As we mention on our profiles on the “About us” page, BJ and I came into proposal management from opposite ends of the spectrum. I was in purchasing – getting frustrated with the quality of suppliers’ proposals. That tends to mean that it’s areas such as pre-proposal planning, qualification and strategy that interest me most in the proposal process.

BJ came into proposals from journalism, engineering and general management. He was the guy who worked on lots of proposals, became recognised as being the best person around at the task, and found himself with a new career! He’s never happier than when directing the mechanics of pulling a proposal together – organising the team, co-ordinating content as it flies in, chasing tardy contributors.

We meet in the middle when it comes to writing – we both love playing with the written word. And, of course, we can each “do” the whole spectrum of activities pretty effectively – we couldn’t succeed like we do if that wasn’t the case. But, given a preference, we know where we prefer to operate as individuals, and how we can use of skills and interests to the greatest advantage when we work together.

I was discussing this with in a workshop last week. They were finding that some of their proposal staff were struggling – they always seem to be stressed. One idea we threw around was making their organisation structure more granular. A team of ‘one size fits all’ proposal experts results in individuals having to wear a multiplicity of hats. Yet how many people are truly confident running a strategy workshop with a group of senior sales and business folks AND expert at sitting quietly to edit text AND a guru at document layout in Microsoft Word?

As proposal folks, we all have to multi-task from time-to-time: we work on smaller deals that don’t merit the involvement of several proposal staff. Or we work in organisations where we aren’t a member of the proposal centre  – we ARE the proposal centre. But I do think it’s important that people understand their own personal preferences and strengths, so that they can play to those wherever possible (and so that they’re conscious of where they might need extra help, or to take extra care lest they gloss over the activities that interest them less).

A nice quote from Douglas Adams:

“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”

Reminds me of some proposal contributors I’ve known over the years.

(Thanks to my wife Vic for pointing this one out!)

I was down in Atlanta visiting a client earlier in the week. In the lobby of the building was an antique machine, a ‘museum piece’.* You know the type. Strange looking, bulky, black metal, lots of pedals, pieces seemingly stuck on at random. One that you just can’t figure out what it might have done ‘once upon a time’.

I noticed it and wandered over to take a closer look (I had a few moments as I waited for my client to come sign me in.).

As I looked it over I felt a wave of nostalgia. I knew this machine. It had been a good friend. We’d had some good times together. (Okay, may the years had erased some of the pain.)

This paricular mchine was an Addressagraph Multigraph Variatyper. Yep. Kind of trips right of the tongue, doesn’t it. (Say it 5 times fast and see if your tongue doesn’t feel funny!). I know this because (and I can already hear Jon now…) yes my fellow proposal pros, I worked on that machine. (Well, maybe not that particular one, but one just like it.)

This machine was used to produce the type used to print newspapers prior to computers. This was in the days of, ‘hot type’. Now, for those unfamilar with this machine, it took molten lead (this was the ‘pain’ part because it needed to constantly be ‘fed’ with blocks of lead (referred to as ‘pigs’… and weighing about 20 lbs… and conveniently packed 5 to a box… yep… 100 lbs.) and, by way of a keyboard, turned it into a piece of type (typical a word or phrase). These peices were then ’set’ into paragraphs by a printer. (In this case meaning a live person whose titled was ‘printer’ (Interestingly, these days I doubt anyone would assume you were referring to a live person if you just mentioned, for instance, ‘I just saw a printer.” :-)

And here’s a bit of trivia to help you win a round of trivial pursuit. The reason the term ‘leading’ is used for adding space between lines in adocument is because that’s how it was done. Quite literally, a thin strip of lead (or when more space was desired, several strips) was placed betwen the rows of type.

But I digress. Back to the story - I thought about this machine (this next piece of info might slow the inevitable comments from Jon just a bit) and the fact that I hadn’t used it all THAT long ago. I mean, this thing wasn’t 100 years old. Nor 50. Not even 40. I’d used it in 1974. A mere 32 years ago. (And I know, I know Jon, you were only HOW old back then? ;-)

On a similar note, as I commented to the participants at a workshop I delivered in Boston (at the Mastering the RFP Process Conference sponsored by IIR), I also did my first couple of proposals (we’re talking about 1982 or so here) prior to - ya ready for this? - word processors (they were just being introduced then..and I think I might have worked on the first ever proposal produced using DecPage - the Digital Equipment Corp. word processing package), laser printers (ditto for those), e-mail (it was available but only on a large green CRT screen) cell phones** (they wouldn’t be on the scene for a long time), CD’s (I tell people we used to put our proposals on vinyl albums - and scarily- every once in a while someone actually believes that we DID that!).

On a similar vein, I recall a presentation given by Brooke Savage (I think it was at a Pragmatech User Forum), where he presented a cover he had produced in, if I remeber correctly, 1985 or so. He showed the cover, which was fairly simple, and explained how it had at that time taken him ‘only’ 5 days to produce. This was in the days before graphics packages had become the norm. Back then, we had artists cutting out pictures and gluing them in place (and I can hear some of you out there - especially those under 30, saying, “Come on. You’re making this stuff up, right?” Nope. That’s the way it was back then.

We’ve come along ways. Look at how we get things done now. automated knowledge bases, graphics packages that allow us to create vitually anything (and if you aren’t using Google’s image feature***, you really should look into it!), word processing that all but types the document for us, etc.

And just imagine how people will be doing proposals (WILL they still be doing them?) in another 30 years.

