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Southern California chapter
of the Association of Proposal
Management Professionals
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Members are invited to apply for fellowships to attend the 21st annual APMP Conference and Exhibits in Orlando
Successful member participation in the SOCAL chapter is vital to the sustainability of APMP. To give back and ensure sustainability of our chapter, we are setting aside some Going Green funds to increase our members’ ability to attend Going Green: A Global Initiative, the June 2010 International Conference in Orlando, Florida. Five SOCAL members will have the opportunity to GREEN their admission by $500. This may be your opportunity to join in the APMP green revolution!
Members are affiliated with the SOCAL chapter are eligible to apply. Please fill out the application form and e-mail it by March 23 as an attachment to Jim Costell (james.costell@ngc.com), Ruth Belanger (ruth.belanger@gmail.com), and Bob Bunnett (robert.bunnett@accelerate-inc.com).
The strong involvement in our chapter has made it possible for us to offer these funds. We are looking forward to seeing a good number of SOCAL members in Orlando, and we hope that they will bring back ideas that will help our chapter continue to serve APMP members in Southern California.
Getting your proposal to the top of the pile
Chris Carter of Xait Inc. shared tips for writing winning proposals and managing the work of multiple authors in our first webcast meeting of 2010. Please see our Library page for a copy of the presentation. Chris discussed effective approaches to establishing a relationship with the customer, writing and graphics tips, and organization and management. We thank Chris and Xait for presenting the talk and providing the webcast connectivity. We thank Northrop-Grumman, Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, and ESRI for providing venues. We anticipate better weather for our next meeting in March!
Two members achieve APMP accreditation
Twelve
APMP-Socal members attended the Foundation-level training jointly sponsored by
the Socal chapter and Shipley Associates on October 22, the day before Training
Day. Two of the participants, Patrick Kelley of Hewlett-Packard (at left) and
Mike Morgensen of Med Assets (on the right), took the accreditation examination
and passed. Congratulations on achieving Foundation-level accreditation, and
applause to David Murphy of Shipley Associates (center), who presented the
training.
Training Day 2009: Digging for gold and finding it
Yes, yes, very nice. I just want to see more pictures.
More than 50 APMP members and guests attended the Southern California chapter’s annual Training Day at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel in Anaheim for sessions on capture, writing, and best practices in proposal management. The event featured six hourlong sessions, many opportunities for networking, and a special presentation to former chapter Chair Ron Scheidecker.
Sorry, Ron. Your award is back at the office.
Martin Andelman of the 4th Floor, LLC, a writing consulting company, opened the day with a discussion of writing to sell. Brands are created, but market positions are occupied, he said. In most segments of the market, you either must occupy the “low-price” position or the “different” position. To do that effectively, decide what you are, relate it to the customer’s needs, write it, and then challenge every sentence of the draft by asking, “So what?” and “Who cares?”
Martin Andelman, left, warns that you have two choices for market positioning: "Low Cost" or
"Different." Tom Leech guided us through best practices for preparing orals teams. Dana Spears,
right, discussed how to get the most out of the capture phase.
Tom Leech of Tom Leech and Associates traveled from San Diego to discuss ways of building team cohesion for oral presentations in an era of virtual teaming. Often, a proposal team has never worked together before, and perhaps never even met before gathering for the orals segment of a competition. The four basic steps to building cohesion, he said, are Plan, Package, Proof, and Perform. The team must be knowledgeable about the entire proposal, not just individual segments of it. Presentation materials must have a consistent format and all should make reference to the same win themes. Oh, and everyone should know everyone else’s name, too.
Why is the capture phase so hard, and why do capture managers arrive at the proposal stage with so little information so much of the time? APMP Fellow Dana Spears addressed that in the next session. Dana, who has many years of experience on both the government side and the proposer side, pointed out that the program managers often are dealing with budgets and definitions inherited from predecessors over a years-long process. They have their own constituencies to satisfy, and team members are continually changing. Understanding the customer’s situation and the evolution of a program is a start toward effective capture. Company executives must communicate extensively with the capture team to convey what they know about a program. The capture team, for its part, must view the big picture early: not just the technical solution, but also management, price, and other factors that will go into the procurement decision. As a rule of thumb, Dana recommends that 1% of the bid price should be spent on the capture phase. That is a far better investment than spending to catch up during the proposal phase. He also advocates regular coaching of the capture team.
Greg Davidson, left, explained how to really learn from lessons-learned
exercises. Eric Sorensen, right, introduced by chapter Chair Jim Costell,
talked about focusing on the customer must-haves.
Greg Davidson of Northrop-Grumman presented a novel and interesting perspective on lessons learned. Some companies scrupulously gather lessons learned into a database and then leave them there. The items are so project-specific, and sometimes so detailed, that deriving guidance for next time can be difficult. Greg suggests interviewing everyone who was involved with a loss to ask their perspectives on what the root causes might be. He also asks them to define metrics or data that could prove or disprove this perspective. Thus, if someone on the team is convinced that we lost on price, and if it turns out that the winner’s price was higher than ours, this hypothesis can be discounted. Honest, robust discussion (some of it anonymous) can help to identify what really went wrong and what can be corrected to improve the probability of winning next time.
“Customer Musts” was the topic of Eric Sorensen’s presentation. Eric, of John Goyak & Associates, said most competitions come down to a handful of customer imperatives. Some of the customer musts are requirements written into the solicitation; others are more intangible, like fear of risk. For each must-have, the proposer should develop a specific strategy, including a competitive assessment and a strategic action plan. Winning on the key points means winning.
And what about the art of not writing a proposal? That was the topic presented by Mitch Boretz of UC Riverside and Nora O’Toole of ESRI. They reviewed the literature on best practices for no-bids, and discussion revealed some innovative strategies for using a no-bid to improve one’s chances for future work. The discussion included the use of decision software, various approaches to customized no-bid letters, and how to respond when the customer really wants you to bid and you don’t.
Congratulations to Ruth Belanger, APMP's newest Fellow!
Ruth Belanger has been chosen to be a Fellow of the Association of Proposal Management Professionals in recognition of her service to the organization as a frequent speaker, chapter officer, and scholar of proposal and document control processes. Ruth's selection was announced at APMP's international conference June 9 in Phoenix, AZ. The other Fellows announced this year are Ed Alexander, Betsy Blakney, Margaret Helsabeck, Marilyn Moldovan, Ali Paskun, Keith Propst, and Kirstie Webb.
Last revised 02/25/2010