The Magic Of Winning Proposals: The Simple, Step-By-Step Approach To Writing Proposals That Win, Getting New Clients, and Implementing an Unbeatable Marketing Plan

139 Pages·2014·5.8 MB·English

by  Laura Ricci

THE MAGIC OF
WINNING
PROPOSALS

Help Everybody Everyday
200 Laydon Lane
West Chester, PA 19380
Copyright 2014 by Matthew Handal All international rights reserved. No part of this book or electronic files
may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission from
the Publisher. Reproduction of up to 100 words for the purpose of published review is acceptable to the
publisher with notice by mailing a copy of the published review to Matt Handal, 200 Laydon Lane, West
Chester, PA 19380.
First Edition 1998 by R3 publishing.
Second Edition 2000 by R3 publishing.
Third Edition 2006 by R3 publishing.
Fourth Edition 2010 (electronic publication) by R3 publishing.
Fifth Edition 2014 by Matthew Handal.
LCCN 98-093370
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ricci, Laura
The Magic of Winning Proposals / Laura Ricci
p.151 cm
1. Marketing and Sales
2. Marketing Management
3. Management: Organizational Change
4. Management: Organizational Effectiveness
5. Sales Training and Education
ISBN 978-1-5027-9219-8
Edited by Matt Handal
Earlier editions edited by George Wilkerson
The high point in the story of Peter Pan comes when Tinkerbell is dying and Peter turns to the audience and
asks those who believe in fairies to exclaim that belief because that’s what keeps Tinkerbell alive.
Unfortunately, there are those adults who believe that a winning proposal is also magical. “All you have to
do is believe,” they say. “It’s like magic; some people have the touch, and some don’t.”
Well, the fact is that Winning Proposals isn’t magic at all. But there is some fairy dust in every proposal
that wins. The good news is that no one owns the fairy dust; anyone can use it to write a Winning Proposal.
This manual uses some of that fairy dust, and if you use these tools, the next time you write a proposal,
you’re likely to have people believing that you have found the fairy dust, too.
Foreword
Prepare to have your mind blown.
My desk is littered with piles of business books. Even my Kindle account has its
own virtual pile of books. Some of them were bought. Some were gifts. Others
were sent to me in hopes I would provide an endorsement.
Each of these books has a common thread that ties them all together. They are all
half read. For whatever reason, after a few chapters (or even a few pages), I
decided my time was better spent doing something other than reading the rest of
that book.
So, why have I read The Magic of Winning Proposals from “cover to cover” so
many times? I want to share my perspective on that.
What if someone wrote a book that provided the exact strategies the Coca-Cola
Company or the Walt Disney Company use to beat their competition? And what
if, in addition to that, this book contained the systems and forms they use to
create this advantage? These are multi-billion-dollar corporations that today
seem almost unbeatable. If it were ever written, that book would instantly appear
on the New York Times Best Seller List. People would kill for that information,
right?
Now consider this. The book before you provides the exact strategies multi-
billion-dollar consulting firms (among them at least two of the top ten
engineering consulting firms in the world) use to beat their competition. In
addition, this book contains the systems and forms they use to create this
advantage. Yet, in the ten years since it was first written, you’ve never heard of
it. You didn’t even know it existed. And neither did I.
I stumbled upon this book like a clumsy sailor would stumble onto a hidden
treasure chest. It was never published as a hard cover or paperback book. Rather,
it was used as a training manual for some of the top consulting firms in the
world. Towards the end of her career, in 2010, Laura Ricci quietly published her
manual as a digital book.
If I had not stumbled upon Laura’s website in 2011, I probably wouldn’t have
known this book existed. If I wasn’t reading every book on the topic of
proposals because I was writing my own, I might not have been willing or
interested in reading it. And if I hadn’t reached out to Laura, like you, I wouldn’t
have truly understood what I held in my hand.
There are other books out there about winning competitive procurements. But
what makes The Magic of Winning Proposals so much more useful is it doesn’t
just explain how to write proposals. It holds your hand and takes you through an
easy-to-read, step-by-step, process...providing the forms to fill out along the
way. It’s almost like she does the hard part for you.
I subtitled the book, The Simple, Step-By-Step Approach To Writing Proposals
That Win, Getting New Clients, and Implementing an Unbeatable Marketing
Plan because Laura’s guide to writing proposals is sandwiched in a no-nonsense
approach to marketing your service-based firm.
Once you read this book, you’ll understand why I have such reverence for it and
why we are all so lucky that Laura allowed me to pursue a dream...getting this
book in as many hands as possible.
MATT HANDAL
Author of Proposal Development Secrets
Contents
1 Now You See It; Now You Don’t: Why Your Marketing Might Not Work And What To Do About
It
Why Spend Money on Marketing?
Customer CASEs
2 The Process Winners Use To Win: How To Set Up Systems That Will Lead To More Contracts
Strategy and Analysis First
The Marketing Plan: A Process, Not a Product
3 How To Find The Real Clients And Get Inside Their Head (Even When You Don’t Know Where
To Start)
Identifying the Buyers
Four Types of Buyers (BUGS)
Issues of Critical Importance
ISSUEs of Critical Importance
Identifying the Gaps in Knowledge
Making an Action Plan
Black Hole Report
Identifying the Client Target
Setting the Goal for Your Meetings
Marketing Meeting Worksheet
Go/No-Go Decisions
Reviewing the Meeting Results
Looping Back to Strategy and Analysis
Comparing Strategic and Tactical Elements of Marketing
Analyzing the ISSUEs
Check Out the BUGS
Review Your GO/NO-GO Checklist
GO/NO-GO Checklist
4 The Big Building Technique: The Proposal Tactic Firms Use To Hack Their Clients’ Minds
The Magic of a Theme
Moderator Notes for a Theme Meeting
5 Craft A Compelling Proposal By Stealing From The Hollywood Playbook
Storyboards
How To Use Storyboards
A Sample Storyboard
How to Save Money on Proposals
Storyboard
6 The Proposal Process That Will Save You Money, Protect Your Interests, And Give You An Edge
Over Your Competition
Cost Proposal
Reviewing the Cost Proposal
The Request for Proposals
Example of a Proposal Summary
Setting a Schedule: Don’t Try to Pull a Rabbit Out of a Hat
Sample Schedule
Distribution of Authority
Enforcing Security
Database Resources
Unfriendly Ghosts and Goblins
Writing the White “Draft”
Storyboard
Proposal Graphics
The White Team Review
Example of Helpful Comments
Example of Useless Comments
Example of a Complete Storyboard
Writing Style
Writing the Pink “Draft”
The Pink Team Review
Writing the Final Draft
The Red Team Review
Publication and Delivery Management
Comparing Strategic and Tactical Elements of Proposal Management
7 The Shortlist Solution: How Non-Actors Can Pull A Rabbit Out Of The Hat
Best and Final Offer
Oral Proposals
8 How To Win Even If You’ve Lost
Internal Proposal Team
Client Debriefs
About The Author
Appendix
Black Hole Report
Four Types of Buyers (BUGS)
Customer CASEs
GO/NO-GO Checklist
ISSUEs of Critical Importance
Marketing Meeting Worksheet
Sample Schedule
Storyboard
Comparing Strategic and Tactical Elements of Marketing
Comparing Strategic and Tactical Elements of Proposal Management
Moderator Notes for a Theme Meeting