Posted by BJ on 10 March, 2010 under Proposal training | 
Many of our readers have attended a training course (or courses) that Jon or I presented. Those who have attended one of our workshops may recall that we usually ask participants to share what they have learned during the session.
We typically hear such things as, “I now understand the roles and responsibilities of the various individuals involved and why it is critical that we all understand and respect our respective roles and responsibilities.” Or “I have a much greater appreciation for the importance of an Executive summary and the role it plays in influencing the person review my proposal.”
On a recent workshop, when I asked if someone had a significant learning that they wished to share, a young man excitedly raised his hand and waved it to get my attention. I asked him to share what he had learned he said, “The coolest thing. I found out that you don’t have to drag the cursor over a word or sentence to highlight it, you can just click on it and it automatically highlights the word or sentence. That is SO much easier and it’s going to save me tons of time.”
Just goes to show that there are a great many levels of expertise with the tools we all rely upon on a daily basis (and varying levels as to what will get any one person excited.)
Posted by Jon on 8 March, 2010 under Musings |
Before setting off on a ridiculously early train into London this morning, I devoured a selection of the reports on the web of The Hurt Locker’s Academy Award success.
When the movie came out, I’d read a glowing review of it in The New Yorker – the sort of exceptional commendation from that publication that makes something a must-see or must-read. (’Gilead‘, Marilynn Robinson’s Pulitzer-winning novel was another such New Yorker recommendation that undoubtedly lived up to its compelling review).
I finally got to watch the movie last week on DVD, and been incredibly impressed. So much so, in fact, that I’d sworn to my wife that it was a certain bet to sweep the board at the Oscars.
She, being a rational sort, pointed out that I couldn’t be sure of the result, since I’d not seen the other contenders – the highly fancied Avatar, in particular. Yet I’d spent the past few days telling anyone who would listen of the film’s brilliance, and its inevitable forthcoming success.
The parallels to proposals? First, think back to that New Yorker review. If the client’s been successfully ‘warmed up’ before your document arrives, they’ll doubtless approach it in a far more positive and receptive frame of mind: “I want to read this one: I’ve heard it’s going to be great.”
And then my certainty that the movie would win, even without seeing the rest of the field. True, too, for proposals – when sometimes the evaluators read a document that is so impressive that nothing else stands a chance. No matter how good the competitors’ proposals, will the reader always default back to yours as ‘the one that I want’, looking for any reason not to choose the others?
So, what awards will your next proposal win? Best document, for sure. Best original story? Best design? Best writing? Best direction, for your work leading and inspiring the team?
Posted by BJ on 2 March, 2010 under Word play & writing |
I just love it when a typo creates a word which changes the meaning of a sentence in a humorous way and, as the saying goes, “You just can’t make this stuff up folks.”
In a recent AP article on the Westminster Dog Show being held this week in New York (at Madison Square Garden, should you care to know or go.) I spotted this delightful typo:
She is a hot dog, this little Sadie. Tongue out, and wagging tail up, the perky, 4-year old Scottish terrier has won more than 100 Best-in-Show ribbons and is the overwhelping favorite to complete dogdom’s Triple Crown this week at Westminster. She’s already charmed the judges, in fact. (Yeah, and her overwhelping would suggest she has charmed her fair share of male dogs as well.)
Someone I shared this with suggested the typo could have also been “overyelping”. That would have been fun too.
Posted by Jon on 26 February, 2010 under Musings, Proposal Guys news |
Today’s post marks something of a milestone, as it’s the 500th post that BJ and I have made here at The Proposal Guys. We’re rather proud of reaching this landmark – and want to say thank you to our readers. We hope you’ve enjoyed our first 500 – and that you’ll stay with us as we head on towards the thousand mark!
We’ll be running a couple of major posts next week, looking at trends past and future in the world of proposals – with input from a number of luminaries in the proposal profession. Watch this space!
In the meantime, something to make you smile… Ever come across clients who behave like this?
(With many thanks to the participant on the APMP Foundation course that I ran in the Netherlands earlier this week, who shared the clip with me. And a quick reminder whilst talking about buyers: our recent white paper discussing how purchasers perceive proposals is still available for free download!)
Posted by BJ on 17 February, 2010 under Processes & best practice |
“Responders are invited to attend the opening of bids.” Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? If you haven’t been to a bid opening, this might conjure up images of a red carpets, various dignitaries, maybe a celebrity or two, the press standing by and flashbulbs popping.* If you have attended a bid opening, your experience was probably a bit different than this.
