How do you prove that you have the best idea or solution? You say over and over that your solution saves money. But what does that mean to your clients? A dollar a month? A thousand dollars a day? Is it significant…
The Problem First, I want to define ConOps for those readers unfamiliar with the term: Concept of operations (ConOps) is a document or graphic that communicates the characteristics of a proposed system from the stakeholder’s perspective (those who will use…
By Chris Simmons, Rainmakerz Consulting A winning proposal is all about standing out from the competition by capturing the attention and the imagination of proposal evaluators. Compliant and compelling proposal themes can make the difference between winning and losing your…
By Colleen Jolly, PPF.APMP Have you ever felt compelled to do something? Like spending more time or money than you intended? Do you want to learn how to influence your customer's buying decisions in formal and informal proposals and presentations…
Yaaaawn. Even the best oral proposal can bore your audience. Why? Because our brains process information fast ... very fast. Your audience quickly tunes out once they decide the material being presented is unimportant or uninteresting; therefore, it is unnecessary…
Do you lose sales and proposals because of poor or no marketing? Odds are you do, and here is what you can do to fix it. Step 1: Understand How People Buy Based on my research and experience, all buyers…
There is a question that, if answered, gives you the insight to make sales and win proposals. I was invited to teach a class with Dr. Robert Frey, author of Successful Proposal Strategies for Small Businesses, at University of Maryland Baltimore County…
By Kristin Dufrene, APF.APMP - Vice President, CACI and Ali Paskun, AF. APMP - Director, CSC Everyone is familiar with the terms “win rate” (based on proposals submitted) or “capture rate” (based on revenue bid), but it can be difficult to quantify these…
The solutioning process I teach is called U.S.E. The first step in this process is to Understand (U). Three core elements ensure understanding: customer, need, and requirements. Our proposed solution must resonate with the customer. To do so, we want to empathize…
By Carl Dickson, CapturePlanning.com and PropLIBRARY.com I’ll give you three hints: It’s the most frequent cause of the proposal death spiral, that cycle of endless rewrites that are never good enough and only end because there’s a deadline, resulting in…