Increasing proposal win rates

The proposal document is often the first tangible deliverable from your business, showing prospective clients that you really understand their challenges and can provide an effective solution. The content needs to be properly planned, the right people need to be involved at the right points of the process and there are many choices to be made about messaging, style and format that all have the potential to affect the client’s final decision. Often the document is just the first step and oral presentations follow, requiring a team capable of pitching to the client professionally and at the right level. For large bids this can consume significant resources and it always needs to be properly managed and controlled.

"Compelling proposal documents are a critical success factor for any professional services firm"

Shaping Business works with your bid teams to instill a relentless focus on client needs, embed best practice in proposal production process and mentor staff to build key competences. All with the aim of producing compelling proposals that improve your win rates. Our approach focuses on:

• Embedding a repeatable production process and controls
• Identifying client ’hot buttons’ and designing a suitable bid strategy
• Creating compelling messages and selling on benefits (not features)
• Making documents accessible, easy to read and attractive
• Getting ‘boiler plate’ materials put in place to reduce production time
• Making sure presentation material is excellent and the team is able to perform
• Managing the whole bidding process as a project.

We have worked with large and small professional services firms where proposal values range from tens of thousands to many millions of pounds. We understand that whilst the principles adopted should always the same, the implementation must be tailored to match the proposal value and the size of the business.  Our approach enables your business to improve the effectiveness of your bid management processes to improve your proposal win rates, without undue overhead. When resources are constrained due to other commitments, we are able to provide our clients with key skills such as project management and proposal document development.