Posted by Jon and BJ on 8 June, 2009 under Proposal Guys news | 
About half of our readers will already have noticed our new design here at The Proposal Guys. The rest of you – those who subscribe by email or our RSS feed – might well want to head over to the site to have a look.
We’re tried to make it easier to navigate the site. So if you’re interested in reading about, for example, “Processes & best practice”, you can click on a link to see all of our past posts in that category. There’s a search bar – on the right hand side of the grey bar at the top of the page. And we love getting comments – links to your recent entries are now in the sidebar, so you can follow and join in the debate.
We hope you like the new look! Do let us know what you think – and if you’ve not posted anything before, feel free to leave a comment on this post saying “hi”: it’s always lovely to know who’s reading the blog and what you like about it.
Posted by Jon on under Musings |
Sometimes a simple word just isn’t good enough for a proposal: your content contributors feel the need to reach for the thesaurus and seek out some extra-flowery alternative.
Take one recent document we reviewed. Apparently, should they win the contract, the supplier’s staff will conduct regular “client visitations” to the customers’ offices.
Having checked the Oxford English Dictionary, I assume they mean this in the context of ‘1. an official or formal visit’. Yet in the context of this project, where creating a sense of partnership was all-important, an air of ‘formality’ isn’t at all what the bidder was seeking to convey.
Moreover, most people would associate a ‘visitation’ with the alternative definitions:
2. the appearance of a divine or supernatural being.
3. a divorced person’s right to spend time with their children in the custody of a former spouse.
or
4. a disaster or difficulty regarded as a divine punishment.
None sounds like the proposed meetings would be a joy, although they may be eerily close to the truth of some customer-supplier meetings I’ve attended in the past.
Perhaps they simply meant ‘visit’ – so maybe that’s what they should have written! Proposal managers always need to remind contributors of some of the basic rules of good proposal writing – and encouraging them to keep it simple should certainly be on the list.
Posted by BJ on 6 June, 2009 under Musings |
No doubt, many of our readers will be aware of ‘apps’ for the iPhone. These are applications that allow a user to different things, ranging from useful (locating your car in a parking lot or finding a nearby restaurant), to fun (games such as Scrabble, Tetris and the usual assortment of other games) to the silly (turn your phone into a virtual lighter, complete with variable, flickering flame that the user can blow out).
I heard about a new app today. This app is called RunPee. What this app does is identify the moment or moments in a movie where the person viewing the movie can leave to use the bathroom and not miss something critical to the movie. It goes even further, providing information as to what the person might have missed. In my opinion, this is pure genius and clearly demonstrates the concept of determining what a person might need and then providing it.
An, as most things do, this got me to thinking about proposals and wondering what I would like to be able to do from my iPhone as relates to proposal work.
I have a few ideas, but before I present mine, I’d love to hear from our readers as to the app they’d like to see.
Posted by Jon and BJ on 5 June, 2009 under Proposal Panda |
Now this is what I call southern hospitality. Bamboo shoot and pineapple pizza… yum!
Hey ya’ll! (as they say down south)
I’ve just been to Columbia, South Carolina to visit with Ruth Turman at BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina (they’re an insurance company).
Over lunch Ruth explained that nearly all the proposal work her team does is for one of their company’s subsidiaries. That subsidiary is actually a technology company. And most of the subsidiary’s staff work in Dallas, Texas. That means almost all of their proposals require virtual proposal team management.
Things were a little quiet in Columbia while I was there so I helped out with some of the housekeeping chores that all well-oiled proposal centers need to do to continue to run smoothly.
Thank you, but no, pandas don’t care for boiled peanuts. I will, however, have another slice of this pizza.
Here I am with my new buddy, RFP Raccoon. He thinks we might be distantly related (there is a somewhat alarming resemblance; here around the eyes). He insists he was born in China, but his tag says he was made for a California company. Maybe very distant cousins… Several times removed… On my mother’s side of the family…
Raccoon helped me understand the history and evolution of the subsidiary he and Ruth support by showing me one of the documents from their hard-copy archive. Seems it all started with a proposal to run something called an Enterprise Data Center for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Can you believe what they ask for in these government solicitations?
