Strategic PR in Winning the Bid--Top Secrets from a PR Expert

Strategic PR in Winning the Bid--Top Secrets from a PR Expert by Leslie McKerns

Whether the request is an RFP (Request for Proposal) or an RFQ (Request for Qualifications) there are top secrets for using strategy and PR in your response. Here’s a method for putting the top secret PR and strategic marketing methods into play in your RFP proposal response.

Be a Sleuth. Identify Problems and Concerns – Written and Unwritten.

1. Go through the RFP proposal and highlight everything with a yellow highlighter that indicates a potential problem. A problem is anything they have listed or described in the language as a special concern. Keep a running list of these items as you identify them.

2. Go through that RFP again and highlight everything that you think will be an issue (whether they have identified it in the RFP language as a concern or not).

These items are important because they are your edge – be clever and insightful in finding these hidden items. Take note of anything not identified within the RFP, but that you think may be an issue, concern or problem. Keep a running list of these hidden items.

3. Go through the RFP once again looking for areas of needed expertise. Make a list of people and projects showing you have the knowledge, expertise and talent to accomplish their goals. Write down a list of (hot button) terms as they occur to you – you’ll use them in your response language.

If it is a construction project -- Look for site issues, access, time issues, staging or phasing problems, funding, environmental issues, special expertise required (educational, technical, consultative, professional or unusual). What’s unusual? Feng Shui might fit this category; Environmental Brownfield expertise might fit too.

What if the RFP proposal is not a construction project? Doesn’t matter, the strategic technique for analyzing and responding to an RFP is the same. If the proposal is to design packaging and bring a product to market, you’ll look for problems you can solve and for expertise you can offer. Find a past track record, or inside edge you can demonstrate. Document your expertise. How much? How Often? Use statistics and other quantifiers, not just language.

Make a connection—Look within.

Make a list identifying people and their special expertise that will bring strength and value to the table.

1. Go through your database of employee resumes. If you are a large company, automate the search. Make a list of keywords, meet with your IT consultant and run computer matches of resumes to keywords. HR departments seeking to fill positions do this and you can do it too, only you will be looking for expertise you already have.

2. If you are small company, you can meet with your group directly. Or send out an internal e-mail to key position holders and ask them to respond via a voting button – do you have expertise matching this issue?

3. If you are an independent consultant, get out your pen and pad, computer tablet or laptop and quickly list what you know you can bring to the table, then go back and look for more.

Identify your people that are exact matches. Look for those with the qualifications and prior experience to solve any or all of the problems you have identified. Now, pull their resumes and rewrite them with this exact expertise highlighted and prominently displayed.

Show them the money.

Pull your project sheets, open the format and rewrite the blurbs demonstrating how this project meets the requirements of the current proposal. Don’t make them guess; highlight it. Did you finish it faster? Did that save the client money or allow them to open sooner? Were you a source of creative expertise?

Be a Pretty Standout. Use Visuals and Language to Display your Expertise.

1. Pull graphics, statistics and maps of the areas and items that you will use to graphically display your knowledge about these issues.

2. Have the graphics department (or hire a consultant) turn your knowledge into attractive graphs, pie charts, timelines, overhead and other visuals. Use graphics in your proposal. Have, or hire a professional writer create effective language and match the flow to the graphics.

Where’s your PR?

Find press and past articles showing your expertise and the accolades you received for doing projects like the one outlined in the current RFP request.

Don’t have any Press or PR? Hire a professional to write a feature story, press release, or several and post it to the internet and your website. Now you do have Press, and you can include it in your RFP package.

If you put top secret PR and strategic techniques into play when you create your proposal responses, you will increase your success rate.

Want to learn more methods for putting the top secret PR and strategic marketing methods into play in your RFP proposal response? Visit PR and strategic marketing expert, Leslie McKerns and McKerns Development at http://www.freewebs.com/mckernsdevelopment/

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