When You Lose a Project

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

You're excited. You're jazzed.

You just submitted a proposal for a big project and you think you're going to get it. And if you do, it will make a big difference.

Your cash flow will increase, your reputation will soar.

And then you get the call. "No, sorry, you didn't get the project. You were definitely in contention, but we decided to go with another person because of various reasons."

Now you feel let down and discouraged. After all, you put together a great proposal and you know you were the perfect candidate. So what did you do wrong? Or did you do anything wrong? And what could you do to increase your chances of success next time?

Good questions, and in today's More Clients I'm going to answer them. This is primarily for those pitching larger projects to companies, but it can also be adapted to working with individual clients.

1. Improve Your Marketing Materials

Whether or not a proposal is accepted starts with your connection to your prospect. How much did they know about you before you submitted the proposal? Prospects who already know you, like you and trust you are more likely to work with you.

The three core tools for this are your web site, articles and an eZine. All of these communicate valuable information to prospects and often this material is handed on to other prospects.

If a prospect contacts you, say from a referral, but doesn't know much about you yet, start informing them before you do a proposal. Send them to pages on your web site that explain about your services in more detail and send them an article that demonstrates you understand their issues. Actually request that they read this information before you have an in-depth selling conversation with them.

2. Improve Your Selling Process

Most InfoGurus have an informal selling process. They ask questions of the prospect about their situation and needs and from there, develop a proposal.

What most don't understand is that this selling process needs to be in much more depth. You have to find out more about exactly what is going on with the prospect. Here are the areas that are absolutely critical:

- What is their current situation and what is missing or not working for them?

- What are their goals and vision? What specific outcomes do they want to accomplish?

- What are their challenges? Why have they not been able to solve their problem? What is stopping them?

- What is this problem costing them? What will happen if they don't take action?

- What would it mean to them to overcome their challenge and achieve their goals? How would things change if they could do this?

- Who have they worked with before and how did it go? Did they get the results they wanted or are they looking for a different approach?

- Why did they contact you and what is it about you that makes them think you can help them?

- What is their commitment to making this work? If they worked with you, what would they bring to the table?

After your selling conversation, you want to know more about them than they know about themselves. That is, through your questions and exploration, you'll have insights about their situation that they've never had before.

3. Build a Proposal With Them

We often think of a proposal as a document we spend hours on, stick on a price tag, and then send it out as we cross our fingers.

That's not the way to do it. You ought to work on the proposal together. And get agreement that you are going in the right direction every step of the way.

The first two parts of a proposal are "The Situation Summary" and "Desired Objectives." Write those first and send them to the client and ask if you are on the right track. Do you understand their situation and are these the actual objectives they want to accomplish?

If you really listened during the sales process you should be on target, but you may need to adjust some things before you take the next steps. Actually talk to them about it. They are the co-authors of the proposal.

The next parts are "Measure of Success" and "Our Approach and Methodologies." The first are how they'll measure the success of the project. The second is how you'll go about doing the actual project. You don't need to list absolutely everything you do.

Again, run it by them. Is this what they want? Does our approach make sense to you?

Finally, you add the basic logistics to the project: "Timing and Scope of Work, Joint Accountabilities, Terms and Conditions."

You don't have a final price on this yet, but you'll be talking about price during the development of the proposal. You'll talk about different parts of the project and how important they are or not. You'll discuss options such as Basic, Standard and Deluxe.

By the end of this process, you'll have created this project hand-in-hand. It is as much their work as it is yours. When they are completely satisfied that the proposal reflects what they want, then you can add a price or prices if you have different options.

Now this process sounds pretty complicated. But it doesn't have to take long. You need to let the prospect know how you do proposals and make an agreement on turnaround. It can be done in a week or two. And most of that is waiting time!

Get the first part out immediately, then request feedback within a couple days. Proceed like this until you are done. The important thing is that your prospect have as much ownership of the proposal as you do. If that's the case, then your proposal will stand apart from all the others.

4. A Few Things You Should Never Do

Don't do a proposal for someone where you haven't had an in-depth selling conversation. You're actually creating the first rough draft of the proposal in this meeting. One of the biggest mistakes InfoGurus make is not knowing enough to actually build a proposal. 

Don't spend hours outlining your methodology step-by-step. This is what they'll pay you for. Yes, you need to give a good sense of what you'll do and the basic steps. But this can often be done in a page or less.

Even if you don't actually build the proposal with the prospect (this won't work every time), make sure they take a look at the proposal before you add the price tag. And have a conversation with them before you do. Make sure you are all on the same page before you price your project.

And finally, don't give just one price. As I talked about above, create three levels of your project with three price tags. Then the prospect has a choice of yesses instead of a choice between yes and no. Most people will generally choose the middle option.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: Alan Weiss has a famous saying: "A proposal is a summation, not an exploration." You want to agree in concept before you even start the proposal. And then you want to build agreement step-by-step with their full participation before you add the price tag. You'll get more prospects saying the magic words: "Yes, we've accepted your proposal."

