Laura’s Winning Ideas

Proposal Expert, Laura Ricci, Muses on How She Reached Her 85% Hit Rate, Creating and Managing Dynamic Teams and Living Through Turnarounds Supporting Good People Doing Great Things

Archive for October, 2008

Controlling the Cost of Proposal Review: 48 Hour Due Date

— LRicci at 9:54 pm on Monday, October 13, 2008

I smiled when I read in the Wall Street Journal about the RFP issued by the Treasury Department for management of the $700 billion rescue plan. The RFP made it clear that only large established firms need apply. And the proposal was due within 48 hours.

RFPs (Requests for Proposal) added “Page Limitations” to reduce the time and expense of reviewing proposals. Proposals had ballooned to massive tomes. However, the outcome wasn’t improved by reviewing such large proposals. Page limitations cut the cost of reviewing proposals and didn’t turn out to reduce the quality of selection.

How would you respond to a shortening of time in which a proposal was due? What kinds of information would be needed in your database? Something to muse about. One never knows when this might just become a feature of upcoming RFPs.

Related Posts:

Archive for October, 2008

Winning is writing well

— LRicci at 11:40 am on Monday, October 6, 2008

The Story of a Sign

Spend five minutes on this video. It’s worth the price of admission!

The web is a-twitter over this video. The advertising folks think it is about copywriting for advertising. Humph. I’m prejudiced, but know that it is about proposal writing. How do you capture imagination and communicate effectively when space is limited?

In this video, the first sign would not have passed the WE WE test. The second sign focuses on the proposal recipient, then adds facts about the proposing entity.

Beautifully demonstrated. Touching story.

Understanding proposal writing is important. Send this to your boss. Assign it as required viewing before your next team meeting.

In storyboard sessions, we capture information to understand the perspective of the people who will be reviewing the proposals. Storyboard sessions are not about filling out forms. Storyboards capture the essence of the hopes and fears of the proposal recipients. Once we have that understanding, the proposal is written from that perspective, not the perspective of our firm.

Related Posts: