Proposal Writing Tips » Proposal Writing

How to: Writing Risk Analysis for Business Proposals

Editor — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 18:09:22 +0000

Risk assessment creates problems for proposal writers. When responding to a Request For Proposal (RFP), you need to identify all known risks but also flag how these will impact other projects and deliverables. Your response also needs to discuss how you will mitigate against this; in other words, if you were awarded the contract, what measures would you take to reduce the risks.

Outline the Costs. Provide line item details and daily rates

It’s a challenging area for bidders as you don’t want to seem too negative but… you need to demonstrate that you understand the risks and have the expertise to control them.

Risk Assessment in RFPs

You can discuss the risks by breaking them down as follows:

Risk Number – provide a unique number to each risk. This helps track it across all procurement documentation.
Category – identify a set of categories and place each risk into its own category.
Detail – use this section to describe the risk in detail and how it relates to the requirements as identified in the Request For Proposal.
Impact – highlight where it impacts the solution and what other issues need to be addressed.
Mitigation Actions – finally, include a section that discusses the steps you will take to reduce this and minimize disruption to services.

Risk Analysis: Number

Use a numbering system that it easy to track in both Microsoft Word and Excel. Avoid complicated numbering systems as these take time to manage and update. If possible, cross reference the risks to the requirements.

Risk Analysis: Category

Examples of categories include:

Mobilization
Project Management
Client Input
Organisation
Functionality
Acceptance
Schedule
Budgets

Restrict the number of categories to keep it manageable.

Risk Analysis: Level of Detail

Discuss the risk in detail so the reader understands your concerns and later the mitigating actions you’re going to take. Here are some examples from a previous project:

Number of people that will join the project. Risk that there will not be space or facilities for them.
Deadlines are aggressive. The solution needs to be in place by September 2012.
Client’s resources are either not available to participate from the start or participate at different stages throughout the project.
Unclear contractor responsibilities result in less effective project management.
Change is not managed in a controlled manner.
Security audit requirements; may take several weeks.
Parallel project (which we are dependent on) is delayed.
Scope changes.
Client is not prepared for acceptance on completion of User Acceptance Test (UAT).
Client does not deliver test environments before start of the Technical Design phase.

Risks Analysis: Impact

The next step is to discuss how these may impact the project’s success.

Lack of preparation may result in delays.
Delays will result in negative perceptions in staff.
Delays will impact timelines and costs.
Scope creep results in delays and unanticipated complexity.
Security audit may impact the project’s timelines and thus project costs.
Project team does not have the required information before technical design begins.
Impacts to project timelines
Impacts to costs.
Impact delivery timelines.

Risk Analysis: Mitigation Actions

So, how do you mitigate against this? Here are some examples:

We have successfully delivered projects for Government clients, such as [project name]
We have the experience of meeting tight deadlines. We can ensure that each stage is managed tightly and produces the right inputs for the next stage.
We have will work with you to ensure that there is adequate notice of when all client resources are required.
We have the experience to provide the cohesive project management capability that you require.
We have has experience of working with and managing third parties to work together as a coherent and productive team and to successfully deliver projects.
Monitor scope in order to ensure successful delivery.
Baseline and agree the scope of the project during the Scope Definition phase.
We are accustomed to planning audits and designing solutions that meet these security audit requirements.
We have has taken into account your readiness date when planning.
We can work with you to manage any issues relating to project overlap.
We are accustomed to building solutions that need to interface with third party solutions.
We have can work with you to monitor any impact on parallel projects.
We will help prepare the UAT user group for conducting UAT with a view to acceptance on behalf of the organisation.
We will ensure that you are aware of the timelines by which environments are required.

Conclusion

When writing the risks section of the proposal, it’s best to present the information in a table format. Creating a table (possibly in landscape format) will help the evaluation team examine the risks and, if necessary cross reference them back to the Request For Proposal’s requirements.

What else would you add?

How do you identify risks? Do you use a specific numbering system? How do you discuss the mitigating actions?

15 Business Proposal Writing Tactics

Editor — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:08:54 +0000

How does psychology affect your business proposal’s success rate?

While most proposal writers focus on ‘hard’ data and ‘fixed’ costs, before you start your next tender document, consider other areas that typically get overlooked.

For example?

Look at underlying issues, pain points, and ‘emotional triggers’ that influence the proposal evaluation team.

Business Proposal Writing Tactics

With this in mind, if this is your first time writing a business proposal, use these guidelines to improve the writing style, format, and success rate of your bid.