Please note that the main substance of these ideas I learned from Alan Weiss. When I read his book on "Million Dollar Consulting" in the mid-90's it changed my business. If you want to learn more about proposals and pricing, make sure to put Alan high on your reading list.  

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What have you done to increase the chances of your proposals being accepted? Please share your answer on the More Clients Blog by clicking on the Comments link below.

Comments

[Charlie Lang]

I particularly agree with the quote of Alan Weiss: "A proposal is a summation, not an exploration." Even though I never read any of his books, it's something I always tell people in sales training or our own sales people. There should be no surprises in a proposal, only confirmations.

From an Asian perspective, Robert's step-by-step approach would be a bit challenging in most cases. The pace here is so fast that sometimes not the best proposal wins but the fastest. People are often (not always though) in a hurry, so what we found works best is a slightly modified approach:
- Get to know as much as possible in the first conversation (be it over the phone or in a meeting)
- Don't hesitate to ask for available budget. Surprisingly often they'll give you an indication, if they don't, then do what Robert recommends: give them price options
- Make sure you detail pricing so that they see the real value, especially if you do things in a more extensive manner than your competitors
- Due to most clients' hurry, you'll need to prepare a full proposal right away in most cases. So make sure that you write in the cover letter, and in some tricky parts of the proposal that this is just a first attempt to capture what was discussed and that it's open to modifications, especially if you are not 100% certain that you got it right. You may do that even with the pricing. If I feel that pricing is very sensitive for the client (and I still want the deal), then I'd write something like - "This is our standard pricing, we are open to discuss a specific package deal with you." (especially if the proposal covers an extensive service)
- Follow-up in time and be always open to the possibility that you got it wrong and make sure that the client knows that so that you stay in the game

This way with 2-3 exchanges things can be brought to the point and your chances remain high if you are a good match with the client. Speed is of essence in this part of the world though.

[Brett Martinson]

I too was incredibly impressed with Alan Weiss' "Million Dollar Consulting", and sure people would do fine with any of his books!

It made me think about, and focus on the conversation before the proposal. I know attempt to put most of my time and improvement in that area, as I know if I don't walk away from that meeting with the information for the proposal I'm not even in the game.

[Lisa Giesler]

Robert,
Wow, that was great! Actually, this week I was so busy (which is a good thing) and when a potential big client called and wanted to know the $$$ right off the bat, I gave it to them and then no response. I told my husband, I should have asked more questions and developed the relationship. Oh well, we live and learn. Thanks for the reminders. Lisa Giesler, Professional Organizer/ Speaker

[Robert Middleton]

Neglecting to credit Alan Weiss for the main ideas in this eZine was an oversight! I've learned most of what I know about proposals from Alan. I highly recommend his book, "Million Dollar Consulting."

To Andy's post, this method is not really appropriate to RFPs and most government contracts. I don't usually recommend responding to these. They are a lot harder to get. I think this would require a completely different article, which I am unqualified to write.

[Andy Strote]

Robert, agree with most of your suggestions, but.... in many cases, we're answering an RFP and they have protocols. So, there's no "building this together". They give you an outline of what they're looking for, they will answer your questions, which they share with all other proponents so be careful what you ask, and they don't let you contact them otherwise.

Also, the price issue. In some cases, they stipulate that you can only submit one price, and they don't want options. Often,they'll also share their scoring system, typically 50% price, 30% content of your proposal, 10% understanding of project and 10% whatever.

This is often even for projects where we are the favored candidate, but simply have to go through the paces.

If you've never worked with a client before, the one thing I would suggest is to really probe ahead of time if possible, what your real chances are. Are you just one of three because they need three and they already know where it's going? Is this a cattle call or is there a reason you're on the list?

[Mark Coudray]

Robert, This is one of the best More Clients posts I've seen in a long time. The collaborative approach to proposal development works because you're including the prospective client in the experience. They are actively helping to shape their own outcome when you ask them for their review.

Additionally, this approach goes a long way toward delivering on expectations. Having done dozens of large scale consulting projects, failed or inadequately defined expectations are the number one reason for client dissatisfaction. The more dialog and inclusion you have, the better your chances of clearly defining and meeting what those expectations really are.

This is important because many times clients don't really know what they want. The last thing you want to hear after you've submitted is "we're not really sure exactly what we need, but this isn't it."

[Alan Weiss]

The proposal format and sequence you're citing is, of course, from several of my books, most specifically, "How to Write A Proposal That's Accepted Ever Time."

Alan Weiss
www.contrarianconsulting.com

[michael cardus]

this method does work!
I do something really similar. Taking the time to work the proposal with people creates a commitment and desire to work together.
This also allows for you to properly vett clients who may not be a good fit for your services.

[Sam]

such a great post - you've really nailed some neat solutions to real problems you face when you're creating proposals for clients ... i especially love the the pricing options