of the information, and reinforce both with an action caption (that explains the relevance of the graphic) beneath the illustration.
You can find out more about creating eye-catching proposals in Chapter 11.
Proposing better all the time
The hallmark of a professional proposal writer or manager is a commitment to continual improvement. You can display that commitment in many ways:
❯❯ Through the tools you create or acquire to reduce the mundane, tedious, or repetitive aspects of the job
❯❯ By the manner in which you lead kickoff meetings, daily status checks, review sessions, and executive briefings (consider strategies for improving your leadership skills in Chapter 14)
❯❯ Through the way you assess how well the process is working and how it affects your contributors
Our recommended proposal process includes continual improvement as its third and final stage. We make it part of the overall process for a reason: If you don’t plan for it and make it a habit, it won’t happen.
❯❯ A process step is unnecessary in some situations.
❯❯ A process step is ineffective as or where it stands.
❯❯ A tool isn’t getting the job done.
❯❯ A contributor is more successful when doing something a different way.
Your job as a proposal professional is to offer opportunities for these lessons learned to be voiced, captured, and distributed to the right people to improve the process. You have to champion this effort, because most of your colleagues will, by necessity, go back to their regular roles after the proposal is completed and submitted. But you’ll also have to work at it, because your next proposal is never more than minutes away.
You can find out more about harvesting and sharing lessons learned in Chapter 15.
As a proposal writer, one of your best sources for improving your writing and management skills is the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP). In Chapter 15, you find out about how APMP can help increase your professional status by providing educational opportunities, networking venues, a three-tier certification path, professional mentoring programs, and programs for building and sharing knowledge.
The APMP’s Body of Knowledge (BoK) is the source for most of the information you find in the rest of this book, including the ten templates, worksheets, and checklists in Chapter 16. These are just a few of the many helpful tools available within the BoK. For even more, go to www.apmp.org.
❯❯ Lead up, down, and sideways. Proposal professionals must lead their teams, their peers, and even their bosses during a proposal project.
❯❯ Write like an angel and edit like the devil. Proposal professionals hone their writing and editing skills more than all the other skills they use because what the proposal says is ultimately all that matters.
❯❯ See the forest and the trees. Proposal professionals understand their company’s overall business as well as the detailed techniques and processes of proposal development.
❯❯ Be a good cop and a bad cop all in one. Proposal professionals, like project managers, do whatever it takes to coax the finest work from proposal contributors.
❯❯ Believe in the process, but know when to cast it aside. No two proposal projects are the same, so a proposal professional has to know when to bend or even break the rules to succeed.
❯❯ Do what few can and fewer want to do. Proposal professionals have a wide range of skills that, frankly, a lot of businesspeople either can’t or won’t learn. Doing what others can’t or won’t can make you indispensable.
❯❯ Listen twice as much as you talk. Proposal professionals depend on others to get their jobs done. Understanding others’ perspectives and needs is crucial to proposal leadership.
❯❯ Stay cool no matter what. One clear differentiating characteristic of proposal professionals is their ability to accept and manage the stresses of urgent, important bids.
❯❯ Think three to five years ahead. Technology paradigms shift in months, and successful proposal professionals are also futurists: They know technology trends and how those trends will affect their profession.
❯❯ Be a disciple of change. Proposal professionals are change agents because customers are always changing what they want and how they want it.
How do you match up?
Chapter 2
Understanding Different Types of Proposals
IN THIS CHAPTER
Delivering on a proposal request
Initiating a proactive proposal
Looking at the difference between small and large proposals
Creating proposals in different environments
Business proposals come in two major flavors: reactive (or solicited) and proactive (or unsolicited). Reactive proposals, also known as RFP responses, are the way most mid- to large-size businesses acquire new products and services; these companies know precisely what they want and have the clout to formally ask suppliers to deliver on these requirements.
Proactive proposals can work for any size of business (some large companies run proactive campaigns for particular industry or solution sets) but are more suitable for midsize and smaller companies. Bidders write them on their own initiative with no guarantees that their efforts will succeed.
In this chapter, you discover the differences between these two major types of proposals and some other considerations that can complicate the primary differences. You also find out how to develop strategies and tactics for writing proposals in each situation.
You write a solicited proposal when a prospective buyer formally requests solutions from you and a number of other bidders. This type of proposal is also known as a reactive proposal because you have to react and respond to the customer’s topics and specifications rather than prescribe a solution