Ask yourself the following questions:

Emotional Needs – Does your proposal identify a specific problem or set of needs? If so, how effectively does your solution address this?
Commitments – List the activities you commit to performing so the solution will succeed.
People – Identify the people (not ‘human resources’) that will be used to design, develop and implement your solution?
Results – What are the intended outcomes of your solution? How does this reduce the pain points currently experienced by the contract provider? Build themes around these points.
Assumptions – Make sure you understand the funder’s guidelines and that there are no assumptions. If you’ve read their guidelines and are still unsure, make a call, speak with their proposal officer and ask for clarification. Don’t leave it too late.
Proof – It’s not enough to say that your solution will be a ‘model’ for other programs; demonstrate how this will be achieved. Use case studies and white papers to build your credibility.
Framework – One of the limitations of the word ‘solution’ is that it implies the other person has a problem. While this may be true, other more complimentary terms can be more effective. Choose words carefully. Framework can serve as an alternative to the clichéd solution, providing you can demonstrate it is a framework.
Executive Summary – Develop an Executive Summary in plain English. Avoid the trap of resorting to clichés, jargon and industry speak. Remember, there’s a person on the other side of the document and they hate marketese as much as you. Write for people!
Where’s the beef? – In the conclusion section, dovetail all the main points into a single message that your reader can relate to. And, include a Call to Action, if possible. What does this mean? It means that after they’ve read the final section, they feel compelled to take some action, such as read more about you, download your white papers, check your statistics, or some other action. But, if they read to the end, put it down, and then move on to the next… you’ve left no real impression.
Footnotes – Instead of burying information in the appendix, learn how to create footnotes in Microsoft Word and add these to your document. This allows the reader to continue reading or scan the footnotes on the same page. Don’t make them dig around to find the answer. Use footnotes to explain line items in your budget, for example.
Transparency – If the funder asks you to identify contributors, include it directly after the budget.
Cultivate a relationship – Nobody likes to buy from strangers. Allow time to build a relationship with the grant-maker. Find ways to share information, whether through visits, phone, or email; accept that you may not win on the first application but by cultivating a relationship, you put yourself on the grid for the next set of contract awards.
Give Hope – As a dentist once said to me, ‘I try to remember there’s a person attached to the tooth.’ In the same way, develop themes in your proposal that touch the reader’s heart and evokes positive emotions. Don’t go overboard with positivity as this may feel insincere; instead find subtle ways to build trust and convey hope.
Create a Bridge – Once you have defined the problem or underlying needs, make a ‘bridge statement’ that shows how your project will help them overcome their problems.
Storytelling – Stories are powerful in ways that statistics, figures, and data are not. Use stories to illustrate your themes. Give examples of people you’ve helped and how their lives were improved as a result of your efforts. Highlight your story by using indentations to separate it from the rest of the text.

Proposal Writing Tactics

Psychology plays a key role in how business proposals are won and lost.

Even if you don’t use these fifteen guidelines, remember to write for one person.

While many people may read it, each one will read it one at a time. Keep this person in mind as you type… and you’ll see the results.

What else would you add? How do you try to influence proposal evaluators?

How to demonstrate Value For Money in Business Proposals

Editor — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 15:37:57 +0000

You can increase your business proposal’s success rate if you understand how evaluators determine Value For Money. Most proposal writers focus on the solution or cost. While both of these are valid, you need to examine your bid from the evaluator’s standpoint, in particular how they assess the ‘true’ cost.

For example, the lowest bid does not always mean Value For Money.

Value For Money in Business Proposals

So, how do you determine Value For Money? There are two ways to examine this:

Financial considerations
Non-Financial considerations

Let’s look at each of these and see where and how this will affect our proposal development.

Financial Considerations – Value For Money

When evaluators look at your proposal, they’ll be assessing it with consideration to:

Fixed price of the proposal
Discounts on offer
Conditions of these discounts
Daily rates and if they may change
Amount subcontracted to nominated subcontractors
Financial capacity of subcontractors
Total amount being tendered for

Non-Financial Considerations – Value For Money

The other area to consider is the non-financial considerations. This means that when I assess bids for clients, I’m going to:

Check the assumptions upon which the price is based
Assess if these assumptions are reasonable (especially where there are assumptions placed on my client)
Review the expected resources and mandays required by my client
Assess if we can provide this within the project timeframe

While these are not directly related to the total cost, you can see how they’d influence the agency awarding the contract.

For example, if the project goes over schedule – and daily rates increase – the project becomes very expensive.

Value For Money: How to Check

To protect the agency, I will then take a deeper look at the items in the bid; for example, clauses in the appendix which if executed could prove very costly.

For example:

Check if bidders quantify needs, schedule, and dependencies.
Check if resources are required on an “ongoing” basis.
Review the proposed project program
Assess if business units can keep up with the plan being proposed
Will resource be available as required at the given dates in the plan?
Identify project risks identified by the bidders.
Consider the quality of their presentations, their team, and their responses raised to questions at presentations.

