2. Our previous webinar topic:
Choosing the right opportunities Establishing Requirements Developing Strategy
Proposal Strategy Development
Teaming Identification
Winning Price Development
Managing Time, Cost and
Planning the Proposal Phase Communicating your Plan
Quality
Learning from Experience
How are we going to win?
4. Base your strategy on discriminators:
the differences that matter to the Customer.
Sour Spot
• Mitigate Our • Neutralize
Weaknesses Our Their Their
Weaknesses Strengths
Strengths
STRATEGY Customer’s Needs
STRATEGY
Their
• Highlight Our Our Strengths Weaknesses • Ghost Their
Strengths Weaknesses
STRATEGY STRATEGY
Sweet Spot
5. SMART Actions, memorable themes:
• Ghost competitor 1’s weakness in space usage.
Show that our solution needs 30% less space
Win Stress extra cost and delivery risk with larger kit
Strategy • Experience: Show compliance, provide references show
(What and experience of team
How • TCO: Neutralise Competitor 2 strength on price by stressing
sentences) early benefits and savings over the full cycle
• Ghost Competitor 2’s delivery performance by showing that our
systems are shipping and in service now
Major:
Win • Compact cost effective solution
Themes • Early delivery, early benefits
(Key • Savings available this year
messages) Minor:
• Proven resilient solution
• Experienced team
6. Getting the strategy into the proposal:
Choosing the right opportunities Establishing Requirements Developing Strategy
Planning the Proposal Phase Communicating your Plan Managing Time, Cost and
Quality
Outline Development
Requirements Identification
Compliance Checklist Development
Storyboard Development
Executive Summary Development
Learning from Experience
The Foundation Exam
7. Learning objectives:
In this unit we are going to look at:
Creating a customer focused Outline
Mapping your win themes to the Outline
Planning winning content for the writing team
Developing and using Theme Statements
Proposal Guide 251
9. Simple three step process
• Follow RFQ • Weight by
• Allocate Win
Develop instructions Add customer Annotate Themes to
• Create top priority
Top Level level
detailed • Develop
your sections
Outline structure Outline • Guidance for
headings and informative
writers
numbers headings
10. 1 Table of Contents
2 Executive Summary
The top- 3 Technical Responses
level, topical 4 Pricing
outline might start 5 Delivery Schedule
like this 6 Terms and Conditions
7 Compliance Matrix
8 References and
Testimonials
Proposal Guide 125
11. And develop like this…
Section Typical Contents
1 Table of Contents
2 Executive Summary
3 Technical Response
3.1 System Architecture
3.2 Performance Analysis
3.3 Availability
3.3.1 Reliability
3.3.2 Reparability
12. Assign or allocate all other response requirements
within the topical outline.
That is, for all requirements that weren’t dealt with in the top-
level topical outline, consider how they can be incorporated.
When adding structure:
• Confirm compliance with the customer’s instructions
• Do not interfere with the “core” numbering system and/or
naming conventions
• Announce organisation; then follow it
• Order points in decreasing order of importance
• Group similar ideas
Try to maintain a balance when extending the topical outline.
13. Allocate pages and additional structure according to
the relative importance of the topic to the prospect.
Determine relative importance, based on:
Evaluation criteria
Discussion with the prospect
Judgement
15. Map your Win Themes to the Outline
Section Heading
3 Technical Response
3.1 System Architecture
3.2 Performance Analysis
Win Themes
3.3 Availability
• Compact cost effective solution
3.4.1 Reliability • Early delivery, early benefits
3.4.2 Reparability • Savings available this year
4 Pricing • Proven resilient solution
• Experienced team
4.1 Investment Analysis
4.2 Price Schedule & Terms
5 Delivery & Implementation
5.1 Project Organisation
5.2 Implementation Schedule
16. To assist evaluators in finding information quickly, use
telegraphic headings for top level sections.
Use informative headings at section levels below those
specified by the prospect.
Informative headings can impart a positive message.
