Instigator Blog - Latest Comments in Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail

Re: Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail

James England — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 06:46:43 -0000

I think about this all the time and wrote about one angle a little recently - the angle being that a lot of salespeople are great at relationship selling (face-to-face) yet hate actually putting pen to paper and writing.

Many really good salespeople do all the things you mention in a sales call, but fail to do it in the actual proposal. Many are just uncomfortable writing, some want to be just customer facing and there are many more reasons.

Well structured, persuasive proposals are usually produced as a team effort and someone who is reading this thinking "I need to write a proposal and don't know where to start" should really get some input from an experienced salesperson who is a good writer too. There is a skill and technique in a good sales call and having the same impact in your proposal sometimes requires a different input entirely.

Re: Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail

Benjamin Yoskovitz — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:33:06 -0000

Marijn - That's great advice. If you can, call the contact for the RFP to get some inside information / have your questions answered. I would suggest you have a list of questions you want answered, so you're not just trying to schmooze the person on the phone. An d so you don't waste the opportunity to get the information and details you need.

I'm really not a fan of RFPs but if you're going to respond to them, then calling the contact to establish some amount of relationship, understanding and getting your questions answered can definitely help.

Re: Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail

marijn — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 08:37:25 -0000

Another personal one I would like to add: the person who writes the proposal doesn't contact the prospect!
I know that when I contact the prospect by phone, I get a tons of useful info that is not in their RFP! Especially which parts they think is important, or which problem they try to solve..

pingback from http://marijnsomers.blogspo...

Re: Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail

Civil Site Design — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 09:40:36 -0000

I'm in the process of pursuing new contracts so this is a helpful blog. Thanks!

Re: Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail

bhicks — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 09:36:53 -0000

I have been guilty of a few of these myself. Proposals are tough. I hired a wonderfully talented professional to do a proposal for us for what would have been a great job. The proposal was perfect, beautiful, a work of art. We didn't get the job.

Re: Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail

Eva — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 08:49:23 -0000

"They’re not selling benefits. Proposals that miss out on #2 and focus too much on #3 invariably aren’t selling benefits. If you’re not selling benefits you’re sunk. And for the love of everything that is holy, spell these out as clearly as possible. "

I absolutely agree with the statement.

Re: Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail

Kelvin Chan — Mon, 26 May 2008 21:33:55 -0000

Arguably the biggest one for me is that proposals aren't selling benefits. if one would just start harping on that, you'll definitely see success.

Re: Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail

Mike — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:51:43 -0000

I agree completely with points 2 and 3. In my role I continually see engineers writing proposals/ requirements that end up filled with neat ideas while missing the mark on the customer's needs.

Re: Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail

BZ Sponger — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:23:27 -0000

I have seen the same thing as well. People forget some of the simple little things that would land it, and its all the technobabble mumbo jumbo that people get caught up in. Just go back to root basics. That simple.

Re: Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail

Ben Yoskovitz — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 09:48:12 -0000

Jurriann - Glad you enjoyed the post. I'm sure this is the first time I've had anything translated into Dutch.

Re: Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail

Jurriaan — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 06:42:21 -0000

Great article! Thanx, i translated it in dutch & put it on www.bligg.nl, and on www.bobex.nl.

Re: Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail

pete — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 17:41:09 -0000

Great advice, I would simply add, it is important to keep things simple.

Re: Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail

mark — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 14:09:35 -0000

Well said!

I hate reading proposals like those too.

Re: Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail

Ben Yoskovitz — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 09:37:50 -0000

Brad - I like that approach. We know that everyone reading a proposal goes down to the end to see price + timeline anyway, so might as well put it in a 1-page summary at the front.

Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

Re: Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail

Brad Shorr — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 09:20:39 -0000

Excellent advice! One other thing I like to do is add an "executive summary page" that highlights the key benefits, cost and ROI. Even a twenty-page proposal on a complex product or service can usually be boiled down to a page or less. Maybe that's the best place to start writing a proposal...?

Re: Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail

Ben Yoskovitz — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 09:17:18 -0000

Proposals are sales letters, so the rules and best practices applied to proposals can apply to sales letters - both long and short...

Re: Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail

free — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 03:32:08 -0000

Seems there is hardly any difference between a proposal and a long sales letter.

Re: Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail

rebecca — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 12:15:26 -0000

This is great. Thank you. Sounds like tips from a great copywriter.

Re: Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail

Chad Ledford — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 14:49:59 -0000

Good post - thanks!

Re: Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail

Adam Brucker — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 19:49:28 -0000

Great post, Ben.

The same 10 points could be applied to any number of situations in the modern workplace as they are all examples of ways to practice "principles-based business."

Make sure whatever you are working on is:
-Audience Centric
-As Simple As Possible
-Valuable Enough For All Involved
-Real / Genuine / Authentic
-At Least As Good As It Should Be
-In Some Way Remarkable

Thanks, -Adam

www.BadSlacks.com

Re: Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail

Stuart Baker — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 07:20:27 -0000

Ben, great, blunt tips here. With the help of Mark Silver(HeartofBusiness.com) and Dawud Miracle HealthyWebDesign.com) I have a fledgling website and blog site, both still in development. Your information is realistic and to the point. Thank you.

Re: Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail

dpickett — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 09:18:14 -0000

I highly recommend the book "The One Page Proposal" by Patrick Riley. It provides a great framework that applies many of the ideas outlined here. It's really changed the way I write proposals, although they're not always one page.

Great post.

Re: Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail

Ben Yoskovitz — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 23:20:42 -0000

Ethan - email it to me, I'll take a look.

Re: Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail

Ethan Giffin — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 23:16:40 -0000

I love this post. I have read it at least 5 times since it was posted. As a new startup we began working on creating and fine tuning our standard proposal document about two weeks before this post. This has been our check list to compare against.

So where do I send it for a little review ;)

Re: Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail

Ben Yoskovitz — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 22:02:37 -0000

Patrick - adding to your quote is a good way of covering scope creep and your own inability to quote accurately (which most people have a problem with.) Everything takes longer than you think it will...

But I do agree with the "a la carte" approach - break up deliverables and costs.