​Posted by Jon
 
I've been lucky enough to have spent the past nine days working in Budapest. For those who don't know Hungary's capital, it really is one of Europe's loveliest cities.
 
Work-wise, the trip was a roaring success. Feedback scores on the six courses I ran – for over 110 attendees in total - was, in order, 98%, 99%, 93%, 94%, 98% and 95%. (These days, for what it's worth, I view a score in the low 90s as disappointing! I'm a hard taskmaster to myself). And that was for events containing lots of refreshed material on, for example, leading virtual teams - drawing on our own experiences as well as the latest research.
 
The delegates' comments were generous, too. Whilst 'happy sheets' at the end of the day don't always correlate with real business impact, I left with confidence that we’d engineered a step change in motivation, confidence and capability for the participants. Near-shored proposal teams can bring such benefits to their organisations. They can also face such challenges. Helping the mainly young, invariably enthusiastic course participants to navigate some of those was a delight.
 
Alongside the lovely people were the delights of the city - especially, here, some excellent food and even better wine. Under the tutelage of my favourite UK wine merchant, I've come to appreciate the joys not only of a good Tokaji dessert wine, but also some of Hungary's finest reds, rarely exported. Top-notch Cabernet Franc from the Villany region, for example, or the sensational yet scarce Barbar.
 
I ate this time in two outstanding restaurants - at my cost, I might add, not the client's! The first holds a Michelin star, yet is the most relaxed and informal place you could imagine. Sitting outside. Wearing jeans. Joking with the waiters. And eating food that was simple yet sublime. The second, not yet starred - although recommended by Michelin. An excellent meal. Yet trying just a tad too hard.
 
Outside tables... crisp tablecloths.
 
Relaxed informality... staff taking themselves oh-so-seriously.
 
A short yet excellent wine list... a tome.
 
Plain tableware... appetisers arriving on beds of polished stone, amidst forest twigs.
 
Food that seemed almost surprisingly marvellous... dishes that tried just a shade too hard to impress. (“Please use the pestle and mortar to crush the herbs we have cut freshly for you, in their bed of liquid nitrogen, before we add your wild apple sorbet”…)
 
A meal that had won that coveted star... and one that felt so desperate to do so.
 
And if my week working with the proposal folks highlighted one thing, it was the need to create that apparently effortless rapport with the client. To write proposals that create genuine empathy, showing passion for delivering the proposed project professionally. That takes real effort. Real skill.
 
But, you know, I can't help thinking that some proposals come across like the second restaurant: as if they're trying too hard to impress. The true art is in creating documents that feel naturally engaging. How do yours fare?

Posted by Jon

What do sales and bid teams really think of the way they're engaged via their clients' procurement processes?

I get to see several hundred proposals a year - and, in parallel, very many of the RFPs to which they're responding. And whilst the proposals vary from poor to very good, I'd argue that the RFPs vary from very poor to... well, mediocre at best.

Further, I'd argue that very many buying teams fail to solicit the best proposals - and best offers - from the supply market as a result. Sub-standard RFPs within poorly managed purchasing processes therefore directly damage their organisations. (The 2016 Strategic Proposals white paper on "The World's Worst Procurement Awards" shares further perspectives on this - available free on our downloads page, if you're interested). 

But those are my personal perspectives. What do you think?

We've just launched our latest survey, soliciting the views of those involved in bidding - whether bid / proposal professionals, salespeople, subject matter experts of senior managers - of their prospects' procurement processes.

It should only take a couple of minutes to complete: do click here and let us have your thoughts. (Please encourage colleagues to complete it, too. The more views, the merrier!). It's aimed primarily at UK-based teams, but we'd welcome contributions from elsewhere, too. 

We'll be following this with the flip-side survey later in the year, soliciting buyers' views of bidders. 

We've had a fabulous response already since the survey launched a few days ago. That's great, because the more responses we get at this stage, the more likely procurement folks are to respond later in the year. So we'd really appreciate your views, and will share the conclusions later this summer.

(Posted by B.J.)













No doubt many of our readers attended, or are at least aware of, the recent APMP Bid & Proposal Con 2017 held in New Orleans, LA.

