APMP Foundation: Developing Proposal Strategy
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This document provides guidance on developing a proposal strategy. It discusses identifying customer needs, issues, and decision criteria. It also covers analyzing competitors' strengths and weaknesses from the customer's perspective. The document teaches how to develop a proposal strategy statement that addresses what and how the strategy will be implemented in the proposal. It stresses linking benefits to differentiating features through theme statements that answer why the customer should choose your solution. The goal is to develop a concise strategy and themes to guide the proposal development and sales messaging.
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Similaire à APMP Foundation: Developing Proposal Strategy
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APMP Foundation: Developing Proposal Strategy
- 1. APMP® Accreditation Programme Developing Strategy Session 1: Proposal Strategy Development © APMP 2005 and Bid to Win Ltd 2010 Version: 0v9
- 2. Developing Strategy Choosing the right opportunities Establishing Requirements Developing Strategy Proposal Strategy Development Teaming Identification Winning Price Development Managing Time, Cost and Planning the Proposal Phase Communicating your Plan Quality Learning from Experience How are we going to win?
- 3. Qualification and Strategy Can we Do we win? want to win? How do we win? Win Strategy
- 4. Qualification and Strategy Can we Do we win? want to Solution Teaming win? Strategy Strategy How do we win? Proposal Price Strategy Strategy Win Strategy
- 5. Customer Competitive Proposal Analysis Analysis Strategy
- 6. Learning objectives: In this unit we are going to examine: Analysing customer decision criteria Developing Initial Value Propositions Analysing our competition (customer view) Identifying our discriminators Developing strategies and win themes Proposal Guide 251
- 7. Understand your customer “If you wish to persuade me, you must think my thoughts, feel my feelings, and speak my words.” - Marcus Tullius Cicero circa 54 BC
- 8. Because if we want to do business we need to know who makes decisions Understand their objectives and concerns • Think their thoughts Identify their level of knowledge or expertise • Speak their words Understand their role: Budget Holder, user, recommender • Feel their feelings
- 9. Issues, Motivators, & Hot Buttons Issues
- 10. Issues, Motivators, & Hot Buttons Issues Motivators
- 11. Issues, Motivators, & Hot Buttons Issues Hot Motivators Buttons
- 12. Can you solve the issues? Motivator / Hot Button Decision Criteria Your Position System Availability Solution Resilience 2 for 1 redundancy 99.999% uptime Lack of / cost of Equipment Footprint 30% of existing space Risk of implementation Vendor Experience Lots of references Reducing OPEX 50% reduction in TCO Yes. Model agreed with Customer. CAPEX restricted Payback within current Yes, payback in 6 months year
- 13. Can you solve the issues? Motivator / Hot Button Decision Criteria Your Position System Availability Solution Resilience 2 for 1 redundancy 99.999% uptime Lack of / cost of Equipment Footprint 30% of existing space Risk of implementation Vendor Experience Lots of references Reducing OPEX 50% reduction in TCO Yes. Model agreed with Customer. CAPEX restricted Payback within current Yes, payback in 6 months year
- 14. Can you solve the issues? Motivator / Hot Button Decision Criteria Your Position System Availability Solution Resilience 2 for 1 redundancy 99.999% uptime Lack of / cost of Equipment Footprint 30% of existing space Risk of implementation Vendor Experience Lots of references Reducing OPEX 50% reduction in TCO Yes. Model agreed with Customer. CAPEX restricted Payback within current Yes, payback in 6 months year
- 15. What is your Value Proposition? – Starting……………………………...…………………… [implementation date] – As a result of <your company>’s… [service or product] – Client will be able to……...................... [do what specifically] – Resulting in………………………………………….. [quantified business improvement] – With payback within………………………… [timeframe] – We will document our delivered value by…………………….……… [result tracking strategy] Proposal Guide 278
- 16. Value Propositions vary by the type of buyer: Consider two examples from a desktop outsource proposition: For the Economic Buyer: For the Technical Buyer MegaCorp will experience a £3m Commencing November 1st 2006, IT reduction in desktop support costs over professionals will have extensive and varied the next 5 years starting November 1st opportunities for personal growth and 2006 by outsourcing support to IT advancement within their profession on their Wizards at a cost of £2m per year. In transfer to IT Wizards. addition MegaCorp will receive a £500K payment for its current desktop assets. IT Wizards will maintain current pay levels for Annual support costs will reduce by 30% current positions. To maintain our leadership measured against the current agreed position IT Wizards regularly reviews pay and baseline. All costs will be clearly visible positions in line with industry standards. to you online as documented in monthly Opportunities for training and Development invoices and quarterly review will be provided as part of normal career summaries. progression.
