9 Ways Consultants Lose Sales
by Michael W. McLaughlin
Any consultant can tell you there are umpteen ways to blow it during
the sales cycle. Many of those potential pitfalls lurk in the proposal
process.
Most consultants salivate on cue when clients ask for proposals. After
all, it’s exciting to have a chance to show your stuff and move closer to
the client and the tantalizing prospect of a new, challenging project.
But creating a great proposal isn’t easy, and the process will consume
your time and energy.
So, first consider whether you can conserve your resources with a
letter confirming your services instead of a formal document proposing
your services.
That won’t always be possible, especially for complex projects. But
consultants seldom ask clients to award them projects without formal
proposals, so dare to be different.
OK, so the client said no, and you do have to write a proposal. What
about those pitfalls? There must be at least fifty, but here are nine
sure-fire ways to completely botch your chances of winning the work.
1. Play the Lone Ranger
Some consultants do research about a client and the project and think,
right, I’ve got it. Then they scurry off to create their proposals in
“objective” isolation. Big mistake. You can’t produce a great proposal
unless the client is an active participant in every part of the proposal
process, including research, pinning down objectives, potential benefits,
scope, approach, and, of course, fees.
2. Start with Your Qualifications
Proposals that begin with a recitation of your firm’s background and
qualifications are a fast track to oblivion. Start every proposal with a
focus on the client’s issues and objectives, not your firm’s illustrious
history.
3. Omit the Executive Summary
Many decision makers only look at two items: the executive summary and the
price. Yet, amazingly, some consultants don’t include executive summaries
in their proposals. What are they thinking? Decision makers rely on the
executive summary to make sure you understand what they are trying to
accomplish. Fail to include that executive summary, even in short
proposals, and you run the risk of having your proposal put at the bottom
of the pile—if it’s read at all.
4. Focus on Your Tools
Blah, blah, blah. Clients care about results, not the tools, methods and
approaches you’ll use to get there. If the centerpiece of your proposal is
a discussion of your whiz-bang methods, you’re setting yourself up for
failure. Think about it: When you hire someone to repair your furnace, you
expect that expert to come with all the tools to do the job. Well, so do
clients. You’re likely to need a discussion of your tools and approaches
at some point in the proposal, but let it float back to the appendix.
5. Write a Phone Book
Studies show that, given a choice, clients will pick up and read a shorter
proposal before they’ll wade into a tome stuffed with graphics and
boilerplate. Keep your proposals as short as possible, while meeting the
requirements your client has established. Consultants who routinely write
encyclopedia-sized proposals will find their work moves very slowly from
the pile of proposals to the hands of decision makers.
6. Use a Boilerplate Resume
Every opportunity is different in some way from every other one. So you
must take the time to re-write your resume for every proposal. You may not
have to change much—maybe you just need to add emphasis in one area or
eliminate some text. It’s usually a quick task that has enormous payoffs.
Let clients see that you have thought through how your experience matches
up with their needs.
7. Load your Proposal with Jargon
Too many consulting proposals are chock full of jargon and buzzwords that
make clients crazy. Reread your last proposal. Did you use phrases like
“world class,” “organizational transformation,” or “seamless transition”?
If so, see the word doctor. Your proposal has a greater likelihood of
being accepted if you write using plain terms without the bull.
8. Ignore the Devil
I recently read a proposal that got the client’s name right, but had
another company’s address in the proposal. There are hundreds of stories
about similar gaffes in consultants’ proposals. Everyone uses
cut-and-paste. But the devil is in the details, and clients will not
forgive or forget errors. If you’re not a detail person, make sure someone
on your team is. And make sure every proposal gets checked and checked
again—especially every time it gets revised.
9. Miss Your Deadline
Clients won’t buy that the dog ate your proposal, so don’t even try that
one. If you find yourself asking the client for an extension of a proposal
deadline, or you submit your proposal after the deadline, your chances of
getting the project plummet. Just get everything done on time.
A great proposal can be decisive in being awarded a project; a poor one
can cause you to lose, even if everything else in the sales process has
gone flawlessly. The nine common errors above are not the only ones to
watch out for. But if you avoid them, your odds of winning will soar every
time.
Michael W. McLaughlin is the coauthor, with Jay Conrad
Levinson, of
Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants. Michael is a principal with
Deloitte Consulting LLP, and the publisher of Management Consulting
News and The Guerrilla Consultant. Find out more at
www.guerrillaconsulting.com and
www.managementconsultingnews.com.
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