http://ezinearticles.com/?How-Do-Your-Proposals-Rate?&id=558937 – May 14, 2007

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Compete-In-a-Cost-Sensitive-Market&id=575494 – May 23, 2007

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-To-Stand-Out-Head-And-Shoulders-Above-Your-Competition&id=575499 – May 23, 2007

http://ezinearticles.com/?Some-Important-Tips-On-Proposals-And-Price&id=548412 – May 03, 2007

http://ezinearticles.com/?23-Secrets-To-Win-More-Tenders&id=548417 – May 03, 2007

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Law-of-Fence-Jumping&id=586276 – May 31, 2007

http://ezinearticles.com/?Sales-Tools—Increase-Your-Chances-of-Getting-That-Sale&id=543145 – May 02, 2007

http://ezinearticles.com/?Know-Thy-Enemy&id=573915 – May 22, 2007

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-You-Can-Make-Prospects-Want-To-Do-Business-With-You&id=573918 – May 22, 2007

Links-

http://grants.library.wisc.edu/organizations/proposalwebsites.html

http://www.grantproposal.com/

http://www.cpb.org/grants/grantwriting.html

http://www.learnerassociates.net/proposal/

http://www.umass.edu/research/ogca/proceds/dev.htm

http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2004/nsf04016/start.htm

http://www.research.umich.edu/proposals/pwg/pwgcontents.HTML

http://www.wordsthatsell.com.au

Proposals and The Law of Fence Jumping

In a face-to-face sales presentation, prospects inevitably have certain objections or fears about buying a particular product or service, AND/OR about selecting the most qualified supplier.

A skilled salesperson is a master at overcoming these objections. The challenge is, when you write copy you don’t have the luxury of knowing how people are feeling about your sales message. With that, it’s important to overcome any objections in your copy, in advance, before they get to the end.

You see, as soon as someone starts reading your communications material that little voice inside their head becomes skeptical – skeptical of things like:

• the results promised
• not having enough equipment or tools to help them achieve their needs
• getting the order wrong
• always run out of stock
• no follow up service
• staff don’t know what they are talking about
• always miss appointments
• late delivery
• product doesn’t work
• poor quality finish
• never return phone calls
• always leave a mess behind
• make costly mistakes that cost clients money or inconvenience them
• suck in customers with false promises
• hide terms and conditions
• staff talk on the phone while you’re waiting to be served
• make hollow promises
• over promise and under deliver
• charge too much
• don’t have convenient payment terms
• no parking
• treat them like a number
• don’t understand their needs
• do a poor quality job
• never arrive on time
• product too hard to operate
• service is unreliable … and the list goes on.

There are a variety of ways you can overcome objections … the right solution depends on the type of copy you’re writing.

For instance, in a proposal document or an online sales letter you might have a “Frequently Asked Questions” section to address objections. In a proposal document you might also have a section entitled …

“xx Challenges Companies Face When Choosing a [service/product] Supplier”

OR

“xx Factors that Will Affect Your Results”

Then, next to each frustration or potential challenge explain what the potential impact is and then how your company ensures that won’t happen to them.

Here’s an example of how to wipe out a quality objection in a sales letter.

By now you may be thinking to yourself, ‘how can they offer such great quality for the price’?

Quite simple really …

Or, let’s say they are looking for a plumber and their perception is that plumbers are unreliable.

On-time … No waiting.

There’s nothing worse than taking half a day off work to wait for a tradie and they just don’t show up. Here at Perfect Plumbers we always give you an exact appointment time and if we ever run late we always call to let you know … always.

For more information on writing a Proposals that Sell make sure you check out our proposal writing templates.

The 6 W’s of Selling in Proposals

As with a verbal sales presentation, your written sales presentation should have a beginning, a middle and an end.

The beginning …. it addresses the prospect’s situation, thanks them for the opportunity and identifies with their specific needs.

Secondly, the middle includes all the selling information about your product/service and company and …

The end then builds the momentum, summarises the key selling points, and includes the “”move forward”" strategy along with an action plan and “”the next step”".

Make sense?

Before you sit down to write any sort of proposal, it’s vitally important that you address the 5 questions of selling and incorporate them into your document.

They are:

“”Who, What, When, Why, Where and How”" or more specifically:

1. WHO is your target market …

2. WHY do they need your product and your company?

3. WHAT are you selling and what are the benefits to the buyer?

4. HOW can you prove that your product or service fulfil their needs better than any other offer?

5. WHAT – What is the next step?

6. WHEN – When do they need to make a decision?

We show you how to address each of these steps in Proposals that Sell program. Click here for more details.

Proposal Writing Tips to Beat Your Competitors

Like it or not, there’s a very good chance that your proposal or tender document is up against some tough competition.

With that it makes sense to know who is likely to be bidding for the contract.

While most bidders have some sort of idea of who else is bidding, they spend very little time doing their homework.

Unfortunately, it’s this lack of investigation that brings many of them undone.

Instead, spending quality time investigating who is in the race and what their strengths and weaknesses are in relation to the selection criteria, will help give you an advantage.

Inside our “”Proposals and Tenders that Sell”" program we show you how to perform a competitor analysis that evaluates the major players on a number of factual criteria including longevity, guarantees, product/service features, size of staff, range of services etc.

What’s more, we also show you how to display this information in the most persuasive way possible. You also receive a number of templates that you can adapt to your own document.

To read more about the program just click here.

The Importance of Price in Proposal Writing

Most companies feel that price is the major issue when it comes to any competitive bidding situation.

Whilst price IS an important issue it isn’t the be-all-and-end-all. Far from it, in fact.

What is ever so more important is VALUE-FOR-MONEY.

In most situations a buyer doesn’t want the lowest price product or service.

