What is a Proposal’s ‘Win Theme’ and How Do We Get One?
| Pursuit | Strategy | Writing
When you begin working on a proposal, do you have a strategy in mind?
Like, a real, thought-out intention for how you’re going to highlight your uniqueness to win the business over your competitors?
If you don’t, you’re setting yourself up for failure.
So many people are narrowly focused on answering the RFP questions and throwing all their company information into the response, hoping that something will resonate, that they don’t employ any real strategy.
Unfortunately, this is not an effective approach to winning business.
You need a win theme.
What is a win theme?
Simply put, a win theme is your strategy for how you will win the business. How you measure up against the competition. How you’re different/unique. How you can do it better than anyone else.
It also serves as a unifying word or phrase amongst your team.
It encompasses these main points:
The client’s needs and pain points - this is central to all themes
The competition’s strengths and weaknesses - and how well you know what you’re up against, how to play against their weaknesses differentiate yourself
Your strengths and differentiators - and how you tie them into solving your customer’s needs/pain points
How you will overcome/compensate for any weaknesses
For example, if you’re a smaller organization going up against a well-known industry giant, you may want to focus your win theme on differentiators such as being agile/quick to pivot, personalized customer service, and/or the customer being the focus of the entire organization. You really want to prove that you will be a close partner to your customer, vs. them getting lost in a larger organization. Your win theme could be “the mighty underdog.”
Alternatively, if you’re a well-known successful industry giant, you may want to focus on your reputation, knowledge, and expertise in the industry. So your win theme could be “proven success.”
It’s important to determine the theme at the very beginning of the proposal process and develop every aspect of your proposal based on it. Ideally, sales are involved in this stage so they are communicating what they know about the customer’s needs, as well as the competition.
The theme/strategy is then communicated with the proposal team during the kick-off call, so everyone is on the same page on how to succeed and can structure their content accordingly.
How to carry out your win theme
Using the theme, create a story highlighting the customer’s needs and your differentiators throughout the entire proposal through images, graphics, and words.
Proposal cover - it starts at the very beginning. A well-designed cover page with a relevant colorful photo sets the tone for the entire proposal theme.
Cover letter - you’ll highlight your understanding of the client’s needs, and briefly (in a sentence or two) how your proposal will demonstrate that you’re offering the best solution.
Executive summary - in this section, you’ll go deeper into the customer’s needs, pain points, and how you will solve them. This is the area where your win theme will come into play the most.
Each section - carry the theme throughout the body of the proposal in each major section. This could be as simple as an introductory sentence driving home your strengths relevant to the section.
Closing - be sure to add a closing paragraph reiterating, once again, how you will meet their needs.
What tools do you use to develop a win theme? Drop a comment below!
Tammy Holzer, MA is an APMP Executive Summary Micro-Certified writer, strategic proposal developer, and business development specialist. To find more articles and tools visit www.tammyholzer.com.
#proposals #rfp #proposalwriting #proposaldevelopment #executivesummary #win #pursuitstrategy #capturestrategy #smallbusiness #entrepreneurship #sales #businessdevelopment #strategicselling #businessstrategies #salespeople #business #writing #wintheme
