Building a Proposal Outline and Best Practices

Vlad ELeave a comment

Here are some thoughts to include in your proposal outline and general best practices to consider to make your pitches successful.

Outline

  • Executive Summary
  • Company Overview
  • Problem Statement
    • “Here is What We’ve Heard”
    • “Here is our understanding of the goals, problems, challenges”
  • Drivers – list the drivers, why is this company undertaking this effort, why is it important?
  • Win Theme, Message, Value Proposition, Differentiation, Have a Story, Why your Company is the Right Choice?
  • North Star, Point of View, Roadmap
    • Share you point of view, the journey, roadmap that you will take customer on
    • What is the end goal, or what does “Good look like”
  • Scope
    • in Scope
    • out of Scope
  • Approach
    • It’s your WHAT you’re going to do, maybe mixed with some HOW
    • You’re describing here the approach you’d take to tackle the problem – Step 1, Step 2, Step 3 – take existing engine, migrate, customize on top, etc.
    • As part of approach maybe propose Assessment or Discovery as first phase if you don’t have much details
  • Solution, Recommendation
    • It’s your HOW you’re going to do it
    • Offer 2-3 alternative approaches for customers to pick from
  • Deliverables, Output (list what will be produced as an outcome of the engagement)
    • Make sure you answer THE #1 question – “What am I (as a customer) getting for $XYZ spent?”
  • Timelines, Duration, Key Milestones (e.g. diagram with timelines)
  • Architecture, Reference Architecture, Blueprint
  • Risk and Mitigation Approaches
  • Assumptions
  • Dependencies – what are key items or deliverable we are depending on the customer to provide us during engagement
  • Team Structure
  • Governance Slide
    • e.g. how your company team maps to Customer Org and Project Team
  • Pricing
    • Travel Expenses
    • Apply, Offer any discounts, Investments e.g. Knowledge Transfer as investment
    • Consider using ranges if there is no precise number
    • Consider providing different pricing options for the customer to choose e.g. Option 1, Option 2 (not more than 3 options)
    • Offer short Validation Workshop (e.g. 2 hours, 1/2 day) to go through approach, proposal and clarify any items, assumptions that might potentially be incorporated to refine the pricing proposal.
  • Differentiation, Additional Investments (potentially)
    • Offer Architecture Assessments/Reviews, Human-Centric Design Workshops, POC to validate Architecture
  • Transition, Knowledge Transfer, Onboarding, Business Trips – explain how we will start, onboard, KT, shadow their team, reverse shadow, etc.
  • Case Studies, References, Testimonials – show relevant case studies
  • Next Steps – outline next steps, make it actionable to implement, short term tactical, strategic, etc. e.g. “Here is what we’re doing on Monday”. Have a “hook” so we can continue the conversation and drive next steps after the presentation
  • Appendix – eliminate any “noise” or move it to appendix

