Laura’s Winning Ideas

Carl Dickson has been involved with proposals since 1989 and is widely considered a proposal guru. He specializes in training materials and proposal technology tools. His website, www.captureplanning.com has over 900 articles, instruction manuals, and training tools for proposal professionals.

He and I spent time on the phone this week, chatting about winning work.

Q: What are the must-use technologies and the cutting-edge technologies for proposals?

Carl Dickson: The web-based tools are extremely useful because of the ways you can link related information and be sure to use tidbits that otherwise get left behind on a shelf in someone’s office.

With these tools, you can drill down to find nuggets and connections that would be impossible in hardcopy. For teams in different locations, this is critical to win. (Read on …)

You have a list of companies you or your firm works with/wants to work with/sells to/wants to sell to…..right?

Here’s a way to keep track of what’s going on with that firm: Feedwhip.com

This free service allows you to register and simply type in the website of your prospect, your email address and any name you would like to have noted in the subject line of any alerts sent to you. Couldn’t be simpler. And did I mention it is free?

Then whenever a change is made to their website, you get an email with the page link and the title of the changed page. It works on websites using HTML, XML and CMS platforms, in other words all websites.

I just got a notice of a new board member at a firm I monitor. I probably know this even sooner than most of the employees.

Very cool. And did I mention it is free? and easy?

If you move quick, you can get some great examples of B2B marketing from an industrial electronics firm called B&B Electronics. Their case study is just published by MarketingSherpa, and available for free until Jan. 21st.

They have 19 examples included in the case study. For those who say they can’t imagine what to do to reach the 12 contacts I preach to trainees, here are some real life examples. Be sure to print out the emails/letters at the end of the case study to give you ideas when you are reaching for an excuse to stay in touch.

Here’s the excerpt from today’s newsletter I just received:

#2. Best B-to-B Direct Marketing Program of 2007 — How to
Combine Search + Web + Postal + Telemarketing + Email

SUMMARY: Is your marketing responsible for getting orders
directly from smaller accounts, without relying on a field rep to
close the deal? If so, here’s a practical Case Study for you to
swipe ideas from.

Discover how a B-to-B marketer in the electronics field cleverly
combines search marketing, Web offers, direct postal mail,
telemarketing, plus a nine-step email series to land loads of
new $1,300 accounts per year.

Lots of hugely inspirational creative samples included.
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=29833
(Open access until Jan. 21st)

I’ve been moving my website to a new platform, a CMS running Joomla. This Web 2.0 technology promises easier management of my website and more robust performance.

So far, it has just been painful, but we are starting to check links, so it won’t be long before I can move on to making trouble someplace else.

One reader asked whether I would recommend it. Depends. (Read on …)