Internal Proposal Process

Week of August 25, 2014
Good morning, BD/Marketing campers! Today's blog is "farm fresh," as they say. I just messed up. The proposal I was working on arrived at our office on time this morning for delivery to the client, but printed double-sided (should have been single-sided), and with one form unsigned. Marketers out there -- is your stomach turning??

These errors could have been prevented with more time for QC and a compliance check on the last day. Instead, we were adding text and new graphics, and receiving edits from multiple reviewers on the same day the proposal was to be printed and sent to another office for delivery. I knew better, and I did it anyway. 

I'm sharing my preventative tips. I normally do these, and my proposal process is (usually) smooth, efficient, and relatively painless. This time I did not follow my own process, and mistakes were made. It was an important reminder: no matter how much experience you have with proposals, there are no shortcuts.

Here are your Things You Need to Know (or Remember) about leading a proposal-writing process.

1) Go through the RFP and create your own outline. Include:

• The order and section titles
• What must be in each section
• Page limits for each section (if any)
• Points/value of each section
• Criteria of each section
• Who will write what (by section or item, as appropriate)
• Required forms, who will sign

2) Create the envelope labels/transmittal sheet on the first day and store them in your proposal folder.

3) Write on the front of the folder or RFP in BIG LETTERS the printing instructions, e.g. how many pages,  whether it is single or double-sided, bound/unbound, originals/copies. Add this to your outline, too.

4) Prepare a proposal-writing schedule that looks like a typical calendar month. The visual of a calendar page helps the team grasp the deadlines quickly. Include:

• Graphics - sketches due, mock-ups due, edits returned, revisions due
• Quals/resumes - drafts out, edits returned
• Subs' materials due
• Forms signed/added to proposal
• Draft narrative due, who reviews, revisions due
• Final narrative due for proposal compilation
• Draft proposal out - who reviews, revisions due
• 2nd draft proposal out - who reviews, revisions due
• Ample time for a quality control/compliance check (usually by marketing)
• Production, delivery time
• Proposal due date -- who delivers
• Vacations/out-of-office of proposal contributors

5) At the proposal kick-off meeting, review the outline AND schedule. Make adjustments; resend. Follow the schedule. Missed an internal proposal-writing deadline? Follow your company's protocol. At the very least, call the team members involved and hash it out. Exactly as with a project, every missed deadline or piece of information has a ripple effect. 

6) Debrief with the proposal-writing team after the proposal goes out, and before a decision has been made. What went well? What didn't work? What can be done next time?

My proposal schedule sample is below. Can you spot the missing information? What would you have done differently, now that you have seen my usual process above?

In case you were wondering, the office is re-printing and hand-delivering the proposal. It should be ok in the end. Although, my stomach is still upside down. As my mentors say, "Breathe deep, accept the situation, change what you can, and move on."
Make it a great week!
K

Writing Guidelines

Welcome to the inaugural post of my BD and Marketing Blog for Professional Marketing Services. Consider this a "note from a friend." Each week, I'll post articles that interesting, informative, or important to your jobs. I will also take you behind the curtain of marketing/BD for professional services, to keep you educated and motivated in your client relations. And I will try to give you a glimpse inside my brain at the odd and sometimes amazing connections that are made there. [You don't have to be crazy to love marketing, but it helps!]

So, "Hi!" to everyone. Drop me a line sometime to let me know how you are doing, what you need, and what you are up to. The Blog is for YOU - please help me give you what you need/want to see. Until then, here are the Things You Need to Know for this week.

Just as you all have to follow standards and guidelines in submitting your deliverables to various clients and agencies, marketing and BD has standards and guidelines. Most companies have writing, style, and graphics guidelines specific to their company, or have adopted a particular edition of the AP Style guide. In either case, get to know your company's practices. Following them not only makes editing easier, it gives a consistency to your company's materials that clients recognize and appreciate.

Here are a couple of items that tend to trip us up:

Capitalization - avoid unnecessary capitals. Proper names and formal titles are capitalized when used as the name and title; almost everything else is not. If someone served as the project manager, then it is not capitalized. If they are Project Manager Jane Smith, then it is capitalized. In the case of reports, an environmental assessment is not capitalized, but the Lower Stanton River Environmental Assessment is capitalized, as it is the formal title of the report.

Acronyms - Acronyms and abbreviations for government agencies should be spelled out the first time they are used in the document. Several companies use ONLY the acronym in their employees' resumes and the project descriptions, because it is likely that the acronym would be used (and spelled out) MUCH earlier in a proposal document than the resumes/projects. This is a time-saving practice!

In the case of technologies that are widely recognized by their abbreviation, use that in all references: GPS, GIS, CADD, JPEG, PDF, etc.

Agencies commonly known by their acronym can be used with or without first spelling them out (FEMA, NOAA, EPA, DoD, etc.) These could be regional, as well, such as CDOT in Colorado -- you would not need to spell out CDOT in a CDOT submittal.

Numbers and dimensions/units - Spell out numbers under 10... except as part of dimensions, distances, or addresses. For example, "He has more than six years of experience..." but "he built a 16-by-9-inch box." All unites are spelled out (inches, feet, foot-long, percent, etc.), without the use of symbols (no ", ', or %). If the number begins a sentence, spell it out.

Ensure/Assure/Insure - these words, and all of their forms, are liability words that should be avoided. They implay a guarantee of action or result, which you might not fully control. Rewriting the sentence that has any of these words in it usually involves identifying an action or desired result and focusing on that. For example, "We will perform quality checks prior to each submittal to ensure they comply with ODOT standards," would become "We will perform quality checks to confirm compliance with ODOT standards." Or better: "We will check that deliverables comply with ODOT standards."


What are your common standards/guidelines? Or pet peeves?

Make it a great week!