- 17. Competitive Analysis “If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt” Developing Strategy Sun Tzu: “The Art of War”
- 18. Proposal Strategy Development • Identify how the customer perceives our organisation • Identify the customer’s perceptions of the competitors • Identify the POSITIVE and NEGATIVE discriminators for the opportunity • Develop proposal strategy statements in a ‘what’ & ‘ how’ format
- 19. Competitive Analysis: Who are our competitors? • Look for the hidden competitors as well as the ‘usual suspects’ Competitive intelligence • Many sources: • Account Manager, News and Journals, Web, observation • Suppliers • Plus (best of all) the Customer and/or your competition. Some Useful Tools: • Gap Analysis • SWOT • Chain of Differentiation Use these in a team setting • Teams are creative • Sometimes two minds are better than one, five are better than two
- 20. Te ch no l og y C om pe P ric tit o e rA Perception Te ch n ol C og om y pe tit o tA P ric e A nd so on … Customer Perception - of You & Your Competition
- 21. Customer Perception - of You & Your Competition What you think: y y … e e og og ric ric on ol l P P no n tA so ch ch o Te Te nd tit A pe rA om o tit C pe om C
- 22. Customer Perception - of You & Your Competition What your Customer thinks: y y … e e og og ric ric on ol l P P no n tA so ch ch o Te Te nd tit A pe rA om o tit C pe om C
- 23. Base your strategy on discriminators: the differences that matter to the Customer. Sour Spot Our Their Weaknesses Strengths Customer’s Needs Their Our Strengths Weaknesses Sweet Spot
- 24. Base your strategy on discriminators: the differences that matter to the Customer. Sour Spot • Mitigate Our Weaknesses Our Their Weaknesses Strengths STRATEGY Customer’s Needs Their Our Strengths Weaknesses Sweet Spot
- 25. Base your strategy on discriminators: the differences that matter to the Customer. Sour Spot • Mitigate Our • Neutralize Weaknesses Our Their Their Weaknesses Strengths Strengths STRATEGY Customer’s Needs STRATEGY Their Our Strengths Weaknesses Sweet Spot
- 26. Base your strategy on discriminators: the differences that matter to the Customer. Sour Spot • Mitigate Our • Neutralize Weaknesses Our Their Their Weaknesses Strengths Strengths STRATEGY Customer’s Needs STRATEGY Their • Highlight Our Our Strengths Weaknesses Strengths STRATEGY Sweet Spot
- 27. Base your strategy on discriminators: the differences that matter to the Customer. Sour Spot • Mitigate Our • Neutralize Weaknesses Our Their Their Weaknesses Strengths Strengths STRATEGY Customer’s Needs STRATEGY Their • Highlight Our Our Strengths Weaknesses • Ghost Their Strengths Weaknesses STRATEGY STRATEGY Sweet Spot
- 28. Bidder comparison matrix Decision Criteria Your Position Competitor 1 Competitor 2 Solution 2 for 1 redundancy A Resilience 99.999% uptime Equipment Need only 30% of B Footprint existing space Vendor C Experience Lots of references 50% reduction in Yes. TCO Model agreed D OPEX with Customer. ++ Payback within Yes, payback in 6 E current year months
- 29. Creating your Proposal strategy: • Headline sentence(s) that pinpoint the key to success in our case: “In order to win we must……….” – WHAT you are going to do in the proposal – HOW you are going to do it in the proposal • Mitigate your weaknesses, neutralise their strengths • Highlight your strengths, ghost their weaknesses • The focus area of your sales messaging: – Driven by Customer Issues – Based on Your Company’s discriminators – Relevant and supported by evidence
- 30. Get pecific easurable chievable elevant ime related
- 31. Themes must support the strategy: • Resilience: demonstrate compliance, quote service record • Ghost competitor 1’s weakness in space usage. Win Show that our solution needs 30% less space Stress extra cost and delivery risk with larger kit Strategy • Experience: Show compliance, provide references show (What and experience of team How • TCO: Neutralise Competitor 2 strength on price by stressing sentences) early benefits and savings over the full cycle • Ghost Competitor 2’s delivery performance by showing that our systems are shipping and in service now Major: Win • Compact cost effective solution Themes • Early delivery, early benefits (Key • Savings available this year messages) Minor: • Proven resilient solution • Experienced team
- 32. Develop Theme Statements from your Proposal Strategy Theme Statements: • Are derived from the Win Theme • Appear in every major section • Highlight your Discriminators – Linking customer needs to quantified benefits – Linking those benefits to features • Can be either – a concise sentence or paragraph – or a visual • Links benefit to discriminating feature • Answers the question ‘Why us?’ Proposal Guide 272
- 33. Connect benefits to discriminators: © LORE Systems International
- 34. Develop the theme: Payback this Speed of Fast Early OPEX XYZCo case year implementation deployment reduction. study approach Reduced project costs 50% TCO Cost of space Small footprint Only 30% of Gartner reduction and power and low power space needed benchmark consumption and 50% of report power High support Lifetime No ‘break fix’ Financial charges warranty maintenance projection vs charges. (-15%) competition © LORE Systems International
