Persuasive RFP Responses Qvidian Proposal Automation (QPA) Best Practice

Transcription

1 Persuasive RFP Responses Qvidian Proposal Automation (QPA) Best Practice Tips to Avoid Early Elimination Evaluating proposals and RFPs is just as hard as writing them. Evaluators do not have much time to review each proposal in detail. First, they look for reasons to eliminate bidders who are non-compliant. Second, they want to quickly be able to understand the value that each proposal provides to their organization. Your first objective is to avoid early elimination. Beyond that, your goal is demonstrate that you offer the best value proposition for the customer. Evaluators hate proposals that are incomplete, difficult to navigate and hard to read. They don t like wading through information dumps or proposals that contain irrelevant content and materials. RFP responses that offer no differentiation, and emphasize bulk over content, are easy targets for early-round elimination. Below are some basic tips to stay in the game and increase your chances for moving forward in the customer s review process. Deliver the proposal on time Address all the requirements and graphically show your compliance Spell out the benefits of your response Use simple language and be as concise as possible Give the customer what they ask for Know the competition and emphasize your differentiators Make your proposal easy to scan and easy to recommend Persuasive RFP Responses Customers and consultants issue formal RFPs to obtain consistent information so they can compare offers. Sounds simple, right? The majority of RFPs they receive, however, rarely identify the business issues underlying the proposal or address why a particular question is being asked. RFPs present a unique challenge over proactive sales proposals. Because you typically must answer the customer s questionnaire within a strict set of guidelines, you have less opportunity to craft a persuasive document structure. Therefore, you must find opportunities in the body of certain responses to build rapport with the customer, show your understanding of their needs and provide compelling answers to their questions. Some RFP questions only require short, factual answers. In those instances, provide just the information requested. Don t write five paragraphs of content when five words will answer the question. However many RFP questions require descriptions of processes, capabilities or strategic concepts. Usually, the customer has an underlying reason or concern for asking these types of questions. By answering questions in a way that acknowledges and addresses the customer s core need, you significantly enhance the persuasiveness of your response. 1

2 For these important questions, Qvidian suggests using the A-P-S format: Acknowledge restate the customer s question or requirements in general terms, empathizing with the concern that lies behind the question. Yes, we understand that this is an important issue. Persuade incorporate a value or benefit statement the decision maker cares about into the description. In fact, it s so important that we did something special about it. Substantiate provide the factual answer. Here are the details. Sample Response Question: Describe your methods to recycle waste. (From an RFP for waste disposal services) Using the A-P-S persuasive pattern Acknowledge ACME Waste appreciates and supports your interest in recycling. We can tailor a recycling program for you to meet your environmental and cost reduction goals. Persuade An ACME environmental consultant will analyze your current waste streams, assist with setting up a collection or recycling program and educate your staff on the benefits of recycling. Substantiate Our methods of recycling depend on the type of waste as well as the market area involved. In addition to standard wastes such as paper, aluminum, plastic and glass, we can meet a wide variety of recycling needs. An interesting phenomenon of using the A-P-S format It might seem that using this A-P-S format would lengthen your RFP responses, though a primary goal is to keep your proposals as short and concise as possible. In actuality, using the A-P-S structure can shorten the overall length of individual answers and the entire RFP response. A common reason that proposals are too bulky is that contributors add volumes of content in the hopes of answering questions somewhere in the midst of a huge data dump. We assume that if we provide lots of information, the customer will be able to figure out the relevance and importance of our answers. That s a false assumption. By using the A-P-S format, we acknowledge the customer s fundamental concern at the beginning of the answer. We then add a high-level persuasive description of our approach to addressing their needs. This short lead-in diminishes our desire to add volumes of detailed content to validate our response. Using A-P-S, you might well find that current 1 to 2 page answers might be more persuasively written in two or three short paragraphs that are more easily read and understood by busy evaluators. 2

3 A Few Writing Tips A written response that is clear and easy to understand is essential to winning a sale. Qvidian s definition of clear writing is The reader understands what you wrote after reading it once. Provided below are some basic rules and tips to help you write clear and concise responses. Avoid Complicated Paragraphs and Sentences We recommend these rules: Keep each paragraph to 2-4 sentences. Keep each paragraph focused on a single topic. Keep your sentences short, averaging words for maximum readability. The goal is to get to the point. To do so, you may need to break long sentences into shorter, simpler sentences. Eliminate extra words and use shorter words whenever possible. Use active voice rather than passive voice. When using active voice, the subject performs the action expressed in the verb. When using passive voice, the recipient of the action is in the position of the subject. Because 90% of normal speech is active voice, readers find it more difficult to read passive voice. Decoding a sentence using passive voice requires more effort and, therefore, slows comprehension. Use the Primacy Principle Place the most important information up front. Paragraphs should generally start with a clear topic sentence. You should follow the primacy principal for sentences by beginning with the most important point from the reader s perspective. Use Everyday Language Limit the use of jargon Jargon is the language of specialized terms used by a group or profession. It's common shorthand among experts and, used sensibly, can be a quick and efficient way of communicating. Most jargon, however, consists of unfamiliar terms, abstract words, non-existent words and acronyms and abbreviations, with an occasional euphemism thrown in for good measure. Every profession, trade and organization has its own specialized terms. Be careful that your proposals do not use jargon that will be unfamiliar to evaluators. Acronyms and abbreviation use Recommendations: Avoid as many as you can. Try to keep them to a maximum of two per page. Use them only if they are convenient for your readers. Make sure all your readers know exactly what they mean. 3

