Why Proposals Fail
There’s a fine post at Instigator Blog: Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail, by Ben Yoskovitz. I’d like to add a few notes of my own.
Point 1. Killing pain is nice, but thriving is better.
Ben is very right to focus on the prospect’s pain, if and when he’s right that pain is the reason they’re asking for proposals in the first place. But desire for the absence of pain is a negative motivation. It’ll get you to take an aspirin and a client to take the consulting equivalent.
But every time an organization is in pain, there’s also an upside opportunity, either right in there with the pain, or lurking nearby. And it’s important to find that and focus on it.
Sometimes the client is perfectly aware of it. Very often the pain is simply a missed upside target. (”We only grew 12% topline last year, and the industry grew 11%. Barely beating the average is unacceptable; we want to double it.”) This organization is giving you some gain to talk about, and that’s a lot more fun, for you and for the client, than just talking pain. In many cases, though, the client won’t show you the upside, and you need to find it yourself.
Some organizations have the wisdom to call in help for upside reasons, but more companies need to do so more often. And you, as a consultant, should be looking for clients with that level of wisdom. If a client only calls you in because of headaches, look for a better class of client, one who’ll make you a partner in their success and not just a school nurse.
Point 2. A focus on gain allows you to offer a menu. Menus are good.
If at all possible, your proposal should offer a menu of options.
- Option A, plain vanilla, leaves the client headache-free. (For now. But you don’t say those words.)
- Option B, which costs more money, offers enough upside to make the client happy to have invested a little extra.
- Option C, the deluxe, will win the client accolades, bonuses, promotions, and dates with supermodels. Your immense final check will be written with a beaming grin.
Offering a menu provides several advantages, which I won’t list exhaustively (perhaps in another post.) But I’ll mention one: few of your competitors will offer precisely the same menu, and so your proposal will have to be considered separately from the pack. If the prospect allows you any way to break away from the pack, do so. Better yet, don’t even start inside a pack. Read on….
Point 3. A proposal that isn’t a recap is way too much like a cold call. Brrrr!
Ben seems to assume that you’re on a level playing field with a batch of other consultants. But if that’s the case for more than a third of your proposals, then you’re one of the following:
- very new in your business, or
- in a new practice area (nobody was consulting on corporate blogging two years ago), or
- practicing in a realm where there can’t be much repeat business, or
- in deep trouble.
After a couple of years in business, most of your proposals should simply be recaps of what you and the client, in private discussions, have already agreed needs to be done. Even if the client writes an RFP detailing what you and they agreed on, and your competitors respond to the RFP, you still have a leg up. Why? Because in the process of talking through the need, you’ve demonstrated your insight. The prospect will view you as able to perform what you, and only you, talked them into.
Ben’s points are good. But there’s a lot more to this proposal game, and the ultimate goal is to get business without writing proposals. With my last client, by the time we agreed on what needed to be in a proposal, we were also clear on what needed to be done and that I was the one to do it. The next paper transaction between us? He handed me a check while telling me to get started. It won’t work in every industry or practice area, but you’d be surprised how many it will work in.
(Cross-posted to Management Consulting Lore.)