Posted by BJ under Musings | 
I saw what I considered to be a cute riddle on a sign recently. It read –
Question: What do you call a chicken at the North Pole?
Answer: Lost!
As most humor has a formula for it, I realized this one could easily be turned into a proposal related riddle, by replacing the “North Pole” with “Proposal Center” and “chicken” with a “sales person”. We then have -
Question - What do you call a sales person in the proposal center at the height of the “crunch” on a proposal effort?
Answer - Lost!
If you know a proposal related joke (or a joke that can be changed to relate to proposals), we’d welcome you sharing it with us.
Posted by Jon under Musings, Processes & best practice, Proposal Guys news |
Thanks to those of you who emailed in response to my last post, which contained copies of the presentations from a recent event for heads of bid and proposal management in the UK.
In response to the interest, I thought I’d share a little more from my own presentation. I started by explaining that the ancient Chinese used the phrase, “May you live in interesting times” as a curse, not a blessing.
Yet for proposal people today, these interesting times create significant opportunities. So as well as describing a number of projects we’ve delivered successfully for clients recently, and the challenges posed to proposal teams by the current economic climate, I therefore presented something of a call to action for these senior managers.
Few know that, apparently, the ancients had an even-more damning curse: “May you come to the attention of those in authority.”
We see any number of reasons that trigger change to an organisation’s proposal capabilities. Many of these are “done to” the proposal centre:
• There’s the deal that goes horribly wrong. That “must win” deal that you don’t – or sometimes worse, that deal that you do capture, where “did we really say that in the proposal” becomes the order of the day.
• There’s the Chief Executive or Sales Director, who “gets it” – and gets that he or she doesn’t like what they see of your current proposals.
• There’s that damning piece of customer feedback.
• There’s a new head of proposal management – that person standing by to step into your shoes, bringing new ideas and fresh energy, securing visibility and support at senior levels for how things could and should be done better.
But if you’re the head of your company’s proposal team, then maybe that new leader, with the new drive, is actually you?
It’s not enough for you to wait until someone lets the cat out of the bag as to the inefficiency of your current proposal processes, or the relatively disappointing documents that you submit as a result. How much better for you to drive that change yourself.
Maybe, just maybe, it’s down to you personally to keep the light at the end of the proposal tunnel flickering. The hopes, fears, careers of those working in your proposal organisations – they rest in your hands. So too do the jobs of so many of your colleagues in other parts of the business: nothing gives me more pleasure when visiting some of our clients than to see the groups of staff working to deliver the projects that we’ve helped to win.
I’ve long held the view of the proposal centre as the heart of an organisation’s job creation function – capturing the deals that need the staff to deliver. Perhaps now, more than ever, your importance as proposal professionals – and as leaders – comes to the fore. Perhaps those who really ‘get it’ will look back on 2009 as the year in which their organisations really started to embrace the need to take proposals far more seriously.
For the alternatives are too worrying to contemplate. In 2009, “must win” really does mean “must win”.
Are you one of those folks who are ready for the battle ahead? Tough times call for leaders who are personally tough, to stand up and be counted. Your teams depend on you. Indeed, your organisations depend on you, as winning (and protecting) business becomes ever tougher – and ever more important. So are you personally up to the challenge of taking your proposals to the next level? If you are, we’d love to work with you!
Do download the presentation – and let us have your perspectives!
Posted by BJ under Word play & writing |
I caught a segment on TV (don’t know which show it was) that featured people submitting comments in “just three words”. Some were touching – A woman and 2 children holding a picture of a man in combat gear and a sign with the words “We miss you”, some were humorous – A dog holding a sign that said, “I’ll be good”, some were thought provoking, “I’m so scared.”
This got me to thinking about what “just three words” statements would come to mind for proposal people.
I’ll prime the pump with one of mine – “That was fun!”
I look forward to hearing what comes to mind for you.
Posted by Jon under Musings, Processes & best practice, Proposal Guys news |
Great fun in the past week: BJ came across to the UK, to present with me at an event for senior managers in the proposal profession here. As ever, it was great to catch up face-to-face: we work virtually pretty effectively, but a few hours together unlocks so much more creativity.
The conference, “Taking proposals to the next level”, took place at a remarkable venue – Altitude, up on the 29th floor of Millbank Tower, with spectacular views over London. We thought you might like copies of the presentations – just click on the relevant links below.
Dave Blume, European VP of Sant Corporation, opened the session with a look at how improved management of pre-written content can increase proposal efficiency. Colleen Jolly, head of 24 Hour Company’s newly-launched UK operation, gave a fascinating insight into developing high-impact proposal graphics.
Martin Smith, who runs leading bid/proposal recruitment consultants Bid Solutions, led the group through a self-assessment of the effectiveness of their recruitment processes. And before BJ led the afternoon workshop, I discussed some of the projects that our most successful clients have undertaken in the past year or so, and looked at the challenges facing the leaders of proposal centres in these testing times.
Hope you find presentations useful. If you came to the event, comment and let us know what most sparked your interest during the day!
