Category: APMP & Accreditation

"How the best win" - Jon's Bid & Proposal Con presentation

5/31/2018

I've been overwhelmed by the kind comments I've received from folks who attended my presentation at APMP's Bid & Proposal Con event earlier in the month.

I've attached a copy of our presentation to this post. In it, I share the findings of our ongoing research using the Proposal Benchmarker, our free online self-assessment tool used to date by some 400 organisations worldwide.

I explore what most teams do well, where people consistently struggle, and what differentiates the most successful bidding organisations from the run-of-the-mill. And, using data from the tool, I show the direct correlation between proposal capabilities and win rate.

Feel free to download it and use it to stimulate debate internally. If it sparks any bright improvement ideas, let me know! And, of course, you might also want a go at benchmarking your own capabilities using the tool.

Posted by Jon

how_the_best_win_-_jon_williams_-__c__strategic_proposals_2018.pptx
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File Type:	pptx

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Survey – “Secrets of Success”

1/13/2014

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Posted by Jon and BJ
A reminder that there’s still a few days left for you to make your voice heard in our research project for this year’s APMP “Bid & Proposal Con”, and to receive a white paper with the results.

You can complete the survey online at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9C5WZV7 where we’re asking you to do two things:

Please list the five to ten things that you believe have the biggest impact on your proposal function’s success.
Please list three to five things that make it fun and/or rewarding to work in your proposal function.

Thanks for your support!

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Proposals: a survey – please participate!

12/13/2013

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Posted by Jon and BJ
We’ve just been selected to present at APMP’s “Bid & Proposal Con 2014″ in Chicago on the topic of “Secrets of Proposal Success”. The formula: that we ask bid/proposal staff to share the following:

Please list the five to ten things that you believe have the biggest impact on your proposal function’s success.
Please list three to five things that make it fun and/or rewarding to work in your proposal function.

We’d love it if you would be able to take part. The survey will be online until 20 January at:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9C5WZV7

There’s no need to rank answers in priority order, and you can just provide free-format text: we’ll categorise the answers provided! Obviously, all results will be presented anonymously, although we do need to know sector & country for all respondents. But if you choose to provide your email address (and this is entirely optional), we’ll share the results with you as a white paper.

Thanks from us both for your involvement!

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On top of the world

10/25/2013

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Posted by Jon
Just back from APMP’s wonderful UK conference, amidst friends old and new. We sponsored the event in the form of a free copy for all delegates of ‘Proposal Essentials’, our recently-published book – more to follow on that here shortly! And I had great fun co-presenting a UK version of the “Fifty Shades of Great” presentation that BJ and I first gave at Bid & Proposal Con back in Atlanta in May.

We heard from Ken Newland, this year’s excellent CEO, that the UK chapter recently broke through the 1,000 members mark for the first time, and that we’re now the largest APMP chapter in the world. It feels like a long way from cajoling 18 people into a room in Reading back in 2001, when first setting up the association here!

The keynote speech came from Sir Clive Woodward, the esteemed former chief coach of England’s world cup winning rugby team, and then of the British Olympic Association in the run-up to London 2012. Amidst so much wise counsel, I scribbled down a few quotes which really stuck a chord:

Great teams are made up of great individuals.
Talent alone is not enough.
What are the absolute things we must get right?
If you come across a decision you’ve not thought through before, your chances of making the correct decision are low.
What keeps me awake at night is that the person I’m competing against will have thought of something I haven’t.

Congratulations to all involved in organising the event. Next up for me, APMP-wise? A meeting helping to launch a Central European APMP chapter, in Budapest next week…

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Fifty Shades of Feedback

7/1/2013

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Posted by BJ
In a recent post, Jon let you know about how much he and I enjoyed presenting “Fifty Shades of Great” at the recent Bid & Proposal Con 2013. One of the many nice things about the conference is that presenters receive feedback afterwards (unlike many proposal efforts where, all too often, those providing support don’t receive any feedback at all after the proposal is submitted!).

