Shipley Insights

  Proposals written in strong, clear language are more effective. Customers may be put off by a message delivered in passive voice in which responsibilities have not been clearly allocated. (See what I did there?) The active voice construction accepts responsibility, giving the sentence greater clarity, emphasis and credibility. The most important reason to use

    When pursuing opportunities, many selling organisations actively avoid discussing risk with their clients because they believe this is a negative conversation. But customers know every offer entails risk; the best practice is to explicitly discuss how the risk in your offer will be managed. Offer an evaluation of and mitigations for proposal risk:

  When you do not have a formal bid request, identify the customer’s requirements collaboratively in meetings and phone calls. Cross-check against any other available information such as past proposals to the same customer, and intelligence sources. List the requirements as you understand them and confirm your list with the customer before preparing/submitting the proposal.

  Avoid losing by emphasising the wrong Discriminators: continuously re-examine whether a discriminator still discriminates. Many procurements have been lost because the seller assumed the reason they won the last contract still applied. The relevance and power of a discriminator to an individual or an organisation may vary over time or change completely. Re-visit and

  Benefits cannot be accurately addressed until the customer and the seller develop a common vision of the customer’s issues and needs and of an acceptable solution. Sellers that claim to know the benefits of their offerings before collaborating with the prospect are guessing. The risk of failing to test your assumptions about benefits to

  Verbs are the most powerful and direct part of speech – use precise, powerful, descriptive verbs in your proposals. Avoid wimpy verbs that obscure meaning, such as allow, allow for, permit, provide, perform and ensure. Many writers turn verbs into nouns, making the sentence more distant from the reader. Replacing adjectives with verbs also

  The bid validation decision is initiated by the receipt of the final bid request. The goal is to identify any requirements that preclude bidding. Requirements that might preclude biding are known as “show stoppers” – for example changes in requirements you cannot meet, an unreasonable schedule, unacceptable performance warranties or penalties. Another show stopper

  Customers want to see a team that has worked together successfully on prior, similar programs. Customers suspecting teaming incompatibilities turn elsewhere. The program manager will manage the winning team, so maximise your success by including them in teaming partner selection and contracting. Far too frequently, management decides to team, but the individuals involved do

  Aim to schedule a Red Team review about two-thirds through the proposal development so you have time to respond to their recommendations. Use the Red Team to evaluate your draft proposal for customer focus, completeness, and clear communication of your win strategy and solution. A good Red Team Review simulates a source-selection evaluation of