Proposals Part 9 (Appendix)

Often I have seen people struggling with drafting proposals, so I have gone ahead and laid some points which one can keep in one's mind while dealing with this task 

This is the 9th part of the series

Possible Appendix items

• Honors
• Overview of the team members
• References and testimonials
• Copies of forms
• Dissemination plan
• Detailed timeline
• Terminology List
• Subject Index
• Visuals
• Drawings
• Pre and post SWOT Analysis
• Description of subcontractors
• Evaluation Instrument
• Forms
• Management agreement and fee structure
• Bibliography or source cited 

If you want some perspective on how you or  your company needs to enhance its Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Proposals Part 8 (Ending)

Often I have seen people struggling with drafting proposals, so I have gone ahead and laid some points which one can keep in one's mind while dealing with this task

This is the 8th part of the series

ENDING

• Introduction
• Purpose statement
• Brief summary
• Overview or review
• Background information if unsolicited

In the End (you can also) :

• Restate the benefits
• Include a summary
• Conclusions
• Recommendations
• Action plan
• Deadline

If you want some perspective on how you or  your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Proposals Part 7 (Drafting III)

Often I have seen people struggling with drafting proposals, so I have gone ahead and laid some points which one can keep in one's mind while dealing with this task 

This is the 7th part of the series

Opposition

• Potential Issues
• Possibility of issues happening
• Specific mitigation steps

Evaluation

• Methods
• Outside Evaluator

If you want some perspective on how you or  your company needs to enhance its Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Proposals Part 6 (Drafting II)

Often I have seen people struggling with drafting proposals, so I have gone ahead and laid some points which one can keep in one's mind while dealing with this task 

This is the 6th part of the series

Qualifications and Experience

• Reasons your company is best for the project
• Your competitive strengths
• Qualifying experiences you have
• Additional qualified people who will be added 

Personnel Areas

• Who will do what
• Capabilities experience and training
• Experience of key members
• Previous successes

Policies and procedures

• Assessments
• Transparency

If you want some perspective on how you or  your company needs to enhance its Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Proposals Part 5 (Drafting)

Often I have seen people struggling with drafting proposals, so I have gone ahead and laid some points which one can keep in one's mind while dealing with this task 

This is the 5th part of the series

Time or Task Schedule

• When will it start
• How long will it take
• Time breakdown for each step of the proposal

Cost or Budget

• Direct Costs
• Indirect Costs
• Complete Breakdown showing all Computations
• People Travel supplies
• When and how will you bill your client
• Income/Expense statement

Market Analysis

• Competitors
• Where your clients fit
• What type of market share you believe your proposed idea can secure
• Inventory
• Workforce
• Plans to market recommendations
• SWOT

If you want some perspective on how you or your company needs to enhance its Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Proposals Part 4 (Solution)

Often I have seen people struggling with drafting proposals, so I have gone ahead and laid some points which one can keep in one's mind while dealing with this task 

This is the 4th part of the series

Proposed Solution 

• Description of how your service is different
• Specialized support services
• Overall benefits of the proposal plan

Methods

• Reference related studies
• Quote individuals who are prominent in the field
• Provide Statistics
• Identify steps taken for primary research
• Provide activities in the study
• Describe the questionnaire development

Goals Objectives Benefits and Outcomes

• The Goals of your proposal
• Your understanding of the organization and its problems
• What needs will be met
• How will they be measured
• How much money will be saved
• What non-tangibles will be impacted
• Benefits the clients will achieve
• Direct Benefits
• Indirect Benefits

If you want some perspective on how you or  your company needs to enhance its Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Proposals Part 3 (Pre-Drafting & Discussions)

Often I have seen people struggling with drafting proposals, so I have gone ahead and laid some points which one can keep in one's mind while dealing with this task 

This is the 3rd part of the series

• Breaking a proposal into many time sections is easier
• Scoring Charts : To Let know how the proposal will be evaluated
• Review Chart -  Checklist

History and Mission Statement

1. How long you have been in existence
2. Your mission or vision statement
3. General work of the organization
4. What you excel at
5. Any awards you won
6. SWOT
7. Similar projects
8. Anything else to sell your credibility

Current situation and background

• Explain the need you've identified
• Current Situation
• Why it needs to Change
• Ideas that have been tried

If you want some perspective on how you or  your company needs to enhance its Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Proposals Part 2 (What you need to do !)

Often I have seen people struggling with drafting proposals, so I have gone ahead and laid some points which one can keep in one's mind while dealing with this task

This is the 2nd part of the series

In RFP's 

1. Look for key phrases
2. Make an outline of the lettered sections
3. Make sticky notes
4. Brainstorm who should do what'
5. Reorder the section

If you want some perspective on how you or  your company needs to enhance its Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Proposals Part 1 (Guidelines & Inclusions)

Often I have seen people struggling with drafting proposals, so I have gone ahead and laid some points which one can keep in one's mind while dealing with this task 

This is the 1st part of the series

I will try to post a new section every week.

Common Guidelines :

• Focus on readers needs
• Includes precise description of service
• Include Market analysis
• Describe experience of your key players
• Financials

What they need to Include :

• What's the course of action
• How much will it cost
• Benefits of accepting
• Easy to read Information

If you want some perspective on how you or your company needs to enhance its Sales / Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

KPIs - If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it.

My two favorite decision support sayings are
1. “If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it.” 
2. “Information without action is useless.”

These two sayings have been adopted for business, and is fundamental to understanding the importance of KPIs (key performance indicators). Developing and improving KPIs is the number one strategic action for growth.

For field-based organizations, KPIs are even more important. They are fundamental to evaluating field rep performance, allowing you to determine which reps are doing well and which may need help. Since reps do not work in an office, managers need to be able to see rep activity in the field and monitor performance.

KPIs also help you evaluate your business performance and see which areas you may need to work on. By using them, you can maximize your company’s efficiency and