Posted by BJ under Musings, Processes & best practice | 
I recently had a request from a couple of people asking me to send them a copy of our Proposal Professional’s Bill of Rights. That, combined with Jon’s recent posting of the APMP Code of Ethics prompted me to post the Bill of Rights here. (This was developed some years ago and was distributed (done in calligraphy on parchment no less!) at several APMP conferences.)
Please DO NOT copy this. If you’d like a copy, just send me mail with your ship to address and I’ll send you a copy. Thanks.
Posted by Proposal Panda under Proposal Panda |
I recently travelled to Houston, Texas to attend the First Annual APMP Texas All-Star Symposium. I arrived a couple of days early to meet up with Jeannette Waldie, APM.APMP, a Sr. Proposal Specialist with AECOM. She was kind enough to let me borrow her baseball cap that said “Passionate about Proposals” in Latin.
The next day, it was “Go Texan Day,” where Houstonians celebrate the start of the Houston Rodeo, the largest indoor rodeo in the world. I enjoyed a panda-sized pecan tart.
Jeannette was busy getting ready for the Texas Symposium and asked if I was willing to help with Registration. So the night before the conference, I met up with the Registration Team and got to know Pam Silverthorn, Ruth Marcom, and Ismael Garza. Mark Wigginton from Shipley also joined in the fun.
Conference Texas Style
The next morning, I was up bright and early and helped everyone set things up before folks arrived. Then I joined BJ as he welcomed everyone to the conference.
The rest of the day I spent at the APMP Information Table telling folks about the wonderful benefits of the organization and about the Accreditation Program. I also got lots of questions about my adventures visiting proposal professionals around the globe!
Ride ‘Em Cowboy
The next day, I went out and got me some cowboy duds. Then off to the Livestock Show we went.
Since 1932, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo raises funds for education and youth programs. Every year they put on the largest indoor rodeo and livestock show in the world. First we went to the Exhibit Hall to make sure I had all the cowboy gear I needed.
Then we went to see the livestock.
B J had bet that I couldn’t ride a horse, so I set off to find a professional cowboy who would teach me how to ride.
Ride ‘em, Cowboy Panda! Yup, BJ, that is a real horse!
After my exciting ride, we hit the midway.
Finishing the Ride
Before I left, I met with the Board of the Greater Houston Chapter and helped give the Conference Report. Established over 10 years ago, the Houston Chapter is one of the oldest APMP chapters.
Then it was time to say goodbye and head off to my next stop with Joseph Hans with Trinity Consulting, located in Virginia. The Texas Symposium was a great day and learning to ride a horse was amazing. Thanks to Jeannette and the Symposium Committee for their hospitality. I’m looking forward to seeing the wonderful folks I met when we all attend the APMP National conference in June.
Proposal Panda travels the world visiting proposal professionals. Click here for more details. If you’d like Panda to visit you, just email us at panda@theproposalguys.com
Posted by BJ under Musings |
Okay, the title is just a tease because I don’t want to know who your daddy is (really, I don’t). But I am interested in knowing whether you and your team have a mascot and if so, knowing that characters name, a bit about him/her/it and perhaps even seeing a photo.
Most of you are aware of our mascot, Proposal Panda. (Many of you will have met him at an APMP event and quite a few of you will even have had him as a guest. We love having a mascot and know full well the fun having such a character as part of the team can be. Our guy acts as a catalyst for conversations, fosters creativity and provides a good ear when we need one. (He’s also quick to provide much needed humor when things get tense or to suggest taking a break when he notices we’re all looking a bit tired.)
Proposal Panda’s visits have often included meeting a proposal team’s mascot. Many of these have appeared in pictures and in the write-up of PP’s visits. This lead me to wonder how many other groups have a mascot, what types of characters make up the group of mascots, what the names are, etc.
So let’s hear from those of you who have a team mascot. Tell us about your mascot and send us a couple of pictures.
(I’ll be interested to see if our friends over at Bid Solutions send in a picture of their panther.)
Posted by Jon under Musings |
I was struck by a fascinating phrase in a recent article in The Times by Colonel Richard Kemp – a former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan. “Soldiers,” he wrote, “don’t begin to earn their pay until the bullets start flying.”
