The document provides an overview of how to prepare winning proposals. It discusses analyzing the proposal status of LG CNS, understanding the proposal process and major activities within each stage of the process. These include establishing a proposal strategy, developing the proposal, packaging/binding, and presenting. The conclusion emphasizes that proposals represent value for the customer, are an important sales tool, require resources, but can be made effective through understanding the process and customer needs.
5 factors of winning a contract (5P) Price : Competitive price Person : Searching key person Power : Strong will to perform Presentation : Persuasive presentation session Proposal : preparation of high quality proposal
Identify our current position through the analysis of proposal status. Identify competitors’ effort to beat us. Check the details of each activity of a process, and their strategic approach. For generals of a proposal, open a customized training course reflecting the characteristics of each business unit. The course on preparing a presentation session materials and presentation skill, the core part of a proposing work, is to be open as soon as the responsible person of individual business unit is nominated, and that is not included in this course. The current course provides the training level that can be applied to any proposal work.
After this course, you will: (Anxiety Free) overcome ambiguous anxiety about a proposal, (Focus Driven) be able to prepare a proposal with a focus, (Efficient work Effectively) be able to prepare a proposal efficiently avoiding a repeating and tedious work time. (DIRFT) be able to “do it right the first time”. Know what to do/ how to do: You will be able to write a proposal through a strategic approach on what to do, in what order. After this course, you will have have the comprehensive picture on proposal work, and the tools and technique to draw it.
LG CNS proposal of last 4~5 years used the Know-how transferred from EDS, and the quality of proposal of competitors was comparatively low. That is out proposal competitiveness was superior to that of others. Now, however, the quality our proposal has been degraded gradually or at a standstill while competitors has improved their quality through on-going effort. This resulted in the loss of competitive edge, and the company-wide sympathy with the matter has not been evoked.
Status of competitors Samsung SDS Through a corporate strategic proposal team, they establish a proposal strategy, and the team has the right to accept or reject a proposal. Select and cultivate a professional presenter through a presentation contest. Efficiently mobilize available professionals through HR pool. From formal aspect, Do proposal work efficiently by building a proposal DB. Show off professionalism by standardizing proposal box and tape. HIT Great interest in proposal, such as investing 200 million KRW just for GD.
Analyzing the proposal competitiveness of LG CNS and others, LG CNS is strong in the commercial aspect of presentation session materials and proposal, but weak in logical development of proposal and use of existing materials. Others are strong in the commercial aspect of proposal and use of existing materials, but weak in presentation session materials, and specially both of the two are weak in logical development. Therefore, to defeat the competitors and supplement the weakness, LG CNS should: establish a plan to efficiently use existing materials, and improve proposal preparation skill.
Then, why do LG CNS proposals have such weakness? First of all, from the perspective of proposal life cycle, in a proposal strategy setup stage, LG CNS lacks differentiated strategy, and the will to participate in and support proposal. In a proposal planning and development stage, Simply reusing existing proposals. Low productivity and standstill of quality. Lack of available guideline. Reviewing contents for form’s sake Finally, in commercializing aspect of proposal and delivery stage, Low quality of binding and packing, and Lack of presentation idea and presenter.
From the perspective of 7S, you can think about a the following aspects of proposal. Value sharing Strategy Structure System Staff Skill Style
Through the comprehensive consideration of the issues related to a proposal: establishing a differentiated strategy, cultivating professionals of proposal, company-wide sharing of proposal materials, n urturing talents having problem-solving capability and excellent writing skill, and developing a professional course of proposal preparation, we can enhance our strength further more, and supplement weakness, and make a countermeasure through benchmarking competitors. To have a differentiated strategy of our own, we have to focus on the following 4 strategic issues. Setup of proposal process Sharing proposal know-how Developing common modules Proposal training As the first stage of implementing the 4 issues, Proposal Training is provided.
