Indeed, excitement that an RFP generates is often quickly tempered by dawning realization of immense amount of toil that goes into competing for – and winning – that coveted government or private-sector contract. As always, it’s when stakes are highest that everyone on your team must shine their brightest and produce their best work.

You can help by breaking down proposal into manageable parts, by assigning specific sections to appropriate individuals on your team, by establishing a series of realistic deadlines that allow for producing a polished looking proposal, and by ensuring that finished proposal contains both a strong call to action and all required information specified in RFP.

INCOMPAS can assist you in all phases of this process, or you can call us in at very end, to assist you in editing and final presentation of your proposal. To get you started, we’ve developed a point-by-point plan to assist you in preparing a winning proposal.

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Proposal Preparation Plan

Be Informed:

· Read RFP carefully, all way through, at least three times, so that everyone in your organization has a thorough grasp of all requirements and expectations. The information that is crucial to your proposal will likely be scattered throughout RFP.

· Recognize and understand proposal for what it is: a plan that identifies a need or problem, followed by effective strategies that meet need or solve problem, a list of anticipated costs and an explanation of how strategies’ progress and resulting benefits will be measured. Your proposal must contain a strong call to action, and it must be organized and concise, including all required information.

· Focus on proposal evaluation criteria and subsequent weight given to each proposal section. It is here that you will learn where to focus your efforts during preparation of your proposal.

Be Organized:

· Develop a proposal schedule by working backwards from due date, and stick to it. Establish separate due dates for financial information, allowing sufficient time to acquire more information and refine existing information. Hold regular meetings with your proposal teams to discuss strategies, progress and any roadblocks that are encountered along way. Make sure you factor in plenty of time for copying, binding and delivery of your proposal. Set aside additional time for distributing your proposal to your entire team, and make sure there is a qualified person on hand to proof-read final document before it leaves your organization.

· Delegate and inform. In each section of RFP, specify individual who will be preparing information for that section, and provide them with a guideline word or page count as well as a bulleted list of points to be covered in that section. Post important instructions, so that your team has easy access to information such as proposal due date, number of required copies, delivery instructions, etc. Don’t complicate your team’s job by making them hunt for this information.

Many years ago, I was riding subway downtown to work one morning, and I overheard a woman saying she felt "naked" because she forgot to wear her earrings that day.

Since then, I've heard that expression used on other occasions, if someone's forgotten to wear their wedding band... their watch... or even their pantyhose.

Now of course, when you say you're feeling "naked", what you really mean, is... you feel "incomplete".

And whether you know it or not, you may be leaving your prospects feeling "incomplete" in your sales copy.

Here's why: Listen to each of these very familiar phrases, and tell me what they all have in common, O.K.?

Here you go:

"A B C"

"on your mark... get set... go" (in UK, that would be "ready... steady... go")

"first, second, third"

"3 blind mice"

"3 wise men"

"The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" O.K., that's enough.

You see what each of these expressions has in common, right?

They each contain a sequence of three items, stated back-to-back.

Why is this important to know, and how can you use this to improve your sales copy?

The answer is simple: Because of all these common references you've heard over-and-over again throughout your life, your brain's been programmed to accept and understand things, when they're given to you in "threes".

You just feel more "at ease" processing information that's given to you in blocks of "three".

So make sure to use this “power” of three... in your sales copy!

Because if you want to make some money using your sales copy, you must get your prospects feeling as relaxed and comfortable as a grizzly bear, all snuggled up and hibernating in his nice warm cave.

Think about it: Whenever someone starts giving you a list of things, once you hear second item on that list, don't you automatically anticipate, there's going to be a third?

Here's an example of what I mean: Let's say you own a hotel, and you're listing some of benefits of staying at your hotel, and you present them in bullets.

If you say this...

75 over-sized comfy rooms that each face ocean! You'll want to make sure you've got your video camera handy as you're unwinding on your private balcony watching daily sunset, listening to waves roll up against shore right outside your window! 3, 5-Star restaurants! And each one of them offers you a minimum of 27 tasty meals and 11 local desserts, all prepared fresh, daily. (Plus, you get our "If you don't like it -- you don't pay for it, guarantee!") If you stop here... and then you move on with some other copy... it somehow leaves you with that "incomplete" feeling we just talked about, right?