A win strategy is crucial to any company that wants to get their contract. It is an essential part of the bid process and it ensures you know what needs to be done in order for your team to come out successful.

What Is A Win Strategy?

When a contract is desirable to a company, the bid team must first evaluate how well the company can efficiently meet all the needs or concerns of the customer. The proposal that is then formulated according to these sufficiencies is the win strategy.

Win Strategy Benefits

The customer will be evaluating many offers from competitors saying essentially the same things according to the RFP. But you can ensure that your proposal will stand out by writing it in a way that is informative and engaging. You can make your proposal interesting to the customer by clearly stating what things are different about your proposal than the competitors’ offers. This is a huge benefit.

Another benefit is posturing a knowledgeable team. A winning strategy starts with the right team. Be sure to include members of your company who are familiar with the customers so that everything that you do or say stands out from the other bids on this project.

Keys To A Win Strategy

Below are some key areas to bear in mind toward developing a winning strategy:

Get To Know Your Customer

Try to understand your customer’s business history, character, and objectives.

Objectives

What does your customer want to achieve? How would they define success, and what are the steps needing to be taken for them to reach this goal? Answering these questions will help you determine which solution might be best able to meet their needs. This also ensures it aligns with other relevant factors like budget or timeline constraints.

Industry

For which industry does the client operate?

What are some of their challenges in terms of how they have tackled these issues before? What opportunities can be exploited by them that will help further grow your company’s success even more?

Success

What are you able to measure as success for your service? Is this aligned with what the client wants it to be measured by, or does something have need of changing in order for them both to succeed?

Culture

What is the character of the company? Does your company share those characteristics? How can your company meet or accommodate ethnic differences for the sake of a positive business experience?

Understand Client’s Hot Buttons

Your customer wants to be successful, but when they look at your company’s products and services for purchase there are many things that need attention. Naturally this responsibility comes with concerns about making the right decision in terms of expenditure.

The best way to find out what your customer’s hot buttons are would be by asking them. You can ask, “What are some of the things that you are most worried about with this project?”

In preparation, make a list of all the concerns your customer has expressed as well as any you suspect about this project. Remember that it is important not just to have their most pressing issue at hand but also those they are concerned with or hope for during implementation.

Weigh these considerations by ranking order (1-5). Once ranked on this scale prioritize them according to severity.

Discuss Your Differentiators/ Discriminators

As a team, discuss how you will set yourself apart from your competition by stating your unique selling propositions. A unique selling proposition, more commonly referred to as a USP, is the one thing that makes your business better than the competition. It is a specific benefit that makes your business stand out when compared to other businesses in your market.

Make a list of the key USPs and critically analyze them in relation to the broader landscape for comparison’s sake. Then determine which ones are most valuable or important by cross-referencing with the customer’s hot button analysis findings.

Conclusion

Every company wants to win contracts for business. But not every proposal will have a high Pwin that can help towards success. Pwin (Probability of Win) is an important tool for assessing the chances a company has for winning a business opportunity. Pwin is the evaluating concept that will help position the contractor into a more probable win for the bid.

The best help toward gaining the good Pwin number for confident bidding is using AI-empowered platform, such as Scion Analytics’ Content Analytics Platform (CAP), that can provide comprehensive Bid/No Bid analysis of an RFP quickly.

In order to identify and reach your organization’s goals, a well-designed Request For Proposal (RFP) is an essential document. This document goes beyond just listing requirements. It contains insights into how you can achieve what is desired with business intelligence that helps find potential partners in this process.

The RFP is used when looking for partners and vendors to help an organization create a product or service. The process includes detailed information on what you want in your solution along with why it needs this particular item of equipment or service. These requests are then solicited through bids from potential contractors who can also provide insight into cost effectiveness as well as deadlines.

What Is RFP Collaboration?

Creating an RFP can be a massive undertaking. This is due to both those who compete to prove themselves worthy and also teams within your organization. It must be made clear that both you as the customer and the potential bidder alike know exactly what you are looking for in this procurement process. It is imperative that all stakeholders on our team have input into how to best approach meeting these needs through their expertise.