The bid openings I have attended have been very staid events, limited to the client announcing which companies had submitted a response, opening the boxes and a quick count of the documents. During the openings I’ve attended, the documents were never even removed from the boxes. Needless to say, they have hardly been the media events I might have hoped for.
Based on this, I’ve been inclined not to attend bid opening (unless they happened to be close by and it was convenient for me to attend (or they were in a city wished to visit).
My thinking on this has changed, based on an experience one of our clients had recently. Here’s the story (there’s always a story, right?)
For this particular RFP, submitting the documents, for all the usual reasons, came down to the very last minute (big surprise, right?). In order to ensure the document would be submitted on time, two members of the team drove to the client (some 6+ hours away), while the rest of the team worked away. The document was then sent to a printer near the client and the two team members put the documents together there. (This was Plan C, necessitated by a combination of a printer which kept acting up and a heavy snowstorm that threatened to keep planes from flying.).
The two members then delivered the document to the client (with minutes to spare). The bid opening was scheduled for an hour later and, since they were already there, they decided to attend the bid opening. This would prove to be a very good decision!
At this particular bid opening, the activities were as I described above – documents were acknowledged, counted, etc. But then, quite surprisingly and in my experience, quite unusually, the client offered to allow those in attendance – drum roll here – to review ALL of the responses. Yep…you read that right. My client was allowed to sit and review the responses submitted by their competitors. As my client was quick to point out, “This was worth the long drive, the extra effort, time away from home, etc. The information we gleaned from our competitor’s documents will be incredibly valuable to us for future bids.
So as you might expect, I am now an advocate for always attending bid openings.
*As to ‘flash bulbs popping’. I came across this phrase in an article in the newspaper recently and found it most distracting. After all, when’s the last time someone used flashbulbs, much less heard them pop? (While our readers who are near my age will certainly recall flashbulbs – perhaps in a Kodak Brownie or in your Polaroid Swinger - I suspect many of our younger proposal folks have never even seen a flashbulb.
Posted by Jon on 15 February, 2010 under Musings, Processes & best practice |
So enough of sales for a moment: what about other types of proposal? Consider the following, if you will:
“Hola! You’re very pretty! God, I realy luv beautiful hot cuties like u!”
An amusing study at dating site “OK Cupid” has analysed the language used by their members when first making contact with someone new, and found that certain phrases have a marked impact on the reply rates. The sentence in brackets above (“Hola…”) breaks about ten of their rules; the site would suggest something like the following (with 24 of their recommended phrases in bold):
How’s it going?
Your profile is really fascinating. I noticed that you mention pretty much all of the things I enjoy. That’s awesome! It’s nice that you love literature and movies; LOL I’m curious what your favourites might be, although I’m guessing that you have good taste.
PS I’d like to apologise for the fact I’m a bit of an awkward atheist. Sorry! But I am a vegetarian, and I did get some tattoos when I was in a metal band whilst studying physics at grad school, ha ha!
OK, maybe not… But it’s an interesting article nonetheless, and did make me reflect on the language used in sales proposals. (See, the post’s relevant after all!). Here are just a few of the phrases from the report that suggest that successful proposals of any sort have some underlying similarities:
- Netspeak, bad grammar, and bad spelling are huge turn-offs. (But hey, we don’t need trained proofreaders to check our sales proposals, do we??)
- People normally like compliments, but when they’re used as pick-up lines, before you’ve even met in person, they inevitably feel…ew. (“You’re such a wonderful organisation, and we’d love to work with you on this truly exciting project…”?)
- The way you choose to start your initial message to someone is the “first impression of your first impression.” (See various entries here on Executive Summaries!)
- Even more effective are phrases that engage the reader’s own interests, or show you’ve read their profile. (Profile = RFP!)
- Be careful not to let the appearance of vulnerability become the appearance of sweaty desperation: please is on the negative list (“Thank you so much for inviting us to bid for this contract…”?)
I wonder if proposal folks are particularly skilled at dating?!
Posted by Proposal Panda on 11 February, 2010 under Proposal Panda |
As a music lover, I was so excited when I arrived in Nashville “Music City U.S.A.”, Tennessee to visit Jeff Elkins and Robin Davis, both independent proposal consultants. I arrived just before Christmas and it was very cold so my first stop was the Goodwill store to pick up this toasty little sweater. 
The city was alive with the sights and sounds of the season – quite literally. Leaving the Goodwill store, I ran into my first celebrity. Well, celebrity-in-the-making, perhaps. Jim was volunteering as a Salvation Army bell ringer but is also a singer/songwriter. Of course he is – Nashville is filled with a bazillion musicians, including my hosts who used to play together in a band called Strat 5. Anyway, Jim was kind enough to let me sit in with him while he played “Silent Night.” In return, I generously donated to the red bucket. I hope Jim makes it big someday.