What is a proposal? (Question to students.) In Korean encyclopedia, it is defined as …. SI industry defines “proposal “ as: A Sales Document describing how to provide the optimum value that best meets customer’s needs and expectations, thereby ensuring the success in a business Here, the key points are: The focus of a proposal is customers. (This is repeated twice. ) Proposal aims at providing “value”. Proposal aims at selling. A proposal is not a technical document or manual but the sales document to sell services. In a word, a proposal should be able to touch the most critical and problematic part of a customer. What is the role of a proposal? Persuade : Making a customer confident that it can succeed. Inform : Showing our latest top-notch technology Motivate : Motivating a customer to start the relevant business by presenting its validity. Even so, the success of a business does not solely depends on a proposal. Proposal does not win new business New business could be lost from the result of the bad proposal.
Generally, a proposal should contain: Understanding of customer business The fact that we have the best solution The reason why our solution is excellent The plan to implement the solution Our experience in the relevant field. To do this, the followings are required. Full understanding of the customer business and the duties of related staffs there. Presenting the Good Business Reason ( why this business is necessary) to the decision makers, that is, the benefits the business bring about. The overall format, logical development, readability, and recognizability that can attract the attention of judges. Clear and simple sentences that can be easily understood. In conclusion, a good proposal should have the following features. Differentiate more benefit, more experienced, faster, more buying power Demonstration quality, professionalism, technological expertise Visualization Visualizing the intangible service into tangible service.
Proposal procedure generally consists of the following 3 mega steps: Strategy Building, Solution Development, Solution Delivery And , 5 stages of detailed processes: Strategy building, proposal planning, developing a proposal, commercialization, and delivery of the proposal. Strategy building stage includes the following activities: Customer analysis, making preliminary solution, analyze competitors & partnership, make sales strategy, analyzing available resources, and preparing proposal strategy statement Proposal planning stage includes : Drawing out proposal timeline, establishing a proposal organization, preparing proposal outline/ requirement check list/ key word, utilizing a library, and determining a standard of proposal Proposal development stage includes : Preparing storyboard, writing a proposal, and review Commercialization stage includes: Printing, Binding, Packing, Boxing Proposal Delivery includes: Preparing presentation strategy / presentation session materials and rehearsal of presentation session The output of the stages includes: RFP analysis, SWOT document, strategy statement. Requirement check list, KW analysis and timeline document. Storyboard, proposal(draft) Proposal Presentation session materials
The first stage of mega process for proposal preparation it to building a proposal strategy. Strategy is the activity to set a goal, and the strategic decision making to catch the opportunities coming from external environment in order to achieve the goal by using the internal capability. So, strategy building in proposal procedure can be redefined as the strategic decision making, by finding the internal capability to cope with such external environment as customers and completions, to achieve the goal of winning a project by providing an optimum solution. Establishment of a strategy make it possible to make an optimum decision throughout the proposal process, and reduce unnecessary repeating of work. The strategy of proposal starts from: Analyzing a customer, and Drawing out preliminary solution, Analyzing the third parties, that is, competitors and the companies having partnership with them, Setting up a sales strategy to create sales in the end, Securing required resources through the analysis of available resources, At last, ends with establishing a final proposal strategy.
Fist of all, the proposal target is a customer. If a customer says “No”, the proposal itself become meaningless. As a detailed analysis method, we can think about 3C analysis on a customer business. Company : Proposal procedure starts with understanding a customer. Whether it is in a public or private sector, a organization is to have a strategy and mission, and the value that a customer pursues varies depending on the strategy and mission. Through this analysis, we can identify the scope and contents of a business. The direction of a proposal should be determined based on the full understanding of the strategy and mission of customer business. Competitor : The competition environment of a customer might be a good reason for motivating a customer to start this business. We can indirectly identify what a customer pursue through this business by analyzing its competitors. Circumstance : The motivation can be resulted from the change of economic environment and technology trend. So, analysis of surrounding environment is the base of understanding a customer. Use the history of relationship with a customer to the full. Strategic approach should be determined checking if the past relationship was a positive or negative one. If the past effort failed, try an alternative approach after analyzing the reason of the failure. Who is the key person of the customer? Collect the information on the key decision maker on this project. What is the key issue of a customer? What motivated a customer to start this project, and what do they pursue ultimately with this business? The requirement analysis starts with RFP analysis. Introduce a form that lists the collected customer information briefly. If the information is arranged based on the form, all essential information can be listed briefly without omission.