They wanted how many copies of this? Okay, so 8 copies of 1375 pages; that’s… that’s… Panda’s don’t have that many fingers!
No wonder those of us who work on proposals are prone to dark circles under our eyes.
Next, I wanted to get the remote staff’s take on the proposal process in a virtual environment. Armed with half a pot of coffee and Raccoon’s support, the conversation went something like this:
ME: “Can you hear me now?”
ME: “I said ‘We want to win’ does NOT constitute a strategy statement!”
ME: “Yes, I’m sure you do. Your customer, on the other hand, is thinking ‘So what?’ Why do they care if you want to win? What’s in this for them? You need to do your homework! What are their hot buttons? What causes them pain? What can you do for them to eliminate that pain? Come on, you can do this! You told me no one knows your customer better than you do…”
* * M U T E * *
ME: “Would someone please pass the aspirin? And the Tums.” (I had wondered why there was a large but half empty bottle of Tums on the conference table.)
After a very full day, we were in need of a little relaxation. The latest issue of Journal of the Association of Proposal Management had arrived and Colleen Jolly’s article, “Yoga for Proposal Professionals” seemed like just the ticket.
Raccoon was thrilled about this because from day one his mantra has been “I am the raccoon… I am one with the forest…” And Ruth has been trying for four years to get in touch with her inner raccoon (with only intermittent success).
Ruth had to contend with some corporate documentation, but Raccoon and I found ourselves some mats and attempted Colleen’s FedEx Salutation.
Is it just me or does Raccoon’s Where’s My Stapler? pose look exactly like his Is the Toner Low? pose?
Turns out the proposal center has a somewhat infamous reputation for their highly detailed proposal production logistics and other mission critical tasks like maintaining the proposal center and its equipment.
As a professional Proposal Panda, I know that no task is too insignificant or beneath my dignity and I’m willing to help out when and wherever I’m needed.
On this particular day it was time to swap out the toner cartridges in the color printer. It’s a potentially messy job, but someone has to do these things.
(Don’t worry Jon, they put gloves, an apron and a mask on me before the really dirty work began.)
Did you know there are such things as box subject matter experts in proposal management? Neither did I. But another proposal team in the company called us and wanted to know how many binders would fit in a box.
Proposal professionals believe in sharing best practices so we helped out by asking some probing questions:
How big is the box?
How big are the binders?
How much paper will be in those binders?
How are you planning on getting the box from point A to point B?
At any point will the boxes need to be sent through x-ray equipment or manually inspected?
Turns out it wasn’t such a simple question after all so I volunteered to take some first hand measurements for the calculations.
So how many binders will fit in a box?
Life’s too short to not love your job and to have a good time doing it.
In my professional opinion, all proposal professionals should take time to stop and play in the bubble wrap.
As all of you know, the gang at Strategic Proposals (BJ and Jon in particular) strongly supports APMP’s accreditation program.
I was able to take advantage of some quiet time during my visit to coach Raccoon (my very first student!) on some of the knowledge areas he’ll need to be familiar with when he takes his Foundation Level exam.
Naturally there are some areas of proposal management that he’s not as familiar with as he is others (Raccoon’s not so good with a calculator, so he doesn’t get involved in pricing proposals), but I feel confident that he will do well.
Hmmm, knowledge is power. Raccoon and I are really looking forward to the upcoming Annual Conference of APMP.
Old friends to see… New friends to make…
Vendors to talk to… APMP business to attend to…
Ideas to share… Things to learn…
Wonder what BJ and Jon are planning to do this year? (I know, but I can’t tell!)
So many great sessions; so little time…
Now this is fun…
Are you sure you know how to drive this thing?
Ouch! Watch out for the paper shredder.
Don’t make me come back there…
I think the airport is the other direction. Left! Your other left!
What do you mean ‘your other hand truck is equipped with GPS?!?!?!?!’