4 Use them if spelling them out would annoy your readers. Convert as many as possible into words. Use full words Vice President, not VP. Use a shortened word form each camera, not each CCTV unit. Use an alternative computer memory, not RAM. If you must use an abbreviation or acronym, spell it out the first time you use it Computer-based training (CBT). If your readers know the abbreviation or acronym, there's no need to spell it out. Other problems with Acronyms and Abbreviations: For example: IBM and I.B.M. They can cause unintentional repetition. BACS system Banks' Automated Clearing System. PIN number Personal Identification Number. ATM machine Automated Teller Machine. They cause mistakes and inconsistencies with apostrophes. The rules for plurals and possessives of abbreviations are the same rules as those for full words (e.g., the three PCs in the RDU's conference room need new screens). They often appear only once in a document. Writers often go to the trouble of defining an abbreviation, never to use it again in the document. Keep the Subject and Verb Close Together This helps ensure that the subject and the verb, along with the complement object, communicate the key idea up front and not somewhere else in the sentence. Keeping the subject and verb together may also eliminate words that are unnecessary for sentence structure. Which sentence does this? The software used by everyone in the company ran efficiently. The software ran efficiently for everyone in the company. Watch Out for Modifiers Dangling participles A participle is a type of verbal form that modifies nouns. The antecedent (i.e., the noun to which the participle refers) must be clear to the reader for correct understanding. Otherwise, an action may be prescribed to the wrong noun. Examples: After sitting on his desk for two weeks, our accounts payable clerk found your invoice. Flitting gaily from flower to flower, the football player watched the bee. 4

5 These sentences contain dangling participles, because they are left without a clear antecedent. Dangling participles can cause misunderstandings. If a sentence begins with a participial phrase, the phrase it modifies should immediately follow. Our accounts payable clerk found your invoice that sat on his desk for two weeks. The football player watched the bee flitting gaily from flower to flower. Squinting modifiers A squinting modifier is a word or phrase that could logically modify two different parts of a sentence. Here is an example: Patients who use the emergency room frequently will be denied coverage. The problem modifier in this sentence is the word frequently. The sentenced could either mean patients who frequently use the emergency room will be denied coverage or patients who use the emergency room will frequently be denied coverage. To fix this, the squinting modifier should be moved to the correct location in the sentence based on the intended meaning. Response Formatting People who review and evaluate RFPs have very little time to dig deeply into your sales documents. To successfully convey your sales messaging, ensure your proposal documents are easy to navigate, convenient to scan, and comfortable to read. Styles and Page Layout Design your page layout to incorporate adequate horizontal and vertical white space. Expanded spacing between headings and paragraphs, and wider margin settings, prevent the content from being too crowded and thus easier to read. Use a ragged right-hand margin instead of fully-justified text. Studies show that a ragged right-hand margin helps a reader s eye keep its place as it moves down the page. Use colors and/or font variations in headings and subheadings. This helps the reader more easily navigate from topic to topic. Consider placing the customer s name/logo in the header of each page. This highlights that the document is for and about them. Also, adding a persuasive document title to the header on each page is a nice enhancement. Ensure your document formatting is consistent and shows that you pay attention to detail. It should not convey a copy-and-paste look-and-feel. 5

6 Question/Answer Design The cardinal rule of RFPs is that if the customer dictates the response format, you must follow their rules or risk early elimination. If the customer does not mandate a response format, following are several suggestions to make your RFP easier to read and evaluate. Use a different text style to distinguish the customer s questions from your responses. A common approach is to apply bold italic styles to the questions. Use a black font for your response. Colored text is generally harder to read. Slightly indent your answers to visually set them apart from their preceding questions. Add a bit of extra vertical spacing between the end of an answer and the question that follows. Similarly, add extra vertical spacing between each question and the answer that follows. Readability Use Microsoft Word s grammar tool to analyze the readability index of your proposals. Here are several key measurements that determine clarity and readability. Sentences per Paragraph: Qvidian recommends that proposals should average 2.5 to 3.0 sentences per paragraph. Words per Sentence: Qvidian recommends that sentences should average between words per sentence. To help aid clarity and conciseness when editing, always be on the lookout for ways to eliminate unnecessary words, vague modifiers and unimportant ideas. Passivity: Ideally, you should keep the passivity of your documents to below 8 percent. Always review your documents to use more of an active voice in your narrative. Tip: writing in second-person rather than third-person not only makes your proposal sound more conversational, it is also a good way to increase active voice. Grade Level: Qvidian suggests that proposals should read at about the 10th grade reading level. This is the target for most major business publications like Time and Newsweek (Scientific American is written at the 12th grade level). We recommend you limit the use of acronyms and technical terminology wherever possible. Also, use shorter 1-2 syllable words in place of longer 3-4 syllable words. The simpler the language, the easier it will be for the majority of readers to understand your message. 6