Alan Weiss 
Million Dollar Consulting Proposals [PDF ebook] 
How to Write a Proposal That’s Accepted Every Time

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

Alan Weiss, Ph D, 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.’