Value For Money: Final Assessment

The final step is to consider the following:

Upfront payments requires before starting.
Payment schedule i.e. do they invoice every month, deliverable or per input/output.
Approach to change control, e.g. if the project goes over schedule how do they propose to manage this, their approach to costing, and the daily rates will they charge.
How they will charge (penalize) if the agency cannot deliver at any point.
Charges for attending meetings and/or travel expenses etc
Charged for late delivery i.e. if they run over schedule and this impacts the parallel projects.
Penalty points they may impose.
Warranties in relation to support contracts.
Change control requirements.
Daily rates changes, i.e. will they revise their rates if additional work is required?

Conclusion

As you can see, from the agency’s point of view (i.e. the firm awarding the contract), there are many ways they can be exploited.

What this means for you, as the bidder, is to write your proposal so that you repeatedly demonstrate value for money. To do this, remove ambiguity from your bid – strive for transparency – and reduce the agency’s anxiety wherever possible.

The more you can demonstrate this, the more likely you are to be shortlisted.

What else would you add? How do you demonstrate Value For Money in your proposals?

9 Ways To Improve Your Business Proposal’s Executive Summary

Editor — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:58:46 +0000

Here are nine guidelines to help you write a better Executive Summary for your next business proposal.

The Executive Summary creates difficulties for many proposal writers. Is it part of the business proposal or is it a separate document? How long should it be? Should it include costs?

1. Define the purpose of the Executive Summary

If you’re new to proposal writing, it’s easy to confuse the Executive Summary and the Introduction. After all, both seem to be doing the same thing. And they are, to a degree.

However, the Executive Summary is really the ‘elevator pitch’ for your Business Proposal.

If we see it in these terms, then we need to change the tone, structure and ‘hooks’ to capture the reader’s attention.

2. Write it as a Separate Document

One way to write the Executive Summary is to think of it as a standalone document.

In other words, if you took it out of the Business Proposal… it would still make sense to the reader.

When you look at it like this, you realize that you don’t need to write it before the proposal is finished. Instead, you can set it aside and develop it after you’ve completed the rest of the bid.

3. Develop Themes

Themes are an interesting way to develop the Executive Summary. What this means is that you choose a theme, for example, reputation, and then develop the bid around this theme.

Why create themes?

It adds a human element to your proposal. Instead of responding only to the requirements, you go deeper and explore the underlying pain points and needs of the customer.

This makes the document much more interesting to read as it speaks to the reader on an emotional level.

4. Problem Statement

What you’re doing here is three things:

Identifying the underlying problem or need that exists
Confirming how you’ve recognized this and
Why you’re expertise will address this

In this section, try to connect with the deeper underlying issues.

For example, why does the client need a content management system? Do they feel threatened or risk getting left behind.

These issues may not be identified in the Request For Proposal, but you as a proposal writer need to tease them out – and then weave these into the fabric of the proposal.

5. Proposed Solution

Remember that you may be writing for more than one reader.

In other words, your Executive Summary may be read by the:

CEO
Finance Manager
IT Manager
Quality Manager
Procurement Officer

…and so on.

For this reason, keep the text light, focused but not too technical. Avoid using jargon, three letter acronyms, and other buzzwords.

Give a short description of the proposed solution. Identify:

How it will be managed
Who will benefit from the solution
Where it will be implemented
How long it will take to develop
Who will maintain it

6. Costs

You don’t need to break down costs by line item; however, the evaluators will expect to see the total cost required for the project.

Don’t try to fudge it and bury the costs in the document. This sends out the wrong message. If you’re confident in your figures, show it in the summary.

If you want, you can also discuss the payment structure. For example, state that the client is expected to pay 15% upfront and the balance at different intervals.

7. Expertise

You need to demonstrate your expertise – but how?

One way to do this is include an endorsement from a respected industry figure. This works for two reasons:

It shows that another person (or company) is willing to vouch for you, which reduces anxiety in the reader.
It shows that you have a track record in the industry and aren’t another ‘fly by night’ company.

You can also look for ways to highlight your qualifications, industry recognition, and other prestigious projects you’ve worked on. Social proof is very important.

8. Length

There are different schools of thought on this.

I prefer to keep it to one page.

In this way, if it’s printed out, the reader doesn’t have to keep the pages together. They can scan it and absorb the key points in one go.

Whereas, when you add a second page, you break the momentum. You don’t want them flicking back and forth checking what you’ve said.

Remember to use a large, easy to read font. Don’t make the decision-maker strain to read your text. The may not have the same excellent eye-sight you possess.

9. Proofreading

The last step is the hardest – proofreading.

Try to avoid proofing your own document. Instead, ask a colleague to check it for you. If this is not possible, take a look at these twenty proofreading guidelines.

The key to effective proofreading is to assume there are mistakes. Check facts, dates, figures and numbers. Print it out and read the document from the End to the Start.

Why?

This technique forces you to pay attention; you can’t get into a momentum. Another tactic is to read the Executive Summary aloud and check if the tone sounds right.

