June 30, 2005
Workplans Again
I've been busy. Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while may remember what happened last fall when I was engaged to develop a workplan for one of my international clients. Long story short -- after many frustrating weeks of trying to deal with a client that didn't show up for meetings and didn't provide me with the materials and information I needed, I decided not to continue with the assignment. I later learned from a contact there that they had brought in someone else to do the plan.
Well! A couple of weeks ago I get a call from this same client. They want to know if I can come in and start the workplan process again. The workplan never got done, and now they are desperate. Very little exists in terms of written documentation, schedules and activities. The MBA that they had brought on to replace me didn't know what to do and apparently just produced a jumbled list of tasks that were of no use. The client has now put someone in charge of making sure that the plan gets done and that people actually show up for scheduled meetings, etc. I was pretty hesitant about taking this on again, but I decided to go down and talk with them. After a couple of meetings and several hours of discussion and promises that things would be different this time around, I decided to give it another whirl.
And things really are quite different now. So far, I have had extensive meetings with 5-6 people who are responsible for directing various project components, and more meetings are scheduled for next week. I've been able to gather a lot of information, and the discussions themselves have revealed a number of problems and gaps that my client will need to address in order to effectively manage their project. A planning retreat will take place overseas at the end of July, and they've asked me to attend. In anticipation of that retreat, my job now is to develop an initial workplan that can be reviewed, discussed and refined with all the actors present.
I think all of us have learned something from this experience.
Posted by Deborah at 4:32 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
June 27, 2005
Proposal Team Materials
Let's say you've got a team of people working on a proposal. Before, during or shortly after your first proposal kickoff/planning meeting, each team member should receive a packet of materials that he/she can refer to over the course of the proposal preparation process. Here's what can go in that packet:
- RFP/RFA. One of the things you can do to make it easier for your team members is to remove RFP sections that they don't need. They may actually refer to their copy of the RFP if it's not so large or formidable.
- Proposal outline(s), including an annotated outline if you have one. The outline can indicate the person(s) responsible for each proposal section, or you can develop a separate listing of assignments.
- Kickoff meeting notes or storyboard, including information on the major themes and discriminators that will be highlighted throughout your proposal.
- Proposal schedule, including due dates of all draft and final sections, production schedule, major meetings and reviews, and other critical items that are time-sensitive.
- Contact List. This should include the names, phone numbers (landline and cell), and e-mail addresses of all proposal team members.
Posted by Deborah at 5:43 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
June 21, 2005
Project Staff Recruitment
Quite a few of my clients bid on projects that require them to identify and recruit personnel who will be proposed as project staff. Some of these individuals may be designated as Key Personnel; others may hold other important positions on the proposed project. Whether or not you need to recruit proposed staff for a bid may depend on several factors: (1) the staffing requirements that are specifically stated in the RFP/RFA; (2) the number and type of personnel who are already employed by your company/organization and their qualifications and availability for the proposed project; and (3) your proposal strategy, whereby your objective may be to exceed the stated RFP requirements by providing the names and resumes of additional personnel to fill project staffing requirements.
Depending upon the number of personnel to be named in your proposal, staff recruitment can become a major proposal task in inself. You may have to utilize members of your own staff or HR Department to handle the many aspects of recruitment, or you may need to bring in temporary staff to do it. But no matter how you approach it, it's a good idea to have a process in place and a perhaps a few checklists to help you organize your recruitment efforts. Here are some of the things that I've put together when I've had to recruit staff:
- A telephone "script" with reminders of what you want to say to prospective candidates when you contact them for a position.
- A standard e-mail letter if you are going to be contacting individuals by e-mail.
- An RFP Package consisting of at least the project background, scope-of-work, position description, and information about your company/organization including employee benefits information. This can be mailed or e-mailed to candidates who want more detailed information than what you provide in an initial phone call or e-mail.
