Writing Proposal - Business Proposal

The 12 things you have to lookout for while writing a business proposal.

The GOTCHAS!

The RFP proposal that win a contract almost always possess a special set of characteristics. Since the mid-1980s Infotivity has helped hundreds of clients evaluate thousands of software RFP proposals submitted by vendors competing for software contracts. Over the years we have observed a common set of characteristics always present in the winning RFP response proposals clients selected for contract award. This common set of characteristics always made those business proposals stand out more by communicating benefits to the client in a more effective manner.

On the other hand, it always seemed as though the loosing proposals always had the same mistakes over and over again. The foillowing mistakes are quite common. Learning how to identify the following mistakes and correct them will ensure that your future RFP proposals will be better than the average proposal seen by an evaluator.

Mistake #1: Failure to Identify Project Drivers

This is probably the mistake that has the most impact on the rest of a business proposal. It is very important to know what the driving force(s) are behind a planned acquisition. A winning RFP proposal must have a credible theme relevant to the project driving forces, and this information is what helps identify that theme. For example, what are the problems the customer is trying to solve?

It is also very important to attend any Pre-Bid conference that may be scheduled for a specific project because this is where all vendors have the opportunity to ask questions designed to identify the true scope of the planned project.

If no Pre-Bid conference, then one must query the customer directly, if possible.

It is here that you have the opportunity to learn powerful information that will prove extremely useful at other times in the RFP response proposal creation process, as discussed in:

Mistake #3: Not Using a Checklist to Ensure a High Quality RFP Response/Proposal.
Mistake #4: Complying With the RFP, But Doing Nothing More
Mistake #5: Not Optimizing Against the Evaluation Criteria
Mistake #6: Failing the “Who Cares” Test
Mistake #7: Not Saying Why Your Business Proposal is the Best - Why the Customer Should Select You
Mistake #8: Not Thinking About What It Will Take to Win
Mistake #9: Writing Business Proposal - It All About You
Mistake #10: Making an Obvious or Universal Truth Statement
Mistake #11: Failure to Own the Result
Mistake #12: Building Up to the Conclusion at the Finish

Mistake #2: Not Following All RFP Response Instructions

This may appear very simple, but it is one of the most frequent mistakes. It is also very important, because in most situations an business proposal that does not complied with ALL of the RFP response instructions is disqualified immediately because of legal and quality concerns.

It is very important to read and follow ALL the RFP response instructions given in the RFP. This includes responding to ALL of the RFP requirements and questions. Be certain that every RFP question or requirement has a corresponding response in your business proposal. If you cannot find that one-to-one relationship then your proposal is probably not compliant with the RFP.

For example, if the RFP states that all responses must not exceed 10 pages, you must be sure your response is no more than 10 pages long, since any additional pages may be ignored by the evaluation team or your business proposal may be thrown out entirely. It is the customer who sets the rules for responding to the RFP, and those rules must be followed to move further down the proposal evaluation process.

Respond to ALL Mandatory Requirements. Simply put, mandatory requirements are those that must be responded to, without fail. In most cases an RFP proposals that does not respond to them will be thrown out, disqualified, by the customer. They are there to help the evaluation team assess your business proposal fairly against other RFP responses, and to provide a consistent framework so all vendor responses can be evaluated in the same way. Since responding to ALl manadatory requirements is extremely important be sure you have identified all of them, since they can be located in many areas throughout an RFP.

Develop an Accurate, Detailed But Easy to Use Table of Contents (TOC). It is important to understand what is being asked. Some RFPs will provide explicit instructions about how to structure a Table of Contents (TOC). Other RFPs will provide scattered information and you will have to decide what the evaluatorion team (end users) want. An accurate TOC developed after a careful study of the RFP will prove to the customer that you do indeed understand what is required. Unless instructed otherwise, the TOC of your business proposal should match the order of the RFP questions, as sections of your proposal might be evaluated by different members of the evaluatiuon team and all should have a common point of reference if sections need to be shared. The primary goal to focus on when developing the TOC is making information easy to find for the evaluators.

Mistake #3: Not Using a Checklist to Ensure a High Quality RFP Proposal.

One of the keys to a winning RFP proposal is its quality, since that is what evaluators use when deciding which proposals to "trashed" and which should be given further consideration. One of the best ways to ensure high RFP response/proposal quality is to use a proposal checklist to track the status and location of all business proposal information required by the RFP and your sales team. Note that "quality" is much more than pretty graphics or glossy paper, it also includes the proposal's theme, ease-of-use and understanding, the relevance of its content to customer needs, differentiation factors, and its credibility.

To create a proposal checklist, start with the RFP table of contents, since many RFPs will have several sections that require special information from you, and many even have a "Response Requirements" or similar. You should then add what your marketing and sales needs dictate to be sure the checklist contains everything that should be in the proposal. At minimum, a checklist should include the following:

Proposal Theme(s) Structure
Proposal Theme Components
Strategic Messages
RFP Topic Information Required
Responsible Parties/Sources of Information
Internal Deadline for Each Information item

If you use a proposal generation tool of some type please remember the categories of the RFP Response checklist should be in "synch" with the topic categoroes of your proposal software. That way whenever "new" proposal content is created it can be done in such a way that it becomes "reusable" in future business proposals as needed.

There could be many more items in a checklist, but the above will get you started down the right path.

Mistake #4: Complying With the RFP, But Doing Nothing More

A winning RFP proposal does must more than simply follow the RFP's instructions for responding. A winning business proposal must offer something that the customer will find more attractive than what is offered in competing proposals. Does your business proposal communicate information that differentiates your product from the alternatives? Does your proposal offer credible proof that only your product can provide those benefits?

The bottom line is that you must not only comply with all RFP proposal instructions, but go several steps beyond by shaping your responses to expound on your product's unique features and their benefits. You do not want to simply embedd a lot of meaningless content, but shape your answers to communicate why those features that are unique, or why certain benefits can only be realized with your product.

Mistake #5: Not Optimizing a Proposal using the Customer's Evaluation Criteria

It is very important to optimize your proposal so that it is in "synch" (aligned) with the customer's evaluation process as much as possible. Read more

Business Proposal