Laura’s Winning Ideas

QUESTION: Hello Laura. What kind of unwanted reactions might I encounter when trying to convince my business committee to accept my proposal?

ANSWER: When you are creating a proposal not based on a formal Request for Proposal, there are a few differences.

However, in all cases, nothing surprising or new should appear in a proposal.

First, don’t create the proposal in a vacuum and surprise your business committee with it. This is quite likely to fail.

You need to do some "business development" before you write your final draft.

Pick out the members of the committee, and meet with as many as possible one-on-one. Show them what you have in mind and ask for their input. They may point out some issues and offer suggestions of changes to overcome those issues. They may see an opportunity to pair an objective of their own with your proposal, and adding these elements guarantees their support.

When you make the formal presentation of your proposal, you should ALWAYS be able to predict the vote quite accurately. All great proposal managers do this. We quiz and ping the folks responsible for gathering intelligence and make sure they’ve discussed any unique ideas with all the decision-makers before we ever write the final proposal.

Take care,
Laura Ricci

I’m always happy to answer questions. Contact me by using the button at the top of this page or click here to "Contact" me.

This morning I checked my email to find a very nice note from the publisher of a book I discussed some time ago.

My Post was about fonts for comprehension, and this fellow added some details of interest to most of my readers. You can check out the post here.

What is very cool about the internet is how easily we can extend our reach.

• Yesterday I made ginger syrup for a Thanksgiving drink, and had ginger pieces strained from the syrup. The recipe said to throw them away, but I knew they would be great in a recipe calling for a cup of candied ginger. Thirty seconds later, I have 3 recipes to choose from. I use up the ginger and have a batch of ginger cookies.
• Last night, a business associate asks for a Term Sheet, and in a few minutes of research I have five samples from which to work.
• Last year, I was researching plastics. I traced a plastic material from a product I found in the drugstore, to the manufacturer of that product, to the supplier of the plastic I needed which was used in that product. An industrial engineer at the manufacturing firm pointed me to the supplier they used.
• A few years ago, I needed some help to prove the source of a Trademark. The author of a math textbook could be found on the web, and he graciously sent me a quote about the mathematical nugget from whence the trademark came.
• Back in 1996, I needed a picture of Ruggiero Ricci for my website. Ruggiero Ricci is a famous violinist who was professor emeritus with the University of Michigan. An email request resulted in the lend of two pictures (this was back when most of us didn’t have scanners in our offices).

How cool is this? The internet allows us to go beyond proving our “Six Degrees of Separation.”

Anyone facile with a search engine and a bit of education in the topic can find just about anything. Even a perfect pair of shoes . . . try Zappos.com .

I recently led a workshop on Virtual Management skills. The group was surprised to find out how many folks are managing virtually. I used myself as an example. My assistant is in Texas, I’m in Wisconsin, and I regularly work with my webmaster in the Philippines.

Daniel Goleman wrote an article for the New York Times on October 7, 2007 entitled E-mail is Easy to Write (and to Misread).

In both my workshop and in Goleman’s article, the point was made that some folks can detect more emotion in e-mail than others. This gives them an advantage in virtual communication.

In the past we have encouraged development of the ability to emote and communicate with others in person. Extroverts have an advantage over introverts here.

In the future, we will encourage development of the ability to emote and communicate with others virtually. Introverts have an advantage over extroverts here.

Very few people lack the ability to improve skills in an area they may have neglected in favor of other skills. Paying extra attention to our written communication skills may improve our abilities in virtual management. The endeavor is a worthwhile investment as the world rewards those managers flexible enough to succeed while working together apart.

How to improve in this area is not my expertise. However, I can tell you that I personally focus more on reading and writing than I might have otherwise. More important is changing the way I hire. I make a point of keeping a certain amount of our communication on-line.

As a manager, I made a bad hire when exposed to someone exclusively through their resume and in-person interviews. Their ability to work virtually was exceptionally limited. This meant I had to keep them off large projects because all our large projects required a good facility in virtual communication. After that, I learned to spend time communicating on-line before extending an interview. It gave me valuable information about their virtual abilities.

Do you need an industry organization or are they just a good place to hang out when you are looking for a job?

If you do business development, then networking is a requirement of your job. But if you do proposals, it can be hard to get out of the office.

So, if you specialize in proposals, do you need an industry organization?

Probably.

Some organizations fall short on offering a reason to attend, beyond an expensive lunch out of the office and some time to meet and make some friends in the industry. Since most of us can’t talk about our work, it can seem more sensible to use the time to run a few errands instead.

Here’s why I try to get out to industry meetings:

• New Ideas. Good speakers bring something valuable I can take back to work.
• Good discussion recharges my batteries to come back refreshed.

The benefits outweigh the time and money invested.

That said, it can be a chore to gain the freedom to attend industry organization meetings. It’s hard to make it to meetings if your organization feels it is a waste of effort and/or time.

Some executives say what many of them think:

• “Those meetings cause problems because everyone there is looking for candidates or jobs. I don’t want to lose my folks.”
  • Vice President of California A&E firm
• “Proposal folks are disposable. We aren’t going to pay for extras when we know they’ll burn out and leave in a couple of years anyway.”
  • Vice President of Tennessee ER firm

Here’s where organizations can help themselves by helping you. Show bosses the benefits of your organization in a way they understand. Find, and publicize the economic benefit of membership to the Boss:

• Subcontracting relationships which proved to be the winning combination for a great project — which started with introductions at your monthly meeting.
• Project opportunities identified weeks earlier (at your monthly meeting) so that intelligence could be gathered to win a great project.
• Proposal ideas that became part of the proposal used to win a great project — came from a speaker at one of your meetings.

An economic benefit grabs the attention of executives more quickly than any other approach.

Let me know if providing this benefit creates a surge in attendance for your organization!