Posted by Jon on 8 March, 2010 under Musings | 
Before setting off on a ridiculously early train into London this morning, I devoured a selection of the reports on the web of The Hurt Locker’s Academy Award success.
When the movie came out, I’d read a glowing review of it in The New Yorker – the sort of exceptional commendation from that publication that makes something a must-see or must-read. (’Gilead‘, Marilynn Robinson’s Pulitzer-winning novel was another such New Yorker recommendation that undoubtedly lived up to its compelling review).
I finally got to watch the movie last week on DVD, and been incredibly impressed. So much so, in fact, that I’d sworn to my wife that it was a certain bet to sweep the board at the Oscars.
She, being a rational sort, pointed out that I couldn’t be sure of the result, since I’d not seen the other contenders – the highly fancied Avatar, in particular. Yet I’d spent the past few days telling anyone who would listen of the film’s brilliance, and its inevitable forthcoming success.
The parallels to proposals? First, think back to that New Yorker review. If the client’s been successfully ‘warmed up’ before your document arrives, they’ll doubtless approach it in a far more positive and receptive frame of mind: “I want to read this one: I’ve heard it’s going to be great.”
And then my certainty that the movie would win, even without seeing the rest of the field. True, too, for proposals – when sometimes the evaluators read a document that is so impressive that nothing else stands a chance. No matter how good the competitors’ proposals, will the reader always default back to yours as ‘the one that I want’, looking for any reason not to choose the others?
So, what awards will your next proposal win? Best document, for sure. Best original story? Best design? Best writing? Best direction, for your work leading and inspiring the team?
Posted by Jon on 26 February, 2010 under Musings, Proposal Guys news |
Today’s post marks something of a milestone, as it’s the 500th post that BJ and I have made here at The Proposal Guys. We’re rather proud of reaching this landmark – and want to say thank you to our readers. We hope you’ve enjoyed our first 500 – and that you’ll stay with us as we head on towards the thousand mark!
We’ll be running a couple of major posts next week, looking at trends past and future in the world of proposals – with input from a number of luminaries in the proposal profession. Watch this space!
In the meantime, something to make you smile… Ever come across clients who behave like this?
(With many thanks to the participant on the APMP Foundation course that I ran in the Netherlands earlier this week, who shared the clip with me. And a quick reminder whilst talking about buyers: our recent white paper discussing how purchasers perceive proposals is still available for free download!)
Posted by Jon on 15 February, 2010 under Musings, Processes & best practice |
So enough of sales for a moment: what about other types of proposal? Consider the following, if you will:
“Hola! You’re very pretty! God, I realy luv beautiful hot cuties like u!”
An amusing study at dating site “OK Cupid” has analysed the language used by their members when first making contact with someone new, and found that certain phrases have a marked impact on the reply rates. The sentence in brackets above (“Hola…”) breaks about ten of their rules; the site would suggest something like the following (with 24 of their recommended phrases in bold):
How’s it going?
Your profile is really fascinating. I noticed that you mention pretty much all of the things I enjoy. That’s awesome! It’s nice that you love literature and movies; LOL I’m curious what your favourites might be, although I’m guessing that you have good taste.
PS I’d like to apologise for the fact I’m a bit of an awkward atheist. Sorry! But I am a vegetarian, and I did get some tattoos when I was in a metal band whilst studying physics at grad school, ha ha!
OK, maybe not… But it’s an interesting article nonetheless, and did make me reflect on the language used in sales proposals. (See, the post’s relevant after all!). Here are just a few of the phrases from the report that suggest that successful proposals of any sort have some underlying similarities:
- Netspeak, bad grammar, and bad spelling are huge turn-offs. (But hey, we don’t need trained proofreaders to check our sales proposals, do we??)
- People normally like compliments, but when they’re used as pick-up lines, before you’ve even met in person, they inevitably feel…ew. (“You’re such a wonderful organisation, and we’d love to work with you on this truly exciting project…”?)
- The way you choose to start your initial message to someone is the “first impression of your first impression.” (See various entries here on Executive Summaries!)
- Even more effective are phrases that engage the reader’s own interests, or show you’ve read their profile. (Profile = RFP!)
- Be careful not to let the appearance of vulnerability become the appearance of sweaty desperation: please is on the negative list (“Thank you so much for inviting us to bid for this contract…”?)
I wonder if proposal folks are particularly skilled at dating?!
Posted by BJ on 5 February, 2010 under Musings |
Between some down time over the holidays and a fair amount of traveling since the New Year began, I’ve had a good deal of time for reading. That means I have a few recommendations for our faithful readers.