Playing on the theme of Mardi Gras, a New Orleans tradition, and the acquiring of beads, at the Strategic Proposals booth we had a sign that read, “Give US Your Tips! We’ll give you our beads”. We also said, “Please fill out a form. We’ll post the best tips on our blog - The Proposal Guys (that would be this blog you’re reading at the moment lest you were confused for a moment. ;-). We also asked respondents whether they wished to not have their tip posted, to have is posted anonymously or with their first and last name. (The names of those who said we could post their names are included).

We received a fair number of tips. Some of these were pretty obvious:

• Plan, plan and then plan some more
• Start as early as possible
• Always ship on time
• Plan well and don’t procrastinate
• Answer the question (ATQ! As Jon and I would say.)

Some were a bit more specific:

• No matter the external pressure, always take reasonable time for your proposal planning

• Get to know the team with which you are working
• Ensure all team members understand their roles, accountability and what is expected of them. (Tiffany L.)
• Hire a graphic designer

• Check, double check and triple check the outline before you start writing
• Use a second table of contents for managing writing assignments and project tracking (Alan O’Neal, Principal Proposal Manager)
• Make sure the structure and content compels the client to buy what is being proposed

Some were a bit  concerning:

• Don’t be afraid to ‘pull the plug’ (Mike R. Is that in reference to the plug on the proposal effort, the printer or a person, Mike?)

One of my favorite tips of those submitted:

• Know when to let the team know, “The ‘Good Idea Fairy’ has left the building.” (Initials C.R.)

Most flatteringly, one tip was, “Hire B.J. as your coach” (Sara Waller, a proposal professional whom I’m currently mentoring ;-)

And finally, taking a page right out of our book one respondent (R.T.) suggests, “Be passionate about proposals.”

​Thanks to all of you who submitted tips and we hope you enjoyed the beads. 

Posted by B.J.

Many of our readers will be aware of, and some of you may even own, a semi-autonomous vehicle.

I've recently purchased one and it’s been very interesting adjusting to the vehicle handling some of the driving automatically.

One feature of this new vehicle is the ability to stay within the lane (I call this ‘lane lock’). When this feature is engaged, if/as I drift towards one of the lines, the car gives a warning tone and automatically centers itself in the lane.

Another feature is “adaptive cruise control”. With this feature, I set a certain speed and a number of car lengths to stay behind the vehicle in front of me. So, if I’m doing sixty-five mph and someone moves in front of me, my vehicle slows down to the same speed as that vehicle and then drops back the designated number of spaces. If the vehicle in front of me slows down, my car slows down. If they stop, my car stops. When they move again, my car moves again. On a recent trip of some 1,000+ miles, I drove without touching the gas pedal or brake, and had to steer only minimally for about 75% of the trip.

Another feature of this vehicle is that when I am low on fuel, the vehicle speaks, in my case in a lovely female voice with a slight British accent, and say, “You have enough fuel to travel approximately 40 miles. Would you like me to locate the necessary service station?” This has proven much more effective than the little light that comes on in my other vehicle (which I inevitably fail to notice until I hear/feel the unmistakable indications of my running out of gas. ;-)

A finally feature is that my new vehicle automatically applies the brakes if I am in danger of colliding with something.

So, what’s all this have to do with proposals? Driving a semi-autonomous vehicle has had me thinking about what it would be like (what it WILL be like perhaps?) if/when semi-autonomous proposals are a reality.

Suppose there was an application with a feature that kept the developer of content on topic. I’ll call this “topic lock”. While typing away, if/as the writer was veering off topic, they would hear a warning tone and they’d be offered suggestions for getting back on topic…a verbal ‘nudge’ if you will.

Or perhaps there’d be a feature that prevents the content developer from stating something that was prohibited or would result in disqualification. An applying of the brakes, so to speak.

And as to deadlines and such, imagine if the application were able to notify you of an approaching deadline. The application might speak and say something like, “Your submission is due in less than 24 hours. Would you like me to request an extension?”

When I first began driving in the late 60’s (yes Jon, it was quite some time ago!), the car I had (it was an ancient early 50’s Buick) didn’t have power brakes, power steering or even seat belts. And now I’m driving a vehicle that handles much of the driving for me.

When I first began working on proposals (in the early 80’s) there were no word processors, no spell check, no proposal applications and ‘cut and paste’ was just that.

