Meetings of the proposal team, intended to be quick status checks and efficient communication mechanisms.
People literally stand up around a table or room or open area, or call in on a speakerphone if they’re off-site.
Held daily, semi-weekly, weekly, or as needed, depending on the size, duration, and stage of the proposal.
And just for something a little different, a story that illustrates the point, but from my first book . . .
The plan for delivering the Work; used primarily with respect to services contracts.
Want one? See “Just Three Simple Questions” for how to get one.
In Production Land clever people design and make a product or service and then task someone with selling it. In marketing jargon, this someone first identifies the features of the product/service — the characteristics that describe it objectively — and then tries to identify the benefit each confers on a client/user — the things that turn clients/users into buyers by making them willing to spend their money.
A product with the feature of being rugged has the benefit of low replacement cost due to less breakage. A service with the feature of being consistent has the benefit of reliable or predictable outputs/outcomes. A process with the feature of being efficient has the benefit of allowing a project to be finished on schedule — usually good in itself and often a cost reducer as well. A piece of equipment that conserves fuel has the benefit of lower operating cost.
Proposal Land flips the relationship between features and benefits. First we identify what benefit the client wants — reliability, low-cost, availability, ease of use, 24/7 coverage, to name a few — and then we design a service or product or piece of equipment with the features necessary to deliver those benefits.
It takes marketers and marketing writers in Production Land a while to learn that benefits are not obvious: that they do not necessarily follow from the feature without saying. In a similar way, it takes workers in Proposal Land a while to learn that they should start with the benefits: with what the client really wants. When done correctly, it makes the marketing communication task much easier. No longer is a hapless writer trying to intuit, guess, and otherwise make up a benefit to correlate with every product/service feature: As the basis for the proposal, they just sorta jump out at you.
Visit to a site for which, or at which, the contractor will be providing services.
Intended to communicate the scope of work clearly and fairly to all bidders.
Can be mandatory or optional, depending on RFP terms.
Useful for identifying competitors, even in this day of electronic bidding sites, as some companies pay consultants to download RFP documents.
Can be useful for building team cohesion. Can just be weird . . .
Refers primarily to a client not meeting its own promised or forecast date for issuing an RFP, as in “The RFP is slipping to the right.”
Also refers to any schedule deadline being changed to be later than originally advertised.
Note that nothing ever slips to the left.