Drafting Winning Proposals for Legal, Commercial and Strategic Excellence Training Course

Module 1: The proposal as a legal document

Understanding the bidding process and legal implications

• Pre-qualification (PQQ’s) / preferred suppliers; Request for Information (RFI); Request for Quotation (RFQ); Invitation to Tender (ITT); Best and Final Offers (BAFO)
• Legal considerations:
• Confidentiality – Non-Disclosure Agreement / Confidentiality Agreement
• Quotation v Invitation to Treat. ‘Subject to contract’
• Battle of the forms, Offer and Acceptance. The proposal forming part of the legally binding contract
• Offer duration / expiration

Capturing your scope of supply within a legal framework

• Clarity of offer
  • Clearly defined obligations and ownership of those obligation including ‘dependencies’ on Customer  
  • Clearly defined acceptance criteria / measurement mechanism
  • Assumptions & Caveats
• Exercises – Drafting / reviewing a scope of supply. Peer / Red Team reviewing

Pricing to reflect the allocation of liability / risk

• Allocation of liability / risk and reflecting it in pricing:
  • Clarity of ownership of liability / risk if obligation not met
  • Ensuring price reflects allocation of liability / risk. Quoting subject to own standard terms and conditions or Customer’s terms and conditions
  • Liability for ‘fit for purpose’ - Performance specification v Conformance specification
  • Exclusions / Indemnities / Disclaimers / Limit of Liabilities
  • Managing identified high probability / high impact risks through the contract / solutions not contingency budget
• Exercise – Price v Scope / Liability & Risk. Removing ambiguity / passing or reducing liability to enable removal of contingency.

Internal governance process

• Purpose and value
• ‘Go/No Go’ / ‘Bid/No Bid’ reviews
• Proposal and Pricing Approvals / Peer or Red Team Reviewing
• Authorised Representatives / Power of Attorney

Module 2: The proposal as a sales document

‘WHY’ first, then ‘What’ 

• ‘Start with Why?’ (Simon Sinek) – TED Talk video
• Exercise – 5 Whys
• Exercise – Applying the same principles of a ‘Performance Specification’ to drafting a proposal. The outcome of a Performance Specification not the input of a Conformance Specification

Understanding your customer’s needs. What is their ‘problem’ that needs solving?

• 5 Rights of procurement – Quality, Quantity, Place, Time, Price
• Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) / standardised v bespoke / need for innovation, research and development
• RAQSCI - Regulation, Availability, Supply Quality Assurance, Service Requirements, Cost and Innovation
• 10 C’s - Competency, Capacity, Commitment, Control, Cash, Cost, Consistency, Corporate Social Responsibility/Clean, Culture and relationships, and Communication
• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) / sustainability

Understanding your customer’s selection criteria / priorities

• Kraljic matrix - customer’s businesses priorities - critical, strategic, tactical or bottle neck
• Iron Triangle - Scope, Schedule, Cost
• MIL - Must have, Intend to have, Like to have
• Exercise - MIL

Winning themes - showcasing / story-telling ‘WHY’ your offering is the Customer’s ‘Best Realistic Alternative’ (BRA) / how it meets your customer’s needs / priorities

• Identifying / communicating your Unique Selling Proposition
  • Porter’s generic strategies – cost leader, differentiation, niche
  • Defining the Value Proposition: unique benefits, measurable value, differentiation/competitive advantage
• Rationalising your price. MEAT - Most Economically Advantageous Tender / value for money
• Instilling confidence - demonstrating not just stating. Evidencing credentials / capability / credibility
• Addressing any negatives past experiences / reviews / issues
• Capture the key points in your Executive Summary
  • When to write it
  • Structuring, style and content to reflect audience
• Exercise – Asking leading, open questions of your Customer. PULSE model (Position, Understand, Leverage, Solution, Evolve)
• Exercise – Capture information from previous exercise and draft Exec Summary 

Offering deviations from requirement set out in RFQ / ITT

• Proposing alternative / additional options separately from core offering. Explaining reason for deviation, e.g. value added / benefits of alternative / additional options
• Offering a solution which addresses future requirements
  • Identifying potential opportunities (SWOT – opportunities) for: increased market share and/or cost savings / value engineering (improvements / efficiencies), and showing how these might be realised
  • Addressing potential challenges / risks (SWOT – Threats / STEPPLED – Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political, Legal, Ethical, Demographics), demonstrating how these will be managed to minimise criticality
• Exercise – Drafting subsection of a proposal offering opportunity
• Exercise – Drafting subsection of a proposal offering a pro-active risk management contingency plan 

Module 3: Writing the proposal to enable easy evaluation

• Answering the ‘exam question’ / using customer proforma provided in RFQ but still embedding: WHY you; your unique selling points (USPs) / what differentiates you
• If no customer proforma, suggested proposal structure.
• Complying with bid requirements to avoid elimination, enable easy evaluation / comparison by the customer (‘apples for apples’), demonstrating respect to retain good relations.
• Clarity & easy of understanding. 5C’s / 7C’s of communication – concise, clear, complete, correct, consistent, coherent, concrete, courteous
• Exercise – 5C’s writing skills

Module 4: Managing the bid process

• Timing / planning the process to allow Red team / Peer reviewing / Internal governance process complied with
• Engaging stakeholders
• Selecting and role of bid team members