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

Browse Titles

Business Development

Economic Jitters?: Get Ready for Federal Funding
Cool Ideas for Fresh Proposals II
New Proposal Research Tool
How to Win Proposals for New Ideas
Industry Orgs: Do You Need Them?
Be a Great Company, Not a Control-Freak
Submitting Articles for Publication Builds Credibility
Themes Win Proposals
Traps That Trip Up Proposal Professionals: Winning VS. Good Documents
Your Secrets Are Everyone's News
Ideas and Excuses to Stay in Touch
An Extra Set of Ears at SXSW
The Agency Expert Business Developer
Keeping Track and Staying in Touch
Steal These Ideas: Marketing to Prospects
What is your sig like?
Natural Language and Database Design VI
How is Your Accessibility?
Branding VS. Themes
Adding "How Can I Help You?" to Your Repertoire
No Surprises
Unintended Consequences
Guerilla Theme Development
Cool ideas for Themes and Capturing Attention
Enron Vs. Microsoft: Does Your Reputation Cost You Sales?
Outsiders Discover Value of Proposal Process
When to Follow Up on a Proposal
Banners -- Just in Case You Need One
Federal Contracting
Debrief Questions
B2B Marketing and the Complex Sale
Fear or Embrace?
Proposal Writers are Complex Salespeople
Business Blogs: Approaches That Work
What Gets Measured...
Borrow Industry Statistics for Benefit Statements
Value Propositions = Benefits
Why Do You Hire a Consultant?
Finding and Marketing New Products: The Sludge Busters
Capturing Marketshare With a Conversation Starter
Transparency and Business Profits
Engineered Networking

Change Actions

Economic Jitters?: Get Ready for Federal Funding
$305 Million Trademark Infringement for $400 Million in Sales
Scrum: It's What Proposal Teams Do
Virtual Leaders: Born or Made?
New Year's Resolutions: Our Greatest Fear
Support Good People Doing Great Things
Working Together Apart
Two Ideas: Pecha Kucha and Empathy Signage
Fun! It's the New Core Value: This Month in Inc. Magazine
Fun at Work is Job #1
Intrapreneur's 10 Commandments
Amaze Your Proposal Team With This Comprehension Stunt
Who changes? Sales or Proposal Team?
Where's the Problem? Solving Proposal Vexations
Feedback Traps can Trip You Up
Close Your Feedback Loop and Prosper
Virtual Teams: Appreciation and Gratitude
Proposal Strategy: Clients repeat the strategy back to you
Extraordinary Careers: Free Quiz
Vendor Selection: Database Design V
Cul-de-Sac Software: Database Design IV
How is Your Accessibility?
Adding "How Can I Help You?" to Your Repertoire
No Surprises
Outsiders Discover Value of Proposal Process
Fear or Embrace?
Proposal Process Installation = Switching To Organic Lawn Care
Why Do You Hire a Consultant?
Finding and Marketing New Products: The Sludge Busters
One Tip to Control Clutter in a Busy Office
Imperturbabilty
Responsiveness Results from Robust Process
Capturing Marketshare With a Conversation Starter
Transparency and Business Profits
The Ways We Sabotage Proposals (And Other Projects)
Guy Kawasaki in Milwaukee
You are Just Two Steps Away from Julia Roberts, Guy Kawasaki, Bill Gates, and Anyone Else You Need to Meet
Intention and Traffic Jams
Innovation: Focus on Process for Advantage
Team Relationships and Communication Analysis
Two Steps for Change
Tools for Analyzing Teams V: Action Plan
Tools for Analyzing Teams II: Review Current Process
Tools for Analyzing Teams 1: Look at Current Work
Morale Boosting
Engineered Networking
Five Principles for Leading Organizational Change
Hesitancy and Fear
Sociology experiments (Dance Rat's Stash)
Supporting Community Growth and Continuance

