Proposal Land

Better RFP Responses & Management
 
Proposal Land

Proposal Priorities

 , ,

Stop. Go look at this now.

Maslow’s Hierarchy & Proposals

I love it: Work your way up the hierarchy, and allocate time accordingly.

Here’s another way to think about it.

 

I expect there are other ways. Mostly what matters is to think: To be intentional, as some would say, about where the team spends its time, and what they focus on, rather than just running around madly.

Part of thinking is understanding why our processes are as they are, so we know when to change them. For that, check out these related posts:

The Most Important Thing in RFP Responses

The Second-most Important Thing in RFP Responses

The Third-most Important Thing in RFP Responses

The Fourth-most Important Thing in RFP Responses

Term: Level Playing Field

 , 2

Indicates that a competition is fair; that is, not predetermined that it will be awarded to an unofficially selected bidder, nor even skewed to favour a preferred bidder. The actual objective of most technical authorities and contracting officers; the nominal objective of all of them.

Perversely, focusing on achieving the perception of a level playing field drives more labyrinthine procurement rules and regulations than does pursuit of the actual objective.

Lessons Learned or Lessons Collected?

 , 2

Things rarely turn out precisely the way we hoped.
Sometimes, if we’re lucky, we can figure out why.
If we find the lesson and learn from it,
it might be even more valuable
than if we’d simply gotten lucky.
– Seth’s Blog

Forget “rarely.” In Proposal Land, things never turn out precisely the way we’d hoped.

We lose the bid.

We win the bid but have trouble making money.

We come up with a profitable plan but can’t persuade anyone to do another proposal, ever again.

So do a lessons-learned exercise every time, gathering external and internal feedback. And then add a lessons-learned review at the start of your proposal process so you can start out smarter. Don’t let this effort degenerate into “lessons collected.”

Related posts:

Term: Debrief

RFP Responses for Small Business: Step Four