Sure, you’ve submitted countless proposals. You’ve certainly won and lost your share of competitions. But do you really know whether your proposals are any good? There is a great episode of 30 Rock where Jon Hamm plays Tina Fey’s new boyfriend who she learns is “living in a bubble.” Everybody compliments what he does and […]
March 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Surprising Statistics About Federal Bid Protests
Wally Zimolong over at Supplemental Conditions posted a piece about federal bid protest statistics. There were a few statistics in the report that I thought were pretty telling. First off, the number of formal bid protests rose almost 50% between 2008 and 2012. But the statistic that stayed consistent was also pretty disturbing. Over 40% […]
February 24, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Why The Type of Procurement Matters To Your Proposal
Some people think proposal competitions are all the same. We compete and whomever had the best relationship wins. These people are wrong. This is because the type of procurement has a dramatic effect on the proposal competition. Let's look at a few procurement types and discuss what effect they have. Low Bid Low bid or […]
February 17, 2013 by 1 Comment
The Difference Between a Proposal and a Choose Your Own Adventure Book
February 10, 2013 by 2 Comments
Why You Shouldn’t Give a Client Ambiguous RFP Language
January 13, 2013 by 21 Comments
Are Your Proposals Dishonest?
Honesty in the proposal business is a slippery slope. Sure, we all tell the truth in our proposals. Don't we? But think about how ripe the whole process is for dishonesty. I think we all have a relationship with honesty and the proposal game. I think I've told this story before, but I remember the […]
January 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Find The RFPs You Miss
Here are a few tools that can help you do the same. RFP Services Here's the thing you have to realize about RFP services: no service is sophisticated enough to find all the RFPs. So it's foolish to rely solely on then. With that said, there are a few I like. Stateandfederalbids.com is in my […]
December 17, 2012 by 5 Comments
Are These The Seven Deadly Sins of Proposal Writing?
No focus on the client’s business problems and payoff. No persuasive structure. No clear differentiation of this vendor compared to others. No compelling value proposition. No impact, no highlighting–key point are buried. Overuse of jargon, too long, or too technical. Misspellings and mistakes
October 7, 2012 by 12 Comments
Where Do You Fit On The Proposal Experience Spectrum?
After talking to many people who work with proposals, it's become clear that not all our experiences are the same. Each of us falls in a different category on the proposal experience spectrum. Oftentimes, we don't realize this. You bring someone onto your team knowing that they spent a lot of time on proposals in […]
September 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The Difference Between Bugdust and a Clear Advantage in Proposals
Mark Buckshon over at Construction Marketing Ideas posted about my article on which font to use for proposals. He raised an interesting point regarding how important the use of fonts in proposals is and whether this discussion could be considered bugdust. Think of it this way. In the 2008 Olympics, many swimmers wore special suits […]
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