Shipley Insights

  A strong business development process focuses on quality of outputs, not procedure When organisations decide they need to formalise their business development process they usually start with governance – that is, the approvals framework they use to make decisions about what they bid for, how they price it and how they manage the risks

  Create Stronger Win Strategy & Proposals: Identify your discriminators by understanding your prospect, your competitors and yourself. A discriminator is a feature of your offer that differs from your competitor’s offer and is acknowledged by your prospect as important to them. Consider two key issues to determine your most effective discriminators: 1.Ensure you have

  Kick-off to inspire (Part 3) To prevent serious misdirection of your proposal team, conduct the Kick-off meeting after preparing the material below: Proposal Project Summary Company Profile (clients) Proposal Strategy Proposal Operations Proposal Schedule Proposal Outline Writers packages Bid Request

  Kick-off meetings are critical milestones that require careful core team planning followed by professional execution. Industry leading organisations: Allocate approximately 15 percent of available preparation time to planning prior to kick-off meeting Invite the right people Prepare a complete but concise agenda Prepare a comprehensive kick-off package in advance Review operational guidelines for proposal

Kick-off meetings should be motivational, informative and directive and should contain the necessary information and plan for responding to the tender. They should: Initiate contributors’ proposal efforts Answer questions about the opportunity Set writing assignments and coordination of activities Create cohesiveness across the team They should not contain proposal planning discussions such as: Client requirements,

Proposal Management Plans (PMP) document the roles, responsibilities, tasks and deadlines before writers start developing proposal sections, volumes and ultimately the complete proposal. PMP is a proven best practice that leads to improved win-rates and higher quality proposals, produced with less friction and cost.

Make sure evaluators get their answers as quickly as possible. State your most important point first. Proposal evaluators read until satisfied, score the question, then look for the answer to the next question. Writers’ styles are influenced by the documents they read. So proposal writers with a technical background often model their writing on the

Decision gate reviews are about deciding whether to proceed, not on critiquing and refining the technical solution. The technical solution is only one facet of your complete offering. It might also include your management solution, pricing solution, past performance, quality assurance plan and transition plan. Suggest a separate review of the technical solution, and who

Resumes should be organised according to the readers needs. Proposal resume evaluators, rather than screening to eliminate individuals face a more complicated task. They are assessing for: •Understanding of the customer’s needs •Degree of commitment •Match between position requirements and the individuals proposed •Team coverage of all requirements Best-in-class resumes: •Clearly define the requirements of