Hangin’ out on the Bench
I first spent time with Jeff in Hendersonville, TN (home of Grammy winning country/pop star Taylor Swift). Almost before I was unpacked, Jeff requested I review Jeff’s notes on a current project and help him craft an executive summary. Once I started working I realized I could help Jeff by recommending some changes to the layout of his home office that would make things more efficient.
Jeff had a meeting that afternoon with one of his clients and he suggested I come along. Once there we reviewed the strategy on a multi-million dollar proposal for a large government municipality; my global expertise came in VERY handy, and my previous experience with IT companies really helped me translate the key messages from “tech speak.”
The next day Jeff had an orientation meeting with the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT), which supports a wide range of needs in Tennessee. Jeff loaned me a Netbook for that meeting and I loved it —it was just my size!
On my last evening there, Jeff and I kicked back and played a little bluegrass, which is one of his other passions. I really enjoyed picking his mandolin on some of those old-time country tunes – we even tried our hand at “I May BE a Panda But I Won’t Panda To You.” It was a great way to wrap up the first week in Nashville.
Rockin’ Robin, tweet, tweedle-lee-dee
Next, I headed on over to visit with a good friend of Jon and BJ, Robin Davis. On the day I arrived, Robin was documenting the proposal process she designed for a client. Since I’ve been around so many different shops, she asked me to help ensure she was following best practices. I offered some advice on ways to make the process more efficient and then got busy making a flowchart for the client’s team to review. Robin then asked me to help create the proposal process training presentation for the client’s sales team. A perfect task for me since I’m a master presenter! I quickly whipped up a compelling and fun presentation and coached Robin on how to deliver it in the most effective way.
After a quick trip to Starbucks for a hot non-fat Chai tea latte (I asked if they might have a bamboo shoot to put in it but, as seems to be the case at most coffee shops I’ve visited, they didn’t have any.) While Robin was on a call with a prospective client, I monitored her Twitter account for her. That was pretty cool. There’s SO much information out there – some useful, some pretty strange - it was a blast!
Time for some fun
After a fair amount of working time, I was in need of some serious downtime. So, Robin and Jeff took me around to see the sights of the city. I can’t do that on an empty belly so our first stop was the Hard Rock Café on the banks of the Cumberland River. There was great music, fun memorabilia to look at, and an overpriced, but tasty, cheeseburger. Proposal Panda cannot live on Bamboo alone.
Nashville is the official “Home of Country Music” so we headed over to the mother church of country music, the Ryman Auditorium. The Ryman was the home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943-1974, and today, still hosts some of the hottest acts around. My hosts tell me this place has the best acoustics in town, even though you have to sit on hard wooden church benches.
Next on our list was the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. The building is designed to look like a piano keyboard! 
The Museum, established in 1961, includes a vast collection of items that tells the story of country music history. The Museum hosts regular live performances and public programs, and also includes a Museum Store and on-site dining. I had great time learning about the dramatic history of country music and I have a new-found respect for it.
But, this is music city so it’s not just about country music. Around the corner from the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, home of the Nashville Symphony. 
Built in 2006, the building takes up a full city block and was inspired by many of the world’s greatest symphony halls built in Europe in the 19th century. The hall features a custom-built concert organ and a convertible seating system that is designed to give the hall unique versatility. My hosts had the privilege of playing on the Schermerhorn stage and can attest to the hall’s acoustic clarity and warmth
After the Schermerhorn, we walked a block to Lower Broadway – host to a multitude of honky tonks and shops. We visited a fun little shop that offers tourists their fill of Nashville-themed trinkets. I resisted getting the giant blue foam cowboy hat that caught my eye – Robin and Jeff said it wouldn’t fit in my box. ☹ Right outside of the store I ran into Elvis. That’s right, ELVIS!! Ok, not the real one, but a cool statue of him, nonetheless. I rested on his guitar neck while the three of us belted out Blue Suede Shoes. Here I was in Music City U.S.A., singing on the street, just like many other struggling musicians. For just a moment, I got to experience what it must be like to chase your musical dreams.
Ya’ll come back now, ya hear?
Well, it’s that time again and I must move on to visit new people and experience new places. Nashville was a blast and I enjoyed spending time with Jeff and Robin. I’m looking forward to seeing them again when we all attend the APMP National conference in June.
Proposal Panda travels the world visiting proposal professionals. Click here for more details. If you’d like Panda to visit you, just email us at panda@theproposalguys.com