At the recent APMP conference I saw proposal applications that automatically formatted documents, identified such things as clichés and overly used words and let the content developer know when they were reaching their allotted word or page count. Perhaps semi-autonomous proposals aren’t too far in our future. 

Comedian Jo Brand told a wonderful story of how she handles audiences, at an event to which we took a group of SP guests last night in London.

It helps, she said, to think of the audience as a person. To paraphrase her examples: the late crowd in the comedy club might be a drunk man. A gentler group in a more upmarket venue could be a diner in a vegetarian restaurant. And one can then adapt and adjust one’s style on stage to strike the right note and have the right conversation.

I immediately made the connection to our world, and I think I’ll try this out in proposal strategy workshops moving forward. “Were the client a person, who would they be?”

I’ve done bids to evaluation teams who seem to be aloof, superior and ‘know it all’. I’ve done others to teams who seem to be in panic mode, desperate for help. Yet more can seem distant, slightly uncertain of themselves. Some come across as confident yet engaging.

Perhaps just the characteristics would be enough. Perhaps we could come up with a caricature (verbal, or sketched). Or maybe even we could try to come up with specific names: “This bid’s going to Winston Churchill”. “The client here's James Bond”. “This lot are Voldemort”.

​Politicians, actors, comedians, literary figures, movie characters, musicians, sportspeople – the imagination could run riot. I’m curious to see how it’ll work out. If you try it yourself, let me know. And if you can put a face to the name for any of your recent proposals, do tell!

Posted by Jon

You know what happens. Your sales team have just sought feedback on the deal they've just lost. They come back from meeting the client, bearing news that's not as disastrous as they'd feared. "They told us we came a very close second. They said our proposal was really great.” More often or not they add: “It really just came down to price."

It always amazes me how many teams 'come second' in any particular procurement exercise. There must be a lot of silver medals waiting to be handed out in buyers' desk drawers.

It always amazes me how many losing teams submitted proposals that were 'really great'. So great they contributed to losing the deal.

And it always amazes me how many losing teams submitted the best solution, with the top team, but were thwarted 'on price' even though the client had complete faith that their approach was by far the best.

In reality, of course, it's not like that. The customer offering feedback - if indeed they can be bothered doing so - is focused on avoiding challenge, letting the losing team hold their heads a little higher, and hoping that somehow this might result in a better offer next time round. They're offering kind words, not scathing critiques.

There's another challenge, too, very apparent to me when I'm coaching folks through APMP's Foundation Level qualification. There's a detailed checklist in the association's training pack, with eight questions to use in the client debrief. They're all very valid issues, covering ease of evaluation, compliance and more.

Yet my experience when I ask people emerging from client debriefs is that the proposal is last on their list in those discussions. "What did they say about our proposal?" "We were 2.3% out on price."

"And about the document we sent them?"

"They didn't like that we weren't compliant with clause 28.2 of their Ts & Cs. And they thought the project manager we put forward was a bit too junior."

(Me, getting frustrated): "But what about the quality of our document – developed at the expense of so much blood, sweat and tears?" 

"Oh: sorry. I ran out of time to ask them about that."

And, you know, I’d probably agree that in the limited time available, gathering feedback on your proposition is probably more important than on your proposal and pitch. If your products and services, implementation or legal approaches, costs and prices, are consistently out of kilter with the market leaders, it’s critical to understand that. Clients are going to want to discuss that. And, practically, nobody getting a debrief is going to get time to ask all of APMP’s eight proposal-related questions.

My preference in practice therefore is to focus the team seeking feedback on a couple of simple linked questions – such as “how did our proposal documents compare to those from our competitors”, then “…and what about our presentation?”. 

Then, away from the battle, a client audit – with selected recipients of proposals in (say) the past quarter – is the perfect mechanism for a deeper dive. An interview (face-to-face if possible) by someone with a degree of independence from the team involved in the bid might take half an hour of the client’s time.

​And so much the better if that uses a structured form, allowing the buyer to give your documents and presentations a comparative score versus the best of the other bidders – as well as to provide comments. The learning that results from this, done well, is so incredibly useful that I find it amazing that it’s not an approach adopted my more proposal teams – indeed, by all proposal teams.

Posted by Jon

As we prepare to go to the polls in the UK this week, a confession: I'm something of a political nerd. I'm not affiliated to, or a fan of, any particular party - but I'm endlessly fascinated by the issues and the debate. Indeed, several of my sparring partners from university debating days are now in parliament.

