Posted by Jon on 26 April, 2007 under Musings, Processes & best practice | 
Yesterday evening saw one of the most interesting UK APMP evening meetings for several years: our good friend Nicole Mathison of HP shared her insights into ‘Web 2.0′ technologies that could benefit proposal teams.
How about the following?
- a blog for each proposal, keeping the team up to date with the latest project developments
- a YouTube-style video site for the bid team: forget trying to write up a briefing on paper – just click and watch the salesperson talking to camera
- a robust system to allow collaborative working on a document, whilst helping with version control: both Google Docs and Xait’s ‘Porter’ were mentioned
- a networking site (some of you may use LinkedIn) to help track down the subject matter experts who could help to answer RFP questions
- a proposal Wiki, pulling together useful content and tools.
I’d class some of these as ‘emerging’ solutions – already working in the great wide world of the web, but not yet fully deployed within the business environment. And as such, perhaps, they’re just the sort of tools that should be on he radar of proposal centres committed to staying ahead of the game.
Posted by BJ on 24 April, 2007 under Word play & writing |
A proposal I was reviewing recently as part of a HealthCheck – our proposal quality assessment – contained the phrase, “other solutions don’t come even close”.
Now, as the reader’s of this blog will have noticed, I don’t always follow the “rules” of grammar myself and I really wouldn’t know if this is as Jon (one himself for honoring rules of grammar and not terribly happy that I don’t!) might put it, “proper English”.
But when I read it I found it to sound odd. I would have written this as “other solutions don’t even come close.” To me, it just sounds better.
Does this really make a difference to the reader/reviewer? Well, it’s been a week since I reviewed that particular proposal and it’s still bothering me. Did I take points off for it?* Not consciously. Did it affect my overall opinion or score? Probably.
I would be interested to know if and how readers here are affected by the sound of a sentence or phrase.
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*I originally wrote this as “Did I take off points for it? I then changed it because it sounded better. See what I mean?
Posted by Jon on 20 April, 2007 under Musings |
It was announced on Wednesday that Ukraine and Poland have won the right to host the finals of Euro 2012, the biggest international soccer tournament in Europe. (I’ve already teased Vic, my Ukrainian wife, that it’s the only time we’ll ever hear the words ‘Ukraine’, ‘soccer’ and ‘won’ in the same sentence!).
Michel Platini, the president of governing body UEFA, tried to soften the blow for the unsuccessful bidders, euphemistically commenting that:
“there are no losers today, rather only bids that have not won this time round. “
Feel free to borrow said phrase next time you hear you’ve lost a deal!
Posted by Jon on 18 April, 2007 under Musings |
Out of idle curiosity, I’ve been googling the phrase “Proposal Management” at regular intervals over recent months. Last July, the search turned up 172,000 pages.
August: 189,000 .
October: 203,000 .
My hypothesis was true! Our profession is becoming an ever-more popular topic of discussion. My pen was poised to craft an entry about the upsurge in interest, how our time had come, how proposal professionals were about to conquer the world.
Today: 199,000 .
Sometimes you can try to be just too clever!
Posted by BJ on 16 April, 2007 under Musings |
While I was selecting songs from my iTunes library recently, it occurred to me that the way I listen to music today is very different than it was ‘back in the day’. (And yes, I can hear Jon now, “Do tell us B.J. What was it like back when music consisted of strolling minstrels?”).
I’m talking about in the 70’s or 80’s when music was done as an album, and the artist intended the songs to be listened to in a particular order. One song introduced and led to another and the album as a whole told a story. In today’s world of downloading single songs, creating playlists in whatever order the listener chooses, etc. music is listened to in a very different fashion and the idea of listening in a particular order is certainly well out of the control of the artist.
Listeners today pick and choose which songs they like, sampling here and there, selecting the songs they like, leaving others behind. They put songs in the order they feel works best for them. Based on my experiences reviewing and evaluating proposals, there is a corollary to this in the world of proposals.
A reviewer might read a proposal from the beginning and work through it in the order in which it is presented. But it’s just as likely that, certainly as a first pass, they will scan the document, choosing to read some sections, stopping where something catches their attention and skip others, especially if it appears on first glance that it will be laborious to get through.
So it’s our job to make sure that each individual section captures and holds the reviewers interest and reads well as a stand alone section. We can’t expect or count on a reviewer having read the sections in order and we can’t assume they’ll have the requisite information from one section before reading another.
When developing proposals, we need to make them work as both a single piece as well as having each section stand on its own. We need to capture the reader’s attention at specific points and be prepared for reviewers to “pick and choose” information to meet their needs. This requires planning, time and specific skills. And it sure does make our job challenging, doesn’t it?
Posted by Jon on 12 April, 2007 under Musings |
Our good friend Dave Fowler (who some of you may know from his time with Pragmatech) is running the Boston Marathon next week with his daughter Heather.
He’s been keeping a blog during his training, which has been enough to deter me from ever running a marathon. Hey, you know, I was just on the point of registering for one. Not.
I was struck by a comment in one of Dave’s posts that:
When you reach the 18 mile mark you are about half way in the race.
Yupp…I know the math doesn’t work out but believe me the last 8 miles can be far tougher than the first 18.
Marathon runners and proposal managers alike find themselves juggling conflicting instincts as they near the finishing line. For the runners, it’s the mental “I want to finish” that’s battling the physical “Let me stop – NOW!”. In proposals, “We can still sharpen the story” fights “No, you can’t keep changing the text: we MUST get this to the printer!”.
For the best marathon runners, the closing stages make the difference between winning and losing. So too with a proposal, where (no matter how well you’ve planned up-front) those final reviews and improvements can really lift the quality of your document significantly – and push up your scores radically in the customer’s evaluation.
At the same time, the final stretch before proposal submission is often the most demanding in terms of effort and energy, especially if the team’s already tired. Although the adrenaline often kicks in and carries you to the line, it can be hard to do truly cool stuff if individuals are exhausted. Thinking carefully about how to manage and support your proposal contributors for the entire duration of the bid is critical if you want to maintain enthusiasm, creativity, goodwill – and quality.
It’s back to me of my recurring themes: the “three Ps” – that if you think about managing the proposal and the project, without giving equal thought to how best to lead the people on the bid, your team’s destined to struggle. Great proposal people are great people people.
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Dave is raising money for Lazarus House in memory of his son Nick, who tragically passed away last year. If you’re able to, please do click on the link and make a donation.
Posted by BJ on 11 April, 2007 under Word play & writing |
I read in the paper this morning that a local 10 year-old girl won a statewide spelling bee and is now one of 273 contestants who will go on to the Scripts National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C. Her name? Anjithaa Radakrishnan. Hey, after learning to spell her name, is it really surprising that she can spell words like “supernumerary”*?
*Defined as –being in excess of the usual or prescribed number; extra.
