We’ll be taking a short break over the festive period, on the basis that most of you will be trying to relax and avoid thinking about proposals…

…and those of you who are unfortunate enough to be working on bids over the holiday season won’t want to waste time reading the blog! (Our thoughts are with you!)

It’s been great to watch our readership growing this year. We hope you’re enjoying reading the blog as much as we’re enjoying writing it, and look forward to seeing you again at the start of 2008.

It would appear the idea of combining words – Jon recently came across one with the (new) word “disregardless”* in it – is catching outside the world of proposals, as evidenced by this recent Get Fuzzy comic strip.

Please feel free to send us your latest new words.

* Your guess is as good as ours as to what this word might mean. Guesses welcome.

When talking about different elements of proposals, BJ and I often use the phrase “all other things being equal, which proposal would win.” Great proposal teams leave nothing to chance – they want to come out on top at every stage of the evaluator’s thinking, and there is plenty of evidence to show that the margin of victory or defeat in a bid can often be paper-thin.

Back in the summer, Vic and I took Benedict to watch the Red Bull air race in London. It was a truly fabulous day out, as the pilots flew breathtakingly low over the Thames at high speed through a chicane of obstacles. British pilot Paul Bonhomme and American Mike Mangold faced each other in the final round of the British heat; we’ve been following the rest of the series closely ever since as the two duelled for the title.

When it came to the end of the season:

…the two arch rivals were so close that they were still even on 47 points each after the final race in Perth. To determine the champion, they had to turn to the rulebook on tie-breakers. But both also had the same number of 2007 wins (3), same number of second places (3), thirds (3), fourths (0) and fifths (1).

It wasn’t until they turned to the next level of tie-breaker – placings in the elimination rounds — that they were able to find a winner. And there both had the same number of firsts in elimination rounds (four). But when second places were tallied up, it was Mangold who was first twice while Bonhomme was first just once.

That’d be an example of “all other things being equal” in action, then…

We’re delighted to bring you the second of our Proposal Guys interviews, featuring Erica Vis, who’s based in Brussels with DHL Express. Of all the senior proposal professionals with whom we work, Erica’s remit is one of the most genuinely international in nature, and it’s fascinating to hear her perspectives.

Please could you describe your current role?

My current role is leading the DHL Express tender teams in Europe; this includes direct management of the regional tender team and the functional lead of tender teams in 29 countries.

How did you first get involved in sales proposals?

My first involvement was as Sales Manager, doing my own tenders. I realized that Sales was missing the right support and was interested in developing this across Europe.

What characteristics make for a first-class proposal?

A first-class proposal should be compelling, describe how we will make our customer more successful and clearly differentiate us from competition.

How can proposal centres go about making their proposal processes more efficient?

Agree with all stakeholders on their roles in tender processes, ensure that their role is part of their job description and define shared Key Performance Indicators and incentives.

What’s the single most successful thing you’ve done to improve your organisation’s proposals?

Share best practises between all teams.

If you were asked to take over a new proposal centre tomorrow, what would you do first?

I would make sure that the proposal centre was positioned well in the organizational structure.

Having worked with Erica, we know she’s done some fabulous work inspiring her colleagues and promote best practices, and it’s been great to see the leadership she’s brought to the proposal function in her organisation. We’re really grateful to her for taking the time to be interviewed.

I’ve heard people put forward the argument that the ‘pretty” part of proposals - covers, tabs, binding, packaging, etc. that are extremely professional - isn’t really  important and that this doesn’t really play a part in how a proposal is received or scored. To those who think this way, I’d suggest they need to consider the iPod.

The iPod isn’t really very different from the majority of such media devices from a technology perspective. It is however, distinctly different from a “look, touch and feel” perspective from the other devices available. The difference between and iPod and other such devices from the “pretty” perspective is very obvious, and it’s obvious from the very first moment you pick one up. Most people notice and appreciate the difference immediately. They want to hold it, touch and handle it. I’ve even heard that it’s not uncommon for someone picking up an iPod for the first time to break into a smile.

And the result of the iPod being “prettier” than the other devices? Well, the fact that I hesitate to refer those other devices as “competing products” says it all. The iPod all but owns the market.

And I contend that the “pretty” part of a proposal has the same affect on those who review and evaluate the responses we submit. I’ve witnessed first hand the reaction of a person picking up and reviewing a proposal that is extremely professional in look and feel. They have an immediate positive reaction. You can see it in how they handle the document, how they open it, flip the pages, perhaps comment on it or show it to another reviewer.