I'm therefore one of those people who actually reads the party manifestos. And it struck me as I did so this time that the documents are, in effect, proposals. Trying to tell a story. Trying to beat the competition. So I thought it might be fun to benchmark them, using the same methodology we apply for proposals.
 
How woeful they are, as documents - policies aside!
 
Front covers that must have taken, oh, all of twenty minutes to design. Weak openings – failing to offer a succinct and memorable summary of the key points that would follow.
 
Layouts that are dull and uninspiring: has it never crossed their minds that the occasional graphic might help to illustrate complex concepts? White space, anyone?
 
Inconsistent tone of voice from one section to the next – often talking down to the reader. Excessive Capitalisation of Words, something that’s long-since died out in contemporary writing in the UK.
 
Boring structures, lacking signposting or section summaries. Quotes, call-out boxes, proof points? Dream on...
 
And then, to one of the biggest flaws common to so many proposals. Here are the closing sentences from each of the three main cross-UK party documents:

• "We will invest in new public-health driven research and development to find effective and affordable treatments for diseases in the developing world, including fighting TB, malaria, HIV/AIDS and neglected tropical diseases."
• "Now is the time that we must show, once again, our strength as a nation and the character of our united people. We shall succeed, if we go forward, together."
• "We recognise the findings of the Holtham commission that the current formula underfunds Wales, and will commission work to update this analysis. We will address the imbalance by immediately ensuring that the Barnett floor is set at a level that reflects the need for Wales to be funded fairly, and seek over a parliament to increase the Welsh block grant to an equitable level."

 
One works (in document terms, rather than whether you agree with the sentiment). The book ends by reminding the reader of key messages and leave them on a high. The other two? They're like proposals that finish with the answer to RFP question 87 - some dull topic added in by the client at the last minute, of little interest to most readers:. (Witness it only being question 87!)
 
Tell 'em what you're going to tell 'em. Tell 'em it. And then never forget the need for a good conclusions section and attractive back page to leave the reader on a high.
 
Average scores for the three political manifestos on our benchmarking model? 39%. Way below par. Could do better. And that's without even commenting on the policies themselves, or the folks espousing them!

Posted by Jon

It was great to see the list of winners of APMP's "40 under 40" awards this week - recognising some of the most talented younger people in our profession (and making me feel old in the process!). Particularly, I was delighted that our very own Kim Panesar - graphic design manager for Strategic Proposals in the UK - made the list. Much deserved!
 
So too did other friends, including several people I've had the pleasure of training and supporting over the years. And it made me stop and think about the two most powerful coaching interventions I had in the early days of my own career.
 
The first came from a negotiation guru, back in my procurement days at Barclays Bank. All of the buyers were tasked with preparing a half hour presentation about an upcoming negotiation with a vendor. Mine was packed with the latest and best industry research. I looked at the detail of the current contract. I analysed spend and usage patterns. I reviewed the supplier's performance. I compared their current pricing to external benchmarking data and to deals with other vendors selling into the bank. There were tables, graphs, numbers galore.
 
I presented. I sat down, happily. And was asked: "What football team does their account manager support?"
 
To which I confessed: "I have no idea. And, what's more, I have no idea why you asked."
 
That led to a wonderful discussion about the importance of emotion as well as logic in influencing - and the role of relationships and trust in the buying and selling process. They're messages that have stayed with me throughout my time in bids and proposals.
 
A week later, the expert was back on site, coaching some of my colleagues. I slipped an envelope underneath the door of the room he was using. Inside: a plain piece of paper, on which was written simply: 'Wycombe Wanderers'!
 
The other game-changer came a couple of years later. I'd just moved from procurement to proposals, appointed to the management team of one of my erstwhile suppliers to "stop us losing large bids". I arrived on day one, confident and raring to go.
 
My new boss - the business unit director - greeted me, and apologetically observed: "I'm afraid we don't have a desk for you yet. I suggest you go and camp out in the hot desk area on the sales floor for a couple of weeks.'
 
Deflated, I headed upstairs to sulk. And proceeded to learn more in the next fortnight of what makes salespeople tick than I could ever have imagined.
 
It was only a few years later that I realised what he'd done. "Of course we had a desk," he laughed. "But it was the cheapest and best sales training I could think of for someone who'd just swapped sides from procurement."
 