Human Resources

Cool Ideas for Fresh Proposals III
Time for Telework
Keeping It Simple Pays Off. . .
Read the RFP - The Power of Now
Doing What You Were Meant To Do
Help SMEs write compelling prose
Virtual Leaders: Born or Made?
New Year's Resolutions: Our Greatest Fear
Support Good People Doing Great Things
Has the Middle Class Disappeared?
CMO Turnover Escalates
Email as a Preoccupation
Moving? Where Do You Put the Proposal Team?
Working Together Apart
Shameless Self Promotion: The London Times
Two Ideas: Pecha Kucha and Empathy Signage
New Round of CEO Scrutiny May be Coming to RFPs Near You
Gifts for a Winning Proposal Team
Food for Thought: Feeding Proposal Teams
Traveling Tip
Controlling Stress, Reducing Turnover
Bloodletting in a Job Interview
Career Sabotage at Lunchtime
Intrapreneur's 10 Commandments
Building Teams: Speed or Excellence?
Who changes? Sales or Proposal Team?
Traps That Trip Up Proposal Professionals: Winning VS. Good Documents
Feedback Traps can Trip You Up
Virtual Teams: Appreciation and Gratitude
Extraordinary Careers: Free Quiz
Holiday Gift Ideas for Proposal Teams
Qualitative Display of Quantitative Data
Adding "How Can I Help You?" to Your Repertoire
No Surprises
Stress Hardiness
Conference calls: 30k bytes/second
Responsibility for Your Own Career
Why Do You Hire a Consultant?
Remember That Thought!
Imperturbabilty
Software Improves Your Writing
How to Prevent Burnout
Turnover
Gratitude is Catching On in Business
Transparency and Personality Tests
Hesitancy and Fear
Haiku for Proposal Teams
The Millennium Generation
Maintaining A Community

Links

Unintended (but hilarious) Consequences
New Proposal Research Tool
Even IT Can Speak Plain English
Scrum: It's What Proposal Teams Do
Will Your Web Site Be Seen?
Help SMEs write compelling prose

Management

Time for Telework
$305 Million Trademark Infringement for $400 Million in Sales
Scrum: It's What Proposal Teams Do
Doing What You Were Meant To Do
Virtual Leaders: Born or Made?
Value Creation Selling and Ram Charan
New Year's Resolutions: Our Greatest Fear
Support Good People Doing Great Things
Has the Middle Class Disappeared?
CMO Turnover Escalates
Email as a Preoccupation
When Publicity Happens
Moving? Where Do You Put the Proposal Team?
Working Together Apart
Shameless Self Promotion: The London Times
New Round of CEO Scrutiny May be Coming to RFPs Near You
Keeping Your Head When All Around are Losing Theirs
Be a Great Company, Not a Control-Freak
Proposal Security
Traveling Tip
Fun! It's the New Core Value: This Month in Inc. Magazine
Heads Up: Installing MS Office 2007
Controlling Stress, Reducing Turnover
Fun at Work is Job #1
Bloodletting in a Job Interview
Career Sabotage at Lunchtime
Intrapreneur's 10 Commandments
Building Teams: Speed or Excellence?
Proposal Disruptors VS. Control Freaks
Who changes? Sales or Proposal Team?
Where's the Problem? Solving Proposal Vexations
Traps That Trip Up Proposal Professionals: Winning VS. Good Documents
Feedback Traps can Trip You Up
Close Your Feedback Loop and Prosper
Virtual Teams: Appreciation and Gratitude
Your Secrets Are Everyone's News
An Extra Set of Ears at SXSW
The Agency Expert Business Developer
Extraordinary Careers: Free Quiz
Natural Language and Database Design VI
Vendor Selection: Database Design V
Cul-de-Sac Software: Database Design IV
Start with the Beginning: Database Design III
We Are Not The World: Database Design II
Autumn Leaves and Database Design
Create "atom-splitting mental images"
How is Your Accessibility?
Fraud: Don't Go Here
Adding "How Can I Help You?" to Your Repertoire
No Surprises
Enron Vs. Microsoft: Does Your Reputation Cost You Sales?
Outsiders Discover Value of Proposal Process
When to Follow Up on a Proposal
B2B Marketing and the Complex Sale
Stress Hardiness
Fear or Embrace?
Business Blogs: Approaches That Work
Proposal Metrics Change Behavior
What Gets Measured...
Proposal Process Installation = Switching To Organic Lawn Care
Value Propositions = Benefits
Spam and Comments on Blogs
Conference calls: 30k bytes/second
MINT: Marketing Information Network Team
Responsibility for Your Own Career
Why Do You Hire a Consultant?
Imperturbabilty
Responsiveness Results from Robust Process
Capturing Marketshare With a Conversation Starter
Transparency and Business Profits
How to Prevent Burnout
The Ways We Sabotage Proposals (And Other Projects)
Fiddling with Employees' Work
Proposal Databases: It's a People Problem, Not a Technology Problem
Team Relationships and Communication Analysis
Elasticity in Critical Teams
Two Steps for Change
Tools for Analyzing Teams V: Action Plan
Tools for Analyzing Teams IV: Prioritize Issues
Tools for Analyzing Teams III: Capture Ideas for Change
Tools for Analyzing Teams II: Review Current Process
Tools for Analyzing Teams 1: Look at Current Work
Nice Comments About My Work
Unique, Weird and Crazy Ideas Need Protection
Gratitude is Catching On in Business
"An Honest Man Never Hesitates to Put It in Writing"
Transparency and Personality Tests
Morale Boosting
What Changed Your Sales Cycle and Why?
Five Principles for Leading Organizational Change
Hesitancy and Fear
Engagement is the key to on-line community
The Millennium Generation

