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The evaluators? Just like pussycats!

11/16/2007

3 Comments

 
Posted by Jon
Bored at lunch the other day, I passed the time watching the gig that was showing on the large plasma screen in the corner: the Pussycat Dolls, at some recent music festival.

What particularly struck me – other than the fact that one of the band seemed to have quite forgotten her skirt – was the make-up of the audience. Directly in front of the stage, a few rows of youngsters danced away ecstatically; behind them were ranked row upon row of seats filled with bored-looking adults.​
​So, picture if you will the customer’s evaluation team, reviewing your proposal:

Who are the kids who’ll be singing along in the front row – excited, knowing the words; the ones who were delighted to see your name appear on the festival line-up, who’ve been looking forward to this for weeks, who’ll tell their friends how great you were?

Who are the folks who really aren’t here to see your performance: they really don’t like your stuff – they just wanted to get a good spot ready for their favourite band, next on stage?

Who’ll be sitting, looking bored, in the corporate sponsors’ seats: there on sufferance, pre-disposed to be bored, hard to win round, but potentially the ones paying for the tickets and the drinks?

Now it’s not my job as a proposal manager to get in amongst the stakeholders within the customer’s organisation. But I do believe I have the right to test that the salesperson will have done so by the time they get to read the proposal. And I also have the right, the need to suck the salesperson dry of information about the potential audience so that I can fine-tune my performance – proposal – accordingly.
3 Comments
Roisin
3/26/2016 04:40:42 am

Jon – do you think that if you looked like a Pussycat Doll, your win ratio would go up?

Reply
Jon
3/26/2016 04:40:52 am

You know, there’s still time left to submit papers for the 208 APMP conference… After “Church of Proposal Excellence”, “Proposal Idol” and “The Fairytale Proposal” in recent years, perhaps I should suggest to BJ that we perform as “The Proposal Pussycats”…

Not.

Reply
Robin
3/26/2016 04:41:02 am

I love the idea. But please, PLEASE, don’t forget YOUR skirt. Nobody wants to see that.

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    BJ Lownie and Jon Williams are the co-founders of Strategic Proposals.

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