It seems that participants found the presentation to be informative, engaging and very worthwhile. It also seems to have tickled a few funny bones and raised a few eyebrows. One participant offered that they found the presentation to be, “Hilarious, embarrassing, and insightful all at once!” (Interestingly, that is exactly what Jon and I had set as our objective for this presentation.) Another offered a comparison to proposals, stating, “Like a great bid, it was thoughtful, insightful, comprehensive, simple, entertaining and topical.”

Among other very flattering comments were:

"A winner! Jon and BJ rocked It! The information they shared was truly phenomenal and the reference back to 50 Shades of Gray was a kick and very, very clever. "

“Absolutely FANTASTIC! I love how they tied a “risky” and engaging topic to proposal essentials.”
“Can’t say enough good things about this session. Truly terrific!”

“You could grasp how much time and effort they put into this presentation with the amount of valuable content, as well as the interactive props, matching grey ties and excellent collaboration. Thank you for your hard work I appreciate it!”

“I’ll say it again….it’s the PROPOSAL Guys and they always rock.”

Several participants commented on the fact that the presentation was both interesting and an enjoyable way to learn. We received comments such as:

“Clever way to keep it interesting and fun by using the 50 Shades theme.”
“There were a lot of pointers to cover, so this kept things light and flowing quickly.”
“I got a lot out of the pointers and learned that presentations can be interesting and lighthearted.”
“Effective, impactful and memorable presentation.”

Again, Jon and I are humbled by these kind words. The reception we receive during our presentations (“I could tell Jon and BJ were having fun!”) and your comments afterwards keep us challenging ourselves and “raising the bar” each time we deliver a presentation at an APMP conference. We’d like to thank those of you who attended the session and especially those of you who provided such generous feedback.

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Measuring up

6/21/2013

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Posted by Jon
Another few statistics that interested me at Bid & Proposal Con, this time from the workshop that BJ co-hosted on the eve of the conference for staff working on ‘commercial’ bids (as opposed to those for federal government / defense).

Team size, first. Roughly 10% of those attending were the only proposal person in their organisation – that is, the ‘proposal centre’ is a one-person band. 40% were in proposal centres with two to five staff; 20% in teams of six to twenty staff; the remainder in centres of over twenty proposal professionals.

Deal value, next. Just under 25% of those there worked on deals that were typically worth $500k or less. The biggest proportion of attendees (45%) had deals valued between £500k – $2.5m. For bigger contracts:

14% worked on proposals worth $2.5m – $10m
9% fell into the $10m – $100m band
23% worked on larger contracts worth over $100m.

A discussion on pre-written proposal content was fascinating. The vast majority did have some form of content knowledge base, but less than a third of these had this in some form of automated content management system.

Finally, turnaround time:

5% were typically getting a day or less by their customers to produce a proposal
around a fifth of those present were getting two – five working days
a third get between one – two weeks
a quarter were getting two weeks – one month
and the remainder (just under 20%) are given more than a month.

None of the data’s statistically significant in terms of the sample size, but it does give some interesting rough guides for you to use to see how you compare to other teams.

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A growing profession

6/7/2013

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Posted by Jon
A few interesting statistics, gleaned at last week’s APMP conference in Atlanta:

a record attendance at the conference, with 719 registrations
APMP membership at a record high, with 5,100 members
nearly 4,000 individuals accredited to APMP Foundation Level
… but fewer than 10% of those have gone on to attain Practitioner status
… and there are under 100 who’ve reached the highest ‘Professional’ level of accreditation.

I say ‘accreditation’ – but for some reason I can’t really fathom, the qualification scheme for our profession has just been renamed to ‘certification’ (even if not all the pages on the relevant sites have yet been updated). I’m not sure I like that: “you should be certified” may well be true for some bid/proposal people I know, but with a rather different meaning…

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“Fifty Shades of Great”

5/31/2013

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Posted by Jon
I’m still on a high from yesterday’s presentation with BJ at Bid & Proposal Con here in Atlanta. In “Fifty Shades of Great”, we presented a parody that we’d written of a certain well-known book – and used it as the basis for fifty tips to improve proposal capabilities.

