THE VALUE OF YOUR PROPOSAL
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. 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 for sometime now, 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 lay back 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.

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