Marketing

Cool Ideas for Fresh Proposals III
Economic Jitters?: Get Ready for Federal Funding
Unintended (but hilarious) Consequences
Cool Ideas for Fresh Proposals II
$305 Million Trademark Infringement for $400 Million in Sales
Will Your Web Site Be Seen?
Unintended Consequences: Double Entendre
Support Good People Doing Great Things
CMO Turnover Escalates
Industry Orgs: Do You Need Them?
When Publicity Happens
Two Ideas: Pecha Kucha and Empathy Signage
Be a Great Company, Not a Control-Freak
Get the Story, Win the Work
Inspiration for Proposals in Cross-Media Advertising
Submitting Articles for Publication Builds Credibility
Who changes? Sales or Proposal Team?
Traps That Trip Up Proposal Professionals: Winning VS. Good Documents
Feedback Traps can Trip You Up
Fonts for Proposals, Reports, and Probably Websites Too
The Agency Expert Business Developer
Proposal Strategy: Clients repeat the strategy back to you
Keeping Track and Staying in Touch
Steal These Ideas: Marketing to Prospects
What is your sig like?
Natural Language and Database Design VI
Operationalizing your taxonomy -- I'm not kidding!
How is Your Accessibility?
Qualitative Display of Quantitative Data
Fraud: Don't Go Here
Branding VS. Themes
Adding "How Can I Help You?" to Your Repertoire
Unintended Consequences
Guerilla Theme Development
Cool ideas for Themes and Capturing Attention
Ignor the Competition
International Competition, Air Conditioning and Proposals
Outsiders Discover Value of Proposal Process
One Riot, One Ranger
Fear or Embrace?
Business Blogs: Approaches That Work
What Gets Measured...
Borrow Industry Statistics for Benefit Statements
Value Propositions = Benefits
Spam and Comments on Blogs
Names and Branding 101
MINT: Marketing Information Network Team
Why Do You Hire a Consultant?
Finding and Marketing New Products: The Sludge Busters
Capturing Marketshare With a Conversation Starter
Transparency and Business Profits
Example of Themes For Proposals
Guy Kawasaki in Milwaukee
You are Just Two Steps Away from Julia Roberts, Guy Kawasaki, Bill Gates, and Anyone Else You Need to Meet
How are you like a Utility Company?
Unique, Weird and Crazy Ideas Need Protection
What Changed Your Sales Cycle and Why?
Engineered Networking