*This is actually the second machine I’ve worked on that I know of as a museum piece. (Jon is just going to have a field day with this, I just know it!). A machine I worked on while I was a technician - the DEC PDP-8 is in the computer machine in Boston. And I just know there’s probably a few folks reading this who probably worked on similar machines, maybe even machines prior to this. I’d love to hear about them.

**As regards cell phones. My daughter Casey related the following story. She was talking with a niece who is in high school and pointed out that when she had been in high school (a mere 7 years ago) she didn’t have a cell phone. Her niece asked her, ‘What did you do in school all day if you couldn’t text your friends?”

***Please remember that images pulled from any source might be subject to copyright and use them appropriately.

Hi folks. BJ here.

Some of you may know that I ride a motorcycle (I’ve ridden them since I was a kid. And no Jon, that DOESN’T mean I rode one before the combustion engine was invented (But DO see my other note titled ‘museum piece’ for a good chuckle on THAT topic!).

Well, as happens with motorcycle, I’ve spent a fair amount of money on mine (folks who ride refer to something called, ‘C and L’ disease’ That being ‘chrome and leather’.) And I now want to change the suspension on the bike. Why you ask? Interestingly, that’s exactly what Azra (my wife) asked. And I gave her what I thought was a good reason…only to find out that even though I spend the better part of my life in the realm of ‘value’ and ‘benefits’ selling, I had missed the mark (fortunately, I eventually found it!)

“I’m going to change the shocks on the bike,” I said. (Not even thinking thorugh whether Azra even knew what a ’shock’ was.). She replied with, “No. You’ve spent enough on that bike.”

“But I want to replace the air shocks with ones that are gas charged and have external springs, said I.”

Looking at me like I had spoken in a foreign language, Az said,”No. And why would you want to do that?”

I answered (and those of you who can already see where this story is going will, no doubt, be amazed I hadn’t figured out what I was doing wrong at this point. Nope. Not a clue here.), “I want to be able to adjust the dampening and well as the rebound speed.” And waited for her to grasp my very logical reasons here. As you might guess, she still didn’t buy into my perfectly logical reasoning.

And then it hit me, and I said to my self. “Okay BJ (and yes, I think this WAS out loud). Let’s think about this. Where the ‘benefit’ for this. How can you sell it?” and there it was.

“Askim (Turkish [my wive’s native tongue],” I said (in a tone that I hoped would convey caring concern and the utmost desire for her comfort), “I know how it can get uncomfortable for you on long rides. And I want you to be as comfortable as possible. There’s a change I can make to the bike that will make it much more comfortable for you.”

She said (and I quote here), “Do you think you can have it done beforew the weekend?”

So, onoce again I re-learn/remember to get back to the basics (and isn’t that what I’m always saying to clients and pariticpants. It almost always comes back to the basics.). In this case it’s that value - based on the direct benefit to the user - is what has the best impact, cuts thorugh the noise level and gets the approval (and in this case got me the shocks I wanted - the gas chraged, exterbal spring, aluminum ones! :-)

(And because someone is sure to ask what bike I ride- it’s an 04 HD FLHRSI, lowered, duals, 96 kit.)

Ok, I admit to having presented the information in that way so I could also point out how annoying it can be to use abbreviations or jargon when speaking to those who might have be as familar with the topic. For those who fall into this category and wish to know what all that ‘code’ means, it translates to it’s a 2004 (year) Harley Davidson (brand), Road King (model - the FLHR in Harely speak), Custom (sub model designated by the ’s’), fuel injected (the ‘i’), with an engine that’s larger than stock (95 inches) it sits lower to the ground and it has two separate pipes instead to two which are connected.)

A lovely story in The Guardian newspaper this morning – and if BJ’s allowed a baseball analogy, no-one’s going to stop me quoting a soccer story that sparked some proposal-related thoughts.

Bill Beswick, a sports pyschologist, was brought in to work with Manchester United when their star player was David Beckham.

Before training one morning, he tried to motivate United’s players by telling them a tale of three bricklayers. Asked what he was doing, the first replied “laying bricks” and the second said “earning £10 an hour” but the third said he was “helping to build a beautiful cathedral where I will bring my kids”.

Apparently Beckham promptly scored a wonderful goal on the practice pitch and celebrated by screaming: “Cathedral 1 Bricklayers 0.”

Makes me wonder what proposal managers are doing each day. Are we “getting a document out of the door”; are we “paying the mortgage”, or are we “telling the stories that bring in business and keep our co-workers employed”?

A common query came up again on a recent course for the proposal team of an asset management company: “So how do we make sure our proposal content is first-class?”

This would be my “wish list”:

• A house style guide for proposals, written in an entertaining and accessible way, giving all contributors pointers on how to develop good content
• Training for all contributors. I said “all”. Not just the proposal team. Training serves two purposes – it helps people to improve their content, and also takes away some of the ‘fear factor’ they face when working on proposals.
• Great pre-written proposal content. Write it once, to the highest standards; keep it up to date; make sure everyone who needs it has access to the material, using a professional tool (Pragmatech, for example)
• Clear briefing of all contributors. Make sure they have appropriate detail on the context for this proposal, the themes you’re trying to put across, the messages you’d like them to cover in this particular answer, the expected length of the answer you’d like back. (Ideally, make sure that – if they’re contributing lots of content – they’re involved in the strategy and storyboarding sessions!). And give them plenty of time and advance notice!
• Professional editing by the proposal centre. You’ll never ensure absolute consistency of voice throughout the document if you’re collating information written by individuals with different writing styles and abilities. That’s where great proposal writers come in.