THE WORTH OF YOUR PROPOSAL- What decision Makers look out for.

Acer Aspire AS5251-1805 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)Toshiba Satellite L645D-S4036 LED TruBrite 14-Inch Laptop (Black)In my last article I made mention of the fact (although briefly) that a lot of the times, most proposals are rejected on the basis that they are perceived as cloned proposals. What you should add to that however is that, that is only used some of the times as a pre-screening edge. Once you are able to scale this hurdle, you face the other criteria used by decision makers in the choice of which consultant/group has the advantage over the others. 

A result of recent researches published by Oxford University Press in 2000 and called Simple Heuristics that Make Us Smart has documented for the first time, how people actually make decisions. An interdisciplinary team, based at the Max Planck Institute for human development (Berlin and Munich) and the University of Chicago published the results of extensive inquiries into the methods people use for making decisions quickly, based on Minimal amount of information.

It was discovered from these researches that these simple heuristics are the same set of decision making strategies we’ve always used since childhood, during “multiple option” examinations in our schooling years, in our personal lives and also in business. They are hard wired into our brains and also a part of our evolutionary survival package. The same decision strategies were the ones that helped our ancestors, though they never had so much survival gadgets as we do today, yet they still had to make crucial choices that helped them survive.

To determine whether people use these techniques in making Proposal related business decisions, World Renowned Consultant Tom Sant Conducted experiments for over a year in which he distributed a proposal for internet security services to groups of business professionals where he asked them to evaluate the proposal, noting the time it took them to reach a decision either for or against the offer being made in the proposal. 

To be able to properly organize our proposal for acceptance, we must get into the mind of the decision-makers. Whether you are making a 4 page service proposition or a 125 page response to an RFP, these factors should be taken into proper consideration and I shall delve into them more extensively next week.Panasonic KX-TG6545B DECT 6.0 PLUS Expandable Digital Cordless Answering System with 5 HandsetsVtech CS6219-2 DECT 6.0 Expandable 2-Handset Cordless Phone System with Caller ID and Handset Speakerphone (CS6219-2)

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WINNING A CONTRACT- The Worth of your Proposals

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Most professionals hate writing in general and proposals in particular which makes it bad because it’s actually very hard to do something well if you hate it. Some of the very best account executives, program managers, engineers, designers and business owners that I have met cringe at the thought of having to put their thoughts on paper.
So they have this brilliant idea that will be a solution to a prospective client, or they actually have all it takes to win an RFP(Request for proposals). What should be next of course is to put their thoughts on paper, and they start to fidget and quickly they start to look out for ways to escape the task the most popular of which is what I call Proposal cloning.
Working as a Content Administrator with the National bureau of statistics, I have seen a lot of cloned proposals. What you as a consultant, do not know is the fact that Cloned proposals (where you tend to grab an electronic copy of somebody else’s proposal, go ahead to change the client’s name to that of the new prospect and then fires it off to the organization that called for an RFP) are the very first we tend to throw out of the pack or are quick to delete out of our inbox.
So you lay back and ask why my proposition is not attended to. Or you sit day after day in your office and expect the phone to ring at anytime with the call for a presentation then ask when they take too long, why haven’t they responded to our proposal?
Another approach is the “Detailed garbage” approach. The author puts together a string of case studies, documentation, product slicks among others in a bid to impress the client and sends it off painting a message that says “whatever you really need out of all these, you can layback and sort it out that is your problem!” Please note, Customers don’t want bulk, they don’t want IRRELEVANT details. And they don’t want to do more work than is necessary to get your drift.

Writing a contract winning proposal could prove to be a lot of work. I see people wince, at the thought of having to put together a lot of details that may even look tiresome. You need to bring your business side plus your psychological insights, your communication skills, and your creativity together in one package.

The value of your proposal is laden in the fact that it is the only means you have of communicating to the highest levels of your client’s organization. It represents your ideas, your product and services, and your company to these people. By creating a powerful tailor-made proposal, you cast a larger shadow. You may be tempted to ask, why do I need all these carefulness when I could easily clone another proposal or get a boilerplate? The gist is, you never know where it’ll end up! Will it be read by the Manager, the CEO, or by a committee of evaluators?
So if you think you are not up to it yourself, why not get another professional to help you out? Because writing a proposal is often the most truly professional thing you do.Anatomy of a Business Plan: The Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Business and Securing Your Company's Future250-cards 2x3.5 White Inkjet Business CardsAvery Printable Two-Side Clean-Edge Business Cards for Laser Printers, White, Pack of 200 (05871)