Page 229 - Writing Winning Business Proposals

220 Writing Winning Business Proposals

based arrangement. Using return-on-investment (ROI) pricing, your fees could
be a percentage, over some number of years, of my organization’s increased
savings or sales or whatever measurable result is defined in your proposal. In
this case, your fees probably will be some multiple of a rate-based price (e.g.,
1.5 to 3.0+), though they are certainly contingent on our actually achieving
the results you promise. With ROI pricing, of course, you should be very care-
ful about how our actual achieved results are measured. You might even want
to involve your and our legal people and get their buy-in to the arrangement.
To paraphrase Robert Frost, “Good fences [and agreed-to accounting proce-
dures] make good neighbors.” But by all means, worry more about scoring
than scorekeeping.

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One final word: Don’t be offended by questions we might ask about how your
pricing was determined. When we ask a serious question, we appreciate an hon-
est answer. (Always remember that our questions might be a test of your ability
to interact with us.) We might ask about your daily billing rates, expenses, terms
of payments, and guarantees. We know that purchasing qualified professional
services is expensive. We know that we wouldn’t have solicited your help if we
believed we could complete the project successfully ourselves. So we believe (we
hope) that outside help will be beneficial. But as an outsider, you must be viewed
as someone we can trust and work with well during the project and, quite possi-
bly, beyond. Your goal is an ongoing, long-term, mutually beneficial relationship.
So is ours. Use your pricing strategy as another opportunity to build a stron-
ger relationship with us. With this relationship and your great project work, we
receive the benefits of a successful project; you receive a fair return for conduct-
ing it, as well as the opportunity for continuing work.
Together, we both win.