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With continuous pressure and emphasis on technical competence, delivery and deadline, attention to the “softer sides” of leadership can seem a luxury or optional extra.

There can be a perception there’s no time for this sort of stuff, or that it’s not important, or that it belongs to someone else, or can wait until another day.

In my twenty years of supporting some fantastic bid, sales, and leadership teams to develop a winning mentality and achieve their goals, I’ve come to the conclusion that effective bid leadership is very much about your skills, attitudes, and courage.

I’ve noticed these things are always present when bid leadership is at its best:

• A vision and direction that engages hearts as well as minds. Your people get excited about how their task supports an overall purpose as well as organisational profit.
• Inspiring communication. You communicate every which way so that all your team members can see bid opportunity, bid progress, and make an emotional connection with their work, inspiring effort, and action.
• A commitment to bid type people. You already know that bid professionals are intelligent and motivated and accept this. They want their talents to be used, stretched and aligned with bid priorities every day. You offer this and demand it of them.
• Understanding that it’s a team sport. You know that only a team can win a bid. You know it’s essential (although often hard) to model being the team member you want. You are courageous in conversation – to build relationships – to enable interdependency – to create a winning bid.
• Respect for pressure. You bring a skilled and sensitive approach to managing workload, energy, and conflict between your bid professionals. You pay attention to how each person responds and changes their perspective as pressure increases during the bid. You give them a little slack when they need it.
• Honest people management. You haven’t liked it, but you have learned to tackle non or unhelpful performance early, providing feedback and treating people with respect. You know that if you don’t, others have to work even harder to catch up on bid progress, sometimes permanently damaging outcomes and relationships.
• Aiming high and a focus on synergy. You have outrageously high standards, have an improvement focus and never accept second best. (You also recognise this is different from demanding perfection.) You ask how different threads of the bid can fit together to create something much more innovative and interesting than the parts. You insist on it.
• A balance of creativity and commercial reality. You use your judgement and are willing to take a calculated risk, engage with and challenge your stakeholders, to balance price and quality to offer the winning combination.
• A commitment to win. You hang on in there, your persistence, resilience and tenacity continuously pushing for quality as you take your team, stakeholders and self the full distance to bid submission and the finish line.

What do you think? Does this resonate? What have I missed? What would you add?

I love to help leadership in bid teams go faster – where we develop the leadership of key people, meet bid requirements in real time and deliver a winning result, within high-pressure time-frames, one small step at a time.

But is it worth it? Does it improve the outcome? If not, I’ve written a nice list and nothing more.

Here’s how one bid team took the plunge to develop their leaders as part of a hugely important bid critical to their success.

I’m curious – how important is it for the leadership of your bid or tender to go faster, to increase your chances of winning? How much difference would it make?

Author: Gill How, Director Buonacorsi Consulting

http://tinyurl.com/gvopefg

Looking to recruit a winning team? Let us help.

Ghosting is the subtle method of casting doubt in the minds of the evaluators over the solutions, approaches and track records of competitors, without naming them. Ghosting draws attention to their weaknesses and provides an opportunity for bidders to emphasise their own strengths.

How common is Ghosting?

Once you become aware of Ghosting, you may find it occurs more frequently than you first imagine:

• Politicians use Ghosting to draw attention to the potential problems associated with the policies of their opponents – this is particularly evident at the moment during the run-up to the referendum on Europe
• A well-known car rental company uses Ghosting to emphasise their commitment to providing superior customer service when compared with their larger competitor
• A national broadcaster uses Ghosting to show how their breakfast radio show provides a potentially more enjoyable experience for the listener than the other available options

Do you ever use Ghosting in bids?

Ghosting can be used throughout the proposal lifecycle; in the capture phase, when developing the solution and at the proposal stage. And if you’re drawing attention to the weaknesses of your competitors, you can be sure that they are doing the same to you. Any Ghosting strategy, therefore, needs to take into account your own organisation’s perceived weaknesses and how your competitors might exploit them.

How effective is Ghosting?

Some people are not convinced of the effectiveness of Ghosting and question whether it has any influence over buyers and evaluators at all. This is difficult to assess because, when executed well, Ghosting is imperceptible to the reader.

