Targeted to opportunity

The first rule in developing a winning proposal is to propose on the right work. Seems like a simple concept. But failure to provide required information or trying to sell too far beyond the requested service can be a disqualifier. If there is a detailed RFP, be sure to answer all questions as asked. If the desired service is an employee benefit plan audit, don’t sell tax work. Seems like a simple concept, but it’s easy to get it wrong. If you are providing a proposal for tax or consulting work, you’ll likely have a lot more freedom than you will on audit proposals. Understand what the decision maker wants and what motivates them, and then target the proposal correctly. The motivations driving an audit committee may be far different than those driving the owner of a closely held business. Always match your message with the pain points and motivation of the decision maker.

Qualify your firm and professionals

The next thing a proposal needs to do is qualify your firm. Many RFPs have specific qualification requirements. Be sure your proposal answers all qualifying questions directly and succinctly. If there are any potential weaknesses or questions regarding your qualifications, be sure to answer these clearly. If specific professional or experience qualifications are required, provide them in a way that is easy for the reader to identify. If you have special characteristics that make your firm especially qualified, shine a bright light on these.

Use messaging and design to convey differentiating value

If qualification is the requirement to play the game, differentiation is the key to winning. In most competitive bid situations, you will be competing against other qualified proposals. Your proposal must clearly explain the value propositions which will differentiate you from the competition. Is it experience? What will your experience mean for the client? Is it expertise? How will your expertise provide them with value? Before you start listing everything great about your firm, think about your strengths in the context of what motivates the decision makers. What is important to them? The answer may vary greatly depending on the work and the individuals making the decision. Don’t just write paragraph after paragraph of copy. Think about the most salient differentiators and use graphics to illustrate them. Consider using call-outs to highlight quotes from other influential clients.

Stand out from the stack

This is a very commonly overlooked area for CPAs. Let’s face it. Accountants are not usually the most creative group. And your sense of restrained professionalism has probably pushed you even more in the conservative direction. But when a proposal is sitting in a stack with five others, it’s important that it stands out from the crowd and gets the attention of the decision makers. Paragraph upon paragraph of black and white text just doesn’t scream “pick me up and read me!” Think of it like putting a cover on a novel, or putting together a trailer for a movie. Something needs to draw the reader in and convince them to look inside. You can be as qualified and differentiating as possible, but if your proposal never gets read, you are dead in the water.

Clearly deliver your brand promise

The brand of your firm can be a huge value in setting you up for success in business development. If you have the brand of a Big 4 firm, many Fortune 500 companies will assume you are qualified to serve them. If your brand is one of excellence in serving government or not-for-profit organizations in your area, prospective clients might already believe you can provide differentiating value. Clarity and consistency are two of the most important components of your brand. Your proposals need to reinforce and build on your brand. If they lack consistency in look, feel and message, they cannot effectively convey your brand. Even a strong brand can be undermined by a proposal that is not consistent or does not convey the value of the brand. This includes all aspects of the proposal from the look, content, clarity, formatting and even pricing. Be sure your proposal represents your brand correctly.

These five characteristics certainly aren’t the entire list. Proposals for tax, consulting and auditing services can vary greatly in content and presentation. But starting with the criteria above will give you a solid platform for a successful proposal for any service.

What does this have to do with proposals for accounting services? Maybe more than you would think. Nearly every firm that I meet mentions a desire to increase their “win” percentage in the proposal process. That makes perfect sense. They want to start winning. Firms want more opportunities and they want to be more successful with the opportunities they get. But what is the required process behind winning more proposals? Certainly, the actual proposal is only a part of the ultimate result, but it is a significant part.

Interestingly enough, many of these same firms that express a desire to win a greater number of their proposals also express frustration with the quality of their proposals and their internal development process. They don’t have any consistency. Their proposals lack a clear coherent message. Their proposals lack any differentiating design or compelling theme. Proposals are often developed separately by individual partners, pieced together with parts of previous proposals’ formatting, messaging, and appearance that don’t present the brand the firm desires to put forward.

This uncoordinated proposal process fails to put the firm’s best foot forward and is the very process that leads to “losing” that needs to stop before you can start winning. So how do you stop losing and start winning? Develop tools and processes that will allow for the consistent and efficient production of winning proposals. For a group of professionals that prides their selves on planning and process, the proposal process shockingly lacks strategic planning and effective processes.

