Creating Win Strategies and Themes
When responding to an RFP with lots of requirements, it's easy to lose track of your message. Win strategies and themes are how your message makes it into the document. They are the difference between a proposal that is descriptive and a proposal that is persausive. Themes are how you sell in writing. But to present an effective message and develop your theme statements, you first have to plan the right strategies for winning.
What Are Proposal Themes and Why Are They Important? When you think about it, proposal writing is really about telling a story. A story about how your solutions to problems are better than your competitors' in ways that really matter to your customers. All too often, the story is written by authors who are responsible for different chapters with no clear idea of the setting, the characters, the ending, or even the moral of the story. When the proposal manager puts all of the chapters together for the first time (Pink Team) it's no wonder that the feedback is all too predictable – "solutions not clearly articulated", "claims are unsubstantiated", "compelling themes and discriminators are either hidden or missing".
What is a Theme?
What's a "Win Theme?"
What's a Proposal Theme?
Why are Themes Important?
What is a Theme?
What's a "Win Theme?"
What's a Proposal Theme?
Why are Themes Important?
The Real Reason You Have Trouble Identifying Winning Proposal Themes A good bid/no bid system leads you to your win strategies. An ineffective bid/no bid system leads to bidding without a competitive advantage. If you are:
Struggling to identify your win strategies Having trouble identifying themes to emphasize in your proposal Unable to discriminate yourself from the competition Hopeful instead of confident The real problem may be what you are bidding instead of how you are bidding it. You should examine your bid/no bid system instead of just treating the symptoms.
When you select your opportunities based on your strengths and correspondence with your company's strategic goals, then your win strategies and competitive positioning flow naturally.
When you bid opportunities simply because you discover that the client is accepting proposals from anyone, it is far less clear how to position your company to win. It is even more difficult when the RFP tells you what to propose, and because the award is price sensitive you are afraid to go beyond the minimum needed to fulfill the requirements. You are left with no clear way to discriminate yourself from the competition and no competitive advantage.
This is not necessarily a failure in your ability to devise win strategies, position yourself against the competition, or write theme statements. The way to correct it may be to reexamine your bid/no bid system. If your only consideration is whether you can do the work required, then your bid/no bid system is broken. Among other things, you need to give weight to how well an opportunity reflects your corporate strategies, core capabilities, strengths, and whether you have any competitive advantages before you commit to bidding it.
This is how a good bid/no bid system results in a higher win rate. It's not simply that being more selective means you only bid opportunities that you have a good shot at winning. It's that the selection process points you to the win strategies that will enable you to write winning proposals.
Consistently winning proposals isn't about somehow finding a clever way to present yourself so that you stand out, when in reality there is nothing special about you. Consistently winning proposals comes from having a story to tell that the customer wants to be a part of. That story will position you against your competition and include your win strategies. By only bidding opportunities that relate to your corporate strategies and where you have a competitive advantage, you start the proposal already knowing what story you need to tell. The rest is just follow-through.
Some of the approaches for enhancing your bid/no bid system include gate reviews and point scoring. The above gives you another option: Do you have a story to tell and is it compelling? If you can't articulate a good story, you can’t write a winning proposal and therefore you shouldn’t bid. You shouldn’t bid if all you can do is hope that someone figures out a clever way to make you sound like you’re not ordinary or maybe you'll get lucky and win on price. Sure you could get lucky and win, but wouldn’t you be better off putting your effort into winning opportunities where you can articulate a competitive advantage?
Struggling to identify your win strategies Having trouble identifying themes to emphasize in your proposal Unable to discriminate yourself from the competition Hopeful instead of confident The real problem may be what you are bidding instead of how you are bidding it. You should examine your bid/no bid system instead of just treating the symptoms.
When you select your opportunities based on your strengths and correspondence with your company's strategic goals, then your win strategies and competitive positioning flow naturally.
When you bid opportunities simply because you discover that the client is accepting proposals from anyone, it is far less clear how to position your company to win. It is even more difficult when the RFP tells you what to propose, and because the award is price sensitive you are afraid to go beyond the minimum needed to fulfill the requirements. You are left with no clear way to discriminate yourself from the competition and no competitive advantage.
