Your agency is terrific, but your proposals aren’t.
You have a talented team. Your work is smart. Clients love you. You get asked to write proposals.
Despite all that talent and success, your proposals simply aren’t winning enough new business.
Maybe you aren’t winning enough, or winning the big ones, or winning the ones you and your team really want.
We have read thousands of agency proposals and know what works. And we’re sharing it all in a 2-day workshop in Denver on September 28 & 29.
There is art and science to writing proposals that win. The cornerstones include:
- Uncovering the business issues of your prospect
- Adopting a storytelling format for your proposal
- Using the 5 keys in writing winning submissions
We’ll cover all of this, and more, in the workshop. Register here.
1. How to uncover the business issues.
These are not always clear in an RFP or in discussions with the prospect.
Yet you should always remember that marketers don’t want to spend money on agencies or on advertising or PR or media or experiential or any other tactic. Rather, their business has opportunities or challenges that need to be addressed. It is these opportunities and challenges – aka “business issues” – that are the key.
As Fernando Machado once said: “Agencies have to have genuine interest in understanding my business… the challenges I have.”
Clients agency proposals with high expectations and questions like these in mind:
”Is this submission about me and my business or did they pull this off the shelf?”
“Did they understand the ask? Do they understand my business?”
“Did they offer solutions that seem custom to my business and business issue?
Winning proposals fluently address the prospects’ key business issues. We’ll show you how!
Register here.
Great proposals flip the format from being all about the agency to being about the prospect.
The proposal is focused on the client and the problem they need to solve. Heck, we wrote a book about that! (It’s Not About You: Winning Business in a Crowded Agency World available on Amazon)
The actual format including the order of the story and the elements included add up to a singular focus: the agency clearly understands the business well enough and has a plan to solve the problem.
This approach starts with the cover letter. The cover letter is about the prospect and their challenge, not about the agency. The proposal itself tackles the business challenge, adds insightful analysis and offers a glimpse of success. Case studies are specially selected that showcase how the agency has previously successfully solved the specific challenge. Bios and the team are crafted to match the needs of the prospect. The winning agency knows how to talk about the money.
We’ll cover all of this on September 28 & 29. Register here.
If your proposal includes the following five elements your agency is well on the path to success.
- a prospect centered cover letter
- the key business issues are identified
- strategy and solutions are presented
- strategic case studies highlight your experience having done this before
- relevant agency information
Agencies that recast their proposals from a focus on themselves to a focus on the prospect and their problem and use the 5 key elements will win more.
Join us September 28 & 29! Register here.
Your workshop leaders…
Robin Boehler, founder, and partner at Mercer Island Group has led consulting teams on behalf of clients as diverse as Discover Financial Services, Viator, Sevrpro, Ulta Beauty, UScellular, Seabourn, Kaiser Permanente, Stop & Shop, Qualcomm, Giant Food, Brooks Running, and numerous others. She is an industry leader, captivating speaker and strategist that is often called upon to speak on a variety of marketing services and agency topics.
Steve Boehler, founder, and partner at Mercer Island Group has led consulting teams on behalf of clients as diverse as Ulta Beauty, Microsoft, UScellular, Nintendo, Kaiser Permanente, Holland America Line, Stop & Shop, Qualcomm, Brooks Running, and numerous others. He founded MIG after serving as a division president in a Fortune 100 when he was only 32. Earlier in his career, Steve Boehler cut his teeth with a decade in Brand Management at Procter & Gamble, leading brands like Tide, Pringles, and Jif.
Mercer Island Group helps marketers and agencies succeed. Company leadership is as much at home with marketers and their C-Suites as in an agency’s boardroom. With marketers, Mercer Island Group is a top 5 agency search consultancy covering all types of agency relationships (creative, media, web, PR, experiential) and assists marketers with marketing organization structure, workflow and critical skill development (briefing, creative evaluation & feedback, etc.). The company also supports leading and aspiring agencies with positioning, pitch and strategy training and pitch support.