Shipley Articles - Shipley Asia Pacific

Working Outside Your Comfort Zone There is no “normal” in the new normal we’re all experiencing. No matter our role in our jobs, we’re likely working outside our comfort zone. Hopefully, our “zone” is expanding because there is no normal. The normal in business development, capture management, and proposal development is not so normal. From

Problem: Win rates are low Win rates seem like pretty simple statistics—what percentage of your qualified opportunities are you winning? When you remove the bids withdrawn by bidders and others cancelled by the customer, what do you do if the percentage is still low?   Solution: Learn from past proposals and when to end a pursuit. Lessons Learned: The saying, “hindsight is 20/20” bears remembering

Problem: Our customers don’t see how our solution benefits them. Sales and proposal professionals often focus too little on benefits and fail to link key solution features to benefits. Or worse, they wait to articulate the benefit until the end of a proposal section. When the benefits are buried, the customer won’t see how your solution

Problem: Our customers don’t see that we have the perfect solution. They don’t trust us. We may have the perfect solution for our customer’s problem. Another probability is that we have the perfect solution for what we perceive the customer’s problem to be. The customer may not trust you because you missed the mark by

Most of us know how vital colour team reviews are to ensuring a well-written, concise solution for our customers. But these reviews can get tricky and become ineffective if we’re not careful. During Shipley’s most recent webinar on colour team reviews, we were asked many questions about how to hold effective reviews. But, by far,

by Eric Gregory   This is one of the most common questions in our industry. The funny thing is most people and organizations want to create all sorts of complex dynamics, conspiracy theories, dreams, fables, and excuses as to why their proposals fail to win and why their win rates and capture ratios are so

Combatting Known Weaknesses in a Proposal by Gwyn Allred   In most effective proposals, all weaknesses, known or potentially known to the customer, are addressed in the proposal. Proposal contributors generally have no issues talking up their company’s unique strengths, but what is the best way to address weaknesses in your company or other threats

  “The most successful organisations in any market or selling environment innovate and improve framework processes based upon fundamental principles.” “Business development managers who permit ad hoc processes and rely on heroes for success are consistently less successful.”– The Shipley Business Development Lifecycle Guide   Most businesses struggle to create and imbed a work winning

In proposals, a critical component of selling your solution is proof. “Prove it” is a catchcry of Shipley consultants when we work with our clients on proposals. But why is proof important?   When we look at a typical hierarchy of trust, anyone who is selling something starts at the bottom. Buyers are inherently cautious

What does the term “pursuit” mean to you? What about the term ”capture”? Are they same thing? It’s a tricky one as many people / companies have differing definitions. I’ve never liked talking about “pursuit” in Business Development. To me, pursuit means following and not catching up. I’d rather prepare teams for capture than for