Posted by Jon on 31 October, 2008 under Processes & best practice | 
What fonts do you use in your proposals?
In a recent post, I talked about some of the objectives we set for the design of a new proposal template, whilst briefing an agency with whom we’d been asked to work by one of our clients. Fonts turned out to be the most controversial aspect of the entire project.
In our detailed design specification, we set out a series of criteria for the ‘body text’ font.
1) It should ‘look professional’ and aid easy evaluation.
2) It should be serif. (That’s received wisdom in the proposal profession, and indeed features in many an exam for the APMP Foundation level qualification. Most – if not all – designers would agree with this for longer documents. But Times New Roman looks so dull!).
3) It should comply with the organisation’s brand guidelines. (Interesting one, that: most companies’ brand marketing policies are drawn up with an eye on brochures, advertisements, websites and letterheads: proposals don’t get a look in).
4) It must be a Windows system font. (Yes, some clients still ask for copies of proposals in Word. And no, we didn’t want to have to licence extra fonts for every proposal, or embed fonts which might not work perfectly for all readers).
Interestingly, there’s a school of thought that these four aren’t all entirely compatible with one another. Eventually, the agency ended up with Book Antiqua (too old-fashioned looking for some, but quite crisp on the printed page), in 10 point (too small for many, but fitting a decent amount of information onto each sheet). But I’m curious to know what others use, and whether other design agencies out there have come up with cleverer ideas.
Posted by BJ on 29 October, 2008 under Musings |
I was reading the back page of People magazine (My wife gets it, it was laying open and like many of you I suspect, I’ll read anything), which asked celebrities, “What’s the best career advice you’ve ever been given?”
Reese Witherspoon replied, “Never miss an opportunity to just shut up.”
Seems like good advice for someone developing a proposal.
Posted by BJ on 23 October, 2008 under Musings |
As our readers know, Jon and I are “Passionate about Proposals”. And we know many of you are as well. But about which part of proposals are you most passionate?
Is it the competitive element? Developing a winning strategy? (This is certainly high on Jon’s list.) Or perhaps it’s putting together and managing a high-performing team. (This is an area I really enjoy.) For many of you I suspect it’s writing, crafting powerful sentences and playing with words until you get it just right. (Our writer Rickie would definitely have this on her list.)
We’d like to know where your passions regarding proposals lie.
I know it may be tough for many of you to do, but if you had to choose just one aspect of proposals as your favorite, which is yours? No fair “waffling” and providing a list or stating “The things I like about proposals is that it encompasses so many different areas…etc.” ☺
Jon and I will follow with an entry to let you know ours.
Posted by Jon on 21 October, 2008 under Processes & best practice |
We’ve been working recently with a client’s design agency on a new standard proposal template in Microsoft Word. Now, finding an agency that combines excellent design ability, Word skills and proposal expertise is an interesting challenge – and whilst this group were excellent on the first two criteria, they fell a little short on experience in the third.
So, early on, we shared with them our list of objectives; the template should help to achieve the following in the proposals on which it will be used:
- Looks highly professional.
- Stands out from the crowd – the proposal has to be more professional in every respect than those of the competitors bidding for the same piece of work.
- Makes the document easy-to-evaluate, making it easy for the customer to absorb information.
- Reflects and supports the bid team’s win themes for the specific opportunity.
- Adheres to the customer’s instructions regarding content and structure: thus, some flexibility is called for within the template.
- Is customer-focused and looks familiar to the customer (”this has clearly been developed for us, rather than being a standard offer”, using colours and images which re-assure and make them comfortable and confident).
- Ensures appropriate consistency of underlying design from one proposal to the next, and between the proposal and any other collateral they may receive. (Put another way – there needs to be some tie-in to corporate branding, but this mustn’t over-ride the needs of the opportunity in question!)
- Is “usable” by the staff working on proposals – that is, appropriate to their levels of expertise with Word.
How do your templates fare?
Posted by BJ on 17 October, 2008 under Musings, Word play & writing |
Many of you will have heard me state that, “When someone is passionate about what they do and specializes, they will always be able to do it “better, faster and cheaper”.
