Million Dollar Consulting Proposals

Alan Weiss, PhD, is a consultant, speaker, and bestselling author. He has the strongest independent consulting brand in the world and his firm, Summit Consulting Group, Inc., has attracted clients such as Merck, Hewlett-Packard, GE, Mercedes-Benz, and more than 500 other leading organizations. His prolific publishing career includes forty-five books, some of which have been on university curricula and translated into nine languages. The New York Post calls him "one of the most highly regarded independent consultants in America."

• Acknowledgments ixIntroduction xiChapter 1 Business Vows: What Is a Proposal and Why It Is Necessary 1What They Can Do and What They Can’t Do 1Their Place in Your Business Model 5Why You Don’t Provide Proposals for Just Anyone 9The Role of Conceptual Agreement 12The Concept of Value (Not Time and Materials) 14Notes 18Chapter 2 Five Steps Toward Great Leaps: How to Prepare Yourself and the Client 19Determining the Economic Buyer 19Developing Trusting Relationships 23Establishing Outcome-Based Business Objectives 27Establishing Metrics for Progress and Success 30Establishing Value and Impact 33Notes 37Chapter 3 Avoiding Gatekeepers, Intermediaries, and Goblins: Accepting Rejection and Rejecting Acceptance 39Utilizing Mutual, Enlightened Self-Interest 39Using Guile and Other Art Forms 43Using Explosives 46Avoiding Delegation 50Ensuring Support 54Note 56Chapter 4 The Architecture of Successful Proposals: The Million Dollar Consulting® Proposal Structure 57The Nine Key Components 57Notes 75Chapter 5 One Dozen Golden Rules for Presenting Proposals: Steak and Sizzle Are Hard to Beat 77Speed and Responsiveness 77Accurate Re-creations 81Counterintuitive: No Pitch or Promotion 85To Be or Not to Be (In Person) 89Definitive Dates and Times 93Notes 96Chapter 6 Why Bad Things Happen to Good People Who Wait: Moving Mountains 97How and When to Follow Up 97What to Anticipate and How to Cope 100Overcoming Last-Minute Objections 104Overcoming Legitimate Obstacles 108Creating a Signature (or Something Else) 111Notes 114Chapter 7 First, Let’s Kill All the Lawyers: Shakespeare Really Meant That We Needed Them 115Dealing With the Legal Department 115How to Avoid the Legal Department 118Utilizing Your Own Attorney 122Effective and Ineffective Compromise 125The Golden Handshake 129Notes 133Chapter 8 The Dreaded RFP (Request for Proposals): Why Fill Out the Truly Boring in Triplicate? 135The Beauties of Being a Sole-Source Provider 135How to Massage RFPs so That They Look Like You 139How to Offer Additional Value 142How to Use Public Meetings for Leverage 145When to Run for the Hills 149Notes 152Chapter 9 Retainers Are to Projects as Montrachet Is to Thunderbird: The Wonder of Access to Your Smarts 153The Three Variables of a Retainer 153The Need to Control Scope Creep and Scope Seep 157How to Assertively Pursue Renewals 160How to Stimulate More Retainers 164Chapter 10 In the Unlikely Event You Need Oxygen: We Don’t Anticipate a Crash, But There are Some Things You Ought to Know 171What to Do With Requests for Delays Based on Time and Money 171What to Do If Rejected 175How to Improve Your Proposals Constantly 178How to Maximize Your Successes and Fees 181When to Stop Writing Proposals 185Note 187Virtual Appendix 188Sample Proposals 189Index 203