Page 131 - Writing Winning Business Proposals

122 Writing Winning Business Proposals

thereby introducing another buyer into the equation, of whom you would be com-
pletely unaware. That process could be one part of ABC’s decision-making efforts to
select a consultant, another crucial element about which you’re uncertain. You know
very well that a coach could help you with both of these key elements of the proposal-
development process. You’re becoming increasingly aware that having a coach (or,
ideally, coaches) is much more important than you had anticipated.

Analyzing the Competition

At the end of your initial meeting with ABC, Gilmore asked which other consulting
firms were likely to bid on the project. Anil Gupta named three competitors. One
is a firm similar to your own, with similar capabilities, against whom Paramount
has competed numerous times. The other two are local companies specializing
in facilities planning, plant layout, materials handling, and productivity improve-
ment. In fact, ABC used one of those consultants several years earlier to help solve
a materials-handling problem.
Your task is threefold: first, to understand these competitors’ strengths and weak-
nesses relative to those of Paramount; second, to determine Paramount’s strengths
and weaknesses relative to the competition’s; and third, to determine how you can
leverage your own strengths and exploit each competitor’s weaknesses. Of course,
you also want to put yourself in your competitors’ shoes and think about how they
might exploit your weaknesses. To help you complete this task, you turn to Cell 5
to analyze the competition (Figure 7.9), and following are some of your thoughts
as you do so.
Gilmore knows the capabilities of your major competitor all too well. Paramount
has competed against it with lackluster results. Once Paramount won, three times
it lost, and, on one occasion, Paramount and the competitor both lost to a third
firm. Because this competitor’s capabilities are every bit as diverse and strong as
Paramount’s, you believe it’s important to have much more intelligence about it.
On the project Paramount won, for example, did the client make available this
competitor’s proposal? If so, what did the proposal contain, and what can you learn
from it? On the studies Paramount lost, was Gilmore able to find out not only why
Paramount lost but also why this competitor won? In all these situations, did the
proposal-evaluation committees use evaluation sheets or circulate memos or oth-
erwise keep records of their deliberations, and if so, did Gilmore request access to
those documents? If he did not get insight at the time, can he get it now? Have there
been other instances when your firm (but not Gilmore specifically) bid against this
competitor on similar kinds of studies, and if so, what lessons were learned?
At this point, you wonder if your firm even has a “lessons learned” process, an
established procedure for answering questions such as the preceding and a data-
base containing the answers. You decide to discuss this issue with Gilmore.