Author: Ian Sherwood PPM.APMP  Bid & Proposals Director, twentysix2

What do you think about Ghosting?

Our partner Ian Sherwood, twentysix2 will be presenting at the APMP UK event in London on 23^rd May and is interested in your views on Ghosting.

You can contribute to the debate and share your favourite ghosting story by sending an email to support@twentysix2.co.uk or taking part in a short survey here. The best Ghosting anecdote will be presented on 23^rd May and will win a bottle of something fizzy.

Related article – Exploiting weaknesses in your competitors approach

For more expert advice, industry news and more, visit our bid hub.

We’re impressed to hear that our business partner Strategic Proposals is in the final of next week’s British Excellence in Sales & Marketing Awards. This competition – organised by the Institute of Sales & Marketing Management – is the most prestigious in the country for sales teams and the awards ceremony is hosted by comedian Dara O’Briain.

After reaching the finals in two categories in 2015 – including “Sales Trainer of the Year” for Strategic Proposals’ MD Jon Williams – they’re shortlisted in 2016 for the “Sales Team of the Year” award. This recognises their success helping clients to capture nearly £3bn of revenue in 2014/15, with a win rate pushing 90%. Reaching the finals is especially notable for a company of fifteen staff, when they’re up against major corporations such as British Gas, EON and Virgin Media.

We’re also delighted that Hymans Robertson – with whom both Bid Solutions and Strategic Proposals have worked collaboratively over the past two years – are finalists for the “Sales Support Team of the Year” award. This recognises the remarkable achievements of the team that we’ve jointly helped to design, build and train there – which has had a huge impact in improving win rates and reducing their cost of sale.

Wishing them well in both categories next week.

To view our latest vacancies for bid and proposal professionals, follow this link. To help us connect you with a winner to add to your team, follow this link.

Our partners at Bid Academy have announced details of a fantastic event on 16th March: Understanding the Bid Lifecycle: How to be a Bid Winner. This full-day event breaks down the Bid Lifecycle into its key phases and looks at how you can improve your chances of winning at each phase.  All guest speakers are experienced Bid professionals and will discuss lessons learned from real life bids. Whilst Bid Academy’s interpretation of the Bid Lifecycle differs slightly from Bid Solutions‘, we have a shared passion in engaging bid and proposal professionals earlier in the cycle and improving their chances of winning.

Full details: Understanding the Bid Lifecycle & How to be a Bid Winner

Click here to book your place.

To view our latest vacancies for bid and proposal professionals, follow this link. To help us connect you with a winner to add to your team, follow this link.

Our partners at Sixfold International welcomed John Fernau to their team last week.

John is a senior commercial leader with extensive experience of public procurement and major sporting events. John started his career in international development procurement with Crown Agents before moving on to became a management consultant with Hedra (now Mouchel) and advised on procurement in local and central government.

Whilst a consultant, John began working at the Olympic Delivery Authority and became permanent. In 2009 he became the Head of Procurement and led the delivery of a huge range of procurements including on and off park construction, park-wide logistics and security, transport, security, and other corporate professional services.

After the Games in 2012, John became the Commercial Director of the Home Office, managing a spend of £2.8bn pa, with a team of 220.

In 2014 John left the Home Office to found Fernau Solutions, a consultancy which helps SMEs to successfully navigate public sector procurement.

John will make a fantastic addition to the Sixfold team and we look forward to working with him.

To view our latest vacancies for bid and proposal professionals, follow this link. To help us connect you with a winner to add to your team, follow this link.

On the morning of his sixty-sixth birthday, David Bowie released the song ‘Where are we now?’

I played it the other day as I was reflecting on his music and it struck a chord. This question was at the heart of a recent discussion with an organisation looking for ways to improve their win rates in the new financial year.

Like many organisations, the leaders want the results, the benefits, the outcomes –increased capability, more motivation and improved win rates. They just want to get on with it. There is no time to lose, Carpe Diem, Tempus Fugit and all that. They want improved win rates and they want them now.

The frustration with the status quo and the enthusiasm to get going is palpable. And when there is so much energy focused on driving forward, it can be hard to put the brakes on.

But knowing what to do is not the same as knowing how to do it and, more importantly, how to do it in a way that sticks.