With somewhere over two hundred people packing the room, the session was such fun to present. If you were there, do let us know what you thought of it! For everyone else, we’re providing the tips – but we’ll spare you the somewhat-risque story that went with them (although I can email that to you if you’d like a copy!)! We hope you find some of them useful…

Flirtation
1. Find a C-level executive to act as the personal sponsor & champion for your proposal function.

2. Calculate the revenue proposals generate – and the jobs they create – and promote the ROI generated by the proposal support function.

3. Calculate a realistic yet generous budget for effectively managing proposals – without cutting corners – and ensure this is under the direct, discretionary control of the head of the proposal function.

4. Create trust with sales by producing high-quality proposals – taking away the pain, and helping them to win more business.

Resources
5. Provide your proposal staff with a working environment conducive to effective, creative work.

6. Ensure you have ready access to war rooms for proposal development.

7. Create a comprehensive library of strategic, up-to-date, easy-to-tailor pre-written proposal content and graphics.

Contract
8. Define clearly the process by which your sales staff should engage the proposal support function, and the services that will (and will not) be provided.

9. Establish a clear and measurable service level agreement in place with your sales and business colleagues.

10. Build a clear capacity plan showing the number of deals your proposal centre can support, and ensure that you have the corresponding staffing level in place.

11. Help sales to write proactive proposals to retain and extend existing contracts without these going to competitive tender.

12. Coach sales to engage you as soon as an opportunity is a realistic twinkle in their eyes, so you can undertake thorough pre-proposal planning to shape the deal in your favour.

Seduction
13. Establish a robust, active qualification process in place that ensures you only work on the right deals – treating each opportunity as qualified out until it is qualified in.

14. Develop a clear, compelling strategy to seduce your client’s decision-makers for each opportunity. If you don’t have a compelling story to tell, don’t bother!

15. Conduct a high-quality kick-off workshop to engage, inform, motivate and connect your team.

16. Design content before starting to write, working out how to maximise your scores.

Obedience
17. Document your proposal process clearly, and ensure it is understood, supported – and obeyed – by all parties.

18. Ensure that the right people are fully, quickly and willingly engaged once a deal is qualified in: proposals should be part of the role descriptions and objectives for the staff involved; insist that those taking the decision to qualify in then ensure their staff’s active involvement.

19. Clearly document and explain the roles and responsibilities of all those involved in proposal development.

20. Train all those involved in proposal development in the necessary techniques.

21. Be a proposal evangelist: champion best practices throughout the business, regularly.

Discipline
22. Adopt a disciplined approach to developing – as opposed to merely writing – content.

23. Foster the development of proposals that are a joy to read, by editing and proofreading content so that it is high-quality. Build the necessary time into your plan.

24. Use social media, as well as more traditional techniques, to share information between team members working on your proposals.

25. Establish a well-structured coaching and mentoring program for all staff in your proposal function. Mentor and / or be mentored.

26. Accredit your proposal staff – and not just to Foundation Level.

Punishment
27. Ensure that all strategic deals have strong and active executive sponsorship.

28. All of your proposal managers should be skilled in project management and leadership; train them to a high standard and give them the necessary authority.

29. Ensure that there are consequences for those who don’t meet deadlines or who don’t produce
30. Conduct reviews and approvals in accordance with a robust yet flexible governance process.

Submission
31. Submit proposals that are professional in look and feel, designed in a way which brings your story to life.

32. Draw! Ensure that all of your proposals include excellent, customer-centric graphics to enliven and explain your story.

33. Don’t fall behind the pack with your proposal output. (Think poster proposals, iPads, website submissions, bid portals, contemporary binding and packaging…)

34. Remember that production is best left to the experts – but only to experts who ‘get’ proposals.

35. Production and submission: have a Plan B…and C.

36. Consider design very early, so that your proposal documentation is consistent with other bid collateral.

Satisfaction
37. Win more.

38. Compensate your proposal staff more than adequately – salaries, bonuses, recognition, time off…

Reflection
39. Conduct effective learning reviews internally, win or lose, recognising what worked well as well as what could have gone better.

40. Conduct effective and insightful client debriefs at the end of each bid/proposal effort, ensuring that feedback on proposal quality is specifically captured.

