What lessons from the evolution of the fighter jet can be applied to the rather less racy world of proposal management? Surprisingly, and to my inner joy, a good deal it would seem according to Peter Diamandis. In his book “Bold” he describes how Lockheed Martin rose to the challenge of developing the first fighter […]
There is a famous quotation from John Wannamaker, described by some as the father of modern advertising and a pioneer in marketing, that says: ‘Half The Money I Spend On Adverting Is Wasted; The Trouble Is I don’t Know Which Half’ Do you feel the same way about your proposals? And if you don’t know […]
There can be few subjects that cause more heated discussions among proposal managers, marketing executives and graphic designers than fonts. Everyone has an opinion, but what are the grounds for making a decision? As with many matters concerning proposals, the answer has to start with what the customer has asked for: If the customer has […]
Guest Blog by Andrea Collier, Bid Formatting Guru at Checkpoint Bid formatting is not just a bit of admin that can be left to chance. Under-estimating it can jeopardise the success of a bid, not just because of the poor presentation of the submission, but also meeting the delivery deadline in the first place. Following […]
Telling ghost stories about another bidder, or ghosting as it is now more prosaically known, is a method of casting doubt in the minds of the evaluators over the solutions, approaches and track records of competitors, without naming them. Ghosting draws attention to their weaknesses and provides an opportunity for bidders to emphasise their own […]
Marathon winners are like winning bid managers… They know the competition inside out They’ve thought through every single item of kit they might need and trained with it They’ve trained in all weather and terrain They’ve already run over 1000km just to get to the start line They have a professional coach and a full […]
Storyboarding is a planning process used to create a visual summary of the structure and major elements of a proposal. The storyboard should be created before writing commences, the degree of complexity reflecting the scale and scope of the proposal. Pricing quotes for repeat business for an existing customer does not normally require this level […]
An organisation’s ability to manage proposals increases as it adopts best practice. Reviews are used by best-in-class organisations to win business more effectively, efficiently and economically, with less risk. So how do reviews reduce risk? Risk 1 Investing resources in bids that you can’t win. Evidence Win rates are < 50%; you win smaller […]
Even those organisations that consider themselves to be old hands at the bidding game struggle to achieve the results they expect from the investments they make in their sales infrastructure. They have well embedded processes, they engage with sales training organisations, they use industry standard tools. And yet, many consider that the end results don’t […]