The RFP will usually outline what your organization is seeking and how the offers will be evaluated. It will typically include:

Technical Concerns

Discusses the business objectives and the details about the project’s development, standards, and deliverables.

Administrative Concerns

Discusses the requesting company’s history and operations

Financial Concerns

Discusses the company’s business plan, financial data, and risk analysis.

The RFP process is a rigorous and time-consuming one. You not only need to make sure your needs are met, but also who you will be working with on this agreement. RFPs aren’t going away, but we can improve the process with new considerations:

Provide All Participants With ConnectPDF

Provide all participants with tools like ConnectedPDF (cPDF) that give you the ability to get and give insight into any proceedings at every point, so information is shared.

Meet The RFP Fundamentals

Meet fundamentals of RFP themselves:

· quick turnaround time,

· ad-hoc team input, follow-up and follow-through, and

· by streamlining RFP creators’ task while managing other workloads

· engage participants early on

· share with a potential partner important information

RFP Collaboration Benefits

Companies are coming to realize that they need collaboration within their organizations more than ever. They have also recently implemented tools for team building and enhancing coordination, but many still have not done so. This increases the time it takes to create an RFP as well as gather people who must share information with each other under pressure from deadlines or other responsibilities.

The best way to improve your process is by engaging potential partners early on and sharing information that they need to create a successful proposal. Be receptive for taking a fresh look at existing research or do additional work like budget, staffing, and internal processes if needed.

This will assist greatly in understanding what needs addressing within your organization when it comes down to choosing an outside contractor or vendor.

Conclusion

Successful Requests For Proposals (RFPs) can be best accomplished by enhancing internal teams’ ability to collaborate as you develop RFPs, and by taking the time during an organization’s RFP process that is critical in tapping vendors’ expertise. Then top-of-mind results can be achieved. This shows your C-suite just what they are looking for when it comes down to production of winning bids or proposals.

Not all proposals are created equal. They should be creative, persuasive, and memorable for the business they represent to win their bid on a Request For Proposal (RFP).

However tricky this may sound at first, it does not need any specific skillset beyond creativity. It is about understanding how best to portray your message while still being honest with both yourself as well as those reading it.

The RFP proposal writer is in the driver’s seat of business growth, constantly influencing customers and their opinion. He is an innovative thinker with an insatiable appetite for new challenges.

What Is An RFP Proposal Writer?

A proposal writer, sometimes called a bidder, is the key player in writing compelling responses to questions posed by an organization. This person’s goal is to help articulate and win new business for their client with accurate information about what they have to offer. The proposal team is one of the most important parts in any corporation. They are responsible for responding to, and following up on, all proposals that come into the office. The RFP response writer reports to the coordinator or manager who will work closely with them throughout their project management time frame.

Key Responsibilities Of An RFP Proposal Writer

Below are the key responsibilities of the RFP proposal writer:

· Reads the incoming RFPs and contributes to discussion for win themes

· Attends kick-off meetings, strategy sessions, and helps plan proposal projects

· Selects RFP responses from the proposal content library for review and customization

· Articulates complex aspects of products and services by collaborating with SMEs and other proposal contributors

· Contributed RFP responses, which are created by SMEs and stakeholders from the internal teams, are reviewed and edited

· Maintains brand style and tone guidelines in the responses and may coach the SMEs

· Maintains that the responses address customer hot buttons and win themes

· Additional RFP response documents and attachments, summaries, and cover letters are written or reviewed

· Feedback from proposal review sessions are incorporated

· Proposal knowledge management and content retention assistance for future use

Most Important RFP Proposal Writer Skills

Below are the most important RFP proposal writer skills:

Clear Communication

RFP proposal writers are the masters of clear communication. They must be able to express complex ideas and concepts in an approachable, easy-to understand way. Their writing should reflect articulate language without any typos or inaccuracies.

