Five Tips on Compelling Business Proposals

In two separate meetings last week, senior executives told me of their frustration at not being able to gain traction with new business proposals aimed at their target customers. "I don't know why they don't get it," one of the executives said to me, "our ideas will really help them drive new growth."

This is not an unusual issue, but neither is it insurmountable. Whether you are making a pitch to an external client, or are seeking approval for an internal proposal, there are five fundamental factors that will increase your chances of success:

1. Focus on the real decision maker. One of the biggest mistakes is to focus your efforts on the wrong person. Does the person you are talking to genuinely have the ability to say yes? If not, move on until you find the real decision maker. In both cases last week, the companies were trying to sell their ideas to managers who just weren't senior enough and who were unable to loosen the purse strings.
2. Be provocative. Proposing an incremental idea for a small business issue is unlikely to create huge executive interest. However, bringing a new and provocative perspective to a big issue or opportunity will immediately attract interest. Recently, for example, a 15-year old intern at Morgan Stanley created a media flurry, when he suggested that teenagers wouldn't use Twitter because of the costs of texting involved.
3. Set out why your proposal is in your decision maker's best interest. To gain real interest and support, your proposal must be capable of delivering material benefits for your decision-maker at acceptable levels of risk. Michael Bloomberg, for example, won his first order to supply Bloomberg terminals by showing that: (a) he could deliver it before an in-house team could even start an equivalent project, and (b) the client would only pay if the product worked to their satisfaction. By removing the risk to the decision maker, it became a no-brainer to buy.
4. Support your proposal with reasons to believe. It is not enough to simply lodge a provocative hypothesis and make an interesting proposal. You will also need compelling evidence to support your ideas before the decision maker will commit resources to your idea. For instance, I recently helped a UK retailer enter an entirely new category, mainly on the back of research that demonstrated that customers would happily shop with them for these products.
5. Be prepared for an enthusiastic response. Many senior business executives are used to making quick decisions and, if they say yes, they will want to see immediate action. Ensure that you think through your next steps that before the meeting takes place. Bill Gates and Paul Allen of Microsoft dropped everything and spent six weeks developing their first piece of microcomputer software when their first prospective client, MITS, showed interest in their proposal.

(Pic: The Wandering Angel cc2.0)