Conclusion

Writing an Executive Summary takes dedication. Instead of writing it first to get out of the way – so you can get into the real document – see it as a separate piece of work.

Identify the core messages you want to convey, emotional triggers you want to evoke, and create a sense of urgency.

Over to you.

How do you write Executive Summaries? Do you write them before or after the proposal?

18 Ways to Improve Your Case Studies

Editor — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 22:22:56 +0000

You’ve never written a case study before, right? You wish there was some nice, easy way to get a handle on this. So, wouldn’t it be very nice if someone –guess who! – put together fifteen of the best articles on case study writing? Well, you’re in luck, we have!

1. How to Write a Case Study

Case studies and white papers are very effective tool to promote the benefit of a product or services. Case studies are the first most popular device used to promote the business.

How to Write a Case Study

2. Case Study: Focus To Be More Effective

As mentioned earlier, a case study is a soft-sell sales document. Its role is to highlight your abilities without resorting to market-speak and sales clichés.

3. Using Case Study in Your Marketing Plans

Case Studies are one of the most effective tools you can use to promote your products and services, especially if you are on a limited marketing budget.

4. What is a Case Study?

In general, case studies are made up of four sections: 1. Situation, 2. Problem, 3. Solution, and 4. Evaluation.

5. 5 Reasons To Write a Case Study About Your Business

There are several reasons you should publish a case study, for example to generate market awareness, raise your profile, or demonstrate thought leadership. Here’s how to do it.

Case Study – Sample Templates

6. How to Construct your Case Study

In the opening section of your case study, Situation, you describe the rationale for the case study, your background, current market position, areas of expertise, and what makes your company different from the competition.

7. Case Study: Length, Format, Style, and Presentation

Most case studies are between two-or-three pages and in the range of 500-900 words, although some tend to run longer. Try to aim for three pages, and include one large graphic per page.

Case Study – Sample Templates

8. Transform Case Studies into Success Studies

A case study should start with a powerful headline highlighting the major result or benefit of the project.

9. Writing Case Studies for Medical Products

These medical case studies are 500 to 800 words and describe how the device improves the diagnosis or treatment of patients.

10. How to Prepare Case Studies

A case study can be described as the study of an object, person or situation in its natural habitat in an uncontrolled and observational manner.

11. Writing Case Studies That Convert Prospects into Customers

Case studies are a very effective promotional tool, especially when your products and services are intangible, expensive, technical or provide benefits that are not instantaneously derived upon purchase.

12. Making the Business Case for Case Studies

Case studies are much more effective because they offer quantifiable success stories told from the perspective of current satisfied customers.

13. Trade Show & Case Studies

Trade show case studies can only benefit your company. Learning from past companies’ efforts and strategies adds to your own experience, almost as if you lived through their successes and failures with them.

14. How Freelance Writers Can Make Money from Case Studies

I remember the first time a client offered me a case study writing assignment. “What the heck is a case study?” “How long is it?” “What is the format?” “How much do I charge?”

15. Case Study for Market Research

There is another method of gathering information which is relevant and must be described. It is called case studies and it is the most adjustable of all research designs.

16. Case Studies as a Marketing Tool

An effective case study highlights how a specific situation was originally identified, what solution was selected for the problem.

17. How to Market your Business with Case Studies

A great way to increase the credibility of your marketing is to let your satisfied customers sell your service or product for you. Case studies are a wonderful way to do this.

18. Case Studies Research and Writing

The problem section of your case study has to have a ‘punch’. It has to signify something to the reader, something that can relate to, something that makes them take action.

Case Study – Sample Templates

If you have any questions about case studies, please contact me here or visit our blog.

Posted via web from Small Business Strategies

37 Business Proposal Writing Tips

Editor — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 22:24:00 +0000

This short course on proposal writing reminds us that our business proposal does not stand alone. It is process of a larger process that involves planning, research, writing, editing, proofing, submission and acceptance.

This list gives 37 ways to improve your next proposal. Scroll through it and tell me what I missed.

