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by Michael Theriault
Your business proposal will be more successful if you take a more stragic approach, customize it to meet your clients needs, and follow the following 7 golden rules;
- Follow Instructions: This may include submitting mandatory requirements in the form specified, using their format if requested, maintaining the same order when answering questions, sticking to their page count, font size, margins and even packaging your proposal properly.
- Know What they want to hear: Talk to them before the RFP comes out, then find past employees and look at the company and its clients up on the internet to understand them better.
- Have a great solution: Include the details and nuances that will clearly differentiate your solution from your competition and have your clients believing that you understand their needs better than anyone else.
- Answer the questions: Make sure you understand your client's questions well. Start with your direct answer without beating around the bush or adding caveats and conditions.
- Keep the sales pitch to a dull roar: Skip the fluff and sell your benefits and convince them with details and examples that prove you can do the job, not just talk about it.
- Get your point across: Based on what's important to the client, eliminate the unnecessary material and emphasize the important information.
- Make it easy for evaluators: Focus attention on things that influence the evaluation, structure it in the same order as the scoring matrix and even provide a summary at the end that re-emphasizes how you match the requirements and meet the evaluation criteria.
source: canadaone.ca
Added on November 19, 2009
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