Proposals, Part 1: Why Are They A Waste?
You all have been here: The good news is that you’ve been asked to do a proposal for a prospect; the bad news is you’ve been asked to do a proposal. Proposals cut both ways.
After talking to some of my consultant clients about the problems with proposals, I took a step to analyze ten websites that provide outline(s) for consulting proposals. Here are the commonalities:
Commonalities:
All of them have:
a title page that includes the name of the consultant or the consulting firm, the name of the client, the date, and the proposal title;
an executive summary that summarizes the main points of the proposal, such as the problem statement, the proposed solution, the expected outcomes, and the value proposition;
a problem statement that defines the current situation, the challenges, and the goals of the client;
a proposed solution that describes the approach, the methodology, and the deliverables of the consulting project;
a project plan that outlines the scope, the timeline, the milestones, and the responsibilities of the project;
a qualifications and credentials section that showcases the expertise, the experience, and the testimonials of the consultant or the consulting firm;
a budget and pricing section that details the fees, the expenses, and the payment terms of the project; and
some additional components such as the confidentiality, the liability, the termination, and the acceptance clauses.
At one level these outlines are helpful, particularly for the newer consultant; they can help them think through what might be required to submit a proposal. The problem is not that there are many prototypes or standard proposals available online (this is only results from ten such sites), the problem is they are essentially the same -- they do not differentiate you and your services. Using these ‘standard’ templates, our responses to a request (verbal or written) for a proposal is that our responses look alike, with the same sections and follow the same pattern/outline – Executive Summary, Background/Current Situation, Proposed Solution, Project Plan, Qualifications/Credentials, Pricing/Fees, and Signature lines.
The main problems with proposals are, therefore:
It’s hard to differentiate your practice when you look similar to every other consultant. To be sure, we all write proposals differently to ‘appear different’ and stand out but we use essentially the same template.
We give away our Intellectual Property (IP). We openly provide to the prospect our IP in the form of Project Plans, sometimes with lengthy detail on not only our hours but also on our work-effort. We define the scope in detail, what’s included and not included. We give away our outcomes from this project plan including deliverables. Yet, the most important ‘asset’ you have is your knowledge, your IP, and you freely give it away in proposals.
Then you give away your pricing, both the actual prices (by the hour, by the phase, by the project, etc.) and the schema without, generally speaking, directly linking costs with benefits.
Worse yet, virtually all these proposals end with Fees or Terms and Conditions. And, this section is before the signature lines, so the last impression we leave on the purchaser’s mind is cost. Now, that excites me and certainly puts me in a mood to move forward!
Finally, and this is not necessarily about these proposal templates rather about our own predilections to writing with ‘consultantese’ language and using acronyms. We attempt to show how smart we are with high-grade level writing. We write in a manner which is not conducive to understanding. Acronyms are particularly invasive, trying to imply knowledge yet hindering understanding by the prospect – the very person(s) you want to understand. The use of acronyms only serves to show the reader that he/she is less smart than you are, and is that the impression you want to leave?
When we have spent hours preparing a proposal (and generally congratulating ourselves for our good work) we rarely recognize that we just given it all away. You don’t think that some prospects would share that proposal, do you? Won’t use it to ‘go shopping’ for another consultant, perhaps a bit hungrier, who’ll put a lower bid? Oh yeah remember, you just gave them your workplan, your IP, your pricing scheme so that they may compete with you.
Nonetheless, we ‘follow-the-rules’ and look the same, feel the same, provide the same information and, generally speaking, present it in the same order.
We are not, folks, preparing financial statements that need to be comparable to others in the same industry. We are trying to sell ourselves; our skills, knowledge, and experiences; sell our services, in the face of roughly 2mn other consultants in the US. To be successful we have to do so differently. Yet, we do proposals the same as everyone else. We make our proposal read just like the competitions’ proposals, all the way down to and including ending with the cost.
By the way, if you are interested, here are a few of the ways that some writers of the ‘standard’ consulting proposal template try to differentiate their offerings.
Differences:
Some of them have a cover letter that introduces the consultant or the consulting firm, the purpose of the proposal, and the main benefits of the project.
Some of them have a table of contents that lists the sections and the page numbers of the proposal for easy navigation.
Some of them have a background and context section that provides more information about the client, the industry, and the market situation.
Some of them have a SWOT analysis or a risk assessment section that identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the project or the potential risks and mitigation strategies.
Some of them have a case study or a portfolio section that demonstrates the previous work and the results of the consultant or the consulting firm.
Some of them use a simple and minimalist design, while others use a colorful and creative design to attract attention and convey personality.
Some of them use charts, graphs, icons, and images to illustrate the data and the concepts, while others use only text and bullet points to present the information.
Some of them use a formal and professional tone, while others use a friendly and conversational tone to build rapport and trust.
Some of them have a call to action or a next steps section that invites the client to take action, such as signing the proposal, scheduling a meeting, or contacting the consultant.
But note, none of these ‘differences’ are real differences, but simply additional packaging or cosmetic changes; they are still part of ‘standard’ non-differentiating proposals.
This begs the bigger question, why do proposals at all? What do you do differently? We’ll explore that in the next blog -- Proposals: Part 2, What Can You Do, Part 2 of 2.
