Posted by Jon under Musings, Processes & best practice | 
Any golf fans out there? Happen to notice anything odd in the last big tournament? Yes, that’s right: the amazing Tiger Woods failed to make the cut in the recent US Open, and so was eliminated after just two of the four rounds.
The golfer’s cut is, I suppose, the equivalent of the purchaser’s RFI. The field is scythed down: only the most likely winners survive.
When responding to an RFI, many teams have a simple view of the task in hand: to make it through the cull, so that they receive the RFP.
Simple – and, to my mind, somewhat simplistic. When responding to an RFI, I don’t merely want to make it onto the shortlist. Wherever possible, I want our RFI response to help to position us at the forefront of the customer’s thinking – at least being viewed as the “one most likely to” win, and ideally shaping the buyers’ views so that their subsequent RFP plays to our strengths.
Posted by Jon under Musings |
During a meeting up in Scotland last week, I came up with a new way to encapsulate the difference between improving the efficiency of a proposal process, and improving its effectiveness:
- Improving efficiency: the salesperson goes home earlier.
- Improving effectiveness: the salesperson goes to a bigger home.
Posted by Jon under Processes & best practice, Word play & writing |
Pre-written content is a cornerstone of any successful proposal operation – and implementing an effective knowledge base can be a real “quick win” if you’re trying to bring about a step-change improvement to your proposal capabilities.
Richard Jenkins, one of our colleagues, joined a Pragmatech-hosted panel on the topic at last month’s APMP worldwide conference. As part of his preparation, Richard asked me to scribble down my own thoughts on do’s and don’t’s of implementing pre-written content libraries, based on our experience of helping various teams in this area.
Here’s the list I came up with – not particularly polished, but sometimes the spontaneous answers are the most interesting ones!
SIX DO’S
1. DO… Think carefully about what content to include – e.g. analyse Frequently Asked Questions; prioritise! Develop some clear targets/metrics (e.g. xxx records in place by xxx, xx% of answers in a typical proposal to be available – to then be tailored to this specific opportunity – from the knowledge base).
2. DO… Make sure you communicate clearly to content owners – what’s needed from them, when, benefits to them/others of doing this, plus ideally some coaching/training/guidelines in advance so that they understand what makes for effective content development. Listen to them, too, so that your timing doesn’t conflict with their busiest periods. It’s also key to communicate with the bosses of these subject matter experts, to secure active commitment from on high.
3. DO… Use the purchase of a good pre-written content tool as a “compelling event” to drive contributors to produce content by a certain date. (In extremis, threaten to “name and shame” them if they don’t contribute – e.g. include a blank record in the database with their contact details).
4. DO… Think “tomorrow”, not just “today”. That is, plan from day one to keep the content up-to-date on an on-going basis, and ensure responsibilities, resources, effort for this are clearly planned and identified.
5. DO… Provide professional proposal support (especially editing, but also for constructive critique of material) to help the content contributors. Much as I hate the phrase ‘red team’, why would you ‘red team’ stuff for a live deal, but not for your knowledge base?
6. DO… (We would say this, wouldn’t we, but…) Consider using outside support to “break the back” of the task of designing and developing the first batch of content – otherwise you’ll exacerbate the existing workload challenges for an already-overloaded team. The aim for the proposal team is to make your life easier, not to fill you with despair.
SIX DON’T’S
1. DON’T… Over-commit. There’s a danger that the CEO, or your sales colleagues, will assume that now you have bought the tool, all proposal content will be available from the system. At the touch of the button. From tomorrow morning. Manage expectations!
2. DON’T… Publish content to sales until you have enough robust material to make it worthwhile for them to use. (If they find a poor/sketchy answer the first time they go into the system, or if none of their questions is answered in the database, you’ll have your work cut out to convince them to come back).
3. DON’T… Publish poor content (such that you merely “write more poor proposals faster”) unless you are doing this very deliberately as a conscious tactic designed to free up time to reinvest into polishing up the material, with clear timescales and resources to do so.
4. DON’T… Ignore the pressures that content contributors are under – in terms of time (this may not be top of their list of priorities) and skills (they may be scared of writing the content – hence the need for support and coaching). They will need (and should rightly be able to expect) editing support, and appropriate lead times.
5. DON’T… Buy a tool that will dictate the way you run your proposal process, rather than adapting to your modus operandi.
6. DON’T… Under-estimate the time and effort needed to keep the content up-to-date. The one thing that that is true for any piece of pre-written content is that it starts to go out of date from the moment it’s published – time moves on, your capabilities and corporate messaging move on, press/analyst comments move on, competitors’ capabilities and messaging moves on, customers’ views of the market moves on.
Posted by Jon under APMP & accreditation |
A quick hello to all of our friends in the UK. Some of you may be popping along to UK APMP’s supplier forum this evening. As you know, we’re religious in our sponsorship of the organisation’s events (especially given my past role as its first CEO).
However, there’s the small matter of the World Cup game tonight. (US readers please tune out *now*). England versus Sweden – or a trek into rural Oxfordshire for an evening of proposal chit-chat? We’re hazarding a guess that we’re won’t be the only ones voting for the soccer! Come on, England!
Posted by Jon under Musings |
A shopping experience worthy of note. I dashed into a shop on Edinburgh station, desperate to find treats to entertain my six-year-old son on a long rail journey to London.
We started in the chocolate section (of course), and he picked up a small box of delicious-looking Belgian chocolates. I looked closely, and noticed that they were orange-flavoured. Now, Benedict may already show signs of developing my expensive culinary tastes, but orange-flavoured chocolate features high on his ‘least wanted’ list. I pointed this out, and the box was duly swapped for a more mundane bar.
We headed to the far end of the shop, to browse the books and magazines. We’re deep in discussion of the relative merits of Action Man and Power Rangers, when a shop assistant appears, breathless, at my elbow. She hands over a different box of the same brand of Belgian chocolates: “I overheard you talking about the orange chocolates, and knew we had some plain ones somewhere. I thought you might want to know.”
Now THAT’S customer service.
Interesting to wonder what the last “chocolate orange” moment was for your proposal centre?
Posted by Jon under Proposal Guys news |
So, The Proposal Guys have been here for three months! We set out to keep friends old and new in touch with ideas that occur to us as we work in the proposal arena, and it’s great to know that so many people are reading the blog and deriving benefit from it. Sincere thanks from both of us for all of the kind feedback!
With more than 10,000 words in 40-something posts, newer readers joining us might want a fast-track to save them a little time. Here, then, is a quick chronological list of pointers to our favourite half-dozen entries so far, to help you to find your way around:
1. “Stop the red team” from 20 April: Jon’s provocative review of the top ten pitfalls from proposal review processes.
2. BJ’s “Fire analogy” from 30 April – on the value of sponsorship. Is your proposal centre fighting fires, or are you able to step back and build a fire department?
3. Jon’s advice on “Writing: secrets of success” from 2 May
4. “The New Shocks”: BJ explores the difference between features and benefits, in an entertaining post from 5 May.
5. A sporting analogy for Pre-Proposal Planning: “Prepared to Win?” by Jon on 21 May
6. BJ’s report from this year’s APMP conference in New Orleans: “Standing Room Only for Two Proposal Managers”, posted on 25 May.
We’re still bubbling with ideas for topics to discuss – as always, though, we welcome your feedback (by email, or in the comments here) on things you’d like us to explore in future posts.
Posted by Jon under Musings |
The wonderful Scott Adams has turned his attention to our humble profession. I loved this, from the Dilbert blog, even if I’m not sure it’s the most flattering of cartoons for proposal people – or for buyers, for that matter!
