Posted by Jon on 29 April, 2009 under APMP & accreditation | 
Good news for those of you contemplating taking the APMP Foundation Level exam, especially in the UK!
Since the pricing of the exam is set in US dollars, and sterling has been weak, APMP announced immediately before Christmas that the price for those taking the exam in the UK would increase by over 30% from 1January 2009.
Needless to say, as a member of the APMP Accreditation Steering Committee, I immediately wrote a note protesting against the rise, and a meeting of the full committee was called as a result. Following that, I’m pleased to say that the exam fees for APMP members have been reduced from 1 April. The sterling rate’s come down from £300 to £250; the dollar fee has also been cut from $450 to $400.
It’s taken some clever negotiating by chief examiner Cathy Day to sort out the reduction – as well as financial contributions towards the price reduction from APMP, APM Group (who administer the exam) and the Approved Training Organisations (such as our own company, Strategic Proposals). Our thanks to Cathy for all of her efforts. But I have to say I’m feeling rather pleased that I challenged the price rises in the first place, when everyone else seemed to be going along with them so merrily.
Posted by BJ on 27 April, 2009 under Musings |
A good friend of mine, Dave, runs the Boston Marathons each year in memory of his son Nick and in support of a local charity that was important to both of them. Dave and writes a blog about his marathon experience and I receive updates. The title of this post is taken from Dave’s latest update.
The most recent update was so well written and moving I wrote to Dave telling him how much I was moved by what he had written and asked how he was able to produce such a piece. Dave replied, “The words are easy when they come from the heart.” This is something for us to bear in mind while we are writing proposals.
It is also worth bearing in mind what Dave speaks of as he writes about “hope” as it applies to marathons, as this also applies to many other endeavors, including proposals. And while I would never compare the efforts Dave puts in to run a marathon or the purpose behind his running, I think much of what Dave speaks about regarding hope applies to the work we do and what it sometimes takes to complete a proposal.
I asked Dave for permission to direct you, our readers, to the blog so that you could also enjoy and benefit from his insights and he graciously agreed. The link to the blog is http://speakerscorner-dave.blogspot.com/. I encourage you to read the blog and to follow and enjoy Dave’s journey and writing.
Strategic Proposals LLC makes a donation to the Lazarus House in Nick’s name and in support of Dave’s running and I encourage our readers to make a donation.
Posted by Jon on 23 April, 2009 under Processes & best practice |
Working with a client on a proposal the other day, we played with the age-old proposal strategy mantra:
“Why us, why not them?”
Their draft document was relatively strong on the “why us” angle – with clear customer insights, strong proof points (case studies, quotes, research findings), a coherent and well-explained solution. But still somehow the story, and the proposal as a whole, felt lacking.
So we broke the statement down into its components – making sure the team understood that there are actually three questions in one, each of which needs to be covered:
- Why? – the proposal has to demonstrate that there is (and that the bidder understands) a strong rationale to deliver the initiative
- Why us? – giving confidence that the bidder can deliver an excellent solution
- Why not them? – the ways in which the bidder’s approach differs from, and is more desirable than, the offers that will be received from their competitors.
Brainstorming each of the three topics in turn – rather than, as usual, treating it as one question – drove out some fascinating insights. I’d urge you to try the technique in your next strategy workshop.
Posted by BJ on 21 April, 2009 under Word play & writing |
“Hey ‘word master’. Can you help Allie, my 4th grader and me with her homework assignment? We’re stuck.”
That’s how a recent note from our good friend Marlene began. She went on to say she and her daughter were working on solving “Think Pink” puzzles. She gave the following as an example:
Question: What do you cal an overweight feline?
Answer: A fat cat.
The ones they were trying to solve were:
• A horse in the shape of a box.
• A see through doe
• A rooster that uses karate
• An uncool flyer.
With just a bit of thinking time I was able to solve these. Can you? (Answers are at the bottom of this post.)
I started to think about proposal related puzzles like these and came up with a few. Can you solve them? (I’ll post the answers once you’ve had a chance to work on these.)
If this gets you to thinking about and creating your own, please send them our way.
Proposal “Think Pink” Puzzles
For the amateur:
- A shredder for responses.
- The person assigned to locate the packaging.
- A small request (or one that’s lots of fun!).
More difficult:
- When a manager yells at everyone involved.
- When the specific component of a response is not accepted.
- When content contains many different strategic messages.
- Expecting to win solely because the response is compliant.
