insight series. On LinkedIn, over a fortnight of daily posts, Kat - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

On LinkedIn, over a fortnight of daily posts, Kat drew on various pieces of research that Strategic proposals has undertaken in the last couple of years to turn the spotlight onto proposal presentations and offer insights on this important topic. The proposal presentation (meaning the point where a client asks you to go in to talk to them about your proposal) can be called many things. The results from our little survey will be shared very soon! The other posts are attached in this paper!

Welcome to the proposal presentation insight series.

79% 21%

‘important’ ‘critical’

In our research, we asked buyers how important the proposal presentation was to their decision-making.

The proposal presentation is a make

• r break stage

in your campaign. You’ve already told your story in the written proposal; this is about bringing it to life with the evaluators and key decision makers. Crucially, it’s also about projecting that you are the team to deliver what they need and that yours is an organisation that they can trust. So… are you ready?

Proposal presentations are critical

In professional services, the presenters are also the product; if they don’t do a good job, they won’t win.

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We’ve lost bids at the presentation because the team that went didn’t match the bid in terms of enthusiasm and understanding.

0% 0%

‘not important’ ‘slightly’

• presentations. See how we can help, here:

into proposal presentations over the last couple of years, we see that Evaluators – be they procurement

• r business stakeholders – are

more sophisticated in their evaluation and expect more. You need to give proper thought to your approach and your offer so that you do yourselves justice at this important stage.

When we draw

• n our research

The back story: the powerful tale of who you are as people

and as an organisation, told through every aspect of your demeanour and conduct from handshakes to team dynamics.

The big story: is the story of value that you tell the client about

your proposition - why you and not the competition - and how well you tell it. Having the right story elements is critical, as is structure. Alongside this it’s vital to understand the impact of your choice of words and how those words interact with any visuals that you use.

The stories within the story: are essential in first class

• pitching. They may be anecdotes that bring context, meaning and

personal connection, or analogies that make a complex subject matter memorable and accessible.

Our Proposal Benchmarker results

from over 500

• rganisations, tells us

that the best 50% of bidding organisations have a sophisticated approach to the pitch. The way, we see it, a brilliant pitch tells a great story… here’s the Strategic Proposals approach to delivering compelling pitches.

Our Proposal Benchmarker data tells us that pitches that are “death by PowerPoint” are more likely to lose. You really need to think about a broader perspective. These are some of the areas of research that have gone into our view of proposal

• presentations. These are the secret

ingredients to delivering a great pitch. You need to think about them all – and tell your story well. (See the previous slide about story- telling, for more information!)

Getting the stories right requires a whole host of skills.

(Arial 10.5 in an .xls that needs to be uploaded to a barely-functioning portal, anyone?!). So, the pitch is often the first chance for a bidder to really show why they should be selected. And frequently only a select group get to the pitch (those preferred/shortlisted). The results from our Proposal Benchmarker corroborate this. They show a remarkable 61% positive correlation between the pitch being aligned to the proposal and the likelihood of winning.

Procurement is becoming more prescriptive and restrictive

leave it until late in the day before starting on the presentation. The presentation is important – very important.

Do you give it your best shot?

A surprisingly large number

• f leading
• rganisations

54% Before proposal submission 46% After proposal submission

When do you normally start preparing the presentation?

• presentations. See how we can help, here:

51% Critical 15% Unimportant

Yet in a proposal presentation, the rehearsal stage is often

• verlooked. If you look at last week’s post it could be because

there’s no time for this. If your team have never practiced together, you won’t come across as well as you should.

When we present at a big internal event, we invariably rehearse.

34% Important

We talk about it but rarely factor in the time

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“

The culture is not embedded to run full rehearsals or, more importantly, to adapt the presentation based on feedback

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Rehearsals are

• nly critical on

“must win” deals but it should probably be always

“

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Make time to rehearse. Offer constructive feedback. Be your best!

Strategic Proposals offers the following menu of proposal presentation services. These can be tailored for any of your upcoming bids, or to help improve your pitch capabilities overall.

If you need help sharpening your act,