Show that your response is logical and organized

Make the information easy to find. Cross reference against the Request For Proposal
Include a table of contents for proposals over 10 pages in length
Ensure that your Proposal is in compliance with the RFP
Arrange material in order of priority
Arrange everything in the order that’s most important to the client
Arrange the response in accordance with their requirements
Number pages and sections consecutively; do not re-number each section
Use headings
Each section title should stresses the main benefits
Each section title should help readers orient themselves
If possible, express the key point of the section in the headline, or immediately after it.
Highlight important points
You can emphasize the most positive points by using bold, underlining, different fonts, spacing, titles, bullets and summaries
Content – Sell the Message
Respond completely
Answer every question in the RFP. Failure to respond correctly to the RFP may disqualify your proposal. The client put these questions in for a reason, and expect an answer.
Avoid banal headings and titles
Rather than say “Development Section,” say “Ten Ways to Improve Your Processes”
Use action verbs in heads, especially verbs that stress a benefit for the client
Avoid boilerplate
Don’t recycle resumes and corporate profiles from previous proposals; modify them in accordance for the proposal at hand. Using old, tired resumes will be perceived by the reader, and will count against you when they can making the final judgments.
Avoid hype, padding and other self-congratulatory drivel. Remember that the proposal is a legal document that becomes part of the contract if you win
Support your recommendations
By giving specific details and quantifying the benefits whenever possible
Don’t just say that you will comply with a requirement — say how we’ll do so
Don’t attack competitors. Refer to rival products if you must.
Point out the weaknesses of alternative solutions.
Use a strong closing statement
Ask for their business; tell the reader exactly what you want him or her to do
Remind the reader of the benefits of taking action
Avoid business cliché’s
Avoid hackneyed openings and closings that clients have read a thousand times. Avoid “I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for considering the enclosed . . .” Get to the point: “Here is your proposal.” Avoid “If you have any questions, please feel free to call.” That closing has been done to death, so avoid it and write something more genuine.
Make your proposal easy to understand
Use the same terms and jargon that appear in the RFP. Don’t try to impress the client with your own special brand of buzzwords or TLA (three-letter acronyms)
Use simple, direct language
Wrap up the Proposal with confidence

What did I miss?

About the Author: Ivan Walsh is a left-handed technical writer who writes business proposals for clients. He also shares business writing tips for smart people at Klariti.

RFP Checklist For Website Implementation and Support

Editor — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 22:17:44 +0000

The final checklist in the Website RFP is for the Implementation and Support requirements.

The implementation chapter of your website RFP needs to cover:

Timelines
Budgets
Resources

Website RFP Checklist – Implementation and Support

Describe the following:

Constraints – What timing, budget, and resource constraints exist?
Project Management – Who and How will the project be managed (e.g. Is there be a dedicated project manager for both the client and vendor)?
Critical Success Factors – What will define success?
Measurements – What are the key measures for success? What tracking mechanisms are currently in place?
IT Manager – Do you have a dedicated IT Manager for this project?
Resources – Identify the resources that will be available to implement and maintain your site

Takeaway

As well as capturing the implementation and support requirements, outline future projections, for example, what you’d like to see in the next development phase.

RFP Checklist For Describing Website Technical Needs

How to Improve Your Case Study

Editor — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 22:33:06 +0000

Case studies and white papers are very effective marketing tools if you want to promote the benefits of your product or services. Case studies are the first most popular device used to promote the business. If you plan to write a case study, this article will give you a better understanding about this type of business writing.

What is a Case Study?

Case studies demonstrate how a business condition was identified, how you identified the main issues, and the summarized your results.

How to write a Case Study

Case studies tend to be short – between 500-1000 words.

In general, aim for three to five pages, and use one image per page at most. Case studies adopt a soft-sell approach.

How to Structure your Case Study

There are three sections to a case study.

1. Problem
2. Implementation
3. Results

The ‘problem’ section has to have a punch. In other words, it has to signify something to the person who reads it, something that they are able to relate to.
Focus on how the topic impacts the reader.

Demonstrate how your product resolved the business problem. The more explicit the case study, the more successful it will be.

Highlight the Benefits

Answer: how the solution, or service, addresses an issue.

Be careful here, as the whole case study is built in the region of this single issue.

Don’t dilute the case study by addressing more than the single issue – stick to one area and show how you can resolve the issue in measurable and proven terms.

Reduce Barriers

Case study writers need to demonstrate how their solution improves the situation. For example, how does it improve a business process?

This is an excellent area to state how your product integrates into other applications. You must use your conclusion when compile the last case study document. Avoid make it too technical or using too much statistics.

Case Study – Sample Templates

Compose the statistics set out so that the person who reads be able to easily grasp them and then memorize them later on.

About the Author: www.outsourcingresearchwriting.com

Posted via email from Small Business Strategies

How to Write Better Case Study Documents

RFP Checklist For Describing Website Technical Needs

Editor — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 22:10:42 +0000

How do you describe the website’s technical needs in your RFP? The next section in your Website RFP is to describe how it works from a technical standpoint.

For instance, this helps bidders understand if it can be integrate with MS, Oracle, or WebSphere. Without this technical details, they will not be able to prepare a valid solution.

Download Now for only $19

Website RFP Checklist – Describing Technical Needs

Technical specifications describe the back-end both from an infrastructure (e.g. hosting environment) and software development point of view.