Whilst one can see what he’s trying to say, this sounds like very strange indeed in the context of the modern military, where keeping the peace is just as important a role as combat operations, never mind being disrespectful to those of his colleagues whose postings at the time happen to be away from the front line.
And, much as I wouldn’t for a moment try to equate what we proposal folks do with the valour of our military friends, I see a parallel in attitudes. Too many senior executives and salespeople believe that proposal professionals are best-used in the heat of the battle, under pressure, against tight deadlines. Yet so much of our value-add comes at the pre-proposal stage, doing the reconnaissance, getting the logistics in place, preparing the ground for success. Where we really earn our pay isn’t in the late nights trying to persuade the copier to work or the PDF to upload; it’s in those early days where we make it far more likely that we will win the ‘fight’ and that we’ll fight on our terms.
Posted by BJ under Word play & writing |
I caught a bit by the comedian Ron White recently wherein he presented the diamond industry and jewelers’ latest marketing message. Upon hearing it, it occurred to me that it related to the development of proposal strategies and themes.
The current marketing message for diamonds is, “Give her a diamond and she will be rendered speechless.”
As Ron points out, this is spin on the industry’s intended message, which is, “Give her an expensive piece of jewelry and it will shut her up for a while.”
Definitely makes the message more shiny, don’t you think? And, as Ron would point out, the needs of both parties involved get what they are hoping for.
(And yes, I do realize I’ll no doubt put up with some flack from those who are easily offended. for posting this. Fortunately, I know that our readers, aka proposal people, by the very nature of their work, are not the type of people to be easily offended. Heck, we work with [put up with might be more correct] sales people on a daily basis, right? ☺)
Posted by Jon under Processes & best practice |
Those of you who’ve studied common terminology and processes in the proposal profession will know of the proliferation of ‘colour reviews’ – a ‘blue’ team to review the win strategy, pink for proposal strategy and storyboards, gold for internal approvals, red for the final document review.
I’ve written in the past about my hatred of the unnecessary jargon that people create by using this ‘colour coding’ jargon, rather than easily-understandable names. But what’s really struck me lately is how the profession’s received wisdom actually misses out perhaps the most beneficial review stage of all.
See, in the process described above (and as reflected in the APMP accreditation scheme), there’s no formal review of content as it’s developed, between the storyboard and the final document. And, by the time the final document comes to be reviewed, it’s actually often too late to make too many substantial changes.
Where we’re often asked to work as peer reviewers is during the content development process: once a section or answer has reached a reasonably-advanced draft, we’ll look at it and see what works – and how it could be sharpened. That’s well before the content reaches the final proposal draft to be looked at by the ‘red team’ – and in good time for the contributors to take on board the feedback and rework their material.
Playing devil’s advocate at this stage can have a huge impact – constructively challenging each and every piece of content to suggest how the writing could be tightened and the customer focus increased. It’s not unreasonable to assume that a ‘bottom-up’ review of draft content like this can add least 10% to your score in the customer’s scoring (and often much more) – thus having a huge impact on where you’ll finish in the evaluation rankings.
And yet this form of peer review is missing from the standard ‘colour codings’: a missed opportunity by so many proposal teams!
Posted by BJ under Musings |
As our readers will know, Jon and I believe a sense of humor is a very important, all around, multi-purpose tool to have in a proposal tool kit. It serves a variety of functions, from team building to conflict resolution. Used correctly, it can make the difference between a project being a painful experience to be endured, with the team thinking, “Never again!” and one which is great fun and which leads to the team thinking, “Let’s do that again!”
With that in mind, I came across what I think is a great, very clean little joke (the kind it’s okay to share with co-workers*) and I thought I’d share it with you. In turn, I’d ask you to write and share your favorite joke. Here goes…
A guy hears a knock on the door, opens it and sees a snail on the mat. He picks up the snail and flings it into the yard. Two weeks later the guy answers the door and the snail is again on the mat. The snail looks up at the guy and says, “Now just what was THAT all about?”
*For those who may be concerned: We at Strategic Proposals have the utmost respect for snails and other living creatures. Please be assured no snails or other living creatures were harmed in any way in the development of telling of this joke.
