How To Use Reflective Communication to Write Persuasive Proposals

When you read an RFP, what do you look for? What sections do you highlight, which do you skim? Most likely you pull the big things like the scope of work, questions you need to respond to, submission requirements, pre-bid meeting details, and forms. If you’re only reading through an RFP for the technical requirements of your proposal though, you could be missing out on opportunities to employ a reflective communication strategy in your response. Reflective communication strategies help endear your firm to the review committee, and they’re relatively easy to integrate into your response if you know what to look for.

What is Reflective Communication?

You’ve likely heard of the mirroring concept in conversation, where you mimic the body language, tone, or energy levels of another person while talking to them. The idea is that by mimicking their movements and style, you earn their trust and build their confidence in you. Reflective communication is similar in that you take ideas or concepts presented by the party you’re communicating with and feed them back to that party to show them you understand their perspective.

From Wikipedia: “Reflective listening is a communication strategy involving two key steps: seeking to understand a speaker’s idea, then offering the idea back to the speaker, to confirm the idea has been understood correctly.” We can employ this communication strategy by listening to the RFP (and the client during pre-bid meetings!) and offering key concepts back to the client to show them that we ‘get it’.

We’ve talked about understanding client challenges to build strong win themes on the blog before. Reflective communication is simply one strategy to help convey your understanding of those client challenges.

‘Listening’ to the RFP: What Words and Phrases You Should Look For

The RFP and pre-proposal meetings can help us identify keywords and phrases that we can use in our reflective communication strategies. We may look for words and phrases relating to scope, delivery method, or the client.

Scope Words

Scope words are words or phrases that appear repeatedly in an RFP. For example, a client might emphasize their desire for energy-efficient buildings by using the terms ‘energy efficiency’ ‘energy management’ ‘energy savings’ or ‘sustainability’ repeatedly. If you start to notice a word or phrase appear repeatedly, it’s probably worth highlighting and expanding on it in your response.

Delivery Method Words

Delivery method words and phrases might relate to schedule, budget, or project management. Sometimes we might be lucky enough for the client to ask several questions about our particular experience with a delivery method, like CMAR (Construction Manager at Risk) or Design-Build, which serves as a cue to the proposal writer that experience with this particular method is important. Oftentimes though, the client mentions the delivery method numerous times in the RFP document, but may not ask a direct question about it. The repeated emphasis on the delivery method in the scope or project description in the RFP can still serve as an indication that this is an important concept we need to expand upon in our response.

Client Words

Every client is unique – they have their own mission, vision, and business philosophy. Our job is to communicate our understanding of that uniqueness in our responses. For example, your client may use a particular software for project coordination – maybe they’ve recently adopted the use of the software or maybe it’s been around a while but they’re the only ones you know that use it. That software is your keyword, and you’ll want to expand on (or at least mention) your experience with it. Common words, phrases, and concepts that can be unique to clients and help you tailor your proposal include:

• Standards
• Processes
• Management Style/Structure/Organization
• Mission/Vision/Business Philosophy/Goals

Building a Reflective Communication Strategy Using Key Words

There are three levels of reflective communication: repetition, paraphrasing, and reflecting. Which one you use will depend on your understanding of the client and the concepts you’re using in your reflective communication strategy.

Repetition: This strategy involves using the same words exactly in your proposal. It is the easiest way to show the client that you read/heard/listened to their requirements and are acknowledging them in your response. For example, you may use a repetition strategy to highlight keywords in a relevance box on your project sheets.

Paraphrasing: This strategy involves using similar words to convey the concept back to the client. It shows the client that you understand a concept and have enough knowledge of it to not only acknowledge it in your response but to begin to incorporate it into other concepts. An example of paraphrasing might look like this:

RFP Language: [Client] requires two weeks for review at the end of each phase.

Proposal Language: The proposed schedule has been developed to ensure two weeks for client review periods at the conclusion of each phase of the project.

Reflecting: This strategy involves using your own words to convey the same idea back to the client. It is the most intensive type of reflective communication. Reflecting will often occur in narratives regarding the project approach, in which you must not only convey an understanding of a particular challenge or concept but provide a solution or forward-thinking that further demonstrates your understanding of that challenge or concept. Reflecting can be combined with repetition and paraphrasing.

Using reflective communication strategies in your proposals is one way to endear the client to your firm and to show them that you have listened to and understand their challenges. Once you can see the project from their perspective, you can position your team as the best possible option for overcoming the client’s challenge. Using a combination of repetition, paraphrasing, and reflecting strategies in your proposals will allow you to effectively communicate your understanding of the client and their project.