When a business responds to a Request for Proposal, Bid, or Quote, it can be a pivotal moment for its strategic growth. While this article doesn't cover the entire proposal process, it can serve as a helpful guide to generate ideas and gain an understanding of how proposals are received and evaluated. Bookmark this resources page to get updated with new tips on selling to the government and more.
Take Advantage of the Question & Answer Period
To create successful proposals, sellers must be confident that they are addressing the buyer’s needs. A great way to deeply understand this is to utilize the Q&A period provided in most RFP schedules. Unfortunately, this opportunity is often overlooked and not used to its full potential. Asking well-thought-out questions can help you fully understand the buying organization's genuine concerns and identify potential opportunities.
Be Strategic – Prepare Early
Knowing the buying organization you intend to do business with is the smartest move you will ever make. Targeting prospective customers (buying organizations) can help you focus on what it takes to win business opportunities. You can achieve this by continuously updating your market data and aligning your response to the buying organization’s RFPs. Successfully targeting customers involves researching their future plans, budget, current provider, etc.
Know Your Qualifications
It is critical that you know your qualifications before intending to submit your proposal. Prioritizing proposals and knowing when to decline an opportunity in a professional manner are critical yet often overlooked aspects of proposal management. Concentrating resources on the most suitable opportunities can greatly enhance a seller's chances of producing successful proposals. On the other hand, attempting to respond to every RFP issued can strain and overwhelm those responsible for creating compelling content, leading to inconsistencies and errors in proposals.
Winning an RFP is not a matter of chance, so submitting numerous proposals as if it were a numbers game is not a successful tactic. Proposals that fail to meet the requirements or fail to showcase an organization's best work are unlikely to result in many, or any, victories. The quality of a proposal is more important than the quantity of submissions.
Write with the Correct Intent
Knowing your audience and writing with guidance on what’s inside the RFP document can give you success in writing a compelling response. Buying professionals responsible for evaluating proposals may not necessarily be design engineers or technical experts in the respective technology or service being evaluated. However, they are likely to possess a comprehensive understanding of how to effectively utilize the product or service they are specifying. Therefore, they are also likely to have distinct preferences regarding the desired features, performance, and quality.
When writing a proposal, it's crucial to avoid talking down to evaluators and instead focus on providing information and supporting documentation that enhances their understanding of the product or service. Ensure that the information provided is linked to the technical and performance requirements. But the most important thing is writing the response in a way that acts as a guide to evaluators and bridging that gap to the buyer’s capabilities and experience.
Quality Check Before Submitting
This is the most crucial mostly ignored step when submitting a response – quality check. A healthy and winning response stems from being diligent. You can successfully do a thorough quality check without making it too tedious by using a submission checklist. This can be in a simple spreadsheet to reduce the complexity. This stage is your last chance to assure the strength of your proposal and align the technical content to the evaluation process. A recommended approach is to have someone who is not involved in the project review the proposal to assess its content, consistency of message, and effectiveness of communication.
Be Early in Submitting Your Response
A helpful tip that is often overlooked in the proposal writing process is to ensure that you are on time. Allowing yourself enough time can significantly improve the quality of your responses. If you come across an RFP that you are qualified for and have a higher chance of winning, it is crucial not to wait until the last minute to craft your response. Most buying organizations enforce strict deadlines and offer little flexibility. On the other hand, if you encounter an RFP with a limited time window, avoid rushing and submitting a weak response as it can tarnish your business reputation for future RFPs.
Following these suggestions in improving your RFP responses can make an impact on your writing efficiency. There are vendor tools that you can utilize on Merx such as the Timer, Document Holders List, and Reports tool, to help you organize your proposal responses. Some participating buying organizations also allow registered vendors to submit proposals through the platform, giving you a place to track your RFP responses and the results.
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