Hey! Don’t EVEN think about sticking one of your shipping labels on me! Jon and BJ promised me I’d be flying first class to Virginia for my visit with Ali at Leonie Industries.
Posted by Jon on 2 June, 2009 under Musings, Processes & best practice |
I was party to an interesting debate recently amongst a group of proposal managers from different companies, who discussed techniques for winning with a higher price than their competitors.
Most of their debate centred on the philosophy that BJ uses to great effect when training salespeople about proposal strategy: “If you don’t create value, all the customer has left to go on is price.” So they talked about creating empathy with the customer, working out win themes, drawing out points of differentiation from competitors and suchlike.
Perhaps they were just being polite, but – observing from the sidelines – it struck me that they missed playing on the fear factor that lurks for so many evaluators. Two of the more powerful messages to weave subtly into your proposal if you’re worried about being the more expensive bidder are:
“You want the cheap solution?”
(which may be below the minimum acceptable quality, creating problems to your users and business, cause you considerable headaches on an on-going basis – and cast doubt on your competence: “bring me the heads of the fools who selected this incompetent supplier!”), and:
“They think they can deliver it for that?”
(because if they do, their cost model must be wrong – and their solution flawed – or they’re misleading you: you’ll be forever fighting against change requests and price increases as they exploit their ‘price to win, recover to profit’ strategy).
Posted by Jon and BJ on 27 May, 2009 under Proposal Panda |
Proposal Panda arrived in the mailroom at 9:42 a.m. on Thursday morning, April 9. Oddly enough, he did not make it upstairs until 4:00 p.m., wearing a CONEXIS excellence award pin and smelling faintly of Tequila. We had to do some last minute scrambling when he informed us that he can’t work in a cubicle, requires a window office with plenty of natural light and prefers a laptop with a suitable ergonomic stand. Fortunately, he decided my office would suit his needs, so we set up his laptop and he got started.
Proposal Panda really jumped into action on Friday. I can understand the rumors of his exorbitant consulting salary ($800 USD per hour). Proposal Panda is a real team player, He helped the proposal specialist organize and update the RFP board, consulted with our marketing writers, and after a long busy day, offered to stay and finish the fulfilment by himself. Proposal Panda was amazing, what a work ethic!
Saturday things took a turn when we got a call from security. It seems Proposal Panda had gotten together with the office bears and some of his hijinks were captured by the security camera.
I decided it would be safer to bring him home with me and have my Basenji, Lucy Liu keep an eye on him. It was love at first sight. Lucy Liu was devastated when he had to leave on Monday morning.
We learned so much from Proposal Panda and can’t wait to hear about the rest of his travels.
Team CONEXIS
Posted by Jon on 21 May, 2009 under Processes & best practice |
Ever feel like those in positions of power in your organisation just don’t “get it” in terms of the pain factor associated with developing proposals?
Ever think to yourself that if those ‘on high’ did realise how challenging the process was – the late engagement from salespeople lacking the necessary customer insights, the difficulties in getting the right experts involved, the late nights, the lack of resouces (war rooms, graphics design skills, fit-for-purpose IT kit, decent production facilities) – they’d be horrified, and would take your calls for change more seriously?
So here’s an idea. Suggest to your most senior sponsor – a VP Sales, Sales Director, someone on high who’s worked with you and likes you – that each senior exec on your board should personally sponsor one proposal effort in the next two months. Not necessarily those for biggest opportunities, mind – but a random cross-section, so they get to see the full picture.
Let them sit in on meetings. Copy them in on all of the relevant documents. Charge them with helping where help is needed.
Review the proposal effort with them – being sure to pinpoint anything that happened differently and better as a result of their involvement, that wouldn’t be the case on a ‘normal’ bid.
And then get them to share their experiences with one another.
As a result, they should understand the precarious high-wire act that characterises your proposal efforts. At the least, they might start to provide you with some safety nets and a little more time for training and rehearsal. And, at best, they’ll help you to find an easier way altogether to help you find altogether easier ways to navigate the path from hearing of an opportunity to submitting a first-class proposal.
