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Proposals
Posted By: winniethepooh2117* on 6/9/2005 12:52 PM (CST) 250 Points
I have a cleaning company and want to write a eye catching proposal for a large construction company and are in need of some assistance as to the best way to indicate my reference, experience specifications etc.

Posted by: mbarber Accepted Answer
6/9/2005 7:10 PM (CST)
Gidday Winnie. I'd go and visit the 100 acre wood and see if you can find a wise owl to help you put this proposal together.

No if you're reaction to this idea is more like eyore then let me explain :-)

If you're serious about getting this contract then it might be worth spending a bit of cash by getting one of the professionals on this site as a small fee paying job to help you put it together really well the first time.

The advantage will also be that you'll end up with a template that you can use when you pitch for business in the future. I won't be the one to write the proposal for you (there are others better qualified) and I'd still be happy to chat about the types of things you might want to include (email me off line)

Marcus
 
Posted by: telemoxie Accepted Answer
6/9/2005 8:10 PM (CST)
I wouldn't be the one to write the proposal either... in fact, if anyone reading this is good at this sort of thing, please contact me offline... but I agree that a professionally prepared proposal can make a good impression.

Could I share one of my favorite stories? When my daughter was in about the third grade, she invited me in to "career day" to introduce the elementary school students to possible careers. One of the folks I was representing at the time was a design and print firm - and so I took a stack of brochures, some professionally done, some obviously done in house.

I spread out the brochures in front of the children, and said, "My company produces sales literature. Sometimes one company will decide whether to business with another company based on their literature. What do you think of these companies? Would you do business with these companies?"

The reaction was amazing. The 3rd graders would pick up a brochure, and examine it. If it was a professionally prepared piece, the would smile and say, "This is a good company. I would do business with this company".

If it was one of the desktop published in-house pieces, they would frown, hold the brochure at arms length, and make a comment like, "this is a very small company, I would never do business with this company".

None of them read a word of any of the brochures. But they made very good judgements about the companies from the weight of the paper, the quality of the design, the use of white space, and other design elements which I am not qualifed to discuss (I'm a telemarketing guy, not a graphics guy).

In my experience, Presidents of companies act exactly the same way. They will not read your materials - but they will spend a minute looking at your package to assess the professionalism of your company, and the likelyhood that you have the resources to follow thru.

I totally agree with mbarber. Do not do this yourself - hire a pro.

If you can't afford the cash, find the best design firm you can, especially one who specializes in proposals, and offer to clean their offices in trade.
 
Posted by: mgoodman Accepted Answer
6/9/2005 8:17 PM (CST)
If you want to look at a sample proposal (for consulting services, but the principles are exactly the same), there's one in the appendix to Rasputin For Hire : An inside look at management consulting between jobs or as a second career.

There's actually an entire chapter in the book about writing an effective proposal, and it was written with input from about a dozen successful consultants. Again, it's about consulting proposals, but the principles apply to almost any kind of proposal.

While presentation is important, content is too. You need to have some compelling reasons why you're the right person for the job, and they need to be presented in a way that will really make an impression on the decision-maker. Make sure it's mostly about the customer's needs and situation, and how you're the right person to address them, not mostly about how great you are or how much you want the business.

If you want a copy of Rasputin For Hire, you can get it online at Amazon.com or bn.com, through most bookstores in the US, or at the website www.rasputinforhire.com .

Good luck.
 
Posted by: raylohcy Accepted Answer
6/12/2005 5:54 AM (CST)
Dear Winniethepooh,

First you must have a serious name that sound professional ... Sorry jokes aside from your name.

a) Like what mbarber mentions, hire someone to get the proposals up.

Otherwise, consider;

i) Research very thoroughly on the organization, their turnover, mission statements, what are their goals and directions in the next 3 - 5 years and so on.

ii) Determine the need or gap which your company can help filling.

iii) When writing the proposal, show not only the benefits of using your company and its products, but the cost involved. More importantly, show how by selecting your company, u can help them meet their vision and goals in the next 3 - 5 years. Choosing whatever company is a long-term investment.

iv) Get them to consider also not just Price (face value) itself but long term maintenance cost as well (Cost). This is the true cost and it could include Service staff needed, training require, stock inventory which converts to downtime, loss of sales in the event.... This will make your Quotation (Price) less of an importance than the Cost.

v) Finally, to differentiate from your competitors, ask and find out what is most important to them. As its an organization with different decision-makers and gatekeepers, each look at the solution differently. The CEO view is different from the Technican. So consider all this and present a Compelling case applicable only to their company, not general.

Its not just the Price your Quote, but the Investment that they will gain by choosing you. One clear way is to Understand them, inside out.

All the best and lets know....
 
Posted by: dennish* Accepted Answer
6/16/2005 12:01 PM (CST)
I've written proposals for over 20 years and I can give you a few pointers, but like the others said, you should probably get help. My experience has been that companies in the commercial sector have less than a 10% win-loss ratio. Companies that have or make use of professionals usually have greater than 70% win-ratios.