Best Practices

  • Exec Summary for Each Deal – For each deal, list the following about the Deal
    • Deal type – e.g. Proactive
    • Deal nature – e.g. Modernization efforts for in Store for Pharmacy Services
    • Deal buyer – e.g. XYZ, VP Product Services
    • Deal tech, solution – e.g. Human Centered Design Research
    • Industry – e.g. HCLS
    • Pursuit team – e.g. Digital, Account, Delivery
    • Win Themes
  • Buyers, Stakeholders, Champions
    • Identify who is a buyer, Champion
  • Identify a pursuit team
    • Align at the right level e.g. you don’t want your junior team “selling” to VP. Match up your pursuit team and customer on the right governance level
    • Identify contact from Presales Team who will help orchestrate putting Proposal in PPT, WORD together
    • Delivery Manager – ideally identified and part of the pursuit team who will drive the engagement and validate resource plan, estimates, etc.
    • Solution Architect – US and Offshore (to work in same time zone as presales and scale onsite SA)
    • Identify contact from Presales Team who will help orchestrate putting Proposal in PPT, WORD together
  • Ownership, Due Dates – assign
  • Research
    • Research all the customer attendees who will be in the room or on the call during orals presentation. Do LinkedIn relationship analysis, e.g. who are we connected to, etc.
    • if it’s in response to an RFP, try to get as much context as possible, meet / talk to customer (not to circumvent VMO though), meet for introductions so they at least know you, otherwise you’ll be “Supplier Number 5” in the process and in their minds.
  • Briefing Document
    • Create briefing description of the opportunity, stakeholder, account background, etc. (Account Team should own and start this and this could be shared with all Pursuit team members to get up to speed on the deal, opportunity)
  • Questions & Clarifications with Customer
    • Ask for additional documents to share
    • Have customer show demo of the product or pilot they’ve done or demo
    • Prepare list of questions, share with customer ahead of time, setup a session to review
    • If it’s in response to an RFP, try to get as much context as possible, meet / talk to customer (not to circumvent VMO though), meet for introductions so they at least know you, otherwise you’ll be “Supplier Number 5” in the process and in their minds.
  • Start with End in Mind
    • Work Backwards from Message, Outcome you desire to achieve, Deliverables, or End of Project Success e.g. Future PR (Amazon style)
  • Outline
    • Braindump and create Outline of the proposal
    • Create a story that follows AND, BUT, THEREFORE format (ABT)
      • AND = positive message, agreement (or Setup in storytelling)
      • AND = more positive messages, more agreement
      • BUT = problem, challenge, contradiction
      • THEREFORE – consequences, solution, action, next step
  • Briefing, About you Company
    • If new customer, ask them for time to brief them on Company and get introduced. It’s not breaking RFP rules, you’re introducing your Company in general. Otherwise you’ll be “Supplier Number 5” to them. Also, when I lost RFPs, I’d ask customer for a chance to give Company briefing, it led to better relationships and other RFPs, deals, wins in areas where we could win.
  • Message, What are you Selling or Proposing?
    • Have a message. Could be the value prop or Why your Company, but have a clear message. Have it day 1 so everyone is aligned to that message, theme.
    • Always know what you’re “selling”. Know exactly those 3-5 things that you’re selling in the proposal.
    • Same Message, Keywords, Lexicon introduced in the executive summary should flow throughout the proposal.
  • Answer the questions
    • “What exactly are you proposing?”
    • “What am I (as a customer) getting for $XYZ spent?”
    • “What is the outcome after the meeting?”
    • “What does success look like after the meeting?”
    • “So What?”
  • Ask
    • Ask Customer what they’re really looking for (can do offline, unofficially)
  • Executive Sponsor
    • assign executive sponsor on the deal, account level.
  • Review Ahead of Time w. Execs
    • Review Pricing, approach, presenter list with your Company Exec team to align so it doesn’t happen the night before presentation if we need to make any adjustments
  • Pricing
    • REALLY understand what goes into pricing, all the rates, roles, investments, discounts, licensing, etc.
    • During Orals this is one area where you should anticipate to be “grilled” and questioned by the customer.
    • Know your numbers cold or what goes into to those numbers.
    • Must have Excel Model to support it. Excel should have Resource Plan outlined by role, rate, monthly allocation, etc. and include any discounts, etc. that you’re offering.
    • Have P&L Model done on the deal as well so we understand the margins in case we need to discount
  • Output, Format, Content
    • It’s easier to build PPT proposal vs. WORD, try to steer customer to submit PPT proposals
    • If you’re submitting WORD doc, also consider submitting a reduced version of the PPT as the companion deck
    • Put a Thought Provoking slide into the presentation. I’ve seen digital teams do that to spur conversation. One Pitch had “LOVE” word listed and asked the customer what’s opposite (Apathy not Hate). It was a build up to the story that would follow later in the presentation.
    • Artifacts, Creative Ideas – if possible, embed in your proposal actual ideas, screen shots, pictures, photos, wireframes, how we went about our process ideating for the proposal (e.g. white boarding, mobile app screen shots). Example: when we responded to one of the customer’s RFP we actually created mock up screens for the mobile app and we showed pictures of the internal workshop that we ran to come up with mock  up design, and white boarding sessions full of sticky notes.
    • WHAT, HOW, WHEN – In the proposal, focus on what we are going to do EXACTLY for the Customer. Remove marketing, marketecture or move to Appendix.
    • Outline how what we propose is aligned to Customer strategy, key initiative or pain points e.g. what we propose, how does it help them save cost in Cloud
    • Show “What good [end state, architecture, solution] looks like”.
  • “Readout, Pre-read”
    • “Prime” the customer, organize “Pre-Read” Session – “pre-read”, preview draft proposal with key individuals, coaches at the client. Meet with them ahead of time. They can help fine-tune your pitch, plus they’ll start priming their own stakeholders
  • Competition
    • Find out about competitors, what they’re doing, where are they failing or succeeding.
  • Workshop
    • Pre-Proposal – Ask to do a Workshop, Discovery, Assessment or just a few hour meeting to understand more about their business, problem, etc. before submitting a proposal (paid or as investment) so you can learn and fine-tune your message in the proposal. Or you can do it after proposal and orals to fine-tune/revise the proposal.
    • Post-Proposal – Offer Validation Working Session/Workshop to get to SOW. Frame it to zero in on deliverables, scope to prepare to put SOW together. You can include an ASK in the proposal to do follow up workshop (e.g. half-day, full day) to dig deeper into scope and refine approach, estimate
  • Orals – identify a small team who will present to a customer face to face (best way). Every speaker should have a part, don’t overload the customer by bringing a lot of people into the meeting.
    • BRING RIGHT TEAM – who will be able to close the deal and speak, not just be passengers
    • People who present should be involved in the RFP or building the proposal early on so they don’t change the message at the very end
    • Presentation – limit number of voices that speak so you don’t continuously switch between speakers, that maybe confusing.
    • Dry run it ahead of time
    • Meet with team face to face (most likely twice during business trip evening dinner the night before and during breakfast the morning of presentation) and run through flow and who’s covering which slide and make any last min slide adjustments
  • During Presentation
    • Company Overview – Ask “How much you know about our Company” before jumping in. You might have to cover Company 101 Story briefly before jumping into the details of the proposal.
    • After “Here is what we’ve heard slide”, pause during the presentation and ask “Did we miss anything? What else is the problem?” Have the customer help you fill the gaps by talking so it doesn’t feel like a one-way conversation during your pitch
    • Ask a customer what success looks like? What are Conditions of Satisfaction? (ideally you ask before as you qualify opportunity)
  • Case Studies
    • It’s powerful to include video in your presentation, short one e.g. 1-2 mins. For example, Google story.
  • Partner Channel
    • Find out if there is partner e.g. Microsoft involved.
    • Meet with their Account, Technical Team. Meet Industry team covering that account. Get them to jointly pitch or create joint slide about engagement, partnership model.
    • Find Executive sponsor supporting their account.
  • Delivery Practices
    • If working with Delivery Practices e.g. Cloud, Data, suggest to Practice and Presales teams to setup a separate working and hands-on session without extended Account Team (AM, DM). That way Practice team can work on ideas, scope, approach, team model, etc. independently AND THEN bring teams (Practice, Account) together for review. For examples, Tue, Th could be all-up reviews with Account Team and M, W, F as hands on working sessions by Practices/Presales teams.
  • Assumptions
    • If you can’t clarify with Customer any details, Q&A, then just make a set of assumptions in your proposal and then you can validate it during “pre-read” or during preso

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