Issue You win only a small proportion of the bids and proposals that you submit Tips • Don't bid on everything. With thoughtful analysis and a clear "bid/no bid" decision you can reduce costs by not bidding when you're unlikely to win • If you don't have a prior relationship with the client be careful. What appears in the RFP is never the full story
Issue
You bid on everything, but you seldom win Tips • You will win more business by ignoring poor opportunities. The more opportunities you pursue, the less time you will have to focus on each of them
• Your chances of winning are very low if you find out about the RFP after it's been released. You should build a relationship with potential clients long before they release an RFP • Collect business intelligence about your potential clients, and also about your competitors. But you must be clear about what kind of information you need Issue Your proposals look bad, they don’t win, and they take forever to put together Tips • Your proposal must be client-centered. It should be more about their solution than your offering.
• Use graphics effectively by making sure each one has an action caption that tells the reader what they're looking at, and why.
• Create a repository of 'boilerplate' materials like success stories, staff resumes and persuasive statistics, and put time and effort into keeping them up to date between RFPs
Issue You can’t get everyone to focus on the same message Tips • Develop the Executive Summary early, so that you can use it internally to keep everyone on message.
• Make sure every idea your team brings to the table supports the theme for the section.
• Your message should take into account what your competitors are likely to claim, and what your client is likely to think of them, and of you.
Winning Business from Client Requests for Proposals (RFP)s. - To learn more about this author, visit John Brennan's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 |
Related Articles |
|
 Winning Business from Client Requests for Proposals (RFP)s.
|
| |
Government agencies usually issue RFPs for significant projects, and increasingly, so do public and private companies. The deadlines put pressure on your organization which surfaces issues and challenges that can be...
|
|
Sales Proposals Kit for Dummies
|
| |
Book Review -- Sales Proposals Kit for Dummies – By Bob Kantin, Hungry Minds, Inc, 909 Third Avenue, NY, NY 10022, September 2001, 360 pages, ISBN 0-7645-5375-5, $20.99
|
|
Ten Tips For Writing Successful Business Proposals From Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
|
| |
There comes a time for businesses when they must submit successful business proposals to gain clients, projects, interviews, potential development rights, etc.
And for many businesses, successful business proposals...
|
|
Go and Get it
|
| |
Business is out there. It’s up to you to go get it. Mergers and acquisitions are on the rise. Many CEOs have been putting their cash away for the past few years and are ready to take advantage of the steady economy ...
|
|
Writing Business Proposals: Don't Fall into the Trap !
|
| |
In business , there is a question that no sane person wants to hear: "Could you write me a proposal?". In many cases, writing a proposal is a waste of your time and effort.
|
|
|
John Brennan
(Visit John's Website)
John Brennan Ed.D.
Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal
Development, LLC, a training and
development firm. Interpersonal
Development has provided sales training
and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps
from over 100 companies.
A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan
received his doctorate from the University
of Rochester. His dissertation researched
the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling
Technology in training people in
interpersonal skills. While he has spent
most of his career designing or delivering
training, he was also a Vice-President of
Sales of a training and development
franchise with operations in 25 markets.
Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered
sales training in North America, Asia,
Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He
has been a guest speaker at numerous
national and regional professional
conferences.
When Microsoft wanted Best Practices
articles on sales for their web site, they
called Dr. Brennan. The results are at office.microsoft.com/e
n-us/FX011387391033.aspx
His firm’s clients have included Volvo,
The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman
Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the
Economist Group and countless small
businesses.
|
|
 |
|
|
John Brennan's
Complete
List Of
Sales
Articles
|
|
|
If you enjoyed this article, get John Brennan's Complete List of Sales Articles For FREE!
|
| |
|
|
|
![[Get Copyright Permissions]](http://license.icopyright.net/images/icopy-w.gif){kind=small}
