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Guerrilla Marketing Moment
58% of professionals surveyed say their intellectual capital is superior or far superior to that of their competitors.
Source: The Bloom Group
In Memoriam
James Kennedy, founder of Consultants News and Kennedy Information, passed away at age 82. His views weren't always popular, but consultants listened.
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The
Guerrilla Consultant –
a newsletter dedicated to applying the principles
of Guerrilla Marketing to the work and lives of
consultants.
Rules Are Meant to Be Broken
Arthur C. Clarke, the noted British scientist and writer, was fond of the old saying “Rules are meant to be broken,” which gives us permission to break from conventional wisdom, assumptions, and the rules that govern just about everything.
In the consulting business, we have implied rules for much of what we do, from pricing to project management. Unfortunately, many once-helpful ideas about operating our businesses morph into unquestioned prescriptions for how things should be done. Few things spread faster, and have a shorter shelf life, than these so-called best practices.
In this month’s article, we’ll look at the process of creating the sales proposal and see what “rules” are meant to be broken.
Enjoy the article, and let
me know what you think.
Mike
McLaughlin
Co-Author, Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants
Principal, MindShare Consulting LLC
Three Myths of the Sales Proposal
Few consulting projects are awarded, no matter how big or small, without a proposal of some kind.
When you sit down to write your proposal, you’ll likely run through a mental checklist
of the basic "rules" for a winning one.
For everything we do, though, some accepted wisdom serves us well, while some doesn’t. Sales
proposal development is no exception.
So, with a nod to Arthur C. Clarke, here are three myths of the sales proposal process.
Myth 1: There’s One Right Way
If there’s one certainty in the professional services business, it’s that we rarely sell the same way—or face the same situation—twice. We do encounter similarities in selling situations, but each client project has its own goals, influencers, decision-makers, and approval process.
If you believe in a single, “right” way to write a proposal, you’ll mistakenly use
strategies that work well for one client but fall flat for others. If you assume,
for example, that writing a three-page proposal is the way to win, you’ll falter in
client situations that demand a more extensive presentation of your solution. You can try to force the three-page rule on clients, but it’s a better bet to stay flexible with your approach, especially if you want the work.
Naturally, you must cover specific topics in every proposal, such as the project
objectives, scope, results, timing, team, assumptions, and fees, and you should include an executive
summary. You also have to avoid blatant buzzwords. But adhering to a set of rules about proposal
length, content, and a prescribed purpose for the proposal is fading faster than back-dated
stock options.
What’s most important in the sales situation is to be receptive, but discerning,
about the opportunity. You’ll pour precious resources into a potential sale, so
make sure it’s the right one for you. If you decide to pursue the opportunity,
be innovative about how your proposal fits with your overall strategy to win the work.
A sales proposal by itself rarely sells anything. But it can sink an opportunity if it’s done
poorly or if the writer leans on a formula, instead of creativity. Think of a sales proposal as the
ultimate situational document, and keep an open mind on how the proposal can most effectively serve
your client’s interests.
Myth 2: Write to Avoid Elimination
It’s not uncommon to hear that the “secret” to creating a winning
proposal is to focus on avoiding elimination from the competition. The reasoning is
that many proposal evaluations are a process of elimination, not selection. So, the logic goes, the
proposal that’s the toughest to eliminate will win in a war of attrition.
Only a careless professional ignores the factors that might cause
elimination from a proposal opportunity. But elevating the desire to avoid a loss
above the drive to win can lead to needlessly conservative thinking and an aversion
to calculated risks that many clients expect their service providers to take.
Of course, you have to comply with the client’s requirements, submit the
proposal on time, and write from the client’s point of view. Fail in any of these
areas and you’ll be eliminated from the running, and rightfully so.
But, if you adopt a loss-avoidance mindset, you’re just as likely
to avoid a win.
Many clients initially weed out the weakest contenders for obvious reasons like lack
of qualifications. Maybe you can engineer your qualifications to appear loss-proof,
but it’s going to take most clients a nanosecond to uncover the truly qualified firms.
A loss-avoidance strategy is unlikely to help any firm over those initial hurdles.
We’d all like to create proposals that clients can’t refuse.
Give yourself the best chance of doing that by focusing on what it takes to win, not
on how to avoid a loss.
Myth 3: Your Proposal Is Just an Agreement
Nothing is nicer than meeting with a client to discuss a previously-agreed-upon project. You and the client
are in sync with the what, why, and how of the project, and both just need to
sign on the dotted line to get the work started. In such cases, a proposal can serve as a basic
agreement between two parties.
But a sales proposal can and must be more versatile to help professionals in today’s market.
When you reduce a proposal to a simple contractual instrument, you short-circuit its potential
marketing power.
| "In some public companies, the skinny letter proposal died back in the days of the three-martini lunch." |
Proposals are often reviewed by a wide group of client decision makers, including some who
may have no knowledge of your practice. Your proposal serves your interests by
communicating your innovative solution to the client’s problem, and
introducing your
business to those who should know more before deciding to hire you. It’s wishful
thinking to expect that you will always get the chance to meet every client decision maker.
For better or worse, a proposal takes on a life of its own after you hand it over to the client.
That document can travel to the far reaches of an organization, leaving lasting impressions
along the way. More than one consultant has won work because of the viral power of a
previous proposal. Leave out essential elements in a proposal—like your customized
resume or qualifications—and future readers miss the opportunity to learn about you.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s bad practice to send reams of paper when a client wants
a stripped down proposal. But don’t sacrifice future opportunities, even if you think the
current project is in the bag.
In most cases, you simply can’t treat a proposal as an agreement. A competitive proposal review process is more common today than the office cubicle, and it’s showing few signs of retreating.
Clients and consultants use sales proposals for many purposes—to hammer
out project scope, demonstrate qualifications, negotiate fees, and compare one firm to another.
In some public companies, the skinny letter proposal died back in the days of the three-martini lunch.
Few tools have the power of a well-conceived sales proposal. So think expansively, not narrowly,
about the range of uses for your proposal.
If someone told you that the only way get to the other side of an icy pond was to skate across,
you might think that sounded reasonable and lace up your skates. But what if you could safely go
around or you could get help? If you think there’s an alternative, you’re probably right.
Consultants get paid to be curious and should have an insatiable desire to question even answers that seem, on the surface, to be correct. So before you write that next proposal,
ask yourself if the rules and assumptions you’ve been using are really serving you and
your clients. Is there another way? You’ll probably find a different approach, and be
right about that too.
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