Making change stick is possible only when organisations understand the underlying principles at play. When they do understand, it can be a light bulb moment.

Understanding Change Management

In his book ‘The Primes – How any group can solve any problem’, Chris McGoff describes the core principles relating to change. If an organisation is to successfully carry out and embed change, stakeholders must be part of the programme which not only plans where they are going (the To-Be) but identifies their starting point (the As-Is).

Without parity of time spent on agreeing the As-Is and planning the To-Be, programmes will not generate enough buy-in to convince stakeholders that the pain of change is worthwhile. Without buy-in, stakeholders will exhibit low-levels of engagement, they will focus on other priorities, and the project-of-the-month will die a slow, painful and inevitable death.

Benchmarking is a solution that can engage every stakeholder in articulating the As-Is in terms of the good practice that is worth keeping, and the specific improvements needed. Giving every stakeholder the opportunity to influence the To-Be solution by asking about their priorities during the benchmarking exercise also generates vital buy-in to the programme.

So, if we are to engage people in change programmes and make them stick, we really do need to explore and agree ‘Where are we now?’

For as Bowie says:

‘Where are we now, where are we now?

The moment you know, you know, you know’

Bid Management and Rock & Roll, whatever next…?

Author: Ian Sherwood PPM.APMP  Bid & Proposals Director, twentysix2

Image Ref: The Primes by Chris McGoff. Published Wiley & Sons (2012) used with kind permission from the author.

To view our latest vacancies for bid and proposal professionals, follow this link. To help us connect you with a winner to add to your team, follow this link.

Our partners at Strategic Proposals have announced that in addition to the London course they will be running APMP Foundation training in Leeds on 8^th March.

Demand for APMP certified candidates is increasing so don’t miss out on your chance to develop your existing skills and gain professional accreditation.

Discount on APMP Foundation Training

You can complete the course for a special discounted rate of £455 + VAT. This rate assumes candidates have an APMP membership. Candidates will also require a copy of APMP’s Proposal Guide textbook (£55 + VAT).

If you are interested in finding out more please contact the team on 020 8158 3952.

Have you been considering gaining a professional qualification but not yet followed it up? The start of a New Year brings a focus on both personal and professional development and is a great time to invest in your career. Our partners at Strategic Proposals are running APMP Foundation Training on 16^th February in London.

Why take APMP Foundation Training?

Achieving APMP certification is a great way to show to current employers your commitment to personal development and best practice, as well as boosting your appeal to future employers.

We have seen the demand for APMP certified candidates increasing, with the majority of large organisations requesting APMP Foundation as a minimum requirement in their search for new staff.

Our most recent salary survey showed strong evidence that suggested achieving any level of APMP Certification will lead to an increased salary.

You can complete the course for a special discounted rate of £455 + VAT. This rate assumes candidates have an APMP membership. Candidates will also require a copy of APMP’s Proposal Guide textbook (£55 + VAT).

If you are interested in finding out more please contact the team on 020 8158 3952.

To learn more about bid writing courses, click here.

Exploiting weaknesses in your competitors approach, or ghosting as it is now more prosaically known is a subtle method of casting doubt in the minds of the evaluators over the solutions, approaches and track records of competitors, without naming them.

This week’s blog installment from our partners at twentysix2 ‘Exploiting weaknesses in your competitor’s approach’

Ghosting draws attention to their weaknesses and provides an opportunity for bidders to emphasise their own strengths.

There are opportunities to ghost throughout the proposal lifecycle: in the capture phase, when developing the solution and at the proposal stage.

When presenting your solution, describe aspects of your approach which are important to the customer in ways which competitors cannot match. Ghost the solutions of competitors by describing how they were first considered and then eliminated, explaining the risks and giving the reasons why an alternative solution was considered preferable. If you expect a potential competitor to offer a low-cost solution, draw attention to how the potential risks of their solution significantly outweigh any apparent cost benefits.

Similarly, examine various approaches to the management of the project which your competitors may have proposed, explaining the superiority of your approach and demonstrating improved outcomes for the customer. If you propose teaming, you might emphasise the benefits of the wider pool of expertise and describe the selection criteria by which partners were chosen and by inference, others rejected. Conversely, if you propose an in-house team, emphasise the potential risks associated with teaming.

