© Strategic Proposals 2010
Ten tips for winning tenders
Stavanger, 2 February 2010
Jon Williams PPF.APMP
Managing Director
Strategic Proposals
From common proposal challenges…
Is our bid
always the
best...?
Late nights,
cold pizza!
How can we
improve our
win rates?
Did we really
say that in our
tender?
I hate
writing
proposals!
… to strategic proposal excellence
Persuasive
Professional
First-class
Compelling
Customercentric
Effective
Creative
WINNING!
Getting connected
Process &
organisation
development
Pre-written
content
Benchmarking
Our
expertise
Training and
accreditation
Live proposal
support &
interim staff
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
Scene setting
Buyers’ views of proposals
Research survey presented
20 January 2010
(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
Are proposals important?
“Very important”
“Critically important”
“Crucially important”
“V important”
“Very important”
“Increasingly” “Very important”
“Extremely important”
“Critical”
“Very”
Proposals: crucial in some markets…
“We evaluate
tenders solely on
the written
response”
Head of procurement, public sector
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
Contribute to the win… ensure that you lose?
“A good written
proposal might
not, in itself, win
you the business
but a badly
conceived and
badly written one
may put you out of
the race”
race
Director of procurement,
construction sector
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
The ugly, the bad – and the (few) very good
5%
At least
are so bad they have just copied their
sales blurb
15%
do not actually answer the questions
posed, and try and shoehorn a ready
made answer to almost any question
The
best
have answered the questions without
the hard sell, but have woven into the
bid reasons why you want to do
business with that organisation
Head of IT
Procurement,
retail sector
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
Development & benchmarking framework
AD-HOC
No proposal support
Focus: “Get them a
document”
Inconsistent output
Salespeople tied to
office
TACTICAL
STRATEGIC
Reactive to RFP
Centre of Excellence –
professional staff leading
proposal & presentation effort
Focus: a complete,
compliant document
Focus: superbly articulate a
compelling story
Chase everything
End-to-end, strategic process
Low quality output
High quality output
Back-office ‘factory’
Maximise win rates
Optimise costs
Reduce risk
Tip 1
Chase the right deals
Is it
real?
Can
we do
it?
Qualify!
Can
we win
it?
Do we
want
it?
Tip 2
Prepare for success
A robust preproposal
planning
process, or…?
Tip 3
Tell a story
Customer
A great proposal
superbly articulates
Strategy
a compelling story.
Capability
‘Why us, why not them?’
Competition
Tip 4
Write professionally & persuasively
Tip 5
Make life easy for evaluators
Structure
Layout
Graphics
Packaging
Formats
Tip 6
Review proposals professionally
“
The scariest moment of our bid?
When the customer told us we’d won!
”
Tip 7
Hire & empower proposal professionals
Tenders?
Too important to
be left to the
salesperson!
Tip 8
Train all of those involved
“All of those
involved in
proposal
development must
have the
necessary skills”
BJ Lownie
Tip 9
Equip the team with the right tools
Tip 10
Learn and improve
Benchmarking
Client
debriefs
Client audits
Internal
learning
Where could you improve?
1
2
Qualification
6
3
Pre-proposal
planning
7
Reviews
4
Strategy
8
Proposal
team
5
Writing
9
Training
Design &
submission
10
Tools
Learning
Delivering tangible benefits
“Win more, win more easily”
Initial customer win rate
Win rate after Strategic Proposals intervention
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
Questions now?
And we’d love to talk further after the event!
Jon Williams
+44 (0)781 333 2294
[email protected]