Laura’s Winning Ideas

I’ll be speaking at the SMPS Regional Conference in Chicago this month.

You can get details about the event here.

I have 4 hours to teach Proposal Themes:

The Magnetism of Themes — How They Win Work

“Every team interviewing for a baseball stadium job shows up in baseball caps.”

Themes for proposals can do much more than be cute. Laura Ricci uses themes to tie together your key messages and help reviewers remember more from your proposal than from the competition’s. You’ll see examples of her winning proposals and learn the process she uses to create themes. Six teams will create presentations and sell their solution to the rest of the group. Walk out with a new tool to amaze your superiors and confound the competition.

Should be fun!

Please be sure to introduce yourself and let me know if you are a reader of my blog. I’m anxious to meet readers!

For information about registering, go here: http://www.smps-chi.org/events/pgmdetail.aspx?IID=89&ID=EventDetail

We’ve come back in fashion again. I’ve read three articles this month about “Disruptors” in the workplace and the vital role we play in driving positive change in organizations. Examples of “disruption” include new opportunities identified in time to capture them ahead of the competition, and problems avoided by identifying them in time to cure ahead of the customer becoming dismayed.

Proposals attract folks who want to make a difference.

This can be tough for a manager who just wants someone to “do the work” and has the misfortune to oversee proposal production.

Sometimes I find proposal professionals who are off track a bit and have become control freaks instead of Proposal Disruptors.

Control Freak: The most important thing is whether the “rules” are followed.

Proposal Disruptor: The most important thing is whether the proposal won.

Control Freak: My rules are based on the English grammar textbooks I have from college.

Proposal Disruptor: My process has rules developed by winning proposal managers, and experts in complex sales, with some help from the English grammar textbooks I have from college.

Control Freak: I like to see a shelf of our proposals because they are all identical and look tidy on the shelf.

Proposal Disruptor: Our proposals represent our best ability to attract attention. My shelf of proposals looks most like a bookshelf at Barnes and Noble, with a variety of items vying for attention.

So which are you?

Welcome to the April 28, 2007 edition of business proposal carnival. This monthly post is a Carnival. What’s a carnival? Well, it’s an open invitation to Bloggers, to submit posts from their sites. I look for posts which might be of interest to those of us who work to win proposals.

Strategy

Fast Blogger presents Fast Blogger » Blog Archive » Knowledge Process Outsourcing: A Brand New Type of Outsourcing posted at Fast Blogger.

Business Development

almomento presents 9 Ways To Incorporate Win-Win Philosophy Into Your Business posted at BurstCreativity.

Ybother presents Top 10 Surefire Ways To Come Up With A Million Dollar Idea posted at A Top Ten List Everyday to Jumpstart Your Knowledge.

Julia Dorofeeva presents How to run Forum at your Dating Site? posted at Online Dating Blog. Ever thought of using on-line dating as a Theme for your proposal? This is fodder for a theme meeting. Another way to get folks thinking outside the box when you are brainstorming a new proposal theme.

Benjamin Koren presents The Anatomy of a Self-Sustaining Website | Koren’s Korner posted at Koren’s Korner | Ben’s Blog. Have you ever thought about setting up a website for profit?

Marketing

David presents Blazn7(ThinkPositive)Corporation | Guideye posted at ThinkPositive. www.thinkpositive.ca To aid in the awareness of the effects of positive thinking using my “Merchandise with a Message” peace campaign to use as a visual aid in peace community building.

Change Actions

Hueina Su presents Life Balance Lessons: 7 Keys to Avoid Burnout posted at Intensive Care for the Nurturer’s Soul. Chronic stress from work could lead to burnout, which would greatly impact a person’s physical & emotional health, relationships, work, and everyone related to him/her. When you are burned out, you can’t function at your best, and everyone you care about suffer with you. It’s not difficult to see that there is much at stake. Here are some proactive steps you can take today to prevent burnout and return to balance. P.S. my April free Teleclass topic is “Changing Lanes: The Secret of Successful Midlife Career Change”

Almost always: Fix problems downstream by changing your process. Don’t try to force others to accommodate your process. This is too risky. For instance, if you are having a delivery problem, the issue must be solved at the preceding steps, maybe by moving up deadlines. (Just try asking FedEx to swing by an hour later for your parcel.)

Same goes for the upstream sales process. When your hit rate is underwater, the sales process needs to change to accommodate the process of writing a winning proposal. Not, as is often thought, that the proposal process needs to change to accommodate the vagaries of the sales process.

In a complex sale, the proposal is on the critical path and needs to be handled with the same care as other steps in the sales process. Whatever worked, back when the proposal was merely a supplement to a consultative sales process, isn’t enough once the proposal becomes key to your sales process. This is a common trap for firms moving from consultative sales to complex sales. They all think the problem is limited to the proposal process. Not quite.

In a consultative sale, the proposal is not on the critical path. The proposal in a consultative sale is merely a codification of the agreement negotiated by the sales team.

However, the proposal in a complex sale must convince a group of people that the recommendation of the sales team is the best offer to solve a variety of problems. Without the proposal succeeding, the sale will fail. In a complex sale, the proposal is on the critical path.

Technical firms can see this best by laying out the critical path of your sales process. The exercise is illuminating. Place all the steps of your sales process either on or feeding into the critical path. What is necessary? Those steps are on the critical path. What enhances a step on the critical path? Those steps run alongside the critical path.

What order are the steps performed? What is needed for each downstream step? Is this being accomplished in the upstream step?

In many cases, the fix for a problem is made in the previous steps, rather than the step where failure occurs.