This initial positive reaction helps get the proposal onto the “keeper” stack rather than the “I don’t think so pile” (this is the unofficial first cut in most of the evaluations in which I’ve been involved). And when the information within the proposal is also extremely professional and “high-impact”, this combination garners high scores.

So remember, “pretty” matters.

A few weeks ago, UKAPMP hosted a fascinating evening at which members had the chance to quiz two (very brave!) procurement experts.

On the team was our good friend Martin Webb, one of the leading lights of the purchasing profession in the UK. A couple of his comments particularly caught my attention.

First, Martin offered his definition of the role of the proposal as being:

“making it easier for the customer to make a ‘yes’ decision.”

Quizzed by the audience on management summaries, Martin confirmed the view that they ’set the tone’ for the evaluators reading the document:

“There’s a good chance that you’ll be facing a fundamentally lazy organisation. You need to lead them through to the things that differentiate you, and the management summary is a great way to do this.”

I always enjoy watching the faces of sales and proposal people when they hear procurement folks discussing their trade. Similarly, buyers find it quite eye-opening to listen to folks from a bid environment. So, when did you last have an open talk to someone from the opposite side of the negotiating table – away from a particular live deal, but to share your respective experiences and insights?

A noticed a woman in one of my recent workshops writing during a break. She was writing with a beautiful fountain pen on what was obviously good quality paper and had already filled several pages from margin to margin and from the top of the page to the bottom. This woman also had a laptop open on the table in front of her.

As I watched her write, I realized that it has been a very long time since I’ve written anything at length longhand, whether it is work related or personal. These days I write most everything by putting fingers to keys, even personal notes which I then print out (I still hand sign them).

So I’m curious dear readers. When writing, do you use pen and paper, a computer?
(And if you use a pen, do you have a preference for a particular type of pen or paper?)

There’s an interesting survey underway at the moment, which may be worth a few minutes’ time for any UK-based readers – especially as there’s a luxury weekend for two in Paris on offer for one randomly-drawn person who completes the questionnaire!

As our good friend Martin Smith, a director at Bid Solutions (who have teamed up with UKAPMP to lead the project) explains:

At any one time we may be recruiting for multiple roles within a specific industry. Whilst job titles and role responsibilities can be very similar, salaries can vary wildly. For example, we’ve just been recruiting for two roles within the IT sector. Both have similar titles and role descriptions, yet one is paying £30k and the other £60k.

The project promises to provide the most comprehensive assessment of salaries and benefits ever conducted in the UK Bid and Proposal Market. It’s covering all industry sectors, and all roles within the bid/proposal profession – and the output will be made publicly available early in 2008. To quote Martin, there are some “very interesting early results”!

Underpinning the survey is some ground-breaking work that Martin, Dan and the team have been doing to assess competencies, which is absolutely fascinating stuff.

I’ve just completed the survey myself, which took about ten minutes, and found it rather interesting – click here if you want to participate.

A proposal writer with whom I was working recently (howdy there Mikey) was wearing a t-shirt bearing the title of this post. The t-shirt also had a photo of the person to whom this quote is attributed, Ludwig Wittgenstein (Austrian philosopher, 1889 - 1951)

I’ve no doubt this quote resonates with many (or perhaps most) proposal professionals.
Certainly the limits of our capabilities with the written word directly affect our ability to create a high-impact, high-quality document. And I’d suggest we’re also similarly limited by our ability to create graphics.*

So what are you doing to expand your language abilities? Like any skill, over time our abilities using language diminish if we’re not doing what is needed to keep them as sharp. I know a great many of you are, like Jon and I, are avid readers and I’m sure this greatly contributes to language skills (assuming you’re not just reading trash! :) I know quite a few proposal people who attend writing classes and/or workshops, and lots of us keep a journal and write on a daily basis for the sheer joy of writing and to keep our skills up.

A side note – I did a bit of research on Mr. Wittgenstein and, based upon two of the other quotes attributed to him, I suspect he might have done some time as a proposal professional himself. He is said to have stated, “I don’t know why we are here, but I’m pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves.” That sounds to me like something someone might say late at night in a proposal center.

He is also said to have opined, “If people never did silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.” And we all know it’s the ‘silly things’ that lead to ‘magic’ on proposal, right?

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*If a picture is, as the saying goes, “worth a thousand words”, it stands to reason that for each graphic we don’t use, we add another thousand words to our response.