Four characteristics of successful proposals
When a competitor wins a new contract, ask yourself, “Why did the competitor win that contract? Are you losing to the same competitor often? Is your win rate lower than you like? Do you send out proposals only to never hear back?”
It’s easy to start thinking there may be something missing. It could be one or more of the four essential characteristics of winning proposals. These characteristics are imperative, no matter the industry or if they are for RFPs or not. (For RFPs, check out five common RFP mistakes and fixes.)
Characteristic 1.: Clear and Concise Language
This characteristic is true of any business writing, especially sales proposals. The recipient is most likely saturated with information. You must show why your solution is the best choice in as few words as possible. The more succinct you are, the easier your proposal will sell. (But that doesn’t mean leaving out persuasive content!)
Here are some tips for ensuring proposals are clear and concise:
Easy to read. Limit incorporating industry jargon. Always use simple words. While expertise is essential, using too complicated language or industry jargon can have the opposite effect by making the proposal harder to read and understand. Suppose the evaluator isn’t an expert in your field. In that case, she may only know some jargon, making reading the proposal even more challenging (something you never want!). If in doubt, swap a term for something everyone would know or cut it out altogether.
Easy to skim. Many evaluators are overwhelmed and have too many items on their to-do lists. They scan a proposal to find the information that helps them make the best buying decision. Design your proposal for easy skimming. Use bullet points, headings and subheadings, graphics, and bold key text, to make it easy to find your most persuasive points. Evaluators will be more likely to award you more points because they can see all the critical information without digging through pages of text.
Focused. Include no content because you think the evaluator “might find just interesting” or “may want this detail.” Less information makes it easier for evaluators to find the most essential points. Having the latest company updates can be tempting. Still, if you do that, you’re distracting the reader from the content that shows exactly why they should work with you. If it aligns differently from the primary reasons they would buy from you, leave it out (or include it in the appendix so it keeps your overall proposal content intact).
Characteristic 2: Customer focus
Successful proposals keep their content concise by focusing on the customer.
Continually review your content through the buyer’s lens and their goals. You are less likely to include language that alienates, distracts, or overwhelms the reader. To maintain customer focus, think about what they want to achieve, how they hope that will solve their problem, and what they fear will happen if they don’t. When you know what they want to achieve, you can align your proposal content and show how your answer will create this reality.
By understanding their hopes, you can present a future state that aligns with the buyer’s dreams, making your content more robust and focused.
Stay customer-focused rather than focusing on your company. Reword sentences to emphasize the customer. Instead of saying, “We have 400 employees across four states”, you might say, “Our 400 employees will support customers across four states, including 175 in your state.”
Characteristic 3: Structure
The structure and organization are essential to making compelling points. Think about the best order in which to present it.
Show them that you understand their problem first, then guide them to a potential solution to that problem. Then show them why your answer is the best.
You can always conclude with a final section highlighting critical points of your solution aligned with their goals to make your proposal even more potent.
If you’re responding to RFPs, always follow the RFP instructions. However, some RFPs could be more specific about the organization. In those cases, use the evaluation criteria as a guide.
Every sentence should add something to your proposal. If it aligns differently from the customer or doesn’t help to show why you are the best choice, cut it out (unless the RFP requires it).
A well-structured proposal will have a clear flow that guides the reader from skepticism to excitement to work with you and only you.
Characteristic 4: Clear Value
This characteristic is about selling your solution. When constructing a proposal, keep in mind that a proposal is a written sales pitch.
The only way to show value is to know what the customer finds valuable. If it’s not beneficial to the buyer, then it’s not adding value to your proposal. Either revise or remove it.
Connect the dots between the customer’s goals and the outcomes they will achieve in working with you. Show examples of similar work you’ve done in the past, of results you’ve achieved, and anything quantifiable that helps to prove your point. The more explicit you are, the more the customer will see the value.
Read your recent proposals to see if the above characteristics are used throughout. Ask yourself:
- Is the content aligned with our sales strategy and the customer’s goals?
- If we remove this section, will it make our proposal more transparent or confusing?
- How much jargon do we have? Can we revise it?
- Do we mention our company more than the customer?
- Does this read like it could be written for any company or this customer specifically?
Here are a few signs your proposals might need improvement:
- You consistently score lower than expected on RFPs.
- You’re mostly copying and pasting from past proposals (with little customer focus).
- If you open your submission to a random page and read a paragraph, it isn’t clear who the customer is or what they need.
- Your win rate is less than 50%.
If you experience the above, it may be time to work on your content to align with successful proposals more closely.
I would love to hear about your experiences! Please share your stories at satishmehtausa@gmail.com. Please forward this knowledge letter to those who could benefit from it. They can subscribe to it here or by clicking on the link below.
Thank you,
