A brief look at some of the things that can cause Imperfect Proposals (customer and client submissions) to be crafted

1. SS
Ten Slides in Ten Minutes:
Pondering Imperfect Proposals
[Capturing the Hearts and Minds of Prospects & Customers]
Presented by:
Bill Graham CP.APMP
August, 2014
bill.graham@sales-synthesis.co.za
Governance, Risk
& Compliance
Bid/Proposal
Team
Bid Win/ Capture
Strategy/Plan/s
Impact
Opportunity Support
Systems

2. A Handful of Issues usually ensure the Crafting of Imperfect Proposals
Governance, Risk
& Compliance
Bid/Proposal
Team
Bid Win/ Capture
Strategy/Plan/s
Impact
Opportunity Support
Systems
Slide: 2
• Too many or too few
• Inarticulate
• Unskilled
• Negative
• Mediocre
• Positional Power
• Political Players
• No ‘Bias for Action’
• Weak content crafters
Resources
• Risk Aversion
• Lack of Controls
• Inability to create honest assessments
GRC
• Operational
• Transactional
• No Account Plan
• No Capture Plan
• Over-Complicated
• Ad-Hoc
• Introversion
• Badly Communicated
• Positionally ‘forced’
Planning
• Non-Integrated
• Administrative Burden
• Irrelevant Functionality
Systems

3. Inhibitors are Barriers Built on Bad Foundations: Identify Them or Fail
Governance, Risk
& Compliance
Bid/Proposal
Team
Bid Win/ Capture
Strategy/Plan/s
Impact
Opportunity Support
Systems
Slide: 3
Resources
• Risk Aversion
• Lack of Controls
• Inability to create honest assessments
GRC
Planning
• Non-Integrated
• Administrative Burdon
• Irrelevant Functionality
Systems
Fear Management will
destroy any Organisation
Bureaucracy will destroy
any Organisation
Check your Organisation’s
foundations for flaws
Ensure ‘Completeness of
Intent’ by syndicating
• Operational
• Transactional
• No Account Plan
• No Capture Plan
• Over-Complicated
• Ad-Hoc
• Introversion
• Badly Communicated
• Positionally ‘forced’
• Too many or too few
• Inarticulate
• Unskilled
• Negative
• Mediocre
• Positional Power
• Political Players
• No ‘Bias for Action’
• Weak content crafters

4. Slide: 4
Bad People, Processes and Systems are at the Heart of All Problems
Source: Sales Synthesis
1. Non Team-Players: Unhelpful, Unapproachable, Negative, Apathetic, Uncaring, Caustic
2. Political Animals: Self-Absorbed, Personal Ambitions Conflict with Organisational Needs
3. Unskilled Resources: Poor Recruitment Practices, Nepotism, Cronyism, Poor Decision-making, lack of business agility
4. Dated Resources: Mis-Aligned to Marketplace, Irrelevant, Ineffectual
5. No Positive Organisational Culture: Poor Recruitment Practices, Deadwood,
6. Guerrillas in the Midst: Competitor’s Ally, Disruptive, Disgruntled
7. Corporate Tourists: Retired at work, Focused on Personal Interests, Time-Wasters
1. Dated: Irrelevant, Administrative Overhead, Mis-Aligned to Best Practices
2. Bureaucratic: Cumbersome, Time-Wasting, Soul-Destroying
3. Silo’d: Disconnects across Business Units, Mismatched Data, Revenue Leakage,
4. Business Unit Relevance Only: Non-Functional for other Business Units, Meaningless to Organisation, Manual Interventions
5. Informal: Confusion, Optional, Irrational,
6. Over-Governance: Debilitating, Regulatory Strangulation, Stagnation
1. Outdated: Irrelevant, Administrative Overhead, Burdensome
2. Non-Integrated: Manual Interventions, Revenue Leakage, Time-Wasting
3. Monolithic: Feeding the Monster, Indivisible, Slow to Change, Glacial Inactivity
4. Inability to eBond: Islands of Data, No Linkage to Clients’ Systems, Insular Elements
5. Proprietary: Inability to Support International Standards, GRC (Governance, Risk, Compliance) challenged, Restrictive Growth and Evolution
People:
Processes:
Systems:
In many sales organisations there are People, Processes and Systems that inhibit effective and efficient sales activities.

5. Size does not Count
The Opinion Paradox
Source: Sales Synthesis
Number of Resources on the Bid Team
Productivity
The crest of sensibility
Slide: 5
Opinions and Positional
Power do not a robust Bid
Team make
The trajectory of hopelessness
The Larger a Bid Team, the Lower the Resultant Productivity

6. Head Office
Regional Offices
National Offices
Head Office
Regional Offices
National Offices
<operating as
individual entities>
National Offices:
• agility to compete
• local knowledge
• Focused on practical &
realistic growth
• administrative overhead
• no local knowledge
• additional reporting
• invoicing/billing
dependent on non-local
reward system
• local competitors have
advantage/s
• culture clash
• receptive gap
• ‘one-size fits all’ challenge
Google: The company lacks the usual layers of middle-management, the hierarchical structure found in
traditional corporations is non-existent – and not needed
Reciprocal
Altruism
Slide: 6
Decisions: Traditional Global Organisations ‘smother’ National entities

7. Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) Permeates a Sound Organisation
An Example of IT GRC
Analyse GRC for all aspects of the Organisation
– including Sales.
Get it Done or Give Up !
Slide: 7
Source: Unknown

8. Bid Management
Account Plans: When Well-Crafted, they Feed the Soul of a Sales Organisation
Customers
Clients
• Better client understanding, positioning your organisation to be able to offer thought leadership as a
competitive discriminator
• Understanding the heartbeat and soul of the client
• Client involvement and buy-in – potentially allowing active involvement in the client’s budgeting process
• Sharing of information across cross-functional business units
• Formulation of robust relevant account strategies (across geographies, business units etc.)
• Early warning and guidance for execution & delivery
• Learning for all parties involved (extended team)
• Better management insight / client portfolio management.
The Ramp of Client Retention
Slide: 8
Account Plan Capture Plan

9. Risk is filtered when the Service Provider understands the Client’s Business Framework and its relevance to ‘Proposals’
Slide: 9
Service
Provider
Risk may be filtered by knowing the
‘heart & soul’ of a client through
robust Account Management
Clients
Reduced risk allows a Service Provider
to be flexible in their Proposal crafting
approach
The Risk
Rainbow
Risk
The Account Plan Reduces Risk, if Well-Crafted and Syndicated
Source: Sales Synthesis

10. • They Connect Throughout
• They are Understood with Ease
• They Leave No Questions Unanswered
• They Create Positive and Memorable Experiences
• They Ensure the Reader Leaves with a Positive Message.
Delivery
Reader
Perception
Receptive
Gap
Moment of
Truth
Relevance
Slide: 10
Source: Sales Synthesis
Relevant Proposals Resonate with the Client
Do not let the
crafting of a
Proposal
become a Game
of Chance