- A standard acceptance letter or letter of intent that can be signed by individuals who have agreed to be proposed for your project, should the RFA/RFA require such letters.
- A checklist of items that you require each proposed individual to provide, e.g., resume, letter of intent, copies of professional certifications and licenses, any signed forms required by the RFP, etc. The checklist helps you to immediately identify any items that are missing so that you can follow-up with your candidates.
Recruitment can be difficult and tedious, but you can make it a bit easier by getting organized before you begin.
Posted by Deborah at 4:32 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
June 17, 2005
1,000 + Subscribers
As of this week, we have more than 1,000 registered subscribers to the blog. Thanks a bunch, everyone!
I've got some new projects that I'll be talking about next week. But for now, it's Friday and I just don't feel much like writing.
Have a great summer weekend!
Posted by Deborah at 5:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 15, 2005
This is What Happens...
when you don't take sufficient time to review and analyze an RFP. First, you scurry around trying to get organized to prepare your proposal. You have meetings, you gather information, you get people started on doing some assigned tasks. Second, you start putting your proposal together, spending a considerable amount of time and money, including perhaps, money for a consultant. Third, during proposal preparation, some of the people working on the cost and technical proposals spot some things in the RFP that raise some questions and red flags. Fourth, you hold some meetings to discuss the flagged items and decide -- with only a week to go before the due date -- that you can't make the bid because you didn't read the RFP carefully enough. Fifth, everything comes to a screeching halt.
That's what happened to me this week. I had started working on a 75-page technical proposal for a client who had contacted me the previous week. My client was very excited about the project because it seemed to be right up their alley. They got so excited about it that they didn't prepare well, although I wasn't aware of this when I began work. And it didn't help things any that they didn't really get started until a couple of weeks before the due date. But when their financial person began work on the cost proposal two days ago, he realized that the RFP was lacking some important information that he felt he needed. This, in turn, led to some other questions and concerns. An internal meeting was held to discuss these issues, and following that meeting, my client contacted me and told me to stop work.
The sad part about this whole thing is that it could have been avoided. Many of the questions/concerns they had were fairly obvious ones that could have been identified earlier on. Problem-solving could have taken place, approaches and alternatives could have been discussed, questions could have been submitted to the Contracting Officer, and so on. But none of this happened because the RFP wasn't carefully reviewed at the outset.
Diving into an RFP without doing your homework just doesn't make sense.
Posted by Deborah at 6:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 14, 2005
Adages
I love adages. I use them all the time when I'm talking, and I try not to use them when I'm writing. The reason I love them so much is that they express perfectly -- in just a few words -- the point you are trying to get across. If I were to try to paraphrase an adage, it would probably take me at least 20 words to do it, as opposed to maybe 5 or 6 for the adage. I know that adages are overused and trite, but I just can't help myself.
I was cooking something the other day and waiting for it to get finished. My husband commented that I was figeting and pacing, and why don't I just sit down and wait. I agreed and said to him "well, a watched pot never boils." To which he said "huh?" I couldn't believe he had never heard that expression. So then I had to try to explain it, but such explanations never really capture the essence of an adage.
I'm writing about adages today because one of them popped into my head last night -- "when one door closes, another one opens." For me, a door closed when my mother died about six weeks ago. I stopped working. I hardly heard from any clients, and even though I wouldn't have been able to work with them anyway, I sort of wondered why none of them were calling. I worried that perhaps two doors were closing at the same time. But in the past week, five of my regular clients have called with work for me to do, and several other new potential clients have gotten in touch. So another door has opened and I am grateful.
I just can't think of a better way to express it. And that's why adages are an ingrained part of my vocabulary and burned into my brain.