One of the biggest mistakes I see in proposals is that companies focus too much on themselves. You need to get a clear understanding of the construction company's needs, problems, issues and hot buttons...this will drive what, where and how you communicate. You communicate not only through words, but figures, tables, photos and graphics. You communicate this at every opportunity – proposal title, section titles, figure labels, subsection titles, body of text, etc.

Another big mistake is that people state they are the best, their product is the best, their service is the best, their proposed design is the best…but they DO NOT PROVE IT. A great way of doing this is to do a comparison against probable solutions. I usually try to figure out who the competition is and then try to determine what they will propose. I usually don’t mention the competitor’s name in my proposal, but I will mention possible features of their product or their service and then compare against my features and show mine is the best. A “tradeoff table” that rates features against some criteria such as cost, reliability, risk, speed, total cost of ownership, etc. I then use either quantitative or qualitative ratings. You then discuss this table in the body of the text and PROVE your design, service or product is the best. You may have many of these tables in a section of the proposal.

Create a cover page with a collage of pictures representing how you solve their problems. Include a proposal title on the cover page that states some benefit(s) to the construction company.

Prepare a Table of Contents next that uses the section numbers and titles. The titles need to address their issues, such as “Understanding the Needs of XYZ Construction.”

Develop an Executive Summary that covers all the bases…Understanding the Needs of XYZ Construction, Our Professional Approach Ensures Spotless Environments, Bonded and Certified Cleaning Team Provides Trust, etc. The Executive Summary should be 50% figures, photos, tables, or graphs.

You’ll need sections on your Project Management Process and the Proposed Team. You should include 1 page resumes which are critiqued to the needs of this customer and project.

You should use double columns with a box at the top of each new section, which starts on a new page. The box contains a “thematic paragraph” which is where you make sure address the issues. Use subsection numbers and titles. Make sure the subsection titles also have selling phrases. Use 25-33% figures, tables, photos or graphs.

You most often are writing to an audience of different types of readers and they read differently. The construction company president or some senior manager will read it and your competitors’ proposal also. These types of people are usually skimmers. The will look at the cover page; skim the table of contents, read some of the Executive Summary, and the “thematic paragraph” boxes at the top of each section. You obviously need to make sure your layout, text and figures address this managers reading style. The next type of person could be say the Project Manager for the construction company. You will be working under his guidance and budget. This person will read more detail than the company president. He read a lot like the company president, but he will go deeper. He probably will go through all sections of the proposal reading the subsection titles and reading the entire subsection of something he knows about or something that he has expertise at or an issue with. The next type of reader is the technical person. They may be the ex-cleaning person who is now working in some other capacity in the construction company or it could be the facilities person, someone who has a technical background in the subject. They will read everything. They will particularly focusing on issues they have had in the past with outsourcing cleaning services, a bad experience or to see if your approach to cleaning is good. Your proposal must be written to communicate clearly and easily for these three different types of readers…and most importantly, these are the people who will rate your proposal against the competition.

This reminds me, you need to try to figure out all the people in the construction company that will be in the review process of your proposal. Take them out to lunch and get an understanding of their issues and hot buttons. This will help you create a winning proposal.

Another challenge to creating winning proposals is that they are often written by a group of people. You will have to direct their activities and merge their writing. You will face different writing styles as well as poor writing skills. You should “storyboard” each section of the proposal which will tell the writer what to write and where, the integrated figures, all the customer hot buttons, the themes, etc. You will have to merge all their writing and there will be multiple revisions.

This will take a lot of work. The good news is you have your first well-done proposal. You can now start on the next proposal and use much of what you’ve created. Sections such as Project Management or the Project Team can often be boilerplate. I also warn you to never just boiler plate everything. Even though over a few years you will have seen every issue, every need, every competitor, you need to always customize your standard proposal the specific needs of the customer your are proposing to.

Ah and then, if you make the short list, you may be called in for a presentation. Now you need to hone your speaking skills and PowerPoint presentation skills. Oh what fun.

Good luck and get that new client!

Dennis
 
Posted by: d_crawford* Accepted Answer
6/23/2005 5:56 PM (CST)
I agree with the above, but am wondering if you are trying to get a proposal to close the sale for you? If you haven't met with the decision makers, odds are you would be wasting time and money to send them a proposal "cold" so to speak.

If you are looking for sales collateral, such as a brochure or direct mail piece or a leave-behind, then the best way to indicate your references is by testimonials written by satisfied clients. You can put these on your website, too.

If I mis-interpreted, and they are soliciting proposals and you just want to make sure yours looks great, then proceed as directed above.
 
Posted by: carrie77 Moderator Response
6/27/2005 1:51 PM (CST)
Hello all. I am closing this question since it's more than 2 weeks old. We do this to reward the contributions of participants in a timely manner + to give increased visibility to the newer questions.

Thanks for participating!
Carrie (Production Editor)
 


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