Posted by Jon under APMP & accreditation, Musings, Processes & best practice | 
Next week sees the 22nd APMP annual conference, taking place in Denver. I’m particularly looking forward to the event, as it marks the tenth consecutive year at which I’ll have presented at the conference – a record for a presenter based outside the US, I would strongly suspect.
This year’s theme, “The Art of Winning”, takes its inspiration from Sun Tzu’s famous book on military tactics, “The Art of War”, written some 2,500 years or so ago. Much as Machiavelli is my preferred evil source of reference for running proposals, it’s been great fun returning to Sun Tzu’s book having not read it for many years. I thought you might enjoy a few selected quotes, which seem particularly pertinent to those of us who write proposals.
1. “Do not make war unless victory may be gained thereby; if there be prospect of victory, move; if there be no prospect, do not move.” (Qualify, folks!)
2. “To be late, and hurrying to advance to meet the foe, is exhausting.” (Pre-proposal planning matters: let’s plan for success rather than merely responding to RFPs)
3. “These things must be known by the leader: to know them is to conquer; to know them not is to be defeated.” (How clear are you with your sales teams on the information they need to dig out before you start work on a proposal?)
4. “The army that conquers makes certain of victory, and then seeks battle. The army destined to defeat, fights trusting that chance may bring success to its arms.” (What a fabulous endorsement of the need to work out your proposal strategy before you start to write)
5. “If a victory be gained by a certain stratagem, do not repeat it. Vary the stratagem according to the circumstances.” (We need a specific strategy for every opportunity – and simply cutting and pasting the Exec Summary from the last deal isn’t good enough!)
6. “The wise man considers well both advantage and disadvantage. He sees a way out of adversity.” (That’s why the APMP accreditation syllabus puts so much emphasis on the Bidders’ Comparison Matrix)
7. “In general, the procedure of war is: the Leader, having received orders from his lord, assembles the armies.” (Hey, we’re working for the sales organisation, right - supporting them as they seek to win business. To an extent, we need to know our place).
8. “As a rule, the soldiers prefer high ground to low. They prefer sunny places to those the sun does not reach.” (Yep, motivating the team’s pretty important)
9. “Universal courage and unity depend on good management.” (Ever seen a dysfunctional proposal team, with everyone pulling in opposite directions…?!)
10. “We create a situation which promises victory; but as the moment and method cannot be fixed beforehand, the plan must be modified according to the circumstances.” (How relevant to the ever-changing world of managing proposals)
11. “If victory be certain from the military standpoint, fight, even if the lord forbid. If defeat be certain from the military standpoint, do not fight, even though the lord commands it.” (A controversial one, this – does it encourage rogue bidding? Not necessarily one I’d want to share with salespeople, but an interesting insight into their mindset!)
12. “As has been said: “Know thyself; know the enemy; fear not for victory.” (That’s proposal strategy in a nutshell!)
13. “To fight and conquer one hundred times is not the perfection of attainment, for the supreme art is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” (Hey, if we can avoid getting into a competitive tendering process in the first place – writing pro-active proposals, especially seeking to renew existing contracts, then so much the better)
14. “He who does not employ a guide, cannot gain advantage from the ground.” (Training for all participants; coaching; mentoring – all key to success)
It promises to be a great conference: if you’re lucky enough to be attending, do come and say hi!
Posted by Jon under Musings |
The strangest of dining experiences recently just cried out to be blogged…
A very dear friend was about to relocate from Dublin to London. To celebrate, we headed out for dinner to a restaurant regarded as the best in Ireland, being the only such in the country to hold two Michelin stars.
The maitre d’ greeted us warmly on arrival, and showed us to a comfortable seat. Champagne arrived, as he announced: “I understand this is a special occasion, so we’ll be offering you a tasting menu. Entrust us with the selection of the dishes; let us surprise you. But might I just check – is there anything you don’t like to eat?”
Now, I’ve worked my way through a fair few tasting menus in my time – and often find they’re a good way to enjoy some of the chef’s signature dishes. So we smiled, agreed to his suggestion, ruled out avocado or oysters, and waited to be shown to our table. And a final meal out before moving countries? Yes, I guess that’s a ’special occasion’ – and it was the sort of place one would, frankly, only eat in if there was something to mark or celebrate.
During our wait, other guests started to drift in. They too were greeted warmly and shown to their sofas – before being handed menus. Why, we wondered, hadn’t we been offered the same option?
Equally bizarrely, the sommelier appeared with a voluminous wine list for our perusal. Yet, of course, we had no idea whatsoever would appear on our plates – so how were we supposed to choose appropriate wines? Much as the list looked excellent, we had to simply ask him to choose glasses that would match whatever we were being fed.
And then, of course, it struck us that we had no idea whatsoever what said tasting menu would actually cost.
