Steven Coles, CP.APMP Darrell Woodward, CF.APMP

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2 How to Automate Proposals and Influence People

3 How to automate proposals and influence people Steven Coles CP.APMP Head of Bids and Proposals Management at Verizon; 19 years of experience in Bid and Proposal Management; Responsible for the conception, implementation and evolution of proposal automation at Verizon. Darrell Woodward CF.APMP Proposal Manager and Lead proposal automation architect at Verizon; 16 years of Business Development and Product Marketing experience; Innovator of new applications for proposal automation, including dynamic propositions and Statements of Work. 3

4 In 45 minutes from now, you will know Learn: How we applied what we ve learned as bid professionals; Driving the persuasive paradigm beyond the RFP centre; Coaching Marketing to create persuasive proposal content. Challenge: Promote the added value of the proposal team as thought leaders; Translate a corporate GTM strategy into persuasive proposal themes; Deliver a solution that offers massive scale, yet is easy to maintain. Innovate: Creating a force multiplier for best practice to drive more opportunities; Automating issues and outcomes to create dynamic propositions; Delivering business intelligence to validate sales strategy. 4

5 What did we do? 8 5

6 Create blended not boilerplate content Supporting a go-to-market strategy that: Incorporated industry specific issues and outcomes; Aligned solutions to common business challenges; Integrated messaging across product platforms; Positioned with relevance from the C-suite to the functional head. We were expected to: Drop marketing collateral into proposals. Instead, we challenged to: Deconstruct the marketing collateral; Repurpose the content for proposals; Translate messaging into proposal themes; Tune and weave themes throughout proposal. 6

7 Critical Success Factors People: Analytical, structured; Creative, artistic; Experienced and APMP certified. Process: Well-defined, pragmatic; Simple, efficient interlocks; Robust, founded in best practice. Technology: Build versus buy; Beware of shelfware ; Supportability and growth. 7

8 How our team works Bid Management: Facilitating opportunity qualification; Leading and coaching bid teams; Crafting bespoke bids and proposals; Applying APMP best practice. Content Management: Creating and maintaining proposal content; Driving corporate GTM into field sales; Innovating and being in the vanguard; Amplifying best practice. 8

9 Content is King, context is Queen Content: What are we writing about, anyway? Facts tell, stories sell! Small amounts of content, with a big focus on getting it right ; Don t let perfect get in the way of better. Context: Use client s industry to frame the document; Consider the location of content in document structure; Pay special attention to crafting segue text; Situational within the sales campaign. 9

10 Amplifying the Persuasive Paradigm Tom Sant s NOSE model At the macro level: Document structure; Automagic document titles; Client industry graphic art. At the micro level: Narrative structure; Segue text; Proof points. 10

11 My client is FINANCE SECTOR 11

12 My client s business issue is FINANCE SECTOR 12

13 My client s desired outcome is FINANCE SECTOR 13

14 The product I want to propose is FINANCE SECTOR 14

15 The completed proposition FINANCE SECTOR 15

16 An existing client in the Media sector MEDIA SECTOR 16

17 A client in the Healthcare sector HEALTHCARE SECTOR 17

18 Automagic elements Image of Sample Proposal (before) Image of Sample Proposal (after) 18

19 Developing the content Logical (input-focused): Avoid the trap of explaining the features of the concept; We started using MS Excel spreadsheet; Hard to get started, hard to maintain focus; Storyboards will keep you sane. Creative (output-focused): Created a worked example document; Incorporated placeholder textware as a guide; Used MS Word review tools to reinforce request. 19

20 Measuring success, delivering analytics Tactical examples: Platform usage; Content consumption; Opportunity throughput; Training and support. Strategic examples: Campaign success; Sales rep behaviour; Builds and blends; Impact on sales funnel. 20

21 Measuring success, delivering analytics Platform Users, by lob 14% 0% 22% 8% 87% Lorem ipsum dolor 63% Lorem ipsum dolor 30% Lorem ipsum dolor 91% Lorem ipsum dolor Platform Users, by region Content Consumption, by product / service Opportunity Throughput, by quarter Messaging Blends, by sales campaign Business Issue Desired Outcome Desired Outcome Desired Outcome 21

22 Driving Sales Behaviour Rolling out APMP best practices by stealth: Sales are not necessarily proposal writers; Amplify the expertise of the proposal centre. Use-case driven approach to proposal building: Delivering complexity in a simple interface; Using a script-based approach to extract client information; Building the proposal story from real intelligence; Forces sales to think with closer proximity to their client s needs; Coal-face reports on propositions delivered to customers. 22

23 Finessing with Campaigns du jour Flexible matrix structure: Multi-dimensional partitioning controls complexity through simplicity: Building upon existing content, structure, and talent; Intelligently optimising corporate messages for proposals; Blending boilerplate fragments into cohesive stories; Rapidly adapting to keep up with the pace of change. Agile proposal content: Daring to be different provided an adaptable platform for: Synchronising with events and campaign messaging; Taking a lead role in strategic sales initiatives; Applying consistent pressure to drive sales; Quickly reacting to tactical promotions. 23

24 Lessons Learned Dare to be different: Challenge the status quo; Break down functional silos; Claim your space as the expert. Work smart: Modularity of content delivers scale; Focus on the output, not the input; Don t let perfect get in the way of better. Be pragmatic: Remember: its personalised, not bespoke! Let sales be sales ; Buy, don t build. 24

25 How to Automate Proposals and Influence People

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