A wise man once said, “Before you can start winning, you have to stop losing.”

The difference between success and failure is usually the sum of many small habits. Successful people implement many small actions on an ongoing basis that set the stage for their success. Unsuccessful people take on bad habits that become a roadblock to achieving their potential. The author of the quote is referring to these bad habits. Before you can start winning, you have to identify and remove the obstacles to success in your life, or in this case, your business.

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. Problems may include:

• No consistency from one to the other.
• No clear or coherent message.
• No differentiating design or compelling theme.

Proposals are often developed separately by individual partners, pieced together with parts of formatting, messaging, and appearance from previous proposals that don’t present the brand the firm desires to put forward.

This uncoordinated process fails to put the firm’s best foot forward and is the heart of the process that leads to “losing.” It’s the bad habit that needs to stop before you can start winning.

First, identify 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.
• Second, they want proposals with minimal production time.

Once you know what you want, create a templated solution that accomplishes the desired results. It’s a simple matter of strategic planning and following through with execution.

If design, branding, and messaging are outside your firm’s personnel expertise (and that’s okay, a great accountant isn’t necessarily a great marketer), find a qualified partner to help you. Once you have the content and delivery problem solved, your compelling content template will ensure efficient and consistent proposals that live up to your brand. Any associated costs will be quickly recouped through greater fee realization and less time wasted by your professionals on an inefficient process.

In other words, you’ll stop losing and start winning.

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If you want to learn more about the characteristics of winning proposals, check out this post.