Customer requirements is the logical base of proposed solution, and a important strategic factor. Analysis of customer requirements can be done: by repeating the procedure: collecting information, interpretation of the meaning of collected information, and documentation of the information. And, the RFP (Request For Proposal) basically contains all customer requirements. Out of the contents of the RFP, For the explicit part, sincerely analyze it and propose a solution, For the implicit part, interpret the hidden meaning and propose an alternative, And for the obscure part, make it clear through customer contact and interview to prevent future dispute. As for RFP, Read it three times (Scan Through, Page by page, Marked Read). And the reading should focus on Technical Part, Scope of work, Instruction, Schedule and Judgment Criteria. It is more convenient to analyze the requirements by categorizing it into technical, business and operation management area, similar to the table of contents. Continuous communication among proposal team members is necessary to have a consensus on the requirements.
Before presenting a detailed solution, propose a preliminary one considering the our capability. Preliminary solution consists of technical solutions, and is worked out to best satisfy the customer requirements. In addition, the solution should consider the budget of a customer, and Costing should be done considering the expenses(which LG CNS pays to provide the service) and a price( which a customer pay to LG CNS as the compensation for the provided service). Identify in advance the constraints related to resources, laws and time, for example human and material resources It is necessary to review the preliminary solution to see if it meets the minimum customer requirements. (Reaching the parity) Try to sell it after identifying the features and benefits of the solution. Feature: The tangible features or factors the the solution has. Advantage: What a customer gains when it utilizes out service features, or the additional capability Benefit: The core part or merit of our service that meets the customer requirements. The solution should contain the benefits for a customer.
In”third party analysis”, third parties mean the competitors and their partners except for our company and customer. Through this analysis you can have the basis of differentiated solution. If you cannot provide differentiated solution, a customer depends on a price factor for decision making. It is necessary to identify, in advance, the competitor’s company information (financial and management) including relationship with a customer, and the strength and weakness of their proposal, to cope with them efficiently. By checking their participants in the proposal, you can infer the strategic approach of a competitor. You can use a check list to review the competitions consistently, and the check list should be prepared from the perspective of a customer considering the following categories. Customer requirements Capability Environment Analyze and list our strength/weakness and competitor’s strength/weakness to build a strategy. Supplement or hide the weakness of our company as much as possible. Show up the weakness of a competitor as much as possible to give negative impact. It is also important to secure partners and vendors possessing the expertise on the project, thus to make the contract terms favorable to us. In general, a customer has several favorite vendors. Analyze the degree of partner’s preference to us, and grade it. If a vendor deals with many SI companies, our strategic approach may leak out through a vendor.
Sales strategy is to identify the critical factors necessary for sales of the proposal, and determine the strategic direction. This stage is an intermediate stage in establishing a final proposal strategy. Sales strategy is worked out based on the previous analysis of customer, preliminary solution preparation and analysis, competition analysis, etc., and includes all the result of the analysis. In addition, appropriate price is determined by the pricing strategy, and gets ready to pass the corporate VBR. When extracting a possible scenario, get the number of cases considering the factors affecting the proposal, and set up a sales strategy keeping several scenarios with high possibility in mind. Technical approach Price approach Strategic approach considering next business, etc. As one of the analysis tools available for establishing a sales strategy, SWOT analysis…
Put our strong points vs. competitor in “Strength” field. Put our opportunities related to customers and external environment in “Opportunity” field. Weakness에 Put our weakness in comparison with customers in “Weakness” field. Put the threat to us related to customers and external environment in “Threat” field. In SWOT analysis, Strength & Opportunity field is the area: where selling point and key word is placed to show off the strong points and opportunities. Weakness & Threat is the area: where you a nalyze the weakness & threat, and make a plan to supplement them . As an example of SWOT...
The proposal prepared by excellent personnel & skill with enough budget & time will ensure high quality. The key to a winning proposal is identifying the in-house human resource having certain level of knowledge or above. Those talents can be nurtured through initial proposal training. It is essential to identify and secure available resources to work out a proposal by utilizing the available resources to the full. Check every resource with out fail by using a logic tree.
A proposal strategy must be something that can help a customer obtain value with our IT solution. Prepare a proposal strategy statement and post it where every team member can see to fully understand throughout the proposal procedures. For your reference, here is the proposal strategy statement…
Detailed planning of a proposal starts with setting up a proposal timeline and organization. Proposal planning is done in the order as follows; Outlining a proposal outline, preparing a requirements check list, working out key words, searching library for data, then determining a standard of proposal.
