Shipley Insights

  Decision makers are more likely to worry about risk, what could go wrong, than about relatively minor price or technical differences. Some sellers prefer to avoid any discussion of risk. They correctly see risk as negative but incorrectly avoid discussing risk because it is a negative topic. Identifying and highlighting mitigation of key project

…list the prospect’s requirements from meetings, phone calls, file notes and intelligence resources. Good Capture or Pursuit strategy attempts to position you as the best choice for a prospect or customer. Ideally you can position to win with an unsolicited proposal rather than a formal tender or bid request. Co-developing your prospect’s requirements gives you

…set an improvement target and monitor your progress towards it. Business Development (BD) capability is much more than sales training or sales process. It is a broader topic that includes Capture or Pursuit Management, Sales Management and Bid Management. Improving BD capability therefore needs senior leadership and management focus and continuous improvement. Get executive buy-in

Emphasise your strengths, mitigate your weaknesses, highlight your competitors’ weaknesses, downplay your competitors’ strengths. Of these four, most Business Development teams and Bid Managers tend to focus most on the first – emphasising your strengths. It feels right – tell them how good we are, they choose us. Wrong! When most bidders look and feel

  …the proposal for customer focus, completeness, and clear communication of your win strategy and solution. Many people regard quality reviews as a burden – extra work that takes away from writing time. What experienced Bid Managers understand is that creating a proposal plan and validating it with a Pink Team Review ensure more compliant,

  In complex sales, buyers purchase benefits, not features. Buyers want to know whether the benefits generated by specific features of the seller’s solutions will address their issues and deliver the benefits they seek. Getting this right starts in the Capture phase – listening and making sure you really understand the buyers needs. And more

 …Prospects must explicitly acknowledge or confirm the value of a feature, to convert its advantage into a benefit. 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 of your solution features – to the specific customer –

…a thematic summary to align with the prospect’s vision. Brainstorm a high-level strategic theme that encompasses: • the prospect’s strategic direction • this specific opportunity • your overall strategy to address needs Your Executive Summary is often the only document Decisions Makers read. Avoid the risk of them losing interest and failing to read it

  Executive summaries are powerful internal tools when developed early. Your Executive Summary (especially when developed early) can: • Build trust with customers by sharing with them in pre-tender (Capture) phase • Help refine your bidding strategy based upon customer feedback • More quickly gaining senior management buy-in to your win strategy • Better communicate

  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 update your Discriminators early, particularly with re-bid situations, especially if your are the incumbent.