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| Acknowledgments | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Business Vows: What Is a Proposal and Why It Is Necessary | |
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| What They Can Do and What They Can't Do | |
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| Their Place in Your Business Model | |
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| Why You Don't Provide Proposals for Just Anyone | |
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| The Role of Conceptual Agreement | |
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| The Concept of Value (Not Time and Materials) | |
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| Notes | |
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| Five Steps Toward Great Leaps: How to Prepare Yourself and the Client | |
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| Determining the Economic Buyer | |
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| Developing Trusting Relationships | |
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| Establishing Outcome-Based Business Objectives | |
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| Establishing Metrics for Progress and Success | |
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| Establishing Value and Impact | |
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| Notes | |
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| Avoiding Gatekeepers, Intermediaries, and Goblins: Accepting Rejection and Rejecting Acceptance | |
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| Utilizing Mutual, Enlightened Self-interest | |
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| Using Guile and Other Art Forms | |
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| Using Explosives | |
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| Avoiding Delegation | |
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| Ensuring Support | |
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| Note | |
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| The Architecture of Successful Proposals: The Million Dollar Consulting“ Proposal Structure | |
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| The Nine Key Components | |
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| Notes | |
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| One Dozen Golden Rules for Presenting Proposals: Steak and Sizzle Are Hard to Beat | |
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| Speed and Responsiveness | |
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| Accurate Re-creations | |
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| Counterintuitive: No Pitch or Promotion | |
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| To Be or Not to Be (In Person) | |
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| Definitive Dates and Times | |
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| Notes | |
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| Why Bad Things Happen to Good People Who Wait: Moving Mountains | |
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| How and When to Follow Up | |
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| What to Anticipate and How to Cope | |
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| Overcoming Last-Minute Objections | |
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| Overcoming Legitimate Obstacles | |
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| Creating a Signature (or Something Else) | |
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| Notes | |
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| First, Let's Kill All the Lawyers: Shakespeare Really Meant That We Needed Them | |
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| Dealing With the Legal Department | |
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| How to Avoid the Legal Department | |
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| Utilizing Your Own Attorney | |
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| Effective and Ineffective Compromise | |
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| The Golden Handshake | |
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| Notes | |
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| The Dreaded RFP (Request for Proposals): Why Fill Out the Truly Boring in Triplicate? | |
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| The Beauties of Being a Sole-Source Provider | |
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| How to Massage RFPs so That They Look Like You | |
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| How to Offer Additional Value | |
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| How to Use Public Meetings for Leverage | |
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| When to Run for the Hills | |
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| Notes | |
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| Retainers Are to Projects as Montrachet Is to Thunderbird: The Wonder of Access to Your Smarts | |
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| The Three Variables of a Retainer | |
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| The Need to Control Scope Creep and Scope Seep | |
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| How to Assertively Pursue Renewals | |
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| How to Stimulate More Retainers | |
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| In the Unlikely Event You Need Oxygen: We Don't Anticipate a Crash, But There Are Some Things You Ought to Know | |
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| What to Do With Requests for Delays Based on Time and Money | |
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| What to Do If Rejected | |
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| How to Improve Your Proposals Constantly | |
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| How to Maximize Your Successes and Fees | |
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| When to Stop Writing Proposals | |
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| Note | |
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| Virtual Appendix | |
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| Sample Proposals | |
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| Index | |