Page 185 - Writing Winning Business Proposals

176 Writing Winning Business Proposals

practice) that letter proposals contain signature blocks at the end of the document,
prefaced by a sentence such as “If you agree with the terms as set forth in this pro-
posal, please sign in the appropriate space and forward one copy to. . . .” Required
even in competitive situations, this procedure views the proposal as a final product
rather than as a negotiating tool—one more possible stage in the proposal process
to help you get closer to what then could be your best and final offer to me.
In many situations, of course, the proposal is your best and final offer because
I won’t allow you any other. But in other situations, the proposal-as-final-offer
strategy can be most unstrategic, because your document’s sales objective is not
always to win but to get you one step closer to what can become a “done deal.”
That is, sometimes your immediate sales objective is to get to the next stage, the
better to sell at the next level or the better to continue to try to sell at the same level.
For example, assume that you don’t have access to the economic buyer. In that situa-
tion, the strategy could be to write a document whose sales objective is not to close the
deal but to get buy-in from the technical and user buyers, who then, in effect, become
part of your team. At that point, they can coach you to meet the new sales objective,
which would be to work together to sell to the economic buyer. The new document or
presentation could then be specifically tailored to meet the new sales objective.
Even if you have access to all the buyers, you can profitably choose to view the
written proposal or oral presentation as a discussion document. Indeed, many expe-
rienced consultants try not to include fees in the written proposal. They label it a
“discussion document” so that they can meet with me and my team to hammer
out the methodology and our level of involvement; agree on the deliverables; and,
of course, establish the trust and chemistry necessary for us to say “yes” with con-
fidence. If by the end of that meeting, they haven’t yet sold the work, they’re at least
closer, and they know even more about me, my team, and my organization’s prob-
lem or opportunity. Their proposal and our relationship will be better because of it.
On some (certainly less frequent) occasions, the objective isn’t to sell on any level
at all but simply to get into the game so that you can play the next time around. A
friend of mine, an environmental consultant, decided to play on these terms. He
did not originally receive a request for proposal (RFP) from a Canadian govern-
mental agency because the agency wasn’t aware that his firm did environmental
consulting. After finding out about the opportunity through the Internet, however,
he asked for and received permission to bid, and did so, even though a dozen other
competitors were involved and the job probably was wired to begin with. His sales
objective was not to win but to prequalify for future work. His document functioned
less like a proposal and more like a response to an RFQ (request for qualifications).
In the work session of this chapter, you’ll get a good sense for the level of per-
suasiveness needed and, therefore, how many of the P-slots need to be filled. You’ll
begin to see how the Russian dolls fit together, the better to view your handiwork
and craftsmanship.