Organize a team with members competent in their fields such as infra, application system development, business management, etc. Here, the key point is to assign a definite role to the members considering their proposal careers and individual competency. Especially, preliminary schedule adjustment is necessary to prevent the team from being organized in a hurry due to time constraints. Flexible, Realistic schedule with enforceable deadlines Within the proposal schedule, continuous upgrade through review is allowed flexibly, In deadline, however, there can’t be no excuse allowable. PM should be able to forecast the duration of each tasks. There should be a whiteboard, installed where every members of proposal team could see it, opened for update. All members should share any changes and seamless communication channel among them should be available. Bear in mind that “Time is money”. A delay of schedule means an additional costs such as express print charge, overtime charge, etc. In the sample timeline, you will see… Outputs are clearly defined. Put some buffer in each schedule to keep the deadline of each task. Overall schedule is arranged to be viewed at a glance.
Based on RFP analysis and a preliminary solution, break contents down to sublevel and determine the outline through team meeting. Determine the responsible person and his/her work load. Define the milestones of each stage for a proposal. (It can be included in proposal schedule.) Detailed definition of works can be done by WBS. Work can be classified as ; General: Contents that all the generalized proposals contain Project Specific: Core part of this proposal Misc. : Ordinary matters (that need updating or rearranging) For the convenience of work, classify it into the 3 types above, and manage and proceed the work through coordination with other units. Following is the table of contents and WBS used in the proposal for National Security Management Project in the end of last year. It includes the initial work load along with a detailed table of contents, and a columns for later correction as well. Assigns a responsible person who will be responsible for preparing a specific part of the proposal.
As a guide for internal review, The check list is used to check if our proposal meets every customer requirement. Externally, It can be used to make a cross-reference index for the proposal judgment. Evaluation of each area by a different judge respectively. To check if the proposal responses to all the requirements. Check list must allow cross-reference to the appropriate items of the proposal. For your reference, I will show you a requirement form made for reference and a requirement check list used in real world …
The key word is a one-word definition of the information to deliver to the customer in a proposal. A consistent KW should be maintained throughout the proposal, it can be presented as a selling point of our proposal. The followings are the example of key words sorted by contents and an actual case of selling point analysis.
The stored information of LG CNS can be utilized for working out a proposal. It will enable efficient/productive proposal work. However, note that: past data might be outdated/ inaccurate. Indiscriminate citation may result in repeated inaccuracy. Different proposal has different characteristics so that some parts will be inappropriate for application. Repeating of the same proposal format may give customer a bad image. So it is needed to modify, update, re-design the past information to fit into this proposal. Time, effort and faithfulness is essential. To make DB for later use, efforts should be made to set up a knowledge base out of the outputs and data accumulated during a proposal procedures even after the completion of presentation work.
ONE VOICE RULE The proposal is likely to lose its consistency since it is written by many team members. Might have an adverse effect on the image of the proposal. Should determine the standard before the operation occurs. In the selection of preparation tools (determining S/W), the actual preparation should be preceded by determining consistent standard ranged from coherent Font, Layout, term, punctuation and grammar. Terms that might be confusing or appropriated for customers should be listed and shared beforehand. Ex) Computer,etc. The standard form should be made in detail ensuring that the team members have the least discretion. The proposal should be effective in that it prevents reworking and reduces the cost. The following is the standard proposal form that was actually actually before.
Make a storyboard (characteristics of preliminary draft) first ensuring that the proposal preparation does not lose its direction and the overall story is determined early on. Start writing the proposal. Visualizing is essential for enhanced acknowledgment and readability. Enhance the quality of the proposal through continuous review.
The objective of the storyboard is to form the proposed ideas logically and determine the topic word by defining its main merits and demerits. To perform the overall graphic work. To increase overall efficiency of the proposal. To coordinate and make clear what to write beforehand. (To reduce rework.) There is an example for how to prepare the storyboard. Every blank of the storyboard should be fill in. Graphic is meant to stimulate eyes and motivate writer to work on it. Storyboard should be hung to the wall and updated to share. Blank motivates writers to work on it! Have a meeting for storyboard review before starting the actual work. Evaluate if the storyboard is logical, If Selling point is clear, It graphic is appropriate.