The food, as it turned out, was very good – although not, in my opinion, worthy of the second of its stars. A lovely evening was had by all; the total cost turned out to be not unreasonable. And when we finally asked the maitre d’ why we’d not been shown the a la carte menu, he was profuse in his apologies.
As ever, I look for parallels in the world of proposals from other interesting experiences in my life. I liken this rather to a salesperson needing support on a deal. Each opportunity is unique – yet the key processes involved in developing a winning proposal are broadly the same. The skill of the good proposal centre is to make the account manager feel in safe hands (”we have a wonderful menu, which you’ll love”), whilst making them feel that the approach will be tailored to their bid (”…or there’s the a la carte”?), whilst being clear on the effort that they’ll be required to invest (”…and it’s priced at…”!). Making them feel surprised and steamrollered probably aren’t secrets of success.
Posted by BJ under Musings |
Many of us make extraordinary efforts to accomplish our tasks, to fulfill our assignments and to “Get the job done”. And, if you’re like me, occasionally you wonder if anyone notices or cares.
Last winter I was to fly from Boston to South Carolina, via North Carolina, departing at 3pm and anticipating arriving at 5pm. The day and night prior to my leaving it snowed, and snowed, and snowed some more. BY 9pm there were 6-8” on the ground. I checked my flight and surprisingly, it was still scheduled to take off.
I set my alarm to wake up a bit earlier than usual, 5:45, to allow for digging my self out. When the alarm went off, there was 16+” of the white stuff on the ground and it was still coming down fast and furiously. Looking at how much snow was out there, I wasn’t sure whether I’d get out of my driveway, let alone be able to get to the airport (and this from someone who has lived his entire life in New England and is used to snow storms.) Besides which, there was no way the airport would be open and no flights would be leaving any time soon. Or so I thought. I checked my flight again and it was still scheduled to depart on time.
I did some calculations. If I was to fly out, I would have to get my dog Jack to the kennel (more like a five-star hotel for dogs), which is a 30 mile drive in the opposite direction from the airport. And I’d also need to allow additional time for the no doubt slow going drive into the airport (typically about an hour’s drive but sure to be at least twice that, if not more, in such conditions.)
Thus, since I wanted to be at the airport no later than 1:45pm for my still scheduled 3pm departure, I’d need to be headed to the airport by 11:45am. This meant I’d need to drop Jack off at 9:30am, allowing me the two+ hours to get to the airport. So I’d need to leave the house and head to the kennel by 8:30, allowing myself an hour for the 30 mile drive.
And I had to shovel my (fairly long and wide) driveway which would take at least an hour, so I’d need to get out there…well, right now came to mind, as it was already 7:00am.
I checked my flight one more time. It was still showing as on time. I called the airline and they confirmed the flight was still a go. I questioned whether it was worth the effort. After all, the client would certainly understand if I wasn’t able to make it. The engagement involved some 10 interviews and my not getting there would certainly affect their schedules but surely they too would understand given the weather conditions. I decided “the show must go on” (and besides, I’m a New Englander at heart and I wasn’t about to let a ‘little snow’ keep me from travelling.
I spent the next hour shovelling out the driveway and backed out onto my unplowed street. I almost immediately got stuck. I was able to dig myself out after 20 minutes and made it to the main road which had been plowed earlier but now had a new 6-8” on it. I made my way, very slowly, to the kennel. I dropped off Jack and headed to the airport. The only vehicles out were snowplows. The drive to the airport was slow going, mostly behind plows doing no more than 15-20 miles an hour. I made it to the airport at 2:05, all the while assuming I’d be told, by a counter attendant looking at me as if I was nuts for being there, “Of course your flight has been cancelled. Have you looked out there?”
To my continuing surprise, my flight was still on the board, the lone flight that hadn’t been cancelled. The airport was virtually deserted, there was no one in front of me as I passed through security and there were only 12 other passengers waiting at the gate.
TO everyone’s surprise, at precisely 2:35 they announced our flight. Well, actually, it wasn’t announced. There were so few of us at the gate, the attendant merely came over and told us we could board.
We got on board, they closed the doors and we pushed back from the gate. They de-iced the plane. And then nothing. We just sat there a few feet from the gate. After an hour had passed, and the pilot came on to tell us there was a mechanical failure and we would have to go back to the gate, which we did after another 5 minutes or so. After another 20-30 minutes the pilot came on to tell us that they weren’t able to get the bridge out to the plane and we’d have to move to another gate, which we did.
Once at the gate we waited about an hour for the technicians to come on board. Once they arrive, they went to the back of the plane and worked for another 30 minutes or so. By this time it was 5:45pm…and it was still snowing. The technicians finished their work and the pilot announced, “flight attendants please prepare for takeoff” and we pushed back again. We then waited another 45 minutes until the equipment was available to de-ice the plane a second time.
