Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Want To Win More Contracts?

After reading extensive lists of contract award winners, the question that I often ask myself is – what did these winning organizations do differently from all the other organizations that submitted proposals? This month, I offered an answer to that question in my article, Want To Win Proposals? Here Are The Five Steps To A Winning Product premium members. Distilled down, there are five essential tips organizations looking to win competitive procurements should keep in mind:

1. Be Unique

2. Stay Relevant To The Project At Hand

3. Be Persuasive

4. Don't Underestimate The Aesthetics

5. Plan Ahead

Every week, OPEN MINDS reports on hundreds of organizations winning contracts in the health and human services field through our RFP HotLine service. In this month’s newsletter, RFP Production Manager Minh Hoang reported on a growing list of opportunities states and counties are putting out to bid for tobacco cessation programs – and the organizations that are winning those contracts (see Tobacco Cessation Programs: A Growing Opportunity premium members). And last month, he reported on many of the organizations winning big contracts to provide EAP services (see Employee Assistance Programs: Increasing Employee Wellness = Big Opportunities premium members).

And for those of you looking to learn more, here is an OPEN MINDS how-to deep dive for winning competitive bids:

1. How to Succeed in Winning Competitive Bids: A Best Practice Guide for Behavioral Health & Social Service Executives premium members

2. Successfully Responding to Requests for Proposals: How to Use RFPs as the Key to Organizational Growth & Opportunity premium members

3. Writing the Winning Grant Proposal: Keys to Cultivating Funding for Your Organization premium members

4. Government Grant Funding in the Behavioral Health & Social Service Field: How to Find & Evaluate Grants Opportunities premium members

5. Are Grants A Diversification Option for Your Organization?: Where to Start with Evaluating a Grant Research & Writing Operation premium members

6. Requests For Proposals: How To Evaluate Whether Or Not You Should Respond To A Competitive Bid premium members

If you want to learn more, join me and my colleague Kitley Rainwater in New Orleans in June for our presentation, "Winning Competitive RFPs: Strategy & Tactics To Create That Winning Proposal", at the 2012 Planning & Innovation Institute. In the meantime, if you have questions about advancing your organization’s proposal writing skills, e-mail me at openminds@openminds.com.

Sincerely,
Monica E. Oss
Chief Executive Officer, OPEN MINDS

Back to top

For another free resource, see: Planning is Key to Marketing ROI for RFP Response all members 

This is free for the next sixty days to all registered OPEN MINDS Circle members.

Back to top