Posted by Deborah at 4:53 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
June 10, 2005
I've Just Got to Get Organized
It's odd that I can organize a proposal but can't organize my life. I am envious of people who have everything written down in their calendars and "to do" lists. Me, I've got my life written down on stickies and scraps of paper. Dentist appt., Mon, 3:30 PM is on a lined yellow sticky; buy coffee is on a solid pink one. Phone numbers are scribbled on a sheet of paper that I need for something else -- whose numbers are they? On a purple sticky, I've got some notes I took when talking to a client. Another pink sticky has some kind of special search and replace code that I used a couple of times for a proposal document. I had to write it down because it's too complicated to remember.
It's not that I haven't tried to get organized. I've bought numerous agenda books -- the ones that are bound in leather and have different sets of pages for different things. Some of these have been quite expensive. I've had two Palm PDAs, one with a black and white screen and one with a color screen. I've tried Outlook and other software programs that incorporate all kinds of organizing features. And my cell phone has a little calendar and planner built into it.
With all of these things, I've started off with really good intentions. For about a month, I would dutifully enter information into them. But then it became a chore. The agenda books would be in my briefcase in the car when I was making an appointment in my office. The PDAs were a pain to use. I would forget to open the software programs to enter or look at information. And the cell phone -- well forget about that. It has too many functions to remember. So I've always gone back to the stickies. But now there are just too many stickies; they seem to be everywhere.
So I am making a last desperate attempt. I've downloaded and am trying out a new program called Active Desktop Calendar. It parks itself on your desktop and loads when you turn on your computer. It lives on the desktop, so you don't have to remember to open a program. All your notes and appointments can appear on the desktop if you want them to. It can be configured in different ways, it looks nice, and it's easy to use. Will this be my salvation? I sure hope so.
But I haven't yet thrown away my boxes of stickies.
Posted by Deborah at 4:47 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
June 9, 2005
Officially Back to Work
I've pretty much finished up all the things that needed to be done following my mother's death, so I'm ready to return to work full-time (except for my daily visits to the swimming pool -- it has been hot, hot, hot! here in Maryland).
Clients are beginning to call again. I have a meeting today with a client that I haven't seen for about a year and a half (wondering what they've been doing all that time and why they haven't called). They have a proposal that is due on June 20. I'm going to read the RFP this morning, but from what I can tell, it looks like a major one. I can only hope they have started work on it.
Another regular client contacted me yesterday. They are going to be rebidding a project that they have been performing for the past several years. The RFP is not out yet, but they want to start preparing for it. So I'll be meeting with them in the next week or two to discuss what can be done before the solitiation hits the street.
The start of summer seems to also be a time when people get to thinking about starting their own businesses and figure they can get some kind of grant to do this. I suppose they are thinking if they start a business now, they'll be able to go to the beach whenever they please. If only. If only there was a way to get people to understand that no one is going to give them free money to start a business. If only we could all go to the beach every day. Aaaargh, dream on...
Back to work!
Posted by Deborah at 5:20 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
June 6, 2005
Another Thing About Consulting
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about the good and not-so-good aspects of being a consultant. I forgot to add that one of the good (very good) things is that you can decide who you want to work for and who you don't.
I thought about this last Friday after a phone conversation with a prospective client. He had e-mailed me about working on a proposal and asked me to call to discuss it. So I did. When I got him on the phone, he told me -- rather rudely -- that I should have my phone number on my website. His manner should have tipped me off, but no, I went blithely on listening to him explain his predicament with his proposal. His predicament was that he had never done a proposal before, he didn't know what to do, and the proposal due date was June 22.
I had briefly looked at the RFP that he had sent with his original e-mail, and told him on the phone that it would take a least a couple of weeks of my time because the RFP called for a lot of very detailed information. Then, in a sort of nasty way, he said that he was also talking with another proposal specialist who had also indicated that he could prepare all the required proposal sections. The client made several other points about the other consultant, making sure that I understood that this was a "competitive situation." Now, I'm happy to compete with others for business when prospective clients tell me in a friendly way that they're soliciting a number of bids. However, I don't take well to someone who is trying to pit me against others through pressure and numerous reminders that someone else might be selected for an assignment. In fact, this usually has the opposite effect on me -- instead of going after the business, I walk away.