Collaboration

As a proposal writer, you will work closely with colleagues from all areas of your business. Every person will contribute to the process and offer their own unique expertise that cannot be found inside one department alone (such as marketing). They may not know how best to showcase what makes them different from the competitors.This is where the proposal writer’s job comes into play.

Timeline Management

To write a successful proposal, you need to know how the process works and be able to work with different projects at once. Many proposal writers are experts in project management because they have their hands full, writing multiple proposals or working on overlapping deadlines.

Detail Oriented

It is not uncommon for RFPs to include dozens of complex requirements. Consequently, the corresponding proposal may span a hundred or more pages. Proposal writers need to be tenacious, meticulous, and thorough in their efforts.

Technology Experience

Technology is now a significant part of the day-to-day operations for many proposal teams. Because of this fact, professionals with proposal software experience are in high demand.

A Request For Proposal (RFP) is a tool that buyers use to purchase from suppliers many types of products or services. These could be software programs, construction projects, corporate computer systems, technical services, and legal services. To find the best supplier for your needs there is an appropriate way you should go about building it. This requires seeking the best vendor.

Below are the main sections of the basic RFP:

· The RFP overview and administrative information section is an informative summary statement on the problem, similar to proposals’ executive summaries. The document contains details about how it will be managed such as who will manage or oversee this project and what qualifications that person has.

· The technical requirements section of the procurement process is an important one. Without it, suppliers will not know what you are looking for in your products or services. They need to know how much time they need to prepare a proposal with all their information about those offerings.

· The management requirements section should include all the necessary information to successfully plan and execute your project.

· A supplier qualifications and references section asks the potential vendor to describe their experience with an introduction, as well as list any relevant contacts.

· Suppliers may include any information they feel is relevant in the RFP.

· In order to ensure that the information they provide is accurate and up-to date, a pricing section should exist in your contract.

· The contract and license agreement section is a great way to ensure that all legal documents are included in your purchase, such as nondisclosure agreements.

· Appendices are a great way to include bulky but relevant information such as network diagrams, technical requirements, studies, and project plan outlines.

Project Overview and Administrative Information

The first part of this section provides suppliers with an overview of your company. It is a statement that succinctly communicates the nature or root cause, as well as severity level (how important) to you. The problem should be detailed enough for them. This is so they can grasp both the business-related issues driving it along with any technical problems which may have precipitated said situation at hand.

Technical Requirements

The information and requirements needed to enable suppliers of products or services for your needs. It should first summarize the current business application. It should highlight both technical environment (hardware/software) as well as communications networks available to respond appropriately with all necessary data on hand.

Management Requirements

This section provides suppliers with the information they need to develop a project plan that will cover all aspects, from installation and training through maintenance. The proposed project ensures an orderly process for success.

Supplier Qualifications and References

In order to be considered for this contract, suppliers must supply information about their company and financial status. They also need references from previous customers who can vouch for them in the event of any problems or issues during a project.

Suppliers’ Section

Suppliers are encouraged to comment on the requirements that they feel were not adequately addressed for this section of an RFP. If there is something missing from your proposal, make sure it is clear so that others can understand what additional information you have available.

Pricing Section

This section provides a detailed format for suppliers to follow in developing their price proposals. Instructions should be clear and concise, as this will ensure that all the prices from different suppliers can be compared on an equal basis without confusion or bias clouding judgement.

Contracts and License Agreements Section

This section provides basic guidance to the supplier on how they can best respond when it comes time for them sign contracts or agreements. It could either become part of an already existing pricing agreement with your customer or stand alone.

Appendices

Make sure to include all the necessary information in an easily readable format. If it gets too long, place this section as a separate document and list its location for future reference.

Conclusion

A Request For Proposal (RFP) is a complex document requiring great care and collaboration from many team players. A good way to ensure the RFP is well-developed is by using software technology enhanced with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) capabilities.

The Proposal & Contracts Suite provided in the Content Analytics Platform (CAP), developed by Scion Analytics, can help ensure the efficient development of your RFPs.