- 35. Theme statements link discriminating features to Customer benefits: “You will be able to realise financial payback this year(GOAL), overcoming the problem of implementation speed (ISSUE) because of our rapid deployment approach(FEATURE). This will give you early OPEX savings and release space equivalent to twice the purchase cost. Your internal project costs will also be half what you could expect with a typical alternative (BENEFITS). After a similar project XYZCo’s Managing Director said “ABC really delivered for us. The system was installed in half the time and paid for itself in 6 months”. (PROOF)”. A Theme Statement can also be a GRAPHIC © LORE Systems International
- 36. Quick Quiz Question: Which of these statements best describes a theme statement? a) Theme statements link strategy and solution b) Theme statements link the advantages and benefit c) A theme statement links a prospect benefit to the discriminating features of your offer. d) Theme statements establish sales objectives Please click on your selection
- 37. How did we do? c) A theme statement links a prospect benefit to the discriminating features of your offer. The best themes contain your unique discriminators. That is, something the prospect wants which only you can offer. a) “Theme statements link strategy and solution” is not the best description because themes should tell prospects why they should select you. Strategy and solution say more about the seller than the prospect. b) “Theme statements link the advantages and benefit ” is not the best description either because while these are about the prospect , advantages are only potential benefits if they relate to a prospect issue. d) “Theme statements establish sales objectives” is not a good description because it says only what the seller wants to achieve for themselves.
- 38. In this session we have: Gained an increased appreciation of the customer’s view Developed a statement explaining our value Responded to different types of buyer/evaluator Understood the competition from customer’s viewpoint Showed we are different from the customer Developed a proposal strategy and win themes Proposal Guide 251
- 39. Preparing for the eTorial References • The Manco case study • Your exercise notes • Proposal Guide – Pages 272, 278 Exercises for the e-torial • Develop a value proposition for ManCo • Create two themes for your proposal • Submit your work to the class space
- 40. • Value, the Prospect’s budget, and your price – Using quantified value to establish price targets – Pricing approaches and cost targets
Notes de l'éditeur
- Welcome to the third module in our series of the APMP Foundation Training webinars.There are three sessions in this module covering strategy, teaming and winning price development.In this session we’re going to look at how we apply the knowledge gained about the Customer and Competition to develop our overall strategy and themes for our proposal
- After this webinar you should be able to describe best practice approaches to:Analysing customer issues and decision criteriaDeveloping Initial Value PropositionsAnalysing our competition (customer view)Identifying our discriminatorsDeveloping strategies and win themesAfter this session there will be an e-torial assignment where you can apply the learning points above.
- Qualification and strategy are linked.When we ask the question “Can we win?” we’re really asking “do we have a strategy that can win?”From the strategy we can identify the actions that are necessary to win.<Next>Trainers should cover the following either with slides or through discussion for this syllabus subject:Definition of Proposal StrategyTerminology Features, Benefits, Advantages, Discriminator DifferentiatorHow to identify organisation strengths and weaknessesGhosting – terminology and how to do itWe make a distinction between WIN STRATEGY and PROPOSAL STRATEGYThe Win Strategy is made up of many components many not concerned with the proposal itself. The Proposal Strategy is how you are going to implement the Win Strategy in the proposal document. For both we need simple statements of WHAT you are going to do and HOW you are going to do it.As you gather intelligence about the different aspects of the deal start to build up your win strategy a piece at a time. The major elements of the Win Strategy are contained in the Win Plan (Capture Plan)You need to consider:The Customer Pain ChainThe Customer’s perception of Value. The Customer’s evaluation plan. Is this agreed with the Customer?Your competitive strategy. How will Your Company’s offer be differentiated? How can you minimise your competitor’s value?Your partnering plan. Do you need 3rd parties as part of your win team? How will you secure them?
- It’s useful to think of the Win Strategy in terms of four aspects:The Solution: what are we going to offerTeaming: who will be the winning teamPrice: what price should we offer; what will the final price be?Proposal: how do we get the strategy into our proposal.<next>
- In this session I want to focus on proposal strategy and I’ll approach it in three distinct activities
- KLP: If we are not customer focused we have already lostRead the ManCo case study. We’re not going to do the exercise just yet (5-10 minutes).Who are we selling to?What is their problem?Will they be the final decision maker?