This is not necessarily a failure in your ability to devise win strategies, position yourself against the competition, or write theme statements. The way to correct it may be to reexamine your bid/no bid system. If your only consideration is whether you can do the work required, then your bid/no bid system is broken. Among other things, you need to give weight to how well an opportunity reflects your corporate strategies, core capabilities, strengths, and whether you have any competitive advantages before you commit to bidding it.
This is how a good bid/no bid system results in a higher win rate. It's not simply that being more selective means you only bid opportunities that you have a good shot at winning. It's that the selection process points you to the win strategies that will enable you to write winning proposals.
Consistently winning proposals isn't about somehow finding a clever way to present yourself so that you stand out, when in reality there is nothing special about you. Consistently winning proposals comes from having a story to tell that the customer wants to be a part of. That story will position you against your competition and include your win strategies. By only bidding opportunities that relate to your corporate strategies and where you have a competitive advantage, you start the proposal already knowing what story you need to tell. The rest is just follow-through.
Some of the approaches for enhancing your bid/no bid system include gate reviews and point scoring. The above gives you another option: Do you have a story to tell and is it compelling? If you can't articulate a good story, you can’t write a winning proposal and therefore you shouldn’t bid. You shouldn’t bid if all you can do is hope that someone figures out a clever way to make you sound like you’re not ordinary or maybe you'll get lucky and win on price. Sure you could get lucky and win, but wouldn’t you be better off putting your effort into winning opportunities where you can articulate a competitive advantage?
10 Win Strategies Based on Two Different Kinds of Proposals Sometimes the customer tells you exactly what to bid. Other times, they tell you what the problem or need is and ask you to propose a solution.
When they tell you what to bid, everybody is bidding the same thing. To establish a better value you must either:
Offer more than what they asked for. If you focus on the deliverables, this can be challenging, because delivering more usually means incurring higher costs. And when everyone is bidding the same thing, cost gets a lot more attention. The trick is to identify things that you would either do anyway, or can do without adding cost. Provide a better way for them to get what they asked for. Better delivery terms, quality assurance, risk mitigation, faster delivery, training, and better maintenance are all examples of ways to add value. It’s not about you. If the customer can get what they want from anyone, then who cares about the company providing it? It doesn’t matter unless you make it matter, but it’s got to matter to them. Be more credible and trustworthy. You want the customer to believe they have a better chance of actually getting what they want from you. People buy from businesses they trust. A performance history, references, demonstrations, samples, insurance, back-up and risk mitigation plans, transparency, real-time reporting, availability, guarantees, and clear, un-evasive speech/writing are all things that can reinforce trust. Better proposal writing. When everybody is bidding the same thing, the way you describe and position yourself matters a whole lot more. Once you’ve established credibility and trust, it’s important to tell the right story. If they can get what they are asking for from anyone, why would they want to get it from you? If everybody is offering the same thing, then outside of the price all they have to impact their decision is your proposal. So what kind of story does it tell? But what about when the customer is leaving it up to you to figure out what to propose, they just want their needs met or their problem solved? Then they don’t have the same points of comparison. So it all becomes about whether they want what you are offering.
