Tried by Proposals
I recently read the book “Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief”. (McPherson, Penguin, © 2008), a documentary on, as the title suggests, Lincoln as the Commander in Chief for the United States during his presidency and the Civil War (the war having begun for all intent and purposes simultaneously with him being elected President.)
One of the great many eloquent statements made by Lincoln regarding the war is,
“The political objective (in this case, keeping the United States intact and not allowing States to secede from the Union) is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and the means can never be considered in isolation from their purpose. Therefore, it is clear that war should never be thought of as something autonomous but always as an instrument of policy.”
This statement is equally true for proposals as they relate to the overall sales process. Written for proposals, this statement would be,
“The objective is winning the opportunity*, the proposal is a key component of achieving this objective. A proposal can never be considered in isolation from the overall sales process. Therefore, the proposal should never be thought of as something autonomous but always as an instrument of the sale.”
* Winning defined as award of contract, next stage, influence, etc. – as defined by sales.
As those of us who have been, “Tried by Proposals” know well, too often a proposal is looked at as separate and unrelated to the other components of a sale – the customer’s perception of the responder, previous interactions with the client, the client’s view of the competition, presentations (final and others), etc. It is critical that proposals always be tightly connected to the sales process. Anything less will reduce the impact and quality of the proposal. Failing to do this, you might get lucky and “win a battle”, but you’re sure to “lose the war.”
This article was written by BJ on 1 February, 2010 and filed under Musings, Processes & best practice. If you found it useful, you can with others. To receive automatic updates, subscribe to The Proposal Guys via 
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Very true BJ – and as you’ve often said a good proposal does not necessarily win you the business on its own, but a poor one certainly can ensure that your bid campaign stops right there!
I think that Lincoln gives us some other valuable lessons that we can apply to proposals. I read ‘The Team of Rivals’ by Doris Kearns Goodwin published by Penguin last year. As well as being a fascinating read, the book also shows the importance of strong leadership, working with people to build effective teams and having the right strategies – which are key components of any successful team.
For example, Lincoln built his team based on what he believed would be the strongest collective, putting all personal differences aside. As you know the team of rivals was born and the rest, as they say, is history.