Laura’s Winning Ideas

Next, we talk things over, brainstorming needs and solutions.

Mind Maps work especially well at this stage, so that we don�t lose any pieces. This is usually where I spend time discussing methods that might work and traps we should avoid.

These mindmaps are pretty detailed and so they are all treated as confidential.

(All the names have been changed to nonsense to protect the privacy of this team.)

(click here to visit the interactive version)

Since I’ve done this before, I can bring a process map of the ideal Proposal Process in an organization in the Complex sales environment.

We talk through the steps in my process map, discussing how steps are accomplished in the firm.

I�m looking for the chaos-points. All proposals verge on chaotic, and the proposal team works to create order from chaos. The location of the chaos-points tells me which parts of the process need attention.

Is training needed? Are the databases not supporting the effort? Who needs to be involved in the change action?

A big part of my work is analyzing proposal teams for large firms. This is usually the first step in my working with a new client. Each job is specific to the client’s preferences and needs, but I bring some tools that work especially well. I’ll be posting about some of the tools I use. Of course, these can be applied to a variety of teams in need of evaluation and tune-up. I always like to start my consulting analysis by reading recent proposals from the firm. They tell me plenty about how the firm wants to portray itself, and whether they are communicating their strategy as well as the competition communicates theirs. Some “ailments” are common enough I keep my rubber stamps at hand.

I got a nice call yesterday from a friend. She wanted to tell me I’d been mentioned on a national listserv as an expert on proposal teams and my training manual, The Magic of Winning Proposals, was complimented as a great reference manual. In an era when former “sales and marketing” consultants are becoming “proposal” consultants, it’s nice to know the practitioners can still tell the difference.