Overview
Achieving success in the current business environment requires a skillful balance between the cost of making a sale and the profit that the sale may bring. If an organisation is only winning one in five of its bids, the profit from a sale also has to cover the cost of those four unsuccessful bids.

The key to success is writing winning technical proposals and proper bid management. This means only pursuing winnable opportunities and, more importantly, only winning profitable business.

Programme Objectives
Discover how to write a successful proposal using proven techniques and structures for success, how to uncover buyers' needs and persuade through quantifying financial benefits, and convincingly demonstrate your solution.

Who Should Attend?
This course will benefit everyone involved in preparing proposals: bid managers, members of bid team, members of sales team, and project managers.

Training Methodology
Training will involve a high level of interaction and delegate participation. The intention is that the trainer will explain issues, using real examples.
There will also be opportunities to discuss examples of different types of proposals, and appropriate styles. Delegates are encouraged to bring real examples with them, for discussion on a confidential basis, and to share their experience of particular issues in their company or industry. Time will be allowed for general discussions, and for one-to-one discussion with the trainer.

Benefits to Your Organisation

• Improve the quality of technical proposals
• Increase the ratio of proposals submitted to tenders won
• Reduce the number of errors in proposals and increase profit margin

Benefits to You

• Improve your ability to write proposals
• Improve your ability to manage bids
• Reduce the amount of frantic “all nighters” to get proposals out the door

Competencies Emphasized

• Understand the importance of qualification as a means to improve win ratio by only chasing winnable business
• Know how to eliminate bad business - by only chasing business that is profitable
• Put Bid Management in the context of the prospect's procurement processes
• Understand how tenders can be won even before the Invitation to Tender is issued
• Know how best to respond to procurement documents in order to maximize the chances of winning

Programme Outline
Day 1 

Finding and creating opportunities
Know your client
Client’s needs identification
Target organizations
Use of SWOT analysis and competitor evaluation tools  
Tenders and RFPs 

Qualification and bid/no-bid decisions 
Costs of gaining business
Is the opportunity right?
What is the competition doing?
The need to qualify leads

Capture planning...business development strategy 
The strategy required to win a piece of work
Why do you need it?
Making a plan for each target organisation
Win themes
Customer Relationship Management

Business proposal planning ... managing your bid
Comparison of sales people and project managers
Use of proposal centers and bid teams
Check all the requirements of the RFP or tender documentation
Putting a project plan together
The Bid Management Plan
 Allocating ownership of the different proposal sections
Allowing enough time for review
Preparing multiple proposals

 

Day 2 

The anatomy of a proposal ... what to include in your bid?
Every proposal is different
Following the RFP or ITT
What to include in a proposal

Killer Executive Summary 
Structure of an Executive Summary
Our understanding of the requirements 
Why you?
Call to action

Scope of required work
Where to locate it?
Matching the buyer’s requirements
Being clear on what the buyer needs

Presenting the solution
The "sales document" part of the proposal
Structure depends on product or service being provided
Solving the client’s business needs
The win theme

Table of compliance
Usefulness of a table of compliance
Ensuring compliance
Non-compliant and submitting?

Day 3 

Telling the story of your solution
Three parts of story telling
Providing evidential anecdotes

Project plans and schedules
The importance of a schedule
Activities, Milestones and Deliverables
Creating a project schedule

Costs, budgets and price
What is included and what it is going to cost
Breaking down the pricing
Pricing options
Return on investment
Invoicing schedule
Budget assumptions
Estimated expenses
Start calculating costs early

The project team
Selling your team
The organisation chart
The role of the team and the benefits they bring
Using examples and testimonials

Day 4 

Company profile and information
Demonstrating relevant experience
Including recommendations from previous clients
Demonstrating knowledge and experience from previous work with the client
Company overview
Project management methodology
Quality assurance

Persuasive writing in your business proposal 
Providing factual information that will convince and persuade the client
SPIN (situation, problem, implications, and needs-payoff questions)
“This will benefit you because…”

Preparing boilerplate content that persuades 
Using generic content (but be sure it's appropriate)
Re-use where possible
Create where it's not possible
Re-write as appropriate

Creating Customer Value in Your Proposals 
Features, advantages and benefits
Demonstrate value
Highlight benefits to the client
The value proposition

Proposal power words

Day 5 

Win theme statements 
Developing win theme statements
Specific, targeted and credible
Quantifiable
Making sure it's noticed

Proposal Graphics
Enhancing the persuasiveness of presentations
Using colour

Reviewing the Proposal
"If we only had more time...”
Red Team reviews / peer review

Proposal Production
Professional appearance counts
Getting it in on time
Proof Reading
Printing 
Binding
Packaging
Getting It There