Write according to the given standard being suitable for the storyboard content. Writing Rule.. Golden rule : With easy term to readers Cardinal rule Be accurate. Be suitable for RFP format. Target core elements. Do not off the range. Be logical In the viewpoint of judge. Mortal sin regurgitating(RFP is repeated as it is.) obfuscating(The problem is ambiguously described.) cut & paste syndrome The proposal preparation was focused on quantity. Inactive tone and negative sentence. Beat around the bush. Exaggeration and over estimation. Same contents are repeated. The direction of logical development Check a phenomenon and a problem. Then, propose their solution. It is important to apply the reviewed matter again. Make it in accordance with the storyboard.
Prearrange personnel in order to avoid a hasty review. It is impossible to have many review sessions due to the real condition of the company. Around two drafts Peer Review(between team members) PM Review Finish with Red Team Review. Review among team members : As a low level of review, corrects a miswritten word and phrase. PM/Red Team Review: As a high level of review, mainly targets its logical and strategic aspect. By preparing the list of items to be reviewed, make a update log. That’s because it is hard to go back to an original draft after review...
In a word, commercialization means to make the proposal look good. As a neatly packaged item in a department store appeals to a customer, a consistently printed and well-bound proposal scores points with it regardless its quality of a content. Encourages a person to have a look at. Can reduce the cost by cooperation with superior print shop. Should select a company that can keep secret. (In many cases, proposals are leaked out to a rival company during printing process.) Color and lay out in accordance with customer preference. Should look like an internal document of a customer. Should not be repellent.
Presentation session is the most essential part of proposal procedures. Should deliver the core content strongly and effectively in a short time. In Korea, judgment is typically done with reference to presentation session materials and presentation itself without reading a proposal. In building a presentation strategy and preparing for a presentation session…
The presentation session speaks for the proposal in principle, that is, is based on the proposal. Reconstruct the main message logically by finding a key word of the proposal and a differentiated element. Audience analysis is the key to the presentation session! The interests of a judge are different (technology, job, business management, etc.) Prepare necessary resources beforehand. Beam, OHP, Projector, baton, backup data, etc.
Prepare the material for the presentation session on the principle of one-chart one-projection. Perform coloring and chart design considering the preference of a customer. Prepare the answer beforehand through Q&A scenario. The person in charge of Q& should practice enough become familiar with and memorize them. It is needed to select and train a presenter.
Make a database and an index of a completed proposal by type, topic and business in order to increase the utility of its reuse, To meet the questions and requirements from a customer, To make it possible to correct the proposal if it is needed.… Find the reason through Win-Loss analysis. Analyze with a team member, And a customer. Even if it failed, it is essential to maintain continuous relationship with them for a next business. Evaluate the reason of competitor’s victory accurately. There should not be a fault-finding to avoid responsibility.
Just as a manufacturer makes a product, the proposal is the most important goods to determine the company’s own image to a customer. Just as a manufacturer produce profits by selling goods, the proposal amounts to be a ultimate source of income. The proposal is a tool to generate sale. We do not sell the proposal itself. However, we sell service and get profit through the proposal. The sales strategy embedded on the proposal is a basis for successful propose. Just as a company in general spends cost to produce goods, the proposal requires cost too. A good company would try to increase profits by reducing cost, especially theses days like the IMF crisis. Both time and effort spent in producing the proposal amount to be money. The requisite for successful and profitable proposal is to make the proposal effectively and reduce the remake of the proposal. Judges for the proposal can be various people like an IT expert, a customer itself, and a professor. They cannot be adjusted for our standard. So we should write the proposal easy enough to help everyone understand. In a word, the proposal must be easy. The proposal should be true. The exaggerated and unreal proposal is nothing more than an empty talk. In particular, the proposal should present its advantages and features correctly and have its own reasons to prove itself. A customer wants a fact. A customer is a final owner of the proposal. Just as a customer’s own document, the proposal must be made familiar to a customer and contain what a customer really wants to know.
In addition, the followings are the 10 check points that PM should consider.
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