Provide the following information in your RFP:

Domain – Has your domain name been registered? Have you registered different variations?
Hosting – Is your hosting currently in-house or outsourced? Have you had issues with the hosting.
Statistics – What are the usage statistics and anticipated growth?
Security – Are there significant security concerns? What are the security needs of your site, i.e. physical and electronic?
Platforms – What development platform do you use (e.g. Windows NT, UNIX, etc.)?
Legacy Systems – Are there legacy systems that need to be considered? What are the existing databases in place (e.g. Oracle, SAP, IBM etc)?
Web Browser – What browsers are visitors likely to use? Has a targeted browser version been determined?
Mobile – Do you need a mobile version of the site?
Languages – Which of the following might be used (if known): HTML, DHTML, Java, CGI?
Multimedia – If multimedia capabilities are required, which development tools will be used (e.g. Premiere, Flash, Audio)?

Takeaway – Describing Technical Needs

Provide enough details so bidders can, if necessary, create a prototype showing you how the solution will function. Highlight tools you do not want or may be impractical to implement, such as Adobe Flash if you plan to develop for the iPad.

How To Get Your Proposal Accepted By Difficult Evaluators

Editor — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 22:14:32 +0000

What’s your success ratio with proposals? 25% is average. Very few get 50%. I help government agencies evaluate proposals. Most bids that come across my desk make the same errors, use the same flawed strategies and are never accepted. And the next time, they repeat the same mistake. Here are some ways to avoid this. It’s not painful, it just requires effort.

What does a Proposal Evaluator Do?

My job is to reject your proposal. I fail proposals if they miss a requirement, avoid a clause or get the figures wrong. We received 36 proposals for the last RFP. Some were over 300 pages. The less I have to review, the better.

Tip: make sure the proposals are well-bound. We scribble all over them, book-marking pages, and adding comments. Don’t use cheap papers and poor ring-binders. If they fall apart, I’m not going to re-assemble your document.

I eliminate proposals that don’t measure up. This means they fail on a technicality, are over budget, don’t agree to the deadline or have omitted to include some document.
Then I review what’s left and make a short list.
For me, evaluating a proposal is a process of elimination, not a process of selection. That happens later.
When you start your proposal, don’t focus on getting selected, instead WRITE A PROPOSAL THAT CANNOT BE ELIMINATED!

Here’s how you can do this:

Write your proposal so that the evaluator cannot reject it on a technicality.
Respond to every requirement in the Request For Proposal (RFP). This means you cannot be dis-qualified on the grounds that you were “non-responsive to the RFP.”
Identify the solution. If it’s a product, name it & give the version number.
Don’t be vague. State clearly how you will do this. If possible, describe the solution in a single sentience.
Demonstrate that you have provided this expertise in a similar project.
Support you claims with case studies, white papers and other reports where you are given credit.
Provide pen portraits of your team. CVs go in the appendix.
List the benefits that your solution provides. Cross-reference these against the requirements. Itemize and prioritize each benefit.

Remember, the evaluators are looking for ways to disqualify you.

Check your proposal once, twice and three times.
Each time check for a different weakness or error. For example, once for writing errors, then for flaws in the solution and finally in the costs. You can make errors elsewhere but NEVER in the costs.

Conclusion

Write the proposal so that it cannot be eliminated.

Once you have this established, then drill-down into each requirements and respond from the perspective of the reader. Regardless of how good you think your proposal is, if you overlook a technicality, you’re out.

What have I missed? Let me know what you think below.

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7 Mistakes to Avoid in Proposal Writing

Editor — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 22:24:19 +0000

What’s the main mistake that business writers make when writing their first proposal? The target audience is not clear, the format is incorrect and the tone is wrong. And, the solution doesn’t align with the requirements. So, how you can improve your proposals and win more projects that you bid on? Here are some guidelines to get you started.

Proposal Writing: 7 Ways to Get it Right

Define your audience. If you don’t know who you’re writing for, it’s unlikely you’ll hit the mark.

Be specific. Present a clear idea and a focused plan.
Connect your ideas with the client’s needs. Avoid suggesting options, technologies outside the scope of the requirement. Stay focused.
Check if staff is in place to help plan and implement the project.
Check that all activities are well thought-out and will promote the objectives of the proposal
Ensure that the budget and budget narrative reflect and explain all proposed activities.
Is the writing clear, grammatically correct, with no typos?
Does the proposal follows the RFP’s format requirements? Also called the Invitation To Tender.

Proposal Writing: 7 Mistakes to Avoid

Mistakes to avoid when writing proposals:

Does your description of the solution ramble?
Have you provided diagrams that illustrate how it works?
Does your budget match the grant requirements?
Is the budget narrative too broad?
Does the hardcopy of the proposal violate the RFP requirements?
Has it been reviewed by your peers?
Have all edit been included and reflected in the master copy?

What have I missed?

What are the biggest mistakes that proposal writers make? Please share your thoughts in the comments sections.

