7 examples of how to make your proposals special

If your proposal is about giving the customer what they asked for, it's just not... special. It might be a little better, maybe, but that’s not special. That’s just being the same only a little bit more. You may have claimed to be special and probably believe it, but who cares about that noise? What the customer sees is marginal. Meh.

Your proposal is not special, because you haven’t proposed giving the customer anything that’s special. You haven’t proposed anything they can only get if they select you. You've left them with choices. You are vulnerable. And your win rate shows it.

What does it take to be special?

Demonstrating some real understanding in your proposals is always a good start… Simply claiming understanding does not cut it. Scraping from the customer’s website and copy and pasting from the solicitation while saying "you understand them" is meaningless and hurts your credibility. Saying that you understand the requirements because you "have experience" is also weak because merely being present for something does not automatically result in any depth of understanding. Real understanding is demonstrated by creating an offering that is special. If you can’t do that, any understanding you claim to have has no value to the customer. Read the last sentence again, because demonstrated understanding trumps claims every time. It's not even close.

But demonstrating understanding is only one way to be special. Special means rare. Special means something they aren’t likely to get anywhere else. Special means surprisingly effective or beneficial. If everyone does something or has it, it’s not special. Best practices are not special. They are the expected routine. You must do better to be special. Being RFP compliant is not special because you can count on everyone who is competitive meeting the requirements of the RFP. Compliance is needed to win, but it’s nothing to brag about. 

If you want to be special, try:

1. Showing insight no one else has about things that matter or that could impact RFP compliance
2. Offering innovative ways of being RFP compliant that produce surprising benefits
3. Doing things in an exceptional way that results in surprisingly better results, less risk, lower cost, or other benefits
4. Showing better judgment or addressing trade-offs in unique ways
5. Being foolproof
6. Fulfilling all of their goals and not just their requirements. Especially the goals they didn't mention
7. Being useful in ways they didn't anticipate

But they have to be extraordinary and not just a little better. They have to be things the customer will only get from you. And they can't be merely claimed, they must be proven.

Even when the RFP requires all vendors to do or deliver the exact same thing, you can still be special. If you can’t be special in what you do, be special in how you do it, or why you do it. Sometimes companies that are truly special are not recognized for it, simply because they failed to explain why their offering is special.

Being special can't be merely claimed

Claims are not enough. Everyone claims to be special and no one earns any points during evaluation for that noise. Skip the claims and just go to the proof of your insights, innovations, exceptionality, better judgment, foolproof solution, alignment with their goals, being useful, and anything else that matters.

When everyone claims to be special, no one is. Unless they prove it. Claiming it hurts your credibility because it makes you sound like a shady salesperson. Having done similar work before is a weak proof point. For a strong proof point, you need to show results that matter to the customer. Simply having approaches to fulfilling the requirements is not enough to be special. But making your approaches self-evidently more effective and proven under fire might be.

The best way to be special

The best way to be special is not for you to be special, but for the customer to get something from you that is special. Will they get better results, insight, fewer problems, better confidence, less effort, more reliability, etc.?  Just keep in mind that, whatever it is, it has to be something they are not likely to get anywhere else to make your offering special in comparison to the others.

In the Technical Approach, being special is usually achieved by being innovative. In the Management Plan being special is usually achieved by doing things more reliably. But the easiest way to achieve being special is to make sure that every single thing you say addresses why it matters. You can be special without being especially innovative by focusing less on what you do, and instead making how you do it matter. Proposals about things that matter to the customer are always special. 

Give the customer something special, and they have to select you in order to get it. Give them something that is special and that matters to them, and they will put effort into selecting you.