Celerity Works

Proposals that sing

A proposal without themes is like a song without lyrics

Adapted from Winning and Managing Government Business

I'm often shocked to discover how many companies respond to a request for proposal (RFP) by just beginning to write without much forethought or planning. This approach works for only the simplest of proposals.

After the initial kickoff meeting and the development of a detailed proposal outline that is compliant with the RFP, it is the responsibility of the proposal development team to create the first high-level draft of the proposal. Some organizations first prepare a graphical representation of the proposal. This is called storyboard development (first used by Disney to lay-out cartoons and movies).

A storyboard is a convenient way to distill the essence of a presentation down to a thematic sentence, supporting sentences and an illustration. It also provides clear guidance to the proposal writers. Other companies prefer to do this as a detailed proposal outline with thematic sentences. The downside to this approach is that the necessary graphics are often neglected so there is insufficient time later in the proposal lifecycle to develop them.

The proposal manager together with the key technical contributors prepare storyboards for each section down to whatever level is required (i.e., section or subsection). For short turnaround proposals, this process should take no more than two (2) days, depending on the turnaround time of the entire proposal effort.

One of the most important but neglected aspects of a proposal effort is the development and incorporation of themes. Themes make inferior approaches obvious, drive us to more superior approaches and force us to relate features to benefits.

Themes are:

• Substantiated sales message, point of emphasis, advantage, unique or superior benefit or supported claim/discriminator

• Woven throughout the proposal including the cover letter and cover graphic to unify and focus the entire presentation

• Direct; they address program issues or customer concerns and are supportable with concrete evidence

• A tool to incorporate your strengths and the competition's weaknesses

• Responsive to an RFP Section L, proposal requirements and Section M, evaluation criteria

The best themes are also discriminators. They are:

• Non-trivial in the customer's eyes
• Unique to the company or team
• Believable and easily defendable
• Not possible for the competitors
• Clearly identified and substantiated in the proposal

Some typical top-level themes are:

• Low risk
• Our company can save you time and/or money
• Our company can increase system performance
• Best value
• Technical excellence
• Technology application
• Innovation
• Fresh look
• Superior past performance
• Customer knowledge
• End-user knowledge
• Program insight
• System infrastructure insight
• Managing change
• Quality
• Corporate commitment
• Cost savings
• Business process engineering
• Done this for you before or for someone else
• Detailed understanding of elements of success required to meet all major milestones
• Disciplined step by step processes
• Low risk approach
• Customer confidence in our people
• Time saved or money on similar programs
• Evidence of continued improvement

Some examples of technical themes are:

• How well our company understands their requirements
• What our company proposes to do - our innovative approach is based on (insert unique methodology or toolset)
• How our company proposes to do it
• Disciplined, step by step processes (illustrate them)
• Application of technology and automated tools
• Specialized software
• Broad experience with hardware and software
• Quality assurance methodology

Some examples of management themes are:

• Corporate commitment
• Organizational design and rationale including client interface
• Top level project visibility
• Access to top management
• Organizational efficiency (span of control, task management and role of teammates)
• Project team qualifications
• Prime contractor management and subcontractor management performance
• The project manager
• Key managers
• Financial control methods and track record
• Management experience with similar scope of work

Some examples of personnel themes are:

• Collective qualifications
• Total person-years related experience
• Mix of degrees
• Quantified specialized skill/experience
• Total size of team employee work force
• Project manager and key people
• Individual commitment
• Retention rates
• Attractive benefit programs

Some examples of past performance themes are:

• Overall corporate experience
• Years in business
• Total number of contracts performed
• Total number of relevant contracts
• Total number person years relevant experience
• Performance record
• Service is our only business
• Past experience with this client
• Quotes from customers
• Reliability
• Number/types of deliverables
• Lessons learned
• Transition experience
• No learning curve
• Fresh ideas
• Breadth of experience