How to Write Better Case Study Documents

Editor — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 22:00:03 +0000

As mentioned earlier, a case study is a soft-sell sales document. Its role is to highlight your abilities without resorting to market-speak and sales clichés.

An effective approach to catch the reader’s attention (who is frequently a potential client) is to explore how the solution helped end-users and the target group.

How to build your case

Support your argument with direct quotes (with their names, if possible) from personnel who’ve adopted your system or use your services.

To make this work, concentrate on how the solution resolved one very specific issue and then build the case study around this.

Warning: don’t complicate the case study by addressing multiple issues; stick to one subject and explain how you solved the problem in measurable and quantifiable terms.

How to write a Case Study

How to support your case

Support your case study with statistics, figures and tables.

Areas to focus on include:

Return on Investments – how did the investment in your product pay for itself. For example, it increased productivity by 50% within 2 months. Explain how you can substantiate this; otherwise, your argument loses credibility.

Cost Containment – how does the solution help companies contain costs? This area is very important as budgets are always a sensitive issue. If you can illustrate how another company who adopted your solution saved money then you will keep the reader’s interest.

Reducing Barriers – explain how your solution improves internal operations and assists management planning. For example, how does it fit into the system workflow and business procedures? Alternately, mention how your system integrates with other applications and business critical applications.

When compiling the final draft, avoid making it too dry and overwhelming the reader with excessive figures. Rather, keep the tone light, easy-to-read while highlighting the key points.

Remember: case studies that oversell themselves by proposing to solve all problems to all people don’t work. No-one believes such claims.

How to refine your case study

Perfecting your case study takes hard work. But, once you refine the words and polish the edges, you have a very powerful marketing tool.

Indeed, those who download your Case Study will keep it on file and use it as a reference.

Case Study – Sample Templates

Once this occurs, the reader sees you as a credible, trustworthy and reliable source of information, the type of company people want to do business with.

Posted via email from Small Business Strategies

How Many Hours Per Week Do You Spend Writing?

Editor — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 22:28:48 +0000

How much time do you spend working every week? I don’t mean being in the office, but actually working. You have 37.5 hours every week, but how much is actually spent doing what you’re paid to do? When I say working I mean developing real outputs (e.g. content); this includes illustrations, diagrams, publishing etc – whatever goes into the final deliverable.

Christine, my former manager, kept a record of all the tasks she did during the week. Here’s a breakdown of how much time was actually spent writing.

Writing – 15 hours (includes all writing tasks, such as release notes, developing videos, converting material from Word to FrameMaker and screen capture work)
Email – 12 hours (includes correspondence to programmers, team members, sales, customers, mgt)
Project Management – 6 hours (includes status reports, scheduling, document distribution & include feedback etc)
Timesheets – 45 min (including revisions that need to be made so we can bill the customer correctly and allocate resources to the correct ‘bucket’)
Internal Meetings – 6 hours (Mon & Fri office meetings, Tech Publishing Thursday meeting & meetings with HR (assessments) and project coordination meetings with Development)
Customer meetings – 4-10 hours (this includes conference calls, status reports, emergencies, monthly conf calls with global depts, and project handovers. Mostly status updates)
Travel – 6 hours (i.e. to customer sites or downtown to our HQ)

Total – 43-49 hours (50+ if you add in the travel)

Does this surprise you?

Less than 15 hours (30% approx) was spent on documentation. The rest was sucked up with email and meetings. While there are ways to reduce time spent on these, other areas are outside her control.

5 Mandatory Tasks

She has to:

Go to customer sites
Submit Status Reports
Attend conference calls
Deliver updates
Create documentation

There is no wiggle room there.

How about you?

How much time do you spend actually doing what you want to do? How do you stop others from wasting your time and pulling you away from your goals?

Posted via email from Technical Writing Tips

25 Ways to Improve Business Proposals

Editor — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 13:36:00 +0000

Writing Business Proposals is easy. It’s other activities that are hard. Your Business Proposal may be the best priced, with the right people, and the top qualifications, but, if you overlook one critical business requirement, your bid gets rejected. We want to avoid this, right?

Proposal Development

Have you analyzed the client’s needs thoroughly and creatively?
Have you turned the statement of need into an overall strategy?
Have you checked the proposal for continuity and consistency?

Compelling Content

Is the creative strategy viable?
Are all facts accurate and double-checked?
Is the strategy supported by evidence and samples?
Is the proposed solution clearly worthwhile?
Have you removed all vagueness, abstraction or generalization?
Is there too much detail and no overview or sense of perspective?
Is the proposal client-centred or us-centred?

Make your Organization Interesting

Do the cover letter and executive summary hook the reader?
Is the proposal one unified, persuasive argument? Is there one common strategy to which everything is related?
Are the parts arranged in a coherent, logical order?
Is there a wrapping up to each major section?
Have you structured the information from the reader’s point of view?
Are my headings clear, properly worded and parallel?
Is each section written around (1) the client’s need, (2) solution, and (3) with supporting details?

