Is there one silver bullet that wins proposals? Yes (kinda). Trust is the closest factor I have found to being the silver bullet that wins proposals.
Our customer must trust that we can deliver the solution at the agreed-to price with little to no issues. (Do you make it a habit of buying from people or companies you do not trust?) No trust, no win.
Definitively, there is no one silver bullet factor that guarantees a win. There is no one thing that always works; nor is there one thing that offsets a sea of negative influencers (e.g., bad reputation, noncompliant or poorly executed proposal, lack of customer insight).
However, there are five silver bullet factors that greatly impact the likelihood of a win, and these factors require customer trust.
These five silver bullet factors historically tip the scales in favor of one solution provider over another. Which factor(s) to use varies according to circumstances. The five silver bullet factors can be cumulative. They are relative to one another and relative to other factors.
In other words, relative to all other aspects of proposal development, one could call these silver bullets because of the historic weighting of these five variables.
Keep reading this article at: http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2014/01/22/insights-parkinson-silver-bullets.aspx