They want to purchase your product or service because they have a need that they want fulfilled. They want to achieve a certain result.

Then, in achieving that result they want the highest ‘return-on-investment’ for the money they spend.

That’s where value for money comes in …

On several occasions we have gone into competitive bidding situations and we have been more expensive than all other competitors and we have won the contract.

The same goes for a number of clients we’ve helped.

The secret was being able to sell the results they were going to achieve.

So, does your proposal offer excellent value-for-money?

Here are some points that buyers feel are important when determining whether an offer offers great value for money.

a) After reading your document, the buyer perceives the potential return-on-investment is far greater than the price you have quoted.

b) AND … they perceive the value your company offers to be far greater than the value offered by OTHER bidders.

c) Your company offers a strong point-of-difference that differentiates you from other suppliers.

d) You have re-assuring risk management and or risk reversal mechanisms in place i.e. QA, guarantees etc.

As you can see, there’s a fair amount to consider to make sure your company comes across as:

• being the most credible;
• offering the best value-for-money;
• AND being compliant with the buyer’s needs.

Inside “”Proposals, Submissions and Tenders that Sell”" you’ll find a wealth of information on:

• how to sell your offer;
• how to position a higher price
• how to make your price seem lower than it really is;
• how to win a contract even if you’re more expensive than all other bidders;
• how to PROVE once-and-for-all that your company offers the BEST service and product;
• how to identify your point-of-difference or Unique Selling Proposition and how to sell that USP in the most benefit-oriented way;
• and much much more.

To read more about what “Proposals, Submissions and Tenders that Sell”" is about, click here.

How to Tell If Your Proposal Is Perceived To Be Credible

Notice how I used the word “perceived”. Well … like it or not, yours could be the most credible and experienced company bidding for the contract but if you do a poor job of selling your credibility, you may end up being seen as being less credible than your competitors.

Purchasing offers know that all potential suppliers are going to fluff up their documents so the company and the products they’re selling sound like they’re the best thing since sliced bread.

They know what you’ll be telling them how you have the best service, the best prices, how you’ve been in business forever and so on.

What you may not know is that they don’t believe half of what you say in your proposal or tender document.

So, what is credibility?

Credibility is different things to different people but as a whole it is when:

• You are perceived to be large enough to amply service the buyer’s needs; and
• You have a strong “proven” track record of efficiency and experience.
• It’s then about showing SOLID PROOF that backs up your claims.

Inside “Proposals, Submissions and Tenders that Sell” you’ll find a wealth of information on:

• 10+ key credibility building measures to make your company stand out;
• how to write company profiles in a way that proves your credibility without a doubt;
• how to position your company as a market leader;
• how to develop and “selling” your point-of-difference;
• and much, much more.

You can also “cheat” from some of the template proposal material we have included in the program for you.

How Buyers Evaluate Bids

It would certainly be handy if you had psychic powers that enabled you to get inside the head of your prospect, wouldn’t it. If you instantly knew what made them tick. Or more specifically, know what’s important to them when it comes to weighing up various offers and bids.
Even though the chances of developing Extra Sensory Perception are about the same as winning the lottery, with a little thought and research, it’s not that difficult for you to get a good feel for how a buyer evaluates bids … AND how you can ensure your bid is looked upon favourably.

No matter what the buying situation (retail, consultation, proposal, RFP or tender), buyers consider just 3 factors when deciding on a supplier.

If you can address each one of these areas in the most effective way possible you’re certain to make the shortlist.

BUT… if you fail to address just one of them, you have little hope of securing that deal.

Is your proposal/tender document compliant?

At face value this is a fairly “self-evident” type of question but once you dig below the surface, it’s not as straight-forward as it first appears.

It’s not JUST about addressing the buyer’s “published” selection criteria, although that is very important.

Your offer has to be compliant with exact specifications, with the buyer’s evaluation criteria AND with overall purchasing policy.

For instance, to be “deemed” compliant your offer document needs to conform to each of these points:

• Your document effectively and comprehensively answers all the ‘published’ selection criteria
• Your company complies with all ‘must-haves’ listed in the selection criteria or mentioned at a preliminary meeting eg. you have the right level of professional indemnity insurance, QA certification, licensing and so forth.
• Your document complies with their specific purchasing policy eg. your business is a match with their ‘buy locally’ policy.
• Your document reads between-the-lines and relates to the REAL needs of the buyer. eg. you have shown an intelligent interpretation of their needs and shown how your product orservice fulfills their needs in the most efficient way possible, instead of simply addressing the features that were set out in the selection criteria.
• Your document talks in specific benefits not just features.eg.if the selection criteria states that they need a widget that is 5 inches in diameter and spins at xxx kms per hour or faster, tell them how your widget complies with these specs (or is better)and tell them what the benefits of these features are.
• Your offer has been submitted before or by the due date.
• It includes ALL attachments. Nothing has been left out. That means you have included the mandatory 4 (or however many) copies, copies of all certification and licenses, all policy numbers, all pages are there collated in the right order etc. etc.

Believe it or not, the simple act of leaving out pages can be enough to disqualify your offer.

Inside Proposals, Submissions and Tenders that Sell, we address this compliance issue in detail. You’ll find out more about “what buyers want” – in fact, there is a section devoted to “12 things buyers look for when choosing a supplier”.

You’ll also learn more about how buyers think, what Government buyers look for specifically, and dozens of pages of interesting customer research information you can use. Info about buyer psychology, buying motives, different personality traits of buyers and so forth.

I think you’ll find that the 250+ pages of info together with the 53 templates and checklists adds up to a massive amount of value.

Please take a few minutes to re-read the information on Proposals that Sell. And when you’ve done that, why not order the program – after all doing that doesn’t involve any risk as there’s an iron clad 30 day money back guarantee in place.