Get the Style Right

Are the sentences easy to understand?
Are all technical terms and jargon used correctly?
Have you avoided clichés?
Is the proposal concise?
Is the level of writing appropriate for the reader?

Facts and Figures are Accurate

Check for mistakes in grammar, usage, spelling or typing?
Check for mistakes in names, titles, dates, costs or other details?
Check that the proposal is neat, professional and easy to read?

How else can we improve our Proposals?

About the Author: Ivan Walsh provides business proposal writing tips, tutorials, and templates on the Proposal Writing Course every week. Get his free proposal writing newsletter here.

5 Ways to Increase Your Business Proposal Success Rate

Editor — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 14:29:00 +0000

What’s the hardest thing about writing proposals? Maybe it’s responding to RFPs under tight deadlines, submitting bids on time, and getting each part of the proposal in line with the RFP guidelines.

These are all critical to getting your grant, sales, and government proposals accepted. But in such situations, mistakes are bound to happen. Even more significantly, difficult working conditions may compromise the quality of the bid. Nonetheless, you can improve their position by considering the following questions before starting your next proposal.

1. Identify The Most Important Pain Points For The Proposal Evaluators

From the evaluator’s point of view, they’ll be looking to see if you have identified their main problem, such as:

Describing the issues needs to be solved
Understand what goals need to be accomplished
Addressing which issues have the highest priority and
What recommendations you have made to resolve this

As covered elsewhere on this site, proposals need to be client-centric.

These proposals pinpoint the client’s specific issues (stated and unstated) which help you write a more effective proposal.

2. How do proposal evaluators see your company?

Before bidding, your sales team should have prepared the groundwork with the prospective client.

Pre-sales activities will ensure that the client has an idea of who you are—though maybe not as well as you would like—so that you are not submitting a ‘cold’ bid.

A ‘cold’ bid is sent from a company who has had no previous contact with the government agency. Like their telephone equivalent, the ‘cold call’, they tend to have low success rates.
If you are bidding to an agency for the first time, you can rectify this by submitting high-quality product brochures, cases studies and white papers.
In addition, you can ‘get-to-know’ the evaluators during the clarification questions, briefing sessions and during the presentations.

3. How does the evaluator’s opinion affect the contract award?

As mentioned previously, if you are new to them then they will generally remain neutral until proved otherwise. Opinions about your credibility, and potential as a winning candidate, will arise when they question your references, meet you in person, and examine the finer details of your bid, such as the terms and conditions.

Evaluators know that references (e.g. referees) are unlikely to speak poorly about the bidding company and may not give much importance to this area—but they will contact the references anyway, as this is part of the formal evaluation procedure.

To make sure you’re represented in the best light, speak to the references in advance and remind them of key areas to emphasize, such as how you delivered on budget, your reliability, and other value-ads.

4. Do the evaluators have preferred competitors?

When you know that a competitor is in a preferential position with the evaluators, you need to consider if you can:

Outbid them, both in execution and on price
Offer a more convincing solution, i.e. technically superior solution
Explore the competitor’s perceived weaknesses i.e. where you can score points.

If you cannot find solid arguments to dislodge the preferred competitors, you might want to re-consider the bid/no bid strategy.

A typical area where competitors have an advantage is when the incumbent is bidding for an extension of an existing project. In this situation, the incumbent can identify certain areas where you cannot compete, e.g. knowledge of the existing systems.

But, you can counteract this by stressing that your rates, flexibility, competitive bid, SLA, and value-ad make you a worthwhile candidate.

Smaller companies can emphasis their speed, nimbleness and flexibility when competing against vast IT powerhouses.

5. How to position your proposal bid?

When IT personnel write proposals, they often get sidetracked into detailing the system innards. If this is required, then fine. But otherwise, you need to keep these sections in check as they deviate from the proposal’s main objectives.

Likewise, when Sales executives write proposals they can be guilty of adopting a writing style often referred to as ‘marketese.’ Most evaluators are not impressed with this, especially when the copy is snowed under with outlandish claims to product superiority etc.

Essentially, you need to position your solution so that it is aligned exactly with their requirements. To be fair, you sometimes have to work very hard to unearth these requirements as not all Request for Proposal’s are well formulated—but that’s part of your job as a Proposal Writer.

Conclusion

Once you understand this, write the solution description ‘point-by-point’ inline with their submission form. Don’t deviate one iota from the submission form as otherwise you will be disqualified.

Be very careful when suggesting a solution that goes above or beyond the requirements. Most evaluators will interpret this as an attempt to out-wit the client.

About the Author: Ivan Walsh provides business proposal writing tips, tutorials, and templates on the Proposal Writing Course every week. Get his free proposal writing newsletter here.