Posted by Jon under Processes & best practice, Proposal Guys news | 
The APMP conference in South Africa last week was the second major event I’d addressed in the space of a week – following hard on the heels of what, to my mind, was the best-ever UKAPMP annual conference. (Huge congratulations to Ken Erskine, France Campbell and the team for attracting 270 delegates to the two-day session).
During the event, we announced the winners of the UKAPMP Proposal Design competition, which we’d sponsored. There were several contenders for the award – including Arqiva, Bid Management Services, BidPerfect, Canon, Colt, DocumentGenie, Lloyds Banking Group and Siemens Enterprise Communications – and some truly excellent entries.
The prize was captured by Lloyds Banking Group – and Andy Lyons is seen here on the left receiving the trophy from Strategic Proposals’ Consulting Director, Graham Ablett:
The cover of their winning entry – a proposal submitted to Commerzbank – is below (reproduced with permission):
Andy also shared another of their proposals with us, and I thought the front cover of that one (to brewer Fullers – main product, London Pride beer – was even better):
Congratulations to all of the entrants. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a similar competition at the APMP worldwide conference? Perhaps I should chat to the organisers…?
Posted by Jon under Processes & best practice |
What do bidders think of buyers – and, particularly, of the RFPs we receive?
We’re currently conducting a survey capturing the views of bid and proposal managers around the world, to be fed back to the purchasing community. (Free copies will, of course, be sent to anyone who participates in the survey).
If you’d like to add your voice to the debate, please download the survey form (in Letter or A4 format) and email your contribution (in Word, or scanned if you’d rather complete it by hand) to info@strategicproposals.com by 30 November.
We’re already had contributions from the Dubai, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, South Africa, the UK & US, and more. But the more folks who participate, the more weight our messages will carry back to the procurement community. Thanks for your input!
Posted by BJ under Musings |
As Jon presents in his course on RFP development, “You get the answers you deserve”.
The following are questions asked in US courts (as presented in the book ‘Disorder in Court’ (by C. Sevilla). As you’ll see, the questions are either unclear, can be interpreted several ways are just plain dumb. It’s also clear the attorney asking the question didn’t get the information one would assume they were hoping to receive. Enjoy, and recognize that maybe the questions we see in RFP aren’t quite as bad as we might think.
Here are a few questions that don’t even deserve a response.
Question: Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
Question: The youngest son, the 20-year-old, how old is he?
Question: Were you present when your picture was taken?
And here are some questions that received answers that had to have surprised the attorneys who asked them.
Question: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
Response: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
Question: Now doctor, isn’t it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn’t know about it until the next morning?
Response: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
Question: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
Response: Yes.
Question: And what were you doing at that time?
Response: Having sex with my wife.
Question: She had three children, is that correct?
Response: Yes.
Question: How many were boys?
Response: None.
Question: And how many of the children were girls?
Response: Your Honor, can I get a new attorney?
Question: How was your first marriage terminated?
Response: By death.
Question: And by whose death was it terminated?
Response: Take a guess.
Question: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
Response: No, this is how I always dress.
And my favorite (definitely compliant!)
Statement: Remember, all of your responses must be oral.
Question: What school did you go to?
Response: Oral.
Posted by Jon under APMP & accreditation |
I’d like to use today’s post to congratulate the team behind this week’s first-ever African proposal management conference.
The event – “Making a splash” – took place in Johannesburg on Wednesday, and I was honoured to be invited to give the keynote speech in front of a sold-out audience of over sixty participants. I was delighted, too, for the dozen participants who passed their APMP Foundation Level exam on Tuesday after we’d worked intensively through the syllabus together.
Proposal Panda – who’s been in hibernation for the past couple of months (aka sat in the corner of my office looking glum) – joined me for the trip, and met the local proposal mascot, Wendy Witch. Here are a couple of photos from the conference and the accreditation course:
It’s great to see the emergence of the ‘profession’ in South Africa, and the organisers (led by local APMP chapter chair Sandy Pullinger) deserve huge praise for their hard work.
Posted by Jon under Processes & best practice |
When the answers to the four questions that make up the qualification mantra – “Is it real, do we want it can we win it, can we do it?” – are “no”, salespeople often resort to an alternative attempt to justify proceeding with the bid…
“But it’s strategic!”
What does that mean in practice? Typically, they’re stating that – to paraphrase Baron de Coubertin – it’s the taking part that matters, not the winning. I can think of five potential scenarios to justify an “it’s strategic” bid – one where a rational evaluation of the usual questions would otherwise cause you to down tools:
1. Known future opportunity. We can’t meet the customer’s requirements or we know they won’t choose us. However, we can demonstrate that losing this – but doing so extremely professionally – will help us to capture a specific, known future piece of business with this customer.
Before heading down this route, be clear on what that future opportunity is and when it’s happening – specifics here, not “we think they’ll have stuff for us at some point”. And do a careful analysis of how this tactic will enhance your reputation with the client. The “pro’s” come potentially from the opportunities that arise to develop relationships through face-to-face bid discussions, from showing you can develop high-quality proposals and (potentially) from conditioning the client’s views / requirements for that future deal. The “con’s” are that being branded “unrealistic” or “losers” isn’t always a positive place to be.
2. Recovering credibility. Previous bid engagements with the client concerned have been a disaster. They think we’re unprofessional, inept, and don’t think we see them as an important client. They’ve extended an olive branch to us – and if we “no bid” this time, or bid badly, we’ll never be invited back.
Submitting and presenting an excellent proposal is part of a clear, wider plan to restore our reputation and re-establish positive personal connections with their decision-makers. We can’t meet their requirements this time, however, but we can share experience and insights that will help their project to succeed, and could potentially offer a non-compliant solution as a “fall-back” option should their “plan A” fail.
3. Market penetration. We have a new product, service or solution; perhaps we’re in a new country or new sector; maybe we’ve built up a relationship with an entirely new customer. We need to be seen as “players” and hence taking part – even if we don’t win – is key to building relationships and establishing our brand in the new area.
And we’re in stages one or two of the three-stage journey in customers’ inevitable progression from viewing us as “new, interesting and creative” to “we know they’re serious contenders in this market” to “they’ve been trying for ages and they never win – they’re risky”.
4. Competitive attack. We know we can’t win, but we’re not prepared to let competitors (and especially the incumbent) have a clear run at this. We’re going to bid, potentially at very low prices, to unsettle our competitors’ and (potentially) stop them making excessive profits from the deal – despite the risk that they’ll then do the same to us, and margins in the market as a whole will end up being degraded.
5. Desperation. The salesperson can’t answer “yes” to each of the four key qualification questions, but believes there’s a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow. There’s not much else in his/her pipeline (“I’ve not got anything better to do”), and they need to show that they’re busy. He/she would love to bid, as miracles do sometimes happen – particularly, if bidding comes at little or no personal cost (in other words, other people will do all of the hard work).
Of these, four tactics may potentially be viable justifications – provided it’s agreed clearly, in advance, that “losing well” is the goal – and that the bid / proposal strategies reflect this. The fifth, and the one that seems to be most prevalent, certainly isn’t an acceptable justification for proceeding with a bid – taking effort and energy away from other deals with a more realistic chance of success. Try forcing the salesperson to explain which of the other four scenarios their deal fits into – and be (friendly and supportive yet) robust in your challenges. Life it too short to be wasted working on no-hope proposals.
PS click here and then here if you want to read a previous thread on the qualification process