Once de-iced the plane began to move to the runway, only to stop after only a minute or two. The pilot then came on to tell us that the mechanical failure had returned and we’d have to go back to the gate, which we did. It was now 7:15pm. We deplaned and went to wait inside at the agate. About half of the people decided to call it a day and, after arranging to get their bags, leave the airport, wishing those of us determined to stick it out good luck.
10 Minutes later we were told to go to another gate where another plane was waiting for us. The six of us passengers made our way to the gate and some 20 minutes later we were told we could board. We pushed back from the gate and the plane was de-iced for a third time. To everyone’s surprise, at 8:10pm we headed to the runway and minutes later we were in the air (for a change, we didn’t have to wait behind other airplanes on the runway as ours was the only one out there.
The flight, though somewhat bumpy, was uneventful and we landed in Charlotte NC at 10:25pm, a mere 7:25 hours after I first boarded the plane. And I still had a two hour drive ahead of me to get to my hotel in Columbia SC.
There was only an inch or so of snow on the ground on my route, but temperatures were right at the freezing mark and there was black ice. As I slowly made my way along the 90+ mile route I passed at least a dozen vehicles off the road and several major accidents.
I made it to my hotel at 12:45am, some 17 hours since my journey began. I was still questioning my decision to make the journey under such conditions and not having just postponed the engagement. “Nobody will even notice or acknowledge all you’ve done to get here,” I thought to myself as I fell asleep.
I was up at 6:30am, hit the gym and grabbed some breakfast, and made my way to the office, arriving at 7:45am.The client met me in the lobby and escorted me to the room in which we’d be working and introduced me to the team members. She then announced they had a special award for me. I had no idea what this was about.
She then announced, “BJ, in recognition of your undertaking travel under extreme winter weather conditions at significant personal risk and in support of the organization’s Proposal Process Improvement Initiatives you are hereby awarded ‘The Order of the Golden Snowflake”. She then handed me a certificate and a medal in the form of a golden snowflake in a case.
My question had been answered. My efforts were noticed and acknowledged. The client and the team recognizing my efforts in this way made it all worth while (and yes, I probably would do it again.)
Posted by Jon under Musings |
Back in February, a group of my closest friends sat me down after a particularly fine dinner at our house – and gave me an ultimatum. “Jon,” they said, “it’s time for you to get fit.”
Given that I’m a somewhat overweight 43 year old, who hadn’t seen the inside of a gym more than half-a-dozen times in his life, the point they were making had a degree of validity… and so I valiant agreed to implement a new regime.
“You need to get a personal trainer,” they explained. I fought back – being so out of shape that the thought of paying someone to tell me I was out of shape didn’t really strike me as necessary. So, listening to their advice (and bearing in mind that the trio included a top-notch physio, amateur tennis champion and former University rugby captain), as well as reading a few documents that they subsequently passed in my direction from trusted sources, I cobbled together my own routine. The deal? That I had until the end of May to do my own thing – and then we’d talk again about whether a trainer would add value and how I could do even more.
So, I’ve been off to the gym at least three times a week. I started slowly, with the pieces of kit that looked familiar and easy to master – a rowing machine and exercise bike. I upped the time spend on each; set them to higher levels of intensity; added in the treadmill (having never been on one before in my life).
I’ve adopted a low(ish) carb diet. I’m not sticking to it religiously, but it’s been amazing how easy it’s been to wean myself off the habits of bread, rice, potatoes – and chocolate! And alcohol? Even this hugely enthusiastic wine taster has vowed only to go into his cellar twice a week. And throughout, my trio of mentors has been offering endless support and encouragement.
The outcome? Three months in, and I’ve lost 10kg (or 22 pounds). I’ve a few weeks to go before they sit me down at my end of May deadline – when I’ll work on phase two of the plan. (Hey, if I’m starving myself during the APMP conference, you now know why!)
So, why bore you with this on The Proposal Guys? Well, I see a huge parallel with how teams go about fixing their proposal capabilities. First, it needs some sort of credible external intervention, from people keen to help and able to offer sound advice. Customer feedback can be the trigger; sometimes it’ll take a quick healthcheck of proposal output (of the type we do fairly regularly); it may be attending a course or conference to listen to experts who’ve been there before.
Next, do the stuff you can make happen quickly and cheaply. Don’t try and change the world overnight – you’ll confuse yourself, and be risking failure. Pick a set of things that you believe you can do reasonably easy – apply some new techniques, implement a new process or two, work better with some of the more enlightened salespeople in your organisation, perhaps train a few key people. And maybe use the support of a mentor who’s been there and done it before to keep you on track.
And then, once you’ve built up your confidence and scored some successes? Then it’s time to take a more thorough look at how you could really get better. For me, I just know there are weights and cleverer exercise routines facing me over the summer – but by then, I’ll be fit enough to get fit, and confident enough to look a trainer in the eye without worrying that I couldn’t possibly succeed.
