Laura’s Winning Ideas

Some proposal teams are revolving doors, with “disposable” personnel arriving and departing with little ceremony. Other proposal teams have long tenure and tend to have the highest hit rates in their industry.

You already know that proposal production is very stressful. We would be walking heart attacks if we didn’t have resiliency under stress.

And you also know that training proposal folks to win for your firm is real expensive, don’t you?

Treat proposal folks well, and you help them manage the stress, reduce costs (recruiting, hiring and training) and improve your hit rate.

The hit rate often rises with tenure because a brain trust develops. Historical tidbits that can be used to prove value in proposals, only come from seasoned staff. And it never hurts to know just exactly what bribe works to get that reluctant SME to call you back.

CONTROL COMMITMENT CHALLENGE

There are 3 keys to resiliency under stress: Control, Commitment and Challenge.

Provide this atmosphere to your team and you have longevity. Deny any one and you have a revolving door.

Control is the ability to control events around you. This is more than being allowed to bring in family pictures for your cubicle. For most, it is the ability to control their work. Proposal professionals are generally considered control freaks, harping on everyone to get things in by deadline. However, when control is denied, you remove the proposal professional’s ability to produce a winning proposal, AND ratchet up the level of stress for them.

Commitment to the work at hand makes stress manageable. Proposal professionals are more committed than anyone in the firm. I’ve never had executives willing to go through what proposal teams do as a matter of course, and I don’t see others putting in nights and weekends willingly. Commitment is a part of a proposal professional’s DNA.

Challenge is the aspect of interesting work. Every proposal is different, every project different. There is no lack of challenge in proposal work.

Commitment and Challenge are easily answered by proposal professionals. And Control can be too, but sometimes management tries to take control away, thinking it is “unnecessary roughness” to allow proposal professionals to set schedules and pester people to turn in material to “suit the proposal team.” In my experience, you can’t win this way. Every winning team has Attila the Hun working for them, just ask!

If you manage a proposal team, how much control do you delegate? Could you delegate more control to improve morale, reduce turnover and lock the revolving door?

Welcome to the May 29, 2007 edition of business proposal carnival.

Business Development

Murad Ali presents
>Research & Business: Earning more profits. posted at
>The New Business World.

Marketing

Sagar Satapathy presents
>How to: Survive the Digg Effect (The Ultimate Guide) posted at
>Hosting Lowdown.

Proposals

Editor – Dave Prouhet presents
>IT in Business Writing (Not the IT you think) posted at
>Business Advice Daily, saying, “Business Writing Tips
Remember all those “cannibal” cartoons you’ve seen over the years…the ones where some poor schlep is being boiled in a big pot just before becoming the main course for dinner? Well, for most writers, “it” is in same fix as that poor schlep. The word “it” is boiled…braised…and barbecued—it’s chopped…churned…and charbroiled—it’s fried…filleted…and fricasseed—it’s mashed…minced…and macerated—it’s shredded…simmered…and stewed—it’s…well, you get the idea.”

Strategy

Lead Optimize presents
>Make Your Site Say, “Can I help you?” posted at
>Lead Optimize.com, saying, “Make your salespeople available through your website to help visitors find what they are looking for.”

Brandon Peele presents
>Marketing: The Authenticity Fallacy posted at
>GT.

That concludes this edition.

I was interviewed last week for an article about Fun at Work. We talked about all the morale boosting events I would sponsor at work.

One question was: Why you? Isn’t this the job of HR or the CEO?

Humph. If HR is in charge of fun, your firm is in serious trouble. Ever had a real belly laugh in an HR meeting? These folks are in charge of fear and control. They make sure the executives stay informed of trouble brewing that could bubble over into legal action and see that payroll processing is correct.

When they are put in charge of fun, you get the annual Christmas party and the annual Summer Picnic. Need I say more?

IMHO, everyone has responsibility for morale, and should take it seriously because your firm depends on folks being happy and productive to succeed.

“But why you?”

Well, first, our proposal group needed to practice the principles I teach to stay one step ahead of the rest of the competitors. An engaged team is a creative problem-solving machine! The best way to stay one step ahead of the competitors is to have fun at work that reflects well on the work we do for clients.

Second, we need to be welcome when we come begging for information for a proposal. The previous proposal folks had spam filters on their email addresses. Need I say more?

What are you doing to have fun? Who owns “fun” at your place? How do you pry it out of their clutches and own some of it yourself?

Here’s a good way to sabotage your career. Talk about your previous employer.

One fellow I interviewed was happy to chat away about all kinds of tidbits any industrial spy would love to steal.

Jeez. Not only did I not hire them (who needs to wonder what they will tell the competition if they go looking again?) but I’m sure this approach affected other potential employers similarly.

Talk about your own performance. Tell them your personal hit rate, and how you achieve it. Blab about how your team pulled off a herculean task. Just leave out the names and specific details.