How Clients Decide
It’s important to understand how people make decisions when you start to write proposals. There are three pieces of information that people use to help them make a decision. First piece of information is recognition. The second piece of information is whether or not the proposal answers all their questions and the third is whether not the proposal is compliant with the requirements put forth in the request for proposal. In addition to the different pieces of information that need to be addressed, You need to understand what’s important to the customer.
As far as recognition is concerned given two different companies the recognizable company will have a higher inferred value. Think of it this way, given a choice between an IBM ThinkPad and an unknown brand laptop which would you choose? You don’t actually recognize that as a better computer. You know IBM and you know what to expect from their products.
Recognition is built through repeated exposure. These are pre-proposal activities like advertising, branding, and repeated contacts with a customer. You should be advertising and branding your company on a regular basis. You should be talking to your customers through emails and phone calls to keep you fresh in their minds.
The second piece of information is whether not somebody answers all of their questions or responds to what they need. It’s important to thoroughly read through a request for proposal or an advertisement. A good way to keep track is to make a table of the needs that the customer presents. As you build your proposal check off the needs that you address as you address them. This makes it impossible for you to miss something that was included in the request.
The third piece of information is whether or not you were compliant with their requirements. Did you include all the items they wanted in the proposal? Did you answer all their questions? Did you follow the directions they stipulated in submitting a proposal?
After these first three pieces of information have been checked off in the client’s mind, they start to consider the proposal itself. Usually there’s one of three different ways to decide on a proposal. The first way is to look at past projects. They think about how they made their choice the last time and whether or not it worked. The second way is to develop a set of criteria by thinking back are over past situations where they had to make similar decisions. It’s important for you to get as close to figuring out how the client is going to make their decision and what criteria they’re going to use to make their decision before you submit their proposal.
Ask questions about how they’re going to make their decision or what they consider when they’re comparing vendors. Ask them about the last time they made this kind of that decision. What factors guided them in their decision? Ask them if it worked for them.
Next, you need to try to figure out what is their most important need. This criterion should be addressed first in your proposal. And then from that point on everything should be in a similar order of importance as the client has in their own mind. The idea is to organize the proposal in such a way that it highlights the criteria the customer thinks is important. This tells the client that you’re on the same page. You meet the customer’s expectations in the beginning and they don’t need to reach further into the documentation. Mentally the client checks off that you know what they want.
There are three things to remember:
- Make yourself recognizable
- Pay attention to what they need answered
- Follow their submit submission directions
And last but not least understand what’s important to the customer.
Web Out
Des
schuessler:
Design is to understand the customer. The first glance decides.
Web designer London:
It is also important to ensure that thelanguage of the proposal is not too technical. Akthough it is good to include some technical factors, it is also improtant that customers are able to understand and relate to the issues highlighted in the proposal. It should be addressed from a business point of view ratherthan purely technical.
Rashi:
This is a nice topic. I do agree with Web Designer London. We should not use technical terms always because it is difficult for client to understand.
What Do You Think?