- If we want to do business with anyone we had first better know exactly who is involved in the decision making process, and construct our ‘persuasive arguments’ around their individual needs
- First I’d just like to introduce some terminology:Issues are all the things affecting or of concern to the prospect.In SPIN selling terms they are the IMPLIED NEEDS<next>
- Motivators are the sub-set of issues that will cause them to take action (buy).In SPIN terms they are the EXPRESSED NEEDS<next>
- Hot buttons are issues that are high in the list of customer concerns. They will not necessarily cause the customer to buy but they will weigh heavily in the final buying decision.They may well be discriminators for the ProspectE.g. Training. On the last project the customer got poor training. On this project they want to know how the training will be done. Getting good training is not, in itself, a reason to buy but it can help choose between one supplier and another
- This is based on a case that came up in a course I ran some time ago.The Prospect is an on-line retailer who needs to upgrade their server farm.
- Once you have got to the root of your Customer’s issues and concerns and checked your company’s ability to deliver you should be able to create a Value proposition.The example is from the Holden methodExercise will help you with thisStarting in Mar 07As a result of our new call centre technologyClient can offer enhanced helpdesk serviceHappier customers, less dropped calls, shorter waits, more telesales etcPayback 15 monthsDocument by collecting call stats** Must confirm with customer that proposition is okay
- In ‘The Art of War’ by the Chinese General and Philosopher Sun Tsu, a basic premise is to"knowyourenemy as you know yourself“.He also said “A wise general never seeks battle until the war is won”In terms of review – where do we check our competitive understanding?Black Hat review.
- Hidden competitor: = do nothingCan be won before RFP arrivesSynergy 1 + 1 = 3Now let’s look at the toolsBidding can sometimes seem like war, so to gain an understanding of the competitive environment in which we are operating let’s Look at who we are competing withSources of information about where the competition are atUnderstand where our strengths lie compared to the competitionPeople can sometimes change sides (e.g. Italy) and a foe you may have in one war may be allies in the next (e.g. Britain & Russia in WWI and WWII) – this is a nice link to co-opetition and the concept of the Value Net.
- KLP the Customer’s perception is REALITYChoose another example?Example of Sun teaming with Oracle against Microsoft.When you do the LORE circles exercise recall that we are seeking to change perceptions by MESSAGING
- KLP the Customer’s perception is REALITYChoose another example?Example of Sun teaming with Oracle against Microsoft.When you do the LORE circles exercise recall that we are seeking to change perceptions by MESSAGING
- KLP the Customer’s perception is REALITYChoose another example?Example of Sun teaming with Oracle against Microsoft.When you do the LORE circles exercise recall that we are seeking to change perceptions by MESSAGING
- Present this example: (TCO = total cost of ownership)From this analysis it is obvious that we should focus on both B and E. We also need a Neutralising strategy for Competitor 2’s additional strength in DWe need to be compliant with A, C and D and clearly state in our proposal that we meet the buy criteria – however we should go to town on B & E so it exposes our competitors’ weaknesses.If key differentiators don’t immediately jump out we need to probe deeper. Performing a SWOT analysis on ourselves and competitors can also be revealing. Doing a SWOT shows that Criteria D needs attention – whilst all competitors will be able to demonstrate a 50% reduction in TCO, competitor 2 has lower purchase price so could appear to be cheaper – we need to ensure that we level the playing field by explaining our TCO calculations.Originally based on servers but could apply in many contexts contextExercise:Get delegates to draw a GAP & SWOT matrix for one of their bids Review the analysisNow take that position of strength and build into a sales themePropose private study on further intelligence gathering and analysisKEY LEARNING POINT:SWOT is fine for assessing general competitive position but to generate winning strategies and compelling themes then all strengths and weaknesses need to be measured with respect to customer specific issues and concerns.
- From our Win Strategy (which may include lots of things that are nothing to do with the Proposal) we need to generate Proposal Strategy Statements.These should be in What and How format. E.g:“We are going to address the customer’s concern over software support costs by stressing the simplicity of our fault tolerant architecture. We don’t need specialist programmers or programming techniques”“We are going to contain our competitor’s relative strength in formal Project Management assessments by stressing that our model looks at Programmes and Portfolios as well: these are even more important to the customer.”Also, draw the Lore ‘circles picture’ to illustrate the sweet spot and sour spots – and how the proposal help achieves to maximise the sweet spot and minimise the sour spot.The four strategies of LORE:Mitigate our weaknessesGhost the competition’s weaknessMinimise their strengthsMaximise our strengths
- Win theme – could be key discriminatorCan be shown as a graphicHeiman Silver – why us? On every page of your proposal
- The GIFBP format comes from LORE Systems (Bacon and Pugh, “Powerful Proposals”Its a useful way to create theme statements and value based arguments.
- P272
- In the eTorial we’ll show some competitive analysis tools SWOT analysis and chain of diferentiation.