Most difficult:
- Discussing a document without enough of the team involved.
- A tool used to create a form to produce a graphic of a writing instrument.
- Punishment administered for having people seated in the wrong place at a kick-off session.
(Clue – The answer to each of these contains three words.)
And finally, my personal favorite:
- When the compliance manager cracks her whip.
(For a clue to this, check the title of this post.)
Answers to the first set.
1) Square mare
2) Clear deer
3) Kickin’ chicken
4) Nerd bird.
Posted by Jon on 17 April, 2009 under Musings |
Anyone else noticed the rather bizarre state of the hotel market out there at the moment? The luxury sector’s under sharp pressure – staying in five-star hotels is no longer de rigueur. Conversely, the budget sector (Travelodges and the like) is thriving.
The result? Prices are converging as the budget hotels operate near to their capacity, and the top end establishments slash prices to try to fill rooms. The outcome for frequent travellers like me is that we seem to be able to stay in far nicer places than we could, say, a year ago – for pretty much the same outlay.
I therefore found myself luxuriating in a rather nice suite at one London hotel recently – thanks to a ridiculously cheap nightly rate combined with my ‘Platinum’ upgrade. I unpacked, and decided to iron a couple of shirts for the days ahead.
There, in the wardrobe, was an ironing board.
But no iron.
So I called the guest services number. There followed a quite bizarre exchange:
Me: “Hi: sorry to trouble you. I have an ironing board, but I can’t seem to find an iron anywhere.”
Guest services: “Yes, Mr Williams. That’s correct.” (Pause). “We’ll get one sent up.”
“That’s correct?” Like, someone meant it to be that way? (And, indeed, on a return trip to the same hotel a week or so later, we played out the same conversation again, almost word-for-word).
It made me wonder whether there’s a proposal centre analogy: what’s your iron? What’s the one, obvious thing that’s missing in your approach to proposals – the one thing that, if you stood back and thought about it, really cries out to be fixed?
It may be training for the proposal centre staff; it may be a stronger qualification process; it may be training for your salespeople; it could be that library of pre-written content that really needs updating. But I’d guess that most teams out there have their ‘iron’, that’s lurked as an issue forever, that’s tolerated despite the obvious impact, and never quite been addressed.
Posted by BJ on 15 April, 2009 under Musings |
At my gym, when a piece of equipment is broken they put a sign on it that reads, “Making improvements”. These signs appear fairly regularly though I hadn’t really noticed them before (except on the rare occasion that one is on a piece of equipment I wish to use.
I did notice one of these signs when I saw it on a urinal in the men’s bathroom and it made me stop and think (about more than “Gee, I hope there’s another urinal available!”).
When I did stop and think about these signs, what came to mind was, “If a piece of equipment is broken and in need of repairs, is that really something I’d consider an improvement? I mean, making a urinal functional is hardly an improvement. I’d consider it a basic expectation or “given” rather than an improvement.
I greatly dislike like the idea of equipment undergoing repairs being presented to me as an “improvement” and something for which I should be grateful. An improvement would be renovating the facility, bringing in new equipment, adding new products to the café, etc.
Fixing a broken toilet is “making improvements”? As the tile says, “I’m not buying it.”
It’s worth considering what you might be inadvertently trying to “sell” within your proposal that the client has reasonable right to expect or take as a “given”.
Posted by Jon and BJ on 14 April, 2009 under Proposal Panda |
So, Proposal Panda’s been travelling. Here’s a report from Mike Parkinson and the team at 24 Hour Co.
It was pandemonium. Everyone saw red. The proposal was due in two days, and the client wanted one giant bear of a graphic created.
Tired and stressed out, our creativity was an endangered species teetering on extinction.
Then faster than you could say “bamboo shoot,” Proposal Panda climbed in front of the room.
“You can do it!” Proposal Panda roared. “You have the basic idea. You’re so close!”
He quickly sketched one of our concepts onto the board.
“You just need a different perspective,” he said.
Invigorated by seeing our idea drawn out in black and white, we sent the sketch to the client and received an enthusiastic approval.
Proposal Panda rendered the graphic, while we put the finishing touches on the presentation and assembled the binders.
“A proposal is like pawing your way up the mountain and through the brush,” Proposal Panda said. “You may get tired or stumble along the way. However, when you’re finished, you can rest and enjoy the leaves of your labor.”
To finish, here’s a photograph of Proposal Panda with the team.
