The 10 Don'ts Of Writing A Winning Business Proposal

Note From RainToday: As part one of a two-part series on proposal writing, this piece covers some essential guidlines that will help anyone draft better proposals. Learn the first 5 of 10"Don'ts" here.

By Elizabeth Henry and Jeff Scurry

Businesses cannot survive without winning proposals. The funny things is, even the most successful businesses have more of their proposals rejected than accepted. To net more clients for your business, regardless of its industry, you should avoid the following items in order to write more winning business proposals.

Don't #1: Don't Start With An Old Proposal

When a request for a proposal (RFP) hits the desk or inbox, proposal writers first tend to find a previous proposal that fits the bill. Typically, there isn't a proposal that fits the bill and, if there is, it won't be found easily.

Proposal writers waste many hours trying to locate these proposals when they could instead use that time to begin writing. For this reason, and others, don't start your next proposal with an old proposal.

Other reasons include:

• The perfect proposal (for your needs) doesn't exist
  
  
• You should avoid cutting and pasting
  
  
• A cloned proposal cannot show that you truly understand the client's needs

Don't #2: Don't Proceed Without Doing A Go–No-Go Evaluation

The most important aspect of beginning proposal work is the go-no-go analysis.

"Do you want this work?" "Can you win this work?" "Can you perform this work?" These are the questions you should ask.

Using a decision tree like the one below can help you through the process.


(Click Here To View A Larger Image)

Don't #3: Don't Create A Proposal Without A Value Proposition

Based on what you know so far, compare the value you have to offer to the prospect to the value they will receive from the competition or from not acting at all?

If you don't show value, winning is a game of chance. You must establish superior value based on technical, contractual, managerial, qualitative, or service-oriented differentiators, or the prospect will select based on price. Since you're not always the low cost provider, you must show your value.

What is a value proposition?

• A clear statement of the tangible results or benefits a prospect will get from your services
  
  
• The answer to a prospect's "so what"
  
  
• It's about the client

Some characteristics of a good value proposition:

• Concise and to the point
  
  
• Meaningful to the prospect
  
  
• Clear benefits (not focused on the features)
  
  
• Paints an accurate picture
  
  
• Answers the "so what"

To illustrate the final bullet, consider the following example:

"Our methodology is designed to deliver a consistent standard of service, using the same software systems, to clients and their subsidiary operations no matter where they operate..."

So what? What we could say is:

"To serve your global needs, our methodology uses the same software system worldwide and delivers a consistent standard of service for you and your subsidiary operations... This means you and your team will not need to reconcile documentation from a patchwork of different tools, and you will not get repeated requests for the same information."

Here's the process for developing value propositions:

• Craft value propositions for service offerings
  
  
• Develop initial value propositions for a specific prospect
  
  
• Refine value propositions using what you learned at scoping meetings

Don't #4: Don't Use An Old Executive Summary

Your proposals can become better, more effective and win you more business if you focus on the executive summary. The executive summary is the single most important part of any proposal.

Why?

Because it's the only part that is likely to be read by everybody involved in the final decision. In fact, it's the only part of the proposal that some decision makers will read at all!

However, calling it an executive summary is somewhat misleading--misleading because it doesn't really summarize anything. Rather, it is, or should be anyway, a business overview that only includes the content that matters.

But most executive summaries miss their mark.

Why?

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