Top 7 Problems With Proposal Win Themes

Most companies, despite their best intentions (and even understanding of what a win theme is supposed to look like), fail to sell in their proposals. Win theme is one of the top five elements of proposal persuasion – and if they don’t work, it will be much harder to stand out.

Time pressures force the team to start writing before themes are sufficiently developed and the entire proposal process begins to unravel. Here are the top 7 problems with win themes we have observed in a number of companies, no matter what their business size and maturity level has been:

Win themes are lacking outright – what people think are win themes are not effective. For example, many think that being an incumbent is a win theme; but your customer may care less about it, and therefore the key requirement for a win theme to be a win theme (e.g. your customer caring about it now or in the future) is missing.
Win themes come out ho-hum because the win themes development process and skills are “unnatural” – and most technical people who are supposed to develop win themes are not trained in selling. Win theme should include, at the very least, a feature and a benefit – and those who are not trained in sales and marketing often fail to understand a difference between a feature and a benefit. More importantly, because the difference is often more subtle than one may think, even proposal veterans make this mistake. There is much more to features and benefits that meets the eye – and getting them right requires correct training.
Win Themes take forever to develop and therefore a team gives up at a few good ones–they have spent hours or days to drum up and most processes we have observed are flawed from the start, and therefore lead to waste. Learning the correct win theme development process can save countless hours, let alone make a company a more likely winner.
Win Themes don’t pass a substitution test – if you put some other company’s name in your win theme instead of yours, would it still sound true? – “we are the low-risk, best value provider” is not a win theme – it is an overused generality . Same goes for “we understand the customer,” “we have great past performance,” “we are ISO and CMMI Level whatever…” and so on.
Win Themes are lacking a punch because someone didn’t have time to verify the facts. Win themes have to have numbers in them to make them stronger. If you cannot quantify the facts, saying something like “hundreds of thousands in savings” is weak.
Win Themes are self-centered and self-serving – they are about you, and not the customer. A customer could care less about your CMMI Level 3 unless you tell them what it can do for them.
Win Themes are trivialized to the point that the company believes they can recycle them from other proposals. Most customers and RFPs are unique – so how could the very focus of your offer be the same?

Let us know if you have seen more disturbing win themes tendencies, or recognize what your company does in the ones we have listed above. And, if you would like to learn once and for all how to develop incredibly powerful win themes that will make your proposal stand out (no matter how many binders are piled on an evaluator’s desk), attend our Win Themes Development Workshop on Feb 8, 2012 – www.ostglobalsolutions.com/win-themes-development-workshop

Would you like More Resources for Proposal Development?

Date	Class
Jan 31 - Feb. 1, or Apr. 17-18, 2012 Tuesday - Wednesday, 8.30am - 5.00pm (EST, -5 GMT), 2-day course	Foundations of Capture Management This class will arm you with real knowledge and tools you can apply immediately to capturing contracts. Master techniques for customer engagement, intelligence gathering, win strategy development, competitive analysis, teaming, solution development, and more. This is an interactive 2-day workshop that is 40 percent lecture, 50 percent exercises, and 10 percent discussion. It will teach you real skills to raise win probability of the government contracts you pursue.
Feb. 2-3, 2012 or Apr. 19-20, 2012 Thursday - Friday, 8.30am - 5.00pm (EST, -5 GMT), 2-day course	Foundations of Proposal Management This course offers a rich toolbox of the most sophisticated best practices-based techniques and tools for every step of the way. It is an interactive 2-day workshop that is 40 percent lecture, 50 percent exercises, and 10 percent discussion. It is built around a hands-on proposal development simulation exercise to practice, discuss, and integrate each step of the proposal process.
Feb. 6-7, 2012 or Apr. 23-24, 2012 Monday - Tuesday, 8.30am - 5.00pm (EST, -5 GMT), 2-day course	Proposal Speed-Writing and Persuasion This unique course shows how to develop compliant and highly persuasive proposal sections in at least half the time that it would normally take. It covers detailed methods for outlining within the sections, developing section content, infusing proper structure and flow, and implementing correct writing processes and section planning techniques. But this course goes beyond mere compliance.
Feb. 8, 2012 Wednesday, 8.30am - 5.00pm (EST, -5 GMT), 1-day workshop	Win Themes Development Workshop This workshop offers valuable skills in win themes development as the most important element of proposal persuasion. The course walks you through the purpose of win themes and their building blocks. Then, it advances the learning beyond the mere mechanics to the inner core of win themes. It shows how to design win themes that deeply touch the customers exactly where and how it is necessary, in order to become memorable and influence them to select your company. It demonstrates how win themes morph into win strategies, and help increase win probability.
Feb. 9, 2012 Thursday, 8.30am - 5.00pm (EST, -5 GMT), 1-day workshop	Executive Summary Workshop This workshop shows how to write one of the most critical proposal elements: a highly persuasive executive summary. The course starts with the common executive summary mistakes, and shows how to avoid them. It then walks the participants through when and how to develop executive summaries, who should develop them (and various management strategies for making it happen), optimum length, and other vital considerations. It provides the six-part formula for executive summaries based on direct response, a marketing-related persuasion technique that fuels a trillion-dollar consumer market.
Mar. 12, 2012 Monday, 8.30am - 5.00pm (EST, -5 GMT), 1-day workshop	Cost Proposal Strategy for Proposal Managers Manage the cost volume effectively and maximize your win probability. This course offers practical tools for proposal managers on everything from cost volume basics to process, data calls, assumptions, compelling cost volume narrative, WBS, BOEs, price to win, and cost strategies.
Mar. 15-16, 2012 Thursday - Friday, 8.30am - 5.00pm (EST, -5 GMT), 2-day seminar	Advanced Capture Management This course takes capture management to the next level - what does it take to maximize win probability; mastermind the most effective win strategy using cutting edge techniques; masterfully facilitate brainstorming sessions such as Black Hats, Win Strategy Sessions, and CONOPS workshops; perform advanced competitive analysis; create advantageous teaming arrangements; apply formulas to solution development; and much more. The course also focuses on measuring and improving cost-efficiency and effectiveness of the capture team.
March 19-20, 2012 Monday - Tuesday, 8.30am - 5.00pm (EST, -5 GMT), 2-day course	Preparing Winning Multiple Award and Task Order Proposals Everything you need to know to prepare winning multiple award contracts (IDIQ, GWAC, MAC, MAS, BPA, etc.) and the task order proposals that follow. This class will show you how to dominate task order competition and become the number one winner to maximize earnings from your IDIQs.

P.S.: As always – if you need business development, capture, and proposal support, contact us at 301-384-3350 or at service @ostglobalsolutions .com.

OST Global Solutions, Inc.
Federal Business Development, Capture, Proposals, and Training
...Because there is no second place in proposals!
301.384.3350
www.ostglobalsolutions.com
7361 Calhoun Place, Suite 560
Rockville, MD 20855

Tags: IDIQs, capture, government, management, proposal, proposals, training