Teach them what matters. They have to figure out how to compare apples and oranges. Instead of leaving it to them to figure out, you can help them by pointing out what matters. And if in your proposal they see the company with the best understanding of what matters, that’s a definite plus. The customer will first compare you against what they want. Before they consider how your proposal compares to the competition, and before they consider how well your proposal is presented, they ask whether what you are offering will meet their needs. If you are proposing a solution, the company with the best understanding of what the customer wants has a significant advantage. It is critical to resolve issues and tradeoffs like long-term vs. short-term, quality/speed/price, centralized vs. decentralized, etc., the same way the customer would. So how well do you know their preferences? Risk mitigation rules. They are placing a lot of trust in you when they don’t specify what to bid. How do they know that what you are proposing will work, meet their needs, and get delivered on time and on budget? Trust is a lot more important as well. But they really need to know that you’ve thought it through, have anticipated the challenges, and are going to be able to overcome them. What are they actually going to get? They’ve asked you to figure it out. Now they have to pick between proposals that are all different. So they want to look past the intangibles and focus on what they are actually going to get so they have something to compare. When they look at your proposal, how long does it take them to figure out what they are going to get? It’s all about the results. They’ve asked for a solution, so where does yours get them? This is where your ability to tell your story really matters. If they pick you, where will they end up? What will that future look like? Will it get them excited? The company that understands them will tell the right story. The company that says they understand but doesn’t paint the right picture for the future really doesn’t understand them at all. The two lists above are very different. There are common elements in both, but with very different points of emphasis. More importantly, they two lists imply different strategies that result in different proposals. So what is your customer trying to achieve, and how does that impact your strategies? And what do you need to do to help them along with their selection?
When they tell you what to bid, everybody is bidding the same thing. To establish a better value you must either:
Offer more than what they asked for. If you focus on the deliverables, this can be challenging, because delivering more usually means incurring higher costs. And when everyone is bidding the same thing, cost gets a lot more attention. The trick is to identify things that you would either do anyway, or can do without adding cost. Provide a better way for them to get what they asked for. Better delivery terms, quality assurance, risk mitigation, faster delivery, training, and better maintenance are all examples of ways to add value. It’s not about you. If the customer can get what they want from anyone, then who cares about the company providing it? It doesn’t matter unless you make it matter, but it’s got to matter to them. Be more credible and trustworthy. You want the customer to believe they have a better chance of actually getting what they want from you. People buy from businesses they trust. A performance history, references, demonstrations, samples, insurance, back-up and risk mitigation plans, transparency, real-time reporting, availability, guarantees, and clear, un-evasive speech/writing are all things that can reinforce trust. Better proposal writing. When everybody is bidding the same thing, the way you describe and position yourself matters a whole lot more. Once you’ve established credibility and trust, it’s important to tell the right story. If they can get what they are asking for from anyone, why would they want to get it from you? If everybody is offering the same thing, then outside of the price all they have to impact their decision is your proposal. So what kind of story does it tell? But what about when the customer is leaving it up to you to figure out what to propose, they just want their needs met or their problem solved? Then they don’t have the same points of comparison. So it all becomes about whether they want what you are offering.
Teach them what matters. They have to figure out how to compare apples and oranges. Instead of leaving it to them to figure out, you can help them by pointing out what matters. And if in your proposal they see the company with the best understanding of what matters, that’s a definite plus. The customer will first compare you against what they want. Before they consider how your proposal compares to the competition, and before they consider how well your proposal is presented, they ask whether what you are offering will meet their needs. If you are proposing a solution, the company with the best understanding of what the customer wants has a significant advantage. It is critical to resolve issues and tradeoffs like long-term vs. short-term, quality/speed/price, centralized vs. decentralized, etc., the same way the customer would. So how well do you know their preferences? Risk mitigation rules. They are placing a lot of trust in you when they don’t specify what to bid. How do they know that what you are proposing will work, meet their needs, and get delivered on time and on budget? Trust is a lot more important as well. But they really need to know that you’ve thought it through, have anticipated the challenges, and are going to be able to overcome them. What are they actually going to get? They’ve asked you to figure it out. Now they have to pick between proposals that are all different. So they want to look past the intangibles and focus on what they are actually going to get so they have something to compare. When they look at your proposal, how long does it take them to figure out what they are going to get? It’s all about the results. They’ve asked for a solution, so where does yours get them? This is where your ability to tell your story really matters. If they pick you, where will they end up? What will that future look like? Will it get them excited? The company that understands them will tell the right story. The company that says they understand but doesn’t paint the right picture for the future really doesn’t understand them at all. The two lists above are very different. There are common elements in both, but with very different points of emphasis. More importantly, they two lists imply different strategies that result in different proposals. So what is your customer trying to achieve, and how does that impact your strategies? And what do you need to do to help them along with their selection?