It’s the beginning of the year and firms are lining up their projects and consultants. Proposals and statements of work are getting written and signed. My students (management consulting class M 10-1pm) have a proposal-writing assignment due, here’s what I told them.

Answer the client’s key questions

Proposal outlines vary, but there are also commonalities. This is a sales document, and in the end, you want them to buy.  If marketing is making it “easy to buy”, then here are some questions a buyer might have:

1 – Overview / Background

• What is your understanding of our company and the issue(s)?
• What are some of your initial points of view, observations? (show me you’re thinking)
• What’s the potential opportunity? Is this project worth doing?

2 – Objectives

• What are the goals of this project?
• How will this benefit us short-term / long-term?
• What will success look like?

3 – Approach

• What is the “architecture” and big phases of the project?
• What is the sequencing of events and why?
• How much time, resources, access do you need from me and my team?

4 – Key Deliverables

• What “product” will you be giving us?
• What will it look like? Excel, PowerPoint, survey, workshop?
• What’s the purpose of these deliverables?

5 – Timeline / Activities

• How many weeks / months is the project?
• How does the approach (phases) correspond to the calendar?
• What are the key activities and milestones each week?

6 – Team

• Who are the consultants on the project?
• Why are these the right people?
• What are their roles on the team?

7 – Qualifications

• What makes you different from the “run-of-the-mill” process consultant?
• What evidence can you show that you’ve done similar work before?
• Do you have references that I can call?

8 – Pricing

• How much will this cost?
• Will this be fixed fee or paid by the # of resources x hourly rate?
• What are the payment terms?

What’s it look like?

We’ve talked about the 4 “hats” you wear when writing here. After the madman, architect, carpenter stages, it’s time to take a step back and judge what you wrote. Does it make sense? Could the client actually explain it to someone else – based on your document? Is it choked-full of jargon and boring business generalities?

Sometimes, words are insufficient. Sometimes, a table helps to organize data and put things in buckets. Sometimes, a diagram can quickly and poetically show the architecture of your thoughts. Sometimes, a screenshot of a scrubbed (cleansed of client information) deliverable helps the client “see” what you’re talking about. This is an area where we can learn from our design-thinking, marketing siblings – who find immersive ways to enchant the client. Home-built websites, videos, visualizations, mock-ups, and in-person workshops.

What’s the story you’re telling?

A successful proposal is a story that convinces the client – head, heart, hand – that this project is worth doing, and that it will be successful.  No one wants to spend the company’s money, then get embarrassed by a failed project. Clients put themselves at risk by trusting you. Yes, you are a risk.

What’s the story you are telling? As you describe what you COULD DO, how can you ally their fears with your structured thinking, precise language, and business wisdom? During this engagement period, how are you describing the marriage?  How can you be specific enough to be credible, but also broad enough to flexibly follow the data and analysis to the right recommendations.

Is it worth it?

We often put the pricing at the end – on purpose. In the preceding pages, the proposal should make a compelling “pitch” of the work, approach, deliverables, and team that will do the work. Namely, this is a good deal for the client.

Think about willingness-to-pay. However expensive your fixed fee and rate, you should be confident in your ability to return a multiple of that to your client in good work. If you’re charging $ X, are you giving 5-10X in value to the client?

Finally, a few sanity check questions:

• If a stranger picked up this document, would they get it?
• If you were the client, would you buy this?

Related posts:

• SOW: How detailed?
• 12 common mistakes of a proposal
• Links