Two questions, then:
- who do you turn to for ideas and inspiration, and to use as a sounding board?
- have you ever spent a week sitting in your procurement department - never mind sales - observing what buyers are really like?

Posted by Jon

​I spend so many nights in hotels around the world for work that I'm pretty careful in my choices of where to stay. That makes the odd disaster - such as the place I was in in Budapest earlier this week - somewhat surprising, and rather frustrating.
 
Someone had clearly put a lot of careful thought into my room's design. The brown decor. The plastic chairs (inspiring, no doubt, the phrase “Designer chair concept” on my reservation confirmation). The cut-out, numbered footprints on the wall. (Yes, really).
 
The problem was that that careful thought had clearly been around a decade ago - so it all felt incredibly dated, and slightly shabby. My suspicions were confirmed when I looked at the list of prestigious awards the place had won - from the likes of Conde Nast. In 2008.
 
It reminded me of a comment I scribbled on a proposal that a client in London asked me to review recently: "This looks very 2012."
 
"Fabulous," they said, falling into my trap, remembering that most wonderful of British summers. "The Olympics. Gold medals."
 
"No. Just a bit dated."
 
See, proposal design's moved on faster than almost any area of our profession. 
 
In the States, Mike Parkinson's seminal book ('Billion Dollar Business Graphics') was key to pushing people towards higher-impact, more client- & benefits-centric design. On our side of the pond, SP organised and sponsored the first award for proposal design in 2008, in association with APMP UK - trying to trigger the profession here to think differently.
 
Then, for a few years, the Strategic Proposals UK team produced an annual 'black book' - a nicely-bound portfolio of the best work by our designers. These days, it's in a PowerPoint deck: updating it in hard copy once a year would seem too infrequent, such is the pace of change in the level of proposal design needed to keep ahead of the pack. Indeed, I happened to glance the other day at some my team's 2014 work - which gained wonderful plaudits at the time and helped clients capture many big deals - and grimaced at how dated it now looks.
 
As I commented in an APMP conference presentation a few years back: people see what it looks like before they read what it says. And if your documents today look like they did even three years ago, they simply won't look contemporary. 
 
Of course, people argue, more and more proposals have to be submitted via online portals which restrict design creativity. There's not much you can do if it's Arial, 10 point, no illustrations. In fact, all that's meant is an explosion of creativity at the presentation stage (or, when it comes to 'orals', as many in the profession in the US rather, erm, surprisingly call the pitch phase). Those buyers who are incredibly over-prescriptive when it comes to RFP responses offer us virtually free rein when we go in to present.
 
These days, a great proposal not only needs to "superbly articulate a compelling story" - to quote BJ's memorable phrase. It needs to be bring it to life superbly visually, too. And if you don't have the resource and skill in your team to achieve that, you'll almost inevitably be falling behind your competition.

A company that provides software for proposal automation ran a survey asking the question, “Who should own the RFP response process in your company?” and posted the findings. Based on the question asked and the functions responding, this survey concluded that the RFP response process should fall under marketing. My comment on that post follows.
--------------------------------------------------
The survey asks, 'Who owns the RFP process within your company'? 

I feel the questions asked, and the conclusion drawn, are misleading. I'd also ask, “Who is responding: Sales? Proposal Support? Marketing?” 

The question that should be asked is, 'Who SHOULD own the RFP response process in your company.'? And this should be asked of those directly involved in proposal development and of those with experience in proposal development being done efficiently and effectively. I've no doubt that asking the correct question, of the appropriate people, would yield very different responses, and that the conclusion drawn from those responses would differ significantly.

As a fairly seasoned (30+ years) proposal professional, one who has designed developed proposal centers ( around the world) that are recognized for their ability to support winning business and for developing highly effective proposals in an efficient manner, and one who is recognized as a 'thought leader' in the proposal space, I respectful disagree.

I've no doubt that if/when asked where the RFP response process or the proposal support function (PSF) SHOULD report, the majority of proposal professionals would respond with, “Sales Operations.”
​
It has been my experience that the PSF is best supported and most effective when it reports to and is funded by sales operations. When the PSF reports to marketing or a function other than Sales Operations, it is usually understood, appropriately supported and produces proposals/responses that are less than effective.