A winning proposal must be written in the voice of the customer. The only way to write in the voice of the customer is to meet with and sell your product or solution well in advance of the issuance of the Request for Proposal (RFP).
During pre-RFP sales meetings, you, as the company's representative must learn about the customer's specific requirements and why the requirements exist. Document the customer's desires, perceived solutions, fears, hopes, concerns, and biases. Find out what approaches to resolving the problem or need the customer perceives as cost-effective and why. Ask questions like:
- What makes this requirement so important to the customer?
- What are the limitations to achieving the optimum possible solution including personnel, hardware, software, budget dollars, etc?
- What organizational constraints might hamper achieving a solution?
- What standards, policies, and procedures are in place that will constrain achieving the desired solution?
- What objectives should the proposed solution meet, and precisely what features and benefits is the customer looking for?
- Being able to answer questions like these enables you to write a proposal as if you are a part of the customer's organization. Your proposal will stand out from others because you have a better understanding of the problem and are able to present a more specific solution than your competition.
For example, in presenting a solution to a network security problem, you would be able to say:
- Agency XYZ has experienced outside network intrusions of the following types:
- List types of intrusion, frequency, severity, etc.
- To combat these problems, our company has implemented the following solutions. Some of these solutions have not been effective for the following reasons:
- List solutions and reasons for ineffectiveness
- XYZ operates under ______, ________, and _______(list constraints). These hardware/software constraints and agency-wide standards govern possible solutions to the network intrusions.
Your company is then able to present solutions and describe why it is uniquely and specifically able to address the customer's needs. The ability to understand and clearly articulate what a customer wants in an RFP will not only distinguish your company from the competition; it will make your company look like the only choice available to provide what the customer wants.