Organizational Development

Cool Ideas for Fresh Proposals II
Scrum: It's What Proposal Teams Do
Virtual Leaders: Born or Made?
Value Creation Selling and Ram Charan
Support Good People Doing Great Things
When Publicity Happens
Shameless Self Promotion: The London Times
Two Ideas: Pecha Kucha and Empathy Signage
Gifts for a Winning Proposal Team
Keeping Your Head When All Around are Losing Theirs
Proposal Security
Fun! It's the New Core Value: This Month in Inc. Magazine
Controlling Stress, Reducing Turnover
Fun at Work is Job #1
Intrapreneur's 10 Commandments
Amaze Your Proposal Team With This Comprehension Stunt
Proposal Disruptors VS. Control Freaks
Who changes? Sales or Proposal Team?
Where's the Problem? Solving Proposal Vexations
Traps That Trip Up Proposal Professionals: Winning VS. Good Documents
Feedback Traps can Trip You Up
Close Your Feedback Loop and Prosper
Virtual Teams: Appreciation and Gratitude
Vendor Selection: Database Design V
How is Your Accessibility?
Adding "How Can I Help You?" to Your Repertoire
No Surprises
International Competition, Air Conditioning and Proposals
Fear or Embrace?
Proposal Process Installation = Switching To Organic Lawn Care
Conference calls: 30k bytes/second
MINT: Marketing Information Network Team
Responsibility for Your Own Career
Why Do You Hire a Consultant?
Finding and Marketing New Products: The Sludge Busters
Imperturbabilty
Responsiveness Results from Robust Process
Capturing Marketshare With a Conversation Starter
The Ways We Sabotage Proposals (And Other Projects)
Fiddling with Employees' Work
Proposal Databases: It's a People Problem, Not a Technology Problem
You are Just Two Steps Away from Julia Roberts, Guy Kawasaki, Bill Gates, and Anyone Else You Need to Meet
Team Relationships and Communication Analysis
Turnover
Two Steps for Change
Tools for Analyzing Teams V: Action Plan
Tools for Analyzing Teams IV: Prioritize Issues
Tools for Analyzing Teams III: Capture Ideas for Change
Transparency and Personality Tests
Morale Boosting
Five Principles for Leading Organizational Change
Hesitancy and Fear
Engagement is the key to on-line community
Sociology experiments (Dance Rat's Stash)
The Millennium Generation
Supporting Community Growth and Continuance