41. Make your executive sponsor accountable for implementing actions and sharing knowledge as a result of your learning reviews.

42. Benchmark your proposal output and capabilities objectively and independently and on a regular basis.

43. Have a client audit program in place, to regularly understand and quantify evaluators’ views of the quality of your proposals compared to those of your competitors.

Commitment
44. Ensure that roles in your proposal function are filled by staff committed to a career in proposal management.

45. Attending APMP events is a right, not a privilege. Make sure your senior management understand this.

46. Share knowledge between team members on a regular basis and help them to improve their skills and knowledge.

47. ‘Will-win’ deals, not merely ‘must-win’. Get serious!

48. Celebrate success.

49. Write a list of things that would make your proposal function a better place to work. And do something about them.

50. Build a clear, costed, prioritised improvement plan to enhance your proposal capabilities in the coming year; get it agreed and secure the necessary funding.

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Us again!

5/15/2013

2 Comments

Posted by Jon
OK, so we’ve been quiet here for the past little while – but with, we hope you’ll agree, good reason, as BJ and I have been working away on our forthcoming book. We’re currently putting the finishing touches to ‘Proposal Essentials’: I’m working with our designer Ciara today, and our proofreader’s standing by. The book is scheduled to appear over the summer – and I’m sure we’ll be bringing you more details nearer the time!

We’re also very much looking forward to Bid & Proposal Con in Atlanta at the end of the month. Our topic, inspired by a certain best-selling book? “50 Shades of Great”:

Is proposal development a pleasure – or is it painful for you? Are your proposals compelling, creative and dynamic – or merely grey? Does your organization take a disciplined approach to proposal development -or does your team need to be whipped into shape?

Whether you are a proposal virgin or a proposal master, this session is sure to provide you with new insights that will help you improve the quality of your proposals and the efficiency of your proposal operations.

We’re still debating quite how far we can push the topic. Props? Audience participation? Suffice it to say that I’ll be in Atlanta a couple of days before the conference starts, and have been tasked with buying grey ties for us both before BJ arrives in town…

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A thought-provoking salary survey

12/6/2012

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Posted by Jon
Some fascinating perspectives at the UKAPMP conference from our good friend Martin Smith, who runs Bid Solutions – the world’s leading specialist bid/proposal recruiment consultancy.

Martin presented the findings from the latest UK salary survey – conducted in partnership with UKAPMP. Here are a few of the (fascinating) conclusions, with my own observations in brackets:

800 people responded to the survey; between them they had 214 different job titles. (No wonder people out there struggle to understand the value we bid/proposal folks bring, if we can’t even agree what to call ourselves).
Average base salaries are down a little over 8% since the last survey in 2008. (Clearly, there’ll be downward pressure in a tight economy, but are we doing enough to promote the value we bring?)

Average salaries for men: £53k. For women? £41k. That’s a scary 28.6% difference. (Something that merits a more detailed discussion at APMP, to see if there’s anything we’re doing systemically as a profession that could be discriminatory?).
Heads of Bid Management reported average salaries of £74.6k. (That’s not really commensurate with the salaries of many sales people, or truly senior managers. Again, are we justifying our value and being taken seriously?). And 90% of those at that level are male. (That surprised me, being not entirely aligned to my personal experience working with many brilliant female ‘Heads of’ – but see above re discriminatory practices. Time for APMP to get some teeth?).
“There have been a lot of redundancies in the past four years, so a lot of people have decided to go freelance”. Average contractor day rates are £556. Those on three – six month engagements found that 91% of their contracts were renewed.
As one would expect, there’s a direct correlation between salary and APMP accreditation. The most senior folks, holding Professional, averaged £67k. Practitioner: £61k. Foundation: £48k. (Interestingly, that to me is self-fulfilling – the more senior qualifications attract the more senior staff, rather than it proving that accreditation leads directly to pay rises. But more worrying was the significant number of senior people who viewed accreditation as “not applicable”).

If you’d like to read more, head to the survey page on the Bid Solutions site, where you can download the full report and also create bespoke reports. And if you’re recruiting staff, or seeking jobs, then I’m sure you’re already chatting to Bid Solutions: if not, why not?!

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

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