Page 130 - Writing Winning Business Proposals

Identifying, Selecting, and Developing Themes 121

about them. This fact has two ramifications. First, you cannot fill out Cell 4 for the
evaluation criteria; second, because your counters to the competition (as well as
your analysis of your and the competitors’ teams) need to be articulated in relation
to those criteria, you must consider suspect everything you list on Cell 5 for the
competition. Because you haven’t identified the evaluation criteria, you could be at
a significant competitive disadvantage, especially since ABC has had good experi-
ence with one or more of your competitors.
It occurs to you that if a consultant-selection committee hasn’t identified evaluation
criteria, a consultant has the opportunity to “help” the buyers identify those criteria. This
is a win-win situation. The buyers win because they will have evaluation criteria that
they can apply during their evaluation of the proposals. You win because you can influ-
ence the buyers so that the criteria are favorable to you—or at least not unfavorable.
Your completed (uncompleted, really) Cell 4 is shown in Figure 7.8. It contains
a global red flag for the lack of evaluation criteria, as well as additional red flags
for other information about which you haven’t a clue: ABC’s budget for this study
and the process in which it will engage to select a consultant. Both these items, you
believe, are crucial. ABC might very well have a budget for this study, and if you
bid beyond it, you could trigger another economic buyer, probably at Consolidated,

Psychologics Worksheet Cell 4
Evaluation Process/Criteria “What process/criteria will the buying committee use, collectively?”
“What is the prospect’s budget for this project?” Unknown red

“How will the selection decision be made?” Unknown red

“What collective evaluation criteria will be used?” Knockout Relative Weighting

1
2
red
3

4
5

100%

he evalua
eria, analyz
tion crit
ed
T
GU
I
F FIGURE 7.8 The evaluation criteria, analyzed
.8
7
RE