As a previous post stated, I read Tried by War: Lincoln as Commander in Chief (McPherson, Penguin). This is a documentary that looks at Lincoln’s handling of the Civil War. It was very well written and provides valuable insights into Lincoln’s decision making and leadership style. (This book contains many insights – what to look for in individuals, when to change Generals, how to effectively persuade others, etc., – that are applicable to managing proposal efforts. Another book along this line that I highly recommend is Lincoln on Leadership.)
Another book I read and would recommend is, The Lacuna (Kingsolver, Harper). Kingsolver is the author of The Poisonwood Bible, a favorite book of mine and one I highly recommend, and I was expecting this book to be very well written and engaging. I was not disappointed. The book is set in, for the most part, Mexico and follows the life of a man from childhood through his death. The story is related to the reader through his journals.
Somewhat similarly presented, this time through a series of letters passed between various individuals, the book, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (How can anyone resist a title like that?) (Shaffer/Barrows, Dial Press). This book presents a remarkable and delightfully quirky group of people on the Island of Guernsey during the German occupation. I highly recommend this book for those who enjoy a book about human relationships.
On the business side I read, What the Dog Saw (Malcolm, Little Brown). This is the latest from the prolific Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink and Outliers. This is a set of about 20 or so articles written by Gladwell over the years. It includes pieces on such notables as Ron Popeil and the famous “Chop-o-Matic”, ketchup and mustard, Cesar Milan (the piece on which the title is based) and Pit Bulls (the concluding chapter and a favorite [but then I admit to a bias here as an owner of an American Staffordshire Terrier – aka a pit bull.)
I’m always looking for recommendations for a good read (and attempting to not read a book which is not worth reading) so please do let me know what you’ve read lately and what you thought of it.
Posted by Jon on 3 February, 2010 under Musings |
I found myself standing in the middle of a hotel corridor recently, ironing a shirt for the following day’s meeting. “We can’t send an iron to your room, sir. Health and safety,” the reception staff had explained.
Clearly, the real reason was different, but “We didn’t want to spend the money on buying irons and ironing boards / can’t be bothered with the hassle of delivering and collecting them / would rather you paid to use our laundry’s pressing service” all sound a little less customer-friendly. (This hotel wouldn’t budge on its policy, either, unlike the resort I visited in the summer who were persuaded by my promise that, “I spend a couple of hundred nights a year in hotels and haven’t burnt one down yet”!).
It struck me that lying to customers seems institutionalised in the hotel trade. Aside from the iron issue, there’s “Check in time is 3pm, and rooms aren’t ready before then”. (One pictures their housekeeping staff sitting around all day, then working like crazy from 2.50pm to 2.59pm to clean all the rooms vacated the night before). Or there’s “Help save the planet – re-use your towels and laundry” – a.k.a. “Help increase our profits…”
So I wondered whether we proposal folks do the same. Covering letters assure the customer of your company’s enthusiasm for their exciting project – “we want your money” is so unsubtle. They’re signed by your CEO – who’s been “personally involved in preparing our proposal”. Well, if signing the covering letter isn’t personal involvement, what is?
Proposals show that the team have “studied your specification in detail and crafted a tailored solution designed to meet your needs” – rather than “we’ve read through the RFP, and here’s the standard service offering”. For tricky requirements, “we’ll run a workshop as part of the project initiation phase to finalise our approach” (so much better than “your requirements are far too ill-defined” / “we don’t have a clue how to do this”).
Your “very best” team will be allocated to work on the project. (Funny how they’ll be working on so many other projects as well at the same time). And the pricing? The “maximum discount” you can offer, truly “best in class” – just as best in class, in fact, as the price in the proposal you sent in to the last customer a couple of days ago…
Other suggestions welcomed – just click the comments button and leave your thoughts!
Posted by BJ on 1 February, 2010 under Musings, Processes & best practice |
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.”
Posted by Jon on 28 January, 2010 under Musings |
Graham Ablett, one of our UK consulting directors, spotted the following photo in the Daily Mail last month:
It’s interesting to read the accompanying story: there’s little or no discussion of the benefits that the £116m scheme will bring to public transport users in the area, but plenty of opportunity for those opposed to the scheme to make cheap, humorous jibes at its expense.
I guess that’s paralleled by apparently minor errors in a sales proposal: they distract the audience from the real story, and give your enemies on the evaluation panel a free pass to criticise your bid. Worst case, you’ll become the butt of their jokes. We may have said it before, but those detailed final checks before you issue a document really are hugely important, no matter how time-constrained you are. (Some in the proposal world talk about ‘white glove’ reviews; we prefer to just talk about checking the document carefully).
And if you simply don’t have the people or skills to do the checking? Then it’s time to go and shout at people until they understand the impact that under-resourcing your proposal team is having on your documents – and hence your win rates.
