It’s all about price if…

Posted by Jon
Your proposal strategy is all about price if you can convince the buyer that:

• you have the most efficient solution to meet their requirements, consuming the fewest resources
• those resources are cheaper than anyone else’s
• your stakeholders require a lower return on their investment – i.e. margin – than your competitors’.

Oh, and also, that:

• the fact that you’ll give them the lowest price will be embedded contractually, underpinned by benchmarking (for what that’s worth)
• none of your competitors will outsmart you in the way they present their price (e.g. ‘bid low, recover to margin’, ‘buy the business’) or will underspecify their solution
• no competitor can offer a significantly higher return on investment – i.e. quantifiably larger benefits for their higher price
• cheap really is cheerful for the customer’s team – not fraught with risk and hassle
• the customer trusts you.

If you’re not confident of all of the above, then your story really can’t be all about price, can it? Youhave to create value – and a good strategy process becomes essential.