• Continual Learning through the Proposal Process
    46 mins
  • Striving for Bid Nirvana!
    Aug 9 2021

    In this episode:

    How Nirvana includes pre-engagement, Hot Buttons and effective working with subject matter experts (SMEs)

    Most businesses are normally reactive, often not expecting a bidding opportunity to be released and then trying to cater to it with a bad timeline.

    Common mistakes include knee-jerk graphics, underestimating the time to create effective graphics, which should be done well before writing.

    Where possible, I pre-engage for capture, discover the hot buttons, and establish win themes. Also a trainer, and I help with authoring.

    Great insight can derive from what I call "Car Park" conversations. Clues and even body language help you get the key 3-4 hot buttons.

    How to influence to engage earlier? Persistence. Show the stakeholders the benefits in dollars saved, time saved and improved win rate. Stop bidding on everything and your effectiveness and win rate will naturally increase.

    My motivation years ago, initially, was to win. Now my motivation is to have the team believe in what is possible and to win better.

    When Pre-Qualification Questionnaires (PQQs) first came out, there was a lot of concern from the industry.

    My top tips? Pre-engage and pre-prepare. Have the content and stories and case studies ready. It makes a huge difference in how you win.

    Contact me through the website:

    www.willsconsultants.co.uk

    Also please join me and listen in on my podcast:

    'Winning bids and proposals'

    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/winning-bids-and-proposals/id1517455655

    Also Available on all major platforms.

    Links to free tools:

    Website: www.willsconsultants.co.uk

    Podcast: 'Winning bids and proposals'. Available on all major platforms.

    Free fact sheets to download with podcast 'Winning bids and proposals'.

    About our guest

    Jack Wills has forty years of experience in proposal and bid development. His interest in bid writing started when was called in to evaluate a major contract in the UK Ministry of Defence as a staff officer in the British Army.

    As a 'gamekeeper' he quickly became a 'poacher' in the bid world!

    Leaving the Army in 1988, he started his own business in the video and multimedia world, developing some 5-6 proposals per month! He is now a consultant working with many bluechip clients.

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    44 mins
  • Capture if you can! with Jeremy Brim
    Jul 26 2021

    * Capture is about being engaged long before the Request For Proposal (RFP) or Invitation To Tender (ITT) is released

    * The Real prize is upstream, as an estimated 60% of decision-making power is before the ITT is ever released.

    * Engaging clients in that thinking process is more profitable, as it creates value and we earn the right to take a share of the value we create

    * Bid responders should be Snipers, not infantry.

    * Better to win 1/100 large deals than 100 small deals

    * A lot of firms scattergun their approach

    * Bidders are great "midfielders" but if you wait until the ITT comes out you have missed the bigger opportunity

    * Capture is based on an opportunity

    * Account planning positions for opportunities to come. Pick a leader for the account and build a plan, connecting with who and in what order to inform the next connection and build momentum

    * The CRM dirty secret is that real adoption is spectacularly low. CRM implementation is treated as an IT project instead of cultural change, and those who sell CRMs aren’t very good at it. Drive the transformation into how you win work.

    * 80% of B2B biz should come from existing clients, which is a reflection of how well you look after them

    * If you don’t know the economic buyer's partner name and success measures you are in deep shit :)

    * One UK example is with Morgan Sindall https://www.morgansindallconstruction.com/

    * Focus on winning deals in accounts that will have more ongoing projects rather than a single deal with nothing to follow. Build the account plan and capture plan.

    * When driving change, not all people make the change

    * At ISG it was a challenge keeping pace and affected how I had to change the approach to brief senior people. COVID-19 made us isolated and so I had to relearn how to give updates

    * My role has been to bring expertise the CEO does not have, but my advice is as the caddy to help their success, not to. be the golfer.

    * Maturity in Capture differs around the world. In Capture, the US is pretty mature.

    * The UK is the leading nation in bidding as others are derivatives of the UK's lead, and Americans are a bit behind there.

    * But Capture is the opposite, where almost all capture roles are in the USA, but not many "get it yet" in Europe. Capture is the next key step.

    * US capture managers see the opportunity it all the way through. This creates continuity as most bid teams elsewhere don’t look at the relationship and what has happened upstream.

    * The bidding person should mentor upward: invite a senior sponsor. * The biggest factor in winning is a board member, mentor them in what you need.

    * Capture works for a smaller number of bigger deals, otherwise focus on account management.

    * Bid teams are helpless when forced to bid everything, it’s "bullshit"

    * To influence the business and the bidding decisions, show data and win rates and feedback.

    Links to free tools, useful tips or offers for our listeners

    Visit htps://www.thebidtoolkit.com for our free to air bid process content, listen to our podcast The Red Review, and become a member of our online community at https://www.patreon.com/theredreview

    About our guest

    * Jeremy Brim brings 20 years of experience as a capture and bid management professional across both the public and private sectors. * Leading successful bid function spanning professional services, outsourcing, and construction - Jeremy has secured an enviable collection of high-profile projects, programs, and frameworks with blue-chip clients around the globe.

    * Jeremy founded growth ignition in 2018, where he works with leadership teams to plan and execute interventions across the sales cycle.

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    37 mins
  • Honing your bid process by leveraging creativity and data with Nora Foux
    Jul 19 2021

    * How Nora lifted the shortlist ratio from 8% to 42%

    * Clients who buy Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) to dramatically improve planning, forecasting & reporting through integrated systems instead of data mining and excel spreadsheets.