Where possible, use testimonials in your proposals from independent bodies (or existing clients) to provide impartial validation which supports ghosting – the more credible the source appears to your customer the better. Third-party validation of an outstanding safety record might ghost a competitor who has recently experienced safety issues; a customer testimonial relating to response times or service levels might ghost the struggling performance of an incumbent.

Finally, consider how your competitors might ghost your solution, approach, and track record and how you can credibly pre-empt what competitors may say about your perceived weaknesses.

A note of caution. Don’t expect your proposal team to identify shortcomings in their own proposals – they will be too close to the action. Instead, review your competitive strategy periodically with an independent team who know the customer and likely competitors.

Some may caution against overuse but the influence of ghosting on proposal evaluators is largely subliminal. The cumulative effect of ghosting creates a competitive edge which can be the difference it takes to win business.

Points to consider:

• How does the customer perceive your competitors, their solutions and track records?
• How can you exploit weaknesses in your competitor’s approaches?
• Can you provide impartial validation to support your claims?
• How does the customer perceive you, your approach and your solution?
• What will competitors say about your solution, approach or track record?
• Do you have weaknesses that can be exploited by your competitors?
• How can you pre-empt any perceived weaknesses?

Author: Ian Sherwood CPP.APMP, Bid and Proposals Director, twentysix2

To discuss how Bid Solutions’ consultancy services can help you win more business, please get in touch on 020 8158 3952 / enquiry@bidsolutions.co.uk

Storyboarding is a planning process used to create a visual summary of the structure and major elements of a proposal.

The next blog installment from our partners at twentysix2 is ‘Overcoming Objections to Storyboarding’.

The bid storyboard should be created before writing commences, the degree of complexity reflecting the scale and scope of the proposal. Pricing quotes for repeat business for an existing customer do not normally require this level of planning.

Organisations that use storyboards successfully understand that they are an integral part of the proposal process. They ensure that those tasked with implementation are familiar with them and can adequately explain their purpose. They commit the time needed to ensure that the storyboards are reviewed and updated completely before the messages are communicated to the writers.

Objections to a Bid Storyboard

The main objection to storyboarding is that it is an additional, unnecessary task that takes time away from writing. In reality, it is an essential planning tool which, when used effectively, provides the proposal manager with a method of controlling the proposal process and enables contributors to produce content that can be used without re-writing.

Here are some of the benefits of using storyboards to plan proposals:

• Validates strategic & competitive approach – Because storyboarding looks at planning the entire proposal, it provides the opportunity to articulate a winning strategy and an approach to dealing with competitors which can be disseminated to contributors before writing commences.

• Identifies potential strategic short-comings in a timely manner – Individual contributors, writing in isolation, may not be aware of capability gaps which can be rectified more quickly the sooner they are identified.

• Provides the opportunity for collaboration on the solution – Although the proposal manager will normally take responsibility for the storyboard, detailed proposal planning is an iterative process involving the operational, technical and marketing teams from whom opportunities for collaboration may be identified.

• Facilitates easy executive overview for approval – The reality of time constraints means executives are unlikely to read and approve every page of the proposal. Engaging senior management at the storyboard stage provides the opportunity for early approval of the strategy.

• Provides a benchmark against which to review – Having identified strategic themes and competitive strategies, proposal contents can be reviewed to ensure that these messages are consistently applied.

• Storyboarding can eliminate major re-writes, saving time & money – Organisations that use storyboards or similar proposal planning processes can double their productivity and halve the cost of writing proposals.

The bid storyboard is normally completed immediately after the proposal kick-off meeting and reviewed before writing starts. Following the review, bid contributors can be comprehensively briefed about win themes, competitive strategy and their responsibilities.

Author: Ian Sherwood CPP.APMP, Bid and Proposals Director, twentysix2.

If you want help with Storyboards, planning or any other aspect of proposal management, Bid Solutions’ consultancy services can show you the quickest way to make the biggest improvements. Please get in touch on 020 8158 3952 / enquiry@bidsolutions.co.uk

To learn more about how we can help you improve your bid win rates, click here.