpler. Then use headlines to tell the story and paragraphs with tables, pictures and bullets to expand on the headline. A classic story line for a proposal is 'how we get you from A to B via C while avoiding D'. But you can also try others, such as suspense or action. Remember to delete all that fluff, guff, geek and weasel and you'll do just fine.

Make Key Points Jump

Executives skim read. They’re busy people with lots to do. So your proposal needs to catch their attention and keep it. I hope that you read every word of your proposal to check it, but don’t expect that from your customer. People read proposals a bit like newspapers. They start with the headlines, then look at the pictures and captions, then start reading an article that interests them before turning the page when they know enough to move on.
Here are some ideas that will make your proposals easier to skim read:
1.    Use dynamic headings that tell your story. Instead of ‘Costs’ say ‘Return on Investment’, then live up to that heading with your content.
2.    Use pictures and captions to support your key points. People process pictures 60,000 times faster than text so you really can paint a thousand words.
3.    Use white space. Your eye is automatically drawn to text surrounded by white space, even if the text says ‘This page left intentionally blank’. Use this knowledge to create impact on your divider pages and in the margins of your proposal.

4.    Use formatting. Highlight important words or phrases using bold text. Make different levels of headings a different font size. Use colour, but never in isolation in case your customer prints your proposal using black ink to save money. Borders can emphasize a message. Italics provides contrast.

5.    Bullet or numbered lists and tables are easy to skim. But be careful not to make the lists or tables too long. People can only remember about 5 things at a time. So either shorten your list to include only important items, or group 3-5 items under subheadings to make a long list easier to digest.
Remember that you’re persuading your customer to part with money in your proposal. So if you lose his attention, you lose the deal. So get those key points to jump.