A true story. Five bids arrived. We, the evaluators, tore open the packages and plonked the documents on the table. We’d decided who’d review which bids, and so set about. We meet again later than afternoon. Note: this was a preliminary stage before the actual evaluation began. At this point, … [Read more...]
Are you making these 7 proposal writing mistakes
October 1, 2013 by
It’s easy to become snow-blind when writing a business proposal, especially if you are performing more than one role in the team. And if you're new to proposal development, bidding, and grant applications that are many pitfalls to avoid. Some are predictable, others less so. 7 Proposal Writing … [Read more...]
The Steve Carell Customer Acquisition Strategy
September 30, 2013 by
If you’ve watched Steve Carell (Michael Scott) in The Office, you could be forgiven for thinking that it was a miracle his branch ever stayed open. That’s what I thought too. But there was a very interesting episode recently where Jan came to town with the aim of landing a major deal with a local … [Read more...]
A [business] writing tip from… Tolstoy
September 13, 2013 by
You wouldn’t think Tolstoy and proposal writing would have much in common, would you? But if you’ve read War or Peace, which is much easier to read than you’d think, there’s a few techniques in there that you can apply to your proposals. For example? Summary - read the first three chapters … [Read more...]
How Business Proposals are (Really) Evaluated
October 27, 2011 by
How much do you know about how government agencies evaluate request for proposals? If your business depends on government contracts, funding, or grant-giving, then it helps to understand how bids are: Reviewed Assessed Scored and Awarded Download Now for only $14.99 – Buy … [Read more...]
How To Create a Proposal Evaluation Scoring System
October 25, 2011 by
How do you create a scoring system so that business proposals are scored fairly? One way to do this is to develop a scoring system and award points for each part of the bid. You can further refine this by adding ‘weights’ to the scores, i.e. as some parts of the bid are more important that … [Read more...]
Writing the Risk Analysis section for Business Proposals
October 23, 2011 by
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 … [Read more...]
11 Reasons Your Proposal Was Rejected
October 21, 2011 by
Ever wonder how your business proposal gets evaluated? One of the problems when responding to Request For Proposals is that, unless you know how proposals are scored, you might focus your efforts on areas that have less value and win less contract awards as a result. With that in mind, here … [Read more...]
15 Business Proposal Writing Tactics
October 19, 2011 by
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 … [Read more...]
How to demonstrate Value For Money in Business Proposals
October 16, 2011 by
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 … [Read more...]