Laura's Winning Ideas

Maybe your team has your own favorites. Join in and show them to us by posting a comment.

Generic Specific – Paragraphs which seemed so important we enshrined them in the database. Unfortunately they sound important but communicate little, if anything, meaningful. Most often found in proposal databases constructed with speed and accuracy in mind, and the customer out of mind. Carl Dickson, another proposal guru, coined this phrase.

MSU — Stands for “Made Stuff Up.” Commonly appears after 9:30 p.m. when RFP requirements remain unanswered by your esteemed SMEs. It’s a really good idea to prevent these from being uploaded to your database. Robert Lownie posted this on his blog as submitted by one of his clients.

SGP — Stands for “Stupid Generic Picture.” Commonly used when the authorities think a picture would break up the text and look pretty. Instead it annoys the reader and reduces comprehension, ergo the reference to “stupid” is especially appropriate. Term was coined in Why business People Speak Like Idiots – A Bullfighter’s Guide by Brian Fugere, Chelsea Hardaway, and Jon Warshawsky.

Debriefs for a US Federal Government Agency tend to be pretty controlled and you don’t have a lot of room for probing questions.

In private industry, there are no rules. You can (and should) ask for a debrief and the field is wide open.

All other prospects are somewhere between these extremes, and ALL should be asked for debriefs after an unsuccessful proposal.

Most prospective clients are willing to answer questions and a bit uncertain about a meeting that might turn into a sales pitch, or worse, a whiney explanation of what they missed in your proposal.

Prepare for a debrief carefully and you can get an amazing amount of information to prevent future failures.

What Do You Think You Know?

Prepare a question or two on topics you think you know, but if you were wrong, would have changed your strategy.

What Did You Wish You Knew?

Two or three questions about specific, discrete items you used in building your strategy, but which you may have been uncertain about.

Let Them Talk

Finally, prepare a few questions (two is a few, 12 is not) which are open ended and give them a chance to talk more freely about your proposal and the winning proposal if they are willing.

I usually share my questions in advance. In private industry, I ask several people in the prospect organization for a debrief and that allows me to compare the answers and get a feel for how that organization works and some ideas of how I might improve my chances for success the next time.

I’m sitting here reviewing blogs and podcasts and notice the prevalence of discussion about B2B Marketing and the Complex Sale.

I feel chagrined by having released a White Paper too early.

• Sales cycle lengthened?
• RFPs more complex?
• Contracts getting larger?

If you haven’t seen this White Paper, you and your boss may be interested in reading What Changed Your Sales Cycle and Why?

Over 80 business executives provided comments and quotes for this paper.

I realized the topic was important (and just about to become HOT) after meeting with executives in two industries who were afraid their marketplace was becoming commoditized. When I sent out a draft for comment, the comments coming back made me realize this puts salve on a raw nerve.

Business development and sales is different in this environment. It’s not terminal, just different.

Research shows that some of us are more resilient to stress than others. There are three proven aspects to mitigating the effects of stress:

• Control
• Commitment
• Challenge

Control means that you have some say over what and how your activities are done. Micro-managed proposal teams perform 20 percentage points lower than proposal professionals. Proposal professionals remain in the career for many years, while micro-managed proposal teams burn out in less than 30 months. (What’s the average tenure at your firm?)
Commitment means that you feel committed to your mission. That mission may be on the macro level, committed to helping win the war by writing proposals for your defense contractor employer. Or, the mission may be micro, committed to shipping this section for review on time. (It does not mean you are about to be committed to an institution after pulling too many all-nighters.)

Challenge means that you are challenged in the work at hand. You can flex and put some muscle (mental or physical) to the job at hand. Just about the time you have your databases populated and your process solid, the market shifts and you have to scramble again to adjust. (Thank goodness your backend systems are in place or you’d always be in chaos!)

This is a good topic to discuss at your next team meeting. What are you doing to preserve these three aspects of your work? (No proposal team needs to wonder whether they work in a stressful environment!)