Learn how Iron Mountain sales reps create and manage hundreds of proactive (typo-free) proposals each week. The presentation, introduced by BJ Lownie, RFP and proposal industry-expert, also shares his vision of the perfect solution to support the proposals industry.

1. Balancing Quality
with Output: Increasing
Proposal Productivity

2. BJ Lownie,ManagingDirector
Elise Gilbert
Director, SalesSupportServices
Gary Mancini
Sr.Director, SalesTechnologyandSupportServices

3. Proposal Applications
What is required to develop high-quality/
high scoring proposals that win business?

4. Proposal Development
• Information (customer, competition, your offer)
• Skills and knowledge
• Processes
• Time
And ideally…
High quality, pre-written, approved content
Developing high-quality/high scoring responses
that result in winning business requires:

5. Proposal Applications
If your pre-written proposal content was food…
…would you eat it?

6. Proposal Applications
• What is it?
• What does it taste/smell like?
• Who made it?
• How old is it?
• What happened to the last person that ate it?
Questions you might ask about food before eating it:

7. Proposal Applications
Is your pre-written proposal content suitable
for a high-quality/high-scoring response?

8. Proposal Applications
• Who wrote it? (Was this an appropriate/approved
author?)
• What does it say?
• How old is it?
• Is it well written (Is it easy to read, review, score?)
• What was the result the last time this was used?
Questions you might ask about the content:

9. Proposal Applications
Proposal Development and Cooking – An Analogy

10. Proposal Applications
• Highest quality, freshest ingredients (source known)
• Minimize time preparing ingredients while cooking
– As much as possible, ingredients prepared before hand,
ready to use, easy to access
• Maximize time for actual dish preparation
– Cooking, seasoning, simmering, presentation
Cooking – An Analogy

11. Proposal Applications
What are the attributes of the ideal proposal
development automation application?

12. Proposal Applications
• Supports development of proactive proposals and
responses to RFPs
• Contains high-quality, pre-written, proposal ready,
approved content (of varying lengths)
• Quick and easy content access and retrieval
• Easy to manage and maintain content and the application
• Provides guides and tools for proposal processes
The Ideal Application:

13. Elise Gilbert
Director, SalesSupportServices
Gary Mancini
Sr.Director, SalesTechnology
andSupportServices

14. Output and Productivity
• Alignment and collaboration of teams
• Messaging standards and framework
• An evolving process
• Customer experience
• User experience
People, Process, Technology and Content

15. Trucks and Boxes

16. Alignment and Collaboration

17. Messaging and Content
Core Messaging Document
We sell
good stuff.
Okay,
We’ll buy it.
Trends Insights
Target Market Critical Business Issues

18. Process and Standards

19. Process and Standards
Iterate until
Approved
Create
Proposal
Structure
Standard
Design &
Build
Product
Proposal
Apply Core
Messaging
Content
Review
Assembled
Output
Document
User
Acceptance
Testing
Release to
Field
Sales Enablement
Product Marketing
Product Management
Sales Reps

20. Process and Standards
Iterate until
Approved
Create
Proposal
Structure
Standard
Design &
Build
Product
Proposal
Apply Core
Messaging
Content
Review
Assembled
Output
Document
User
Acceptance
Testing
Release to
Field

21. Nuns and Roses

22. Nuns and GumNuns and Grammar

23. Grammar and Customers

24. Reps and Customers
Our Goals
• Customer finds our proposals to be engaging, informative
and different
• Customer isn’t distracted by anything that doesn’t add value
• Rep sells what we can deliver
• Rep delivers brand-compliant messaging

25. Design and Reps
• Good user interface doesn’t require training
• Use in-place help, guidance, choices
• Hide complexity
• Too much to read = difficult to use
• Right-size user interface via expand/contract
Key Concepts

26. SAVO and Proposals

42. What does Success look like?

43. Thank you
Formoreinformation
SAVO Web Site: www.savogroup.com
Sales First Nation: www.savogroup.com/sales-first-nation/
SAVO Products: www.savogroup.com/products/
SAVO Phone: 312-276-7700