A great place to start is identifying the results you want to achieve. Most firms tell me they want two things from their proposals that they aren’t currently getting. First, they want proposals that increase their win rate. And second, they want proposals that minimize production time. Once you know what you want, creating a solution that accomplishes the desired results should be a simple matter of strategic planning and following through with execution. If design, branding and messaging are outside the expertise you have internally, find a qualified partner to help you. Once you have the content and delivery problem solved, turn your compelling content into a template that will ensure efficient and consistent production of proposals that live up to your brand.  Any associated costs will be quickly recouped through increased win rates, greater fee realization, and a decrease in time wasted by your professionals on an inefficient process.

The best proven growth model for accounting firms is professional networking. Those who network best, experience the strongest practice growth. LinkedIn brings this proven business development technique into the social media century. The most successful people within your organization have a  large network of professional contacts. How are they organizing this valuable resource and  maximizing the benefit received from each relationship? Great business developers know that every contact is a potential client. But knowing when an opportunity for service has developed and knowing the best way to approach an opportunity requires information. LinkedIn provides a way to access, organize, and share more  information – bringing your relationship development activities to new heights. Are your professionals ready to take advantage of this opportunity?

Okay, so now that you’re thinking about your professional networking, let’s consider how connecting with these professionals through LinkedIn can create value. From a macro view, creating and maintaining a LinkedIn profile will help you maintain your professional image being presented to clients, prospects or future hires. Having a properly setup profile, with a professional photo and savvy positioning of content, will help your profile become easily searchable. That means you’ll get found by the right people and present the right message to them. Additionally, your firm’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts will also benefit. By having and maintaining a LinkedIn page, you can improve your chances of positively affecting your search engine ranking when colleagues or potential clients are searching for you or your accounting practice.

In many cases, your LinkedIn profile is now the first place a prospect will land when searching for you and your firm – even before your website and bio page. That makes it critical that your profile provide the right image and message. It’s like a living CV, endorsement center, thought leadership hub and PR platform all merged into a single location. Clients and prospects will form an opinion regarding your ability to serve them based on your LinkedIn profile. So if you aren’t maximizing and managing your profile, you are most definitely hamstringing your business development efforts.

While getting found and making the right impression is an important benefit of the LinkedIn network, another value is directly connecting with other members and finding opportunities for client service. Connecting with fellow members allows you to network, view connections’ current and former business contacts, and gives you an opportunity to see what others are doing professionally. Additionally, LinkedIn affords you the ability to share expertise with contacts by sharing and reading posts, updates and articles. LinkedIn discussions are a great tool for communication, discussion and value delivery. These posts and updates can turn into indirect or direct opportunities to discuss professional topics or possibly even business opportunities. Savvy LinkedIn users know the right forums, conversations, and groups to find opportunities for client service. Used correctly, it’s just like a live conversation. If you keep your ears open, or in this case your eyes, you’ll find opportunities for new client development all over the place.

If you have not joined LinkedIn, then take that ‘rock’ and roll it into the pond of +100 million users and get LinkedIn. If you are a member, then get off your ‘rock’ and spend some time maximizing your profile and take full advantage of what the network has to offer. Not sure where to start? Check back for my next blog: ‘7 Tips to Maximize Your LinkedIn Profile’.

1.) Remove user accounts with common names.  During the most recent attack, the botnet most commonly guessed: “admin”, “test”, “administrator” and “root”.

2.) Use unique secure passwords. While the botnet has in the past been programmed to attempt the above usernames with the most frequency, it is changing to include, among others: “editor” and “moderator”.  I would expect we’ll see common first names included in the brute force attacks in the near future.  Counter this by using a unique, secure password.  Use capital letters, numbers and symbols to spell words not found in the dictionary.  Most importantly, note the fact that I specified your password should be unique.  When hackers gain passwords by compromising sites like Dropbox, LinkedIn or Yahoo, they add the stolen passwords to their brute force dictionary.

3.) Install a security plugin.  While there are many plugins that will do the trick, I like Login Lockdown.  Login Lockdown records the IP address and timestamp of every failed login attempt. If more than a certain number of attempts are detected within a short period of time from the same IP range, then the login function is disabled for all requests from that range.