    * Client mistakes made through deciding by lowest price, and internal teams being overly optimistic.

    * Strategy Meetings to discuss can we meet the needs of the RFP, brought order to where there was chaos

    * Summary Template developed by my predecessor, we enhanced 

    * We learn faster by making Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) Requests. FOIA requests allow you to compare winning bids and contrast that with what you are submitting.

    * The horror story as a new-hire, getting an RFP out in the next 45mins, 20 full binders, hand-tabbed with 35 per binder, plus hand-tabbed cost proposal binder. Had to fit in a 20x20x20 inch box and no hand truck to get it to the car. So balancing it on a chair, getting it into the back seat of the car, we ended up with a pretty quick dismissal reply due to a known functionality gap. We should never have responded. I decided then that we would use data going forward.

    *  How Loopio allowed us to eliminate errors and the worry over these things being consistent throughout the response.

    * The importance of knowing why you lose.

    * My journey from graduating in 2008 when the economy was tanking, to learn on my journey through creativity, structure, and data to establishing myself in my role today.

    Top Tips are:

    * Get a Content Management System for boilerplate consistency

    * Really take the time to dig into your FOIA Requests. We file a FOIA Request every time it's a loss. It is free business intelligence that you can learn from.

    Links to free tools, useful tips & offers for our listeners

    Top Tips are:

    Get a Content Management System for boilerplate consistency.

    Really take the time to dig into your *FOIA Requests. We file an FOIA Request every time it's a loss. It is free business intelligence that you can learn from. (*Freedom of Information Act).

    We have used https://loopio.com/ as an amazing Content Management System since 2019 which has been amazing.

    Here is the weighted scoring calculator which is really helping us as a base to save time and decide when to bid:

    https://www.mypmllc.com/project-management-resources/proposal-management-templates/

    Links

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/norafoux/

    Email: nora.foux@assetworks.com

    About Nora Foux

    Nora Foux is a graduate of the Philadelphia Institute of Art where she earned degrees in Industrial Design and Marketing.

    She has worked for several top companies such as the American Heart Association, Comcast, and Publicis Healthcare Solutions.

    Currently, Nora is with AssetWorks LLC where she has been a Technical Proposal Writer for their EAM software for over two years. Her updates to their bid process and content have increased their EAM shortlist ratio from 8% in 2018 to 42% in 2020.

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    30 mins
  • Weaving college-level English into winning capture themes - with Susanne Sener
    Jul 12 2021

    * How writing relates to various stakeholders in color team reviews

    * Problems that stem from people: New people not yet integrated into the bid team; the right people who review the proposal at the wrong stage, and people who do not understand the technology that supports the bid process today

    * Mistakes relating to compliance, and comments added during proposal development

    * The best win themes  come from the best capture manager

    * How a writer who loves writing, yet is not Stephen King or a journalist, enjoys being a valued writer as part of a winning team.

    Links to free tools, useful tips & offers for our listeners

    LinkedIn Profile: Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanne-sener-30712923/

    Read my Top Tips here: https://winningthebusiness.com/10-tips-on-getting-the-most-from-your-proposal-writers/

    About Susanne Sener

    * Susanne has worked full-time as a proposal writer since 2007.

    * In her first 5 years she worked on over 200 proposals and is now up to about 500. Her specialty is past performance volumes.

    * Susanne's background also includes 10 years as a US Air Force officer.

    * She was originally hired as a proposal writer because of her experience teaching college-level English classes. Business Development management wanted someone who could weave capture themes into the past performance volumes.

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    39 mins
  • How transactional proposals beat web forms - with Patrick Downs
    Jul 5 2021

    * Too much MarTech wastes too much time

    * Good Implementation delivers results

    * An example of replacing a mess of MarTech with PandaDoc saved many hours per person and thousands of dollars per month

    * How transactional companies like Software as a Service (SaaS) providers normally find out the hard way when t use a proposal

    * How Patrick learned of his bipolar condition and has found a way to be accepted, supported and enjoy the buzz of winning sales deals

    * And discussion of Patrick's recommended tool: trylavender.com

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    34 mins
  • Write Fewer Proposals, Win More - with Eileen Kent
    Jun 28 2021

    Eileen Kent has built a reputation as The Federal Sales Sherpa, by leading others through the maze of US Federal opportunities to reach their goals.

    Through experience, Eileen developed a three-step program that enables organizations to transform their selection of and approach to opportunities to bid on and win.

    Starting with Eileen's experience of selling into Federal Agencies we explore her personal stories and those of her clients.

    Once again we hear how vital it is to have an effective bid-no-bid process and be brave enough to keep to it.

    Eileen shares insights into how she helps organizations recognize the cost of wasted bids and to develop their own processes to win more.

    Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eileenkent/

    I will send you a link to my Bid/No-Bid template which you can complete and use in your own organization so that you too can "Write Less, Win More"

    Website: http://www.federalsalessherpa.com

     

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    33 mins
  • Using video in your proposals to engage and win - with York Woodford-Smith
    Jun 21 2021

    * York originally created his UK-based video production company Five-On-A-Bike to cater to a wide range of businesses.

    * In 2020, COVID-19 presented major challenges for York’s business and also significant health risks to the elderly. This risk complicated further the emotional decision families make when choosing a care home for their parents.

    * York shares with us how video in marketing through to proposals has really helped his ideal clients and given his team renewed focus and passion to sustain the Five-On-A-Bike business long term.

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    35 mins