4 Key Traits of Successful Proposals
Each time a new contract award is announced, you may be wondering, “How did they do that?”
Whether you keep losing to the same competitor, your win rate is lower than you like, or you send out proposals only to never hear back, it’s easy to start thinking that maybe there is some secret key to winning proposals that you’re missing.
Fortunately for you, winning proposals tend to have a few traits in common, no matter the industry or if they’re for RFPs or not.
Keep reading for the four most common traits of successful proposals!
SUCCESS TRAIT #1:
Clear and Concise Language
This first trait is true of any type of writing, but especially sales proposals.
The unfortunate reality is that many people in our modern world are overwhelmed with information, and that means their brain is probably already at or near capacity when they pick up your proposal.
Because of this, your goal is to show why your proposed solution is the best choice in as few words as possible. The more direct and to the point you can be, the easier it is for your proposal to sell for you. (But that doesn’t mean leaving out persuasive content – more on that below!)
Here are my go-tos for ensuring our proposals are clear and concise:
Use easy-to-read language. It can be easy to start incorporating industry jargon into your proposal or swapping in more impressive words where a simpler one will suffice. While expertise is important, if you use too complicated language or industry jargon, it can actually have the opposite effect by making your proposal harder to read and understand. If the evaluator isn’t an expert in your field, they may not know all of the jargon, which will make reading your proposal even tougher (something we never want!). If in doubt, swap a term for something that everyone would know, or cut it out altogether.
Easy to skim. As mentioned above, many evaluators are overwhelmed and have too many items on their to-do lists each day. That means they pick up your proposal and scan it to find the information that will help them make the best buying decision. Since you know they’re going to be skimming your proposal, make it easier by designing your proposal with this in mind. Use bullet points, headings and subheadings, graphics, and other details, such as bolding key text, to make it easy to find your most persuasive points. Evaluators will appreciate your efforts and be more likely to award you more points because they were able to find all of the key information without having to dig through pages of text.
Focused with no fluff content. One common mistake I see companies make is to decide to include content because “they might find this interesting” or “they’ll want this detail.” This always comes from a place of good intentions, but if you include too much information, it actually makes it harder for evaluators to find your most important points. It can be tempting to include the latest company updates or an entire spec sheet, but if you do that, you’re distracting the reader from the content that shows exactly why they should work with you. As a rule of thumb, if it doesn’t align with the main reasons they would buy from you, leave it out (or at least include it in the appendix so it doesn’t disrupt your overall proposal content).
Suggested Reading:
SUCCESS TRAIT #2:
Focused on the Customer
This trait builds on the last trait: one way successful proposals keep their content concise is by focusing on the customer.
If you’re always reviewing your content through the lens of the buyer and their goals, you’re less likely to include language that alienates, distracts, or overwhelms the reader.
One way to stay focused on the customer is to first consider what they want to achieve, how they hope that will solve their problem, and what they are afraid will happen if they don’t.
To do this, you will need to understand your customers and really get to the core of why they are buying your solution.
When you learn what they want to achieve, you can align your proposal content to be aspirational and show the ways that your solution will create this reality.
By understanding their hopes, you can create a future vision in your proposal that aligns with the buyer's dreams, which will make your content stronger and more focused.
Understanding their fears can help you to solidify the last two points, but if you have time, you can briefly touch on what will happen if they don’t invest in your solution (limit this though because we want your proposal to be positive!).
In addition to integrating all of these points, keep all of your language customer-focused rather than focused on your company. One easy way to do this is to reword sentences to place more emphasis on the customer. For example, instead of saying, “We have 400 employees across four states”, you might say, “Customer will be supported by our 400 employees across four states, including 175 in your state.” This simple tweak is an easy step to more customer-focused content.
Suggested Reading:
SUCCESS TRAIT #3:
Well Organized
Successful proposal writers know that organization is essential to making a compelling point.
Instead of throwing together all of the information and sending it off to your customer, think about the order in which you present information.
You want to show that you understand their problem first, then guide them to a potential solution to that problem. From there, show why your solution is the best, and then give them pricing. You can always conclude with a final section that highlights key points of your solution aligned with their goals to make your proposal even stronger.
If you’re responding to RFPs, always follow the RFP instructions. However, some RFPs are a bit vague on the organization. In those cases, use the evaluation criteria as a guide.
Within each section, make sure you keep your paragraphs focused on a single point and tie them to an overall theme within the section (you might have a few themes throughout).
Every sentence should add something to your proposal. If it doesn’t align with the customer or doesn’t help to show why you are the best choice, cut it out (unless it’s required by the RFP, such as certain legal language).
A well-structured proposal will have a clear flow that guides the reader on a journey from skepticism to excitement to work with you (ideally a state of “We have to work with this company!”).
Suggested Reading:
SUCCESS TRAIT #4:
Clear Value
The final trait is all about selling your solution.
Something I heard early in my career is that a proposal is a written sales pitch. I keep this in mind when creating proposals, and it results in a proposal that sells on its own, without needing someone to explain it.
This trait goes back to understanding the customer. The only way to show value is to know what the customer finds valuable.
If it’s not valuable to the buyer, then it’s not adding value to your proposal. Either revise or remove it so you can add something that they will find valuable.
You will want to connect the dots between the customer’s goals (that you hopefully identified above) and the outcomes that they will achieve in working with you.
Of course, don’t commit to something you can’t promise, but instead show examples of similar work you’ve done in the past, of results you’ve achieved, and anything quantifiable that helps to prove your point.
Make it very clear that by investing in your solution, the customer gets a lot of value because it brings them closer to their desired outcome with benefits that they maybe didn’t consider.
The more explicit you can be in your proposal, the more the customer will see the value.
Suggested Reading:
How do you know if your proposal has these traits?
Read through a recent proposal to see if the traits 1-4 are used throughout. Ask yourself these questions:
Is all of our content aligned with our sales strategy and the customer’s goals?
If we remove this section, will it make our proposal clearer or more confusing?
How much jargon do we have? Can we revise?
Do we mention our company more than the customer?
Does this read like it could be written for any company or for this customer specifically?
Here are a few signs your proposals might need improvement:
→ You consistently score lower than expected on RFPs.
→ You’re mostly copying and pasting from past proposals (with little customer focus).
→ If you open your proposal to a random page and read a random paragraph, it isn’t clear who the customer is or what they need.
→ Your win rate is less than 30%.
If you experience any of the above, it may be time to focus on tweaking your proposal content to more closely align with successful proposals.
Ready to write successful proposals?
You can use the traits above to get started, but if you need a bit more help, check out our trainings.