EXAMPLES
Telegraphic Headings Informative Headings
Project Team Structure Proven Team Structure Reduces Risk
Fire Protection Plan Proactive Fire Risk Management Cuts Losses
Seismic Protection Plan Earthquake Readiness is a Priority
17. Use storyboards to share your strategy
• Create a template
• Provide a sample
completed example
• Develop initial
storyboards before the
kickoff
• Review and revise
storyboards as a team
BEFORE you start
writing
22. Organising section content
Put the most important
information first
Introduce a structure
• Tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em
Follow the structure introduced
• Tell it to ‘em
Add a conclusion
• Tell ‘em what you just told ‘em
23. Highlight your key content
Page layout should make it easy for the evaluator to
find key information. Use a consistent way to highlight
your theme statements and section summaries.
1. Telegraph Headings
Direct the reader to main sections. Forever
Tomorrow
Today
Graphics. Will always
2. Informative Headings have greater impact
Tell the reader why they should read. than just plain text.
24. You’re ready to start writing!
Clear strategy => focus
Outline => compliance & easy evaluation
Themes => responsive and focused
Storyboard => team direction
Page layout => easy evaluation
25. Quick Quiz Question: Which of these statements
best describes a theme statement?
Please click on your selection
26. Sorry! Try again.
“Theme statements link strategy and solution” is not the best description
because themes should tell prospects why they should select you.
Strategy and solution say more about the seller than the prospect.
“Theme statements link the
advantages and benefit ” is
not the best description The best themes contain your
because whilst important, unique discriminators. That is,
these are saying more about something the prospect wants
the prospect than they say which only you can offer.
about why the prospect
should buy from you.
“Theme statements establish sales objectives” is not the best description
because it says what the seller want to achieve for themselves.
28. In this session we have:
Learned what’s meant by a ‘customer focused’ Outline
Learned how allocate Themes to the Outline
Learned how to share the strategy with the team
Learned how to develop and use Theme Statements
Proposal Guide 251
29. Thank you for listening!
If you would like to hear
more about our
Accreditation distance
learning course:
FREE introductory
webinar TODAY at 7pm
bidtowin.webex.com
Notas del editor
The Bid Manager reviews the Bid Request and captures structure and with the help of the bid team filters out the requirements. This information contributes toward the outline.When identifying the requirements it will also be useful to create a compliance checklist which can be used in later reviews to check that the proposed solution complies with requirements and that a complete set of responses have been provided.The outline will assist in creating a schedule and assigning team members and authors to particular jobs. The Outline will also help in identifying the storyboards required to assist authors in their work.
Let’s take a look at putting this together. We may start with a hand-written outline like this.copy the bid structure. The bid sometimes tells you how to structure your proposal – the outline will form your table of contents.Sometimes the Bid Structure is provided by the Bid Manager, who in turn has followed the prospects suggestions or Tendering Instructions - this is a good time to CHECK compliance.So far, we’ve talked about following a prospect’s RFQ.Sometimes, a prospect may like the sound of a vendor’s idea and say “can you give me a proposal on that”.In this kind of situation an outline is useful because it helps us to consider how to present our ideas and plan what we need to write.First I’d start with a requirements checklist to make sure all the prospect’s requirements are covered.Then I would either develop it interactively with the prospect or just develop it logically making sure that everything was covered and in the right ordered. Doing this helps identify section headings and how we might split up the writing work.
Ultimately our outline can be presented more formally. Essentially , it’s still a list but easier to read and edit.
To assist in our estimates, we should consider allocating an appropriate number of pages to a topic depending on its relative importance to the prospect. We can determine this from the evaluation criteria, discussions and personal and bid team’s judgement.
Using the prioritised outline, you can startputting more in more detail.For example, by estimating the number of pages to be produced, and understanding whether the responses need to be created or adapted from existing material.Based on the number of pages to be produced, you may be able to estimate the amount of effort it will take to produce them.The table shows estimates for the Technical section.
The GIFBP format comes from LORE Systems (Bacon and Pugh, “Powerful Proposals”Its a useful way to create theme statements and value based arguments.