Then, on this late Friday afternoon, my potential client "tells" me what he wants me to do. And what he wants me to do over the weekend is to undertake a detailed review of the RFP, tell him exactly what sections and subsections I can handle, and give him a price for each. He wants this early Monday morning so he can discuss it with me and then with his staff. I didn't say much; I was pretty noncommittal about it. But after we hung up, I knew for sure that this was not the way I was going to spend my weekend.
I also decided that this client was likely to turn out to be one of those "clients from hell." As a consultant, you have to sometimes be willing to walk away or turn down work because you don't think that your personality and the client's personality are a good match. After a while, you learn to trust your intuition on these matters. Fortunately, I've had very few clients from hell. But those few were enough to keep me on guard against getting any more of them.
So this morning, I'm going to send off an e-mail to this prospective client. I'll thank him for his interest in my services and let him know that I will not be available to work with him.
Choosing your clients -- just another benefit of being a consultant.
Posted by Deborah at 5:20 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
June 3, 2005
Where the Points Are
On my most recent proposal effort, my client wanted to include both an Executive Summary at the beginning of the technical proposal, and some kind of closing summary at the end. He asked me what I thought about this.
I have never really been a big fan of Executive Summaries. To my mind, all they really do is take up space that you can use for proposal sections that have evaluation points attached to them. Some RFPs/RFAs require Executive Summaries, but most don't. Sure, it's kind of a nice way to start off a proposal, but reviewers are supposed to evaluate or score proposals in accordance with the specific evaluation criteria set forth in the RFP. And it's rare to see any evaluation criteria that relate to an Executive Summary.
So my view is to first write to where the points are. Then, if you've got some space and time left over, you can prepare an Executive Summary. I can't count the number of times that an already-written Executive Summary has been deleted from a final draft because the proposal exceeded the page limits and something had to go.
I have the same opinion about closing summaries. Many of us are aware of the old saying that goes "tell them what you're going to say, say it, then tell them what you said." I suppose that one could use this to make a case for a closing summary, but I don't buy it when it comes to a proposal.
These are just my own personal opinions, of course, and many people feel differently. But I say -- go where the points are!
Posted by Deborah at 5:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 2, 2005
Repetition of Text
Back before my mother got ill, I began working with a new client who was preparing a proposal for their client, a very large corportation. I had started working on the proposal outline, but had to stop work completely when Mom went into the hospital.
Last week I got back in touch with my client to see if they needed further assistance. Turns out that they did -- they asked if I could review, comment on, and make any necessary changes to what was now the fourth draft of the proposal. So I agreed to do that.
They e-mailed the file of the document, and when I read it, I was amazed to see that numerous paragraphs were repeated over and over in various sections of the text. You know how -- when you read something once, and then you read it again in a later section -- you get to thinking "didn't I read that before?" and then you look back in the text to see if it really was the same thing you read earlier? Well, that's what happened. Again and again, I was reading paragraphs that I was sure I had read before. And they were the same exact paragraphs to boot, not just paraphrases of those paragraphs. Just plain old cut and paste.
Now the thing is, if I can spot these repetitions, you can be sure that the proposal reviewers will spot them. And they won't be terribly impressed with your cut and paste ability versus your ability to write substantive content. If you have a very long proposal, it's OK to repeat a few sentences here and there, particularly if they focus on things that are of critical importance. But you don't want to have your reviewers thinking "didn't I read that same thing in a previous section?"
If you do use cut and paste in your proposal, you need to do it very judiciously. If you want to emphasize something you've already said, it's best to paraphrase what you wrote before, using different words and sentence structures. Either way, if you end up writing the same thing over and over, your reviewers will think that you don't have much to say.
So be careful out there. Don't repeat and repeat and repeat, thinking that no one will catch on. They will, I guarantee it.
Posted by Deborah at 5:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
