By Michael W. McLaughlin
When he came up against assumptions and conventional wisdom, Arthur C. Clarke, the noted British scientist and writer, was fond of the old saying “Rules are meant to be broken.”
In the consulting business, we have implied rules for much of what we do, from pricing to project management. Unfortunately, many once-helpful ideas about operating our businesses morph into unquestioned prescriptions for how we should do things. Few things spread faster, and have a shorter shelf life, than these so-called best practices.
“Rules” for Sales Proposals
Clients award very few consulting projects, regardless of the size, without a proposal of some kind. When you sit down to write your proposal, you’ll likely run through a mental checklist of the basic “rules” for a winning one.
For everything we do, though, some accepted wisdom serves us well, while some just gets in the way. Sales proposal development is no exception. So, with a nod to Arthur C. Clarke, here are three myths of the sales proposal process.
Myth 1: There’s One Right Way
If there’s one certainty in the professional services business, it’s that we rarely sell the same way—or face the same situation—twice. We do encounter similarities in selling situations, but each client project has its own goals, influencers, decision-makers, and approval process.
If you believe in a single, “right” way to write a proposal, you’ll mistakenly use strategies that work well for one client but fall flat for others. If you assume, for example, that writing a three-page proposal is the way to win, you’ll falter in client situations that demand a more extensive presentation of your solution. You can try to force the three-page rule on clients, but it’s a better bet to stay flexible with your approach, especially if you really want the work.
Naturally, you must cover specific topics in every proposal, such as the project objectives, scope, results, timing, team, assumptions, and fees. And you should include an executive summary. You also have to avoid blatant buzzwords. But adhering to a set of rules about proposal length, content, and a prescribed purpose for the proposal is a mistake.
What’s most important in a sales situation is to be receptive, but discerning, about the opportunity. You’ll pour precious resources into a potential sale, so make sure it’s the right one for you. If you decide to pursue the opportunity, be aware of how your proposal fits with your overall strategy to win the work.
A sales proposal by itself rarely sells anything. But it can sink an opportunity if you construct it poorly or if you lean on a formula, instead of creativity. Think of a sales proposal as the ultimate situational document, and keep an open mind about how the proposal can most effectively serve your client’s interests.
Myth 2: Write to Avoid Elimination
It’s not uncommon to hear that the “secret” to creating a winning proposal is to focus on avoiding elimination from the competition. The reasoning is that many proposal evaluations are a process of elimination, not selection. So, the logic goes, the proposal that’s the toughest to eliminate will win in a war of attrition.
You’d have to be nuts to ignore the factors that might cause elimination from a proposal review process. But elevating the desire to avoid a loss above the drive to win can lead to needlessly conservative thinking and an aversion to calculated risks that many clients expect their service providers to take.
Of course, you have to comply with the client’s requirements, submit the proposal on time, and write from the client’s point of view. Fail in any of these areas and you’ll be out of the running, and rightfully so.
But, if you adopt a loss-avoidance mindset, you’re just as likely to avoid a win.
Many clients initially weed out the weakest contenders for obvious reasons like lack of qualifications. Maybe you can engineer your qualifications to appear loss-proof, but it’s going to take most clients a nanosecond to uncover the truly qualified firms. A loss-avoidance strategy is unlikely to help any firm over those initial hurdles.
We’d all like to create proposals that clients can’t refuse. Give yourself the best chance of doing that by focusing on what it takes to win, not on how to avoid a loss.
Myth 3: Your Proposal Is Just an Agreement
It’s great to meet with a client to discuss a previously-agreed-upon project. You and the client are in sync with the what, why, and how of the project, and both just need to sign on the dotted line to get the work started.
In such cases, a proposal can serve as a basic agreement between the two parties. But to help professionals in today’s market, a sales proposal can and must be more versatile. When you reduce a proposal to merely a contractual instrument, you short-circuit its potential marketing power.
Often, a diverse group of client decision makers reviews proposals, and you may not get the chance to meet all of them. Some proposal reviewers may have no knowledge of your practice. So your proposal serves your interests by communicating your innovative solution to the client’s problem, and by introducing your business to those who should know more about you.
For better or worse, a proposal takes on a life of its own after you hand it over to the client. That document can travel to the far reaches of an organization, leaving lasting impressions along the way. More than one consultant has won work because of the viral power of a previous proposal. Leave out essential elements in a proposal—like your customized resume or qualifications—and future readers miss the opportunity to learn about your capabilities.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s unwise to send reams of paper when a client wants a stripped down proposal. But don’t sacrifice future opportunities, even if you think the current project is in the bag.
In most cases, you shouldn’t treat a proposal as just an agreement. A competitive proposal review process is more common today than the office cubicle, and it’s showing few signs of retreating.
Clients and consultants use sales proposals for many purposes—to hammer out project scope, demonstrate qualifications, negotiate fees, and compare one firm to another. Few tools have the power of a well-conceived sales proposal. So think expansively, not narrowly, about the range of uses for your proposal.
If someone told you that the only way get to the other side of an icy pond was to skate across, you might think that sounded reasonable and lace up your skates. But what if you could safely go around or you could get help? If you think there’s an alternative, you’re probably right.
It’s our job to be curious and we should have an insatiable desire to question even answers that seem, on the surface, to be correct. So before you write that next proposal, ask yourself if the rules and assumptions you’ve been using are really serving you and your clients.
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