Posted by BJ on 30 March, 2009 under Musings | 
This story was sent to us by our fellow APMP Fellow and good friend Jay H.
An experienced Capture/Proposal leader received a mail from his daughter requesting his assistance with her application for President of the Student Activities Board.
In her mail she says, “I have been working hard as a member of this board for 3-years, they all know me, and I’m going to either get the position or not. I doubt my application is what is going to make or break it. Regardless, I have to send in an application. I was hoping you could do me a favor and give this a quick read for any major problems.”
The father replied, “You have done a very good job of “positioning to win”. I would add a few specific stories of your results that have been achieved due to your efforts as a member of the board. Other than that, this hits the mark. With politics you never know how it will turn out but, I’d vote for you hands down.”
As Jay stated in his mail to me, “The moral is true. Knowing the customer and evaluators is the key to success. The proposal can be likened to a final exam. You need to do your homework before the RFP and don’t count on just the proposal (or application) to win.”
Posted by Jon and BJ on 27 March, 2009 under Proposal Panda |
We’ve been overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response to last week’s post about the newest member of our team, Proposal Panda. It’s great to see so many proposal folks wanting to get involved – and sharing our somewhat quirky sense of humour.
Proposal Panda’s worldwide odyssey started with me here in the UK. (Well, actually, it started in New Zealand at one of the world’s leading teddy bear companies, Robin Rive. Proposal Panda’s posh, see – one of a limited edition of 100).
And isn’t he delightfully attractive? (The panda’s not bad, either!).
(You get the panda; we keep the cat! We were a little worried that Sabine was going to have an early dinner!).
Proposal Panda’s just set off across the Atlantic to visit BJ, before heading out into the big, wide world. Thanks to all of you who’ve replied already– and don’t be too shy to join in the fun. Just email us via panda@theproposalguys.com and offer to host a visit!
Posted by Jon on 26 March, 2009 under Interviews and the Panel |
We’ve left our Proposal Guys Panel – our team of proposal folks around the world who contribute here occasionally – in peace for a couple of months. But we thought it was time we made them do some work again (!), so here’s their latest topic, inspired partly by my recent post on “The Aggregation of Minute Differences”:
“The Little Things. We spend a great deal of time focused on the more obvious components of the proposal process. In your experience, what are some of the seemingly minor things that might be overlooked?”
Dave Blume starts at the beginning, with the covering letter. “From my experience, often an afterthought (second only to the exec summary!), normally full of cap-doffing and grovelling thank yous and the dreaded ‘please do not hesitate to get in contact if you have any questions…”. This should be thought of as “part of the overall proposal package”; Dave’s advice includes:
- thank the individuals in the client organisation who have helped you
- ideally have it signed (or at least co-signed) by a senior executive who can bind the company to the contract
- finish with a specific call to action – with the onus on you
Roisin McCorry picked up that a proposal manager who doesn’t worry about the minor things won’t last very long in the job! Some of her comments:
- Our compliance matrices – it says ‘a brief summary’, so please, please take back the 36 pages of text you just sent me on that case study… yes, it does matter.
- Little things like ‘Phase 1′. Or is it ‘Phase One’? Or indeed, ‘Phase I’? Let’s pick one, guys. And use it consistently!
- Terms, technologies, dates especially, confusing when they don’t add up!
- Diagrams – why change the legend? Pick a scheme, and stick to it. I have witnessed the client and supplier’s responsibilities (colours) being interchanged on more than one occasion: painful for the author, irritating for the evaluator!
Barbara Esmedina agreed that “In an RFP there are no little things!” Her advice:
Always put forth that little bit of extra effort. Do the last minute spell check one more time, provide labelled tabs in hard copies and bookmarks in electronic copies. Include all your contact info on the front cover. Take the time to write a cover letter. Do every little thing to make your RFP the one that is the easiest to review. Use binding that can easily slip into a file cabinet, deliver on time, give them everything they ask for. Follow up with a thank you even when you don’t win.
For Robin Davis, the topic was particularly timely, “since I’ve gone from running a team of ten back to being a one-man shop. How humbling and eye-opening. I’ve been operating at a strategic level for so long – process improvement, taking it to the next level, expanding influence, etc. – that I’d forgotten some of the basics of actually getting the work done.”
So, little things that get overlooked. As writers, especially when you’ve been with an organization for a long time, we get caught up in our own speak, in our own language. Our perspective gets stale. We’re still talking about things that mattered to the market two years ago, but there are new issues now that we’re not addressing. Or we talk about our differentiators that aren’t differentiators anymore….everybody is doing that now…
And who has time to evaluate every record in the knowledge base for its current relevance? Right. You do what you can.
She also picked up on packaging and production. “Following instructions on a public bid are a pain in the butt. Separating the confidential from the rest of it. Precise labelling instructions; lack of instructions on the layout – you have NO idea how they want to see the information; double packing the contents – a box inside of a box, etc. And for God’s sake, please put the label on the tab straight. Use clear packing tape, not duct tape. And spell the client’s name right! I know… NOT small… but can get overlooked!”
Lesa Camarri picked on an even later stage in the process – delivery options. “Sounds simple, but it can really cut into overall turnaround time especially when you only have two weeks or less to respond to the RFP. Delivering via overnight service directly to the client is what we prefer; however, many times Sales prefers to hand deliver it, which means we need to back everything up one or two days to get it to the sales rep so they have enough time to hand deliver. And don’t they dare tell us two days before it’s due that they’ve decided to hand deliver when we’d been planning to ship direct to the client!”
Great stuff, and thanks as ever to our ‘panellistas’. Do feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments box!