Proposals

Keeping It Simple Pays Off. . .
Cool Ideas for Fresh Proposals II
Cool ideas For fresh Proposals
New Proposal Research Tool
Read the RFP - The Power of Now
Even IT Can Speak Plain English
Plain English Please!
Scrum: It's What Proposal Teams Do
Help SMEs write compelling prose
Collaboration VS. Cognitive Enhancement
Value Creation Selling and Ram Charan
Unintended Consequences: Double Entendre
How to Win Proposals for New Ideas
Moving? Where Do You Put the Proposal Team?
Two Ideas: Pecha Kucha and Empathy Signage
20 Questions: Play to Win
New Round of CEO Scrutiny May be Coming to RFPs Near You
Keeping Your Head When All Around are Losing Theirs
Be a Great Company, Not a Control-Freak
Proposal Security
Graphics are worth a 1000 words
More on Comprehension vs. Legibility
Get the Story, Win the Work
Inspiration for Proposals in Cross-Media Advertising
SOBCon'07: Diary of a Few Hundred Madmen
Themes Win Proposals
Building Teams: Speed or Excellence?
Amaze Your Proposal Team With This Comprehension Stunt
Proposal Disruptors VS. Control Freaks
Who changes? Sales or Proposal Team?
Where's the Problem? Solving Proposal Vexations
Traps That Trip Up Proposal Professionals: Winning VS. Good Documents
Close Your Feedback Loop and Prosper
More Ways to Accomplish Zero Comprehension
Fonts for Proposals, Reports, and Probably Websites Too
Applied Psychology and Themes
Business Proposal Carnival - February 27, 2007
Proposal Strategy: Clients repeat the strategy back to you
Protocols for Production
Proposal Guru, Carl Dickson Shares Winning Ideas
Natural Language and Database Design VI
Operationalizing your taxonomy -- I'm not kidding!
Vendor Selection: Database Design V
Cul-de-Sac Software: Database Design IV
Start with the Beginning: Database Design III
We Are Not The World: Database Design II
Autumn Leaves and Database Design
Packing and Shipping Proposals
Create "atom-splitting mental images"
Freeware MindMap Software
Collaboration Tools: Free and Non-Networked
Qualitative Display of Quantitative Data
Fraud: Don't Go Here
Branding VS. Themes
No Surprises
Unintended Consequences
Guerilla Theme Development
Cool ideas for Themes and Capturing Attention
Ignor the Competition
Enron Vs. Microsoft: Does Your Reputation Cost You Sales?
International Competition, Air Conditioning and Proposals
Outsiders Discover Value of Proposal Process
When to Follow Up on a Proposal
Ghost Stories: Serial Destroyers
Federal Contracting
Proposal Terms for Insiders Only
Debrief Questions
Fear or Embrace?
Proposal Writers are Complex Salespeople
What Gets Measured...
Proposal Process Installation = Switching To Organic Lawn Care
Borrow Industry Statistics for Benefit Statements
Value Propositions = Benefits
Names and Branding 101
Why Do You Hire a Consultant?
Remember That Thought!
Responsiveness Results from Robust Process
Tag Clouds and Navigation
Abbreviations You Should Purge
Software Improves Your Writing
Proposal Grammar Tip
How to Prevent Burnout
Capture Proposal Images
The Ways We Sabotage Proposals (And Other Projects)
Example of Themes For Proposals
Fiddling with Employees' Work
Proposal Databases: It's a People Problem, Not a Technology Problem
Will Proposals Run on Blogger Software?
Proposal Tip: How Many Spaces After the Period?
Guy Kawasaki in Milwaukee
Blogs by Ezine coaches
Innovation: Focus on Process for Advantage
How are you like a Utility Company?
Elasticity in Critical Teams
Docs and Proposals in MS Word: Where to Find Help!
Overloaded email: organize folders
Keeping up and staying interest(ed)/(ing)
Multi-Tasking: Questions Awaiting Answer
Beyond Overnight Delivery: Remote Printing and Delivery
Tools for Analyzing Teams V: Action Plan
Tools for Analyzing Teams IV: Prioritize Issues
Tools for Analyzing Teams III: Capture Ideas for Change
Tools for Analyzing Teams II: Review Current Process
Tools for Analyzing Teams 1: Look at Current Work
Nice Comments About My Work
Gratitude is Catching On in Business
"An Honest Man Never Hesitates to Put It in Writing"
Morale Boosting
Five Principles for Leading Organizational Change
Haiku for Proposal Teams

Strategy

Economic Jitters?: Get Ready for Federal Funding
Keeping It Simple Pays Off. . .
$305 Million Trademark Infringement for $400 Million in Sales
New Proposal Research Tool
Read the RFP - The Power of Now
Will Your Web Site Be Seen?
Collaboration VS. Cognitive Enhancement
Value Creation Selling and Ram Charan
Unintended Consequences: Double Entendre
New Year's Resolutions: Our Greatest Fear
Support Good People Doing Great Things
How to Win Proposals for New Ideas
Email as a Preoccupation
Industry Orgs: Do You Need Them?
When Publicity Happens
20 Questions: Play to Win