In my many years of doing proposals I’ve seen many aspects of proposals move from “do it yourself” and “in house” to companies specializing in that particular area.
A great example is graphics. The 24 Hour Co. can create graphics better, faster and cheaper than any proposal group. I can say this with confidence because Mike Parkinson and his team of graphic experts are truly passionate about graphics, have the skills and knowledge and have all the “cool” tools for creating incredible graphics. (If you aren’t aware of the great work Mike P. and his team do, you really need to check them out.) From my perspective, it just doesn’t make sense to set up an in-house team when such resources are available.
The same is true of printing as “print on demand” is now available. Mimeo is a good example of this service and they too provide exceptional capabilities and are, in my opinion, “better, faster, cheaper” and doing the printing, packaging, shipping in-house.
Writing too is becoming an “on demand” service. More and more I’m receiving requests to provide writers, editors and proofreaders. And here to, because they are not being tasked with many different responsibilities, as is often the case with in-house personnel, these writers are able to work, yep, you got it, “better, faster, cheaper.”
We’d like to hear from you and know a bit about your experiences as you’ve moved an aspect of proposals from in-house to a company that specializes and where you’ve managed to do things “better, faster and cheaper.”
Posted by Jon on 15 October, 2008 under Musings |
We often play with techniques designed to make a bid or proposal learning review as constructive as possible – rather than turning it into an ‘inquest’ or ‘finger-pointing’ session. Feedback has to be drawn out in a way that’s constructive, celebrating what’s gone well (and highlighting tactics that can be re-used), as well as exploring ideas for improvement next time around.
I was reminded of this the other day, reading the recently Guardian obituary of Vernon Handley, whom I used to watch as he conducted the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra when I was growing up in the city. Handley, known to friends as ‘Tod’, was renowned for his somewhat blunt style. This was no more apparent than after he’d conducted the Last Night of the Proms in 1985, at a time when Robert Ponsonby was head of music for the BBC:
Tod had to accompany Shura Cherkassky in the Gershwin Piano Concerto. Cherkassky was famous for his brilliant virtuoso playing, but also for going his own way, capriciously ignoring what had been decided at rehearsals.
After the performance, Ponsonby politely asked the pianist and conductor what they would like to perform in any future Prom. Shura said: “What about doing the Rubinstein [Anton Rubinstein's Fourth Piano Concerto in D minor]?”, to which Tod replied: “Oh, for my part, I hoped we might do a good performance of the Gershwin.
Posted by BJ on 13 October, 2008 under Musings |
One of my latest reads is “Boomsday”. It’s by Christopher Buckley, who also wrote “Thank you for Smoking”. If you read that book (or saw the movie!), you’ll know Christopher’s style. I actually found this book in the back pocket on a plane, obviously left behind by someone. As it happened, I had left a book, half read, on the plane (yet again!) from which I had just disembarked.
This book is fairly irreverent and sort of “out there” but always making sense in a scary sort of way. I suspect Christopher Buckley is one of those writers whom people either love or hate (and no doubt there are those who also love to hate him, as I find to be the case with Stephen King.)
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, from the opening quote, “Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt.” (Herbert Hoover), to the closing paragraphs. But I should qualify this (before Jon takes me to task!). I like books (and their authors) that don’t take themselves too seriously and this is definitely one of those. The feel of the writing is also similar that of Carl Hiaasen (Sick Puppy, Strip Tease… the titles just about say it all, right?). But I also want a book to challenge my thinking (and that of others) and this book does that as well. After all, it does present a fairly plausible way to fix the social security problem quickly and easily.
So why bring this up here? Well, one is to provide a recommendation for reading. As an avid reader I’m always on the look-out for a good reading recommendation and assume many readers appreciate hearing about a good book.
It’s also relevant to proposals. This book has a unique perspective and it presents a solution that is both very logical and very controversial. The lead characters consider options, think through strategies and make decisions based on expected results. They also fight hard for their positions and beliefs. I see similar dynamics within the best proposal teams. Multiple options considered, some great debates and strong opinions expressed. (I experience this almost daily as Jon is a former debate champion and is neither of us is ever lacking a strong opinion on a subject.).
Definitely worth a read.