Posted by BJ on 24 March, 2009 under Musings |
The title of this post sounds like something said to justify the quality, or lack thereof, of a proposal that had been produced in what Jon or I would term an “ad-hoc” manner. You know the type – no previous knowledge of the customer, the release of the RFP was a complete surprise, there wasn’t enough time, the necessary resources weren’t available, etc. As I said, you know the type.The title of this post is also the title of a delightful book by Paula Poundstone (one of my favorite comedians).Within the book, among the many great observations Paula brilliantly relates, I came across the following piece about Paula seeking help with a computer for one of her three children.
A teacher informed me that my daughter was eligible to receive some computer stuff through the school district. So, some guy from a place called the Computer Access Center called me to set up an appointment.Right away I said to him, “I really appreciate your help, but I need you to know I do not do computers. I know nothing about computers. I don’t even like computers. Please don’t ask me anything about what my child might need, because I simply don’t know.”He said he understood.We set up an appointment and I asked him for directions to the place.He said, “It’s on our website.”
Jon and I often see responses within proposals that are very similar to this.
Posted by Jon and BJ on 22 March, 2009 under Proposal Guys news, Proposal Panda |
One of the great things about the proposal profession is our sense of community. Whether through attending APMP’s events, gaining professional accreditation, reading and commenting on The Proposal Guys, or participating in other forums – there’s a real feeling of being part of a network of hard-working folks, carrying out similar activities and facing similar issues, all over the world.
So we’d like to introduce you to the newest member of our community. Meet Proposal Panda!
Various of you have asked us for a way to “join in” here at The Proposal Guys. Aside from commenting on our posts (and we always love to hear your views!), here’s a way to do so. We’ll ship Proposal Panda to a proposal team, somewhere in the world. The team can take photos of the panda helping them with their work – and then we’ll let you know where to send Proposal Panda next.
We’ll post your photos – and any commentary you might want to provide – here on the blog (and you’ll also be able to get to it from www.proposalpanda.com). If you want to join in, all we ask is that you send Proposal Panda on within ten days or so, in suitable packaging, and cover the shipping costs to the next destination.
Anyone involved in proposals is welcome to join in – whether you’re in a proposal centre in a major organisation, or you are your company’s proposal centre; whether you’re supplying support services to the proposal community. Hey, even the occasional purchaser evaluating proposals might get a look in sometime!
So – if you’d like to play host to Proposal Panda – email us via panda@theproposalguys.com and let us know!
Posted by Jon on 20 March, 2009 under Word play & writing |
A friend posted this to his (non-work-related) blog recently:
…or they could just have said, “Press the button if you need help”.
I’m sure I’m not the only person who’s seen similarly verbose text… in proposals. “What are we really trying to say here?” remains one of the most useful questions a proposal manager can ask, and yet one of the most under-used!
And the elevator sign is a scary example of negatively-focused writing that leaves the reader worried. Ever seen a proposal in which – for example – the proposed approach “reduces the risk of failure” (”hey, is this going to fail?”) rather than “helps to ensure the project’s success”. As BJ’s posted once before, you should always try to accentuate the positive.
Posted by BJ on 18 March, 2009 under Musings |
When you travel a great deal, as both Jon and I do, the little things mean a lot. As an example, doing something like 200+ nights a year away from home and staying in hotel rooms a little thing like having a bathrobe takes on greater importance.
Likewise, what might seem like a small thing, in this case, about 6” of leg room, became a big thing on a flight I took recently. (Bear in mind that I average somewhere around 150K+ air miles a year and as you can imagine, that’s a lot of time with my butt in an uncomfortable seat.) This particular flight was between smaller cities and on a small plane that had a capacity of about 80 people.
When I boarded the plane, I took my assigned seat and as expected, the space between seats was very limited and as the saying goes, “I could have used a bit of salt for my knees.” My assigned seat was 2C, one row behind the bulkhead which also happened to be an exit row. I was eyeing the row in front of me, with all that extra legroom, hoping that it might be empty and that I could change seats once everyone was on board. When the flight attendant closed the door, indicating that everyone was on board, there were only about 20 or so of us on the flight, the row in front of me was empty and I changed seats.
The flight attendant came over and informed me in a very stern tone that I wasn’t allowed to change my seat. When I asked why she said, “Because I’ve already taken my headcount and I can’t have you move.” (As she said this she was holding in her hand the paper on which she had done the headcount). I then asked, in a manner I thought was very polite, if it wasn’t possible to change the paperwork. With a very stern expression and in a rather aggressive tone (as in “You don’t want me to call the authorities do you?”) she said, “Sir, you will have to sit in your assigned seat.”
So I sat in my assigned seat, knees in mouth and didn’t say anything further. Had I been allowed to move, I would have been only slightly less uncomfortable but I would have appreciated that little bit extra and the overall experience would have been a positive one. Instead, I resented how I was treated and felt that whether I was comfortable was not important to this flight attendant or by association the airlines.
So, what’s the connection to proposals? It’s this. A proposal is an opportunity to satisfy requests made by the client; Even, and perhaps especially requests that might seem very minor and which are not implicitly stated.
When considering what you need to offer, are you paying attention to what your client is requesting and if so, are you satisfying that request? Is there something they want and that you could provide but aren’t because, like the flight attendant, you haven’t recognized the client’s request, don’t consider it important enough or you aren’t willingness or able to navigate a company policy or rule?
I would point out that I haven’t mentioned that this was a US Air flight between Chattanooga and Charlotte and that, based on this incident, in the future I will avoid using this carrier and would strongly suggest to others that they do as well. I’m just not the type to leverage the incredible power of the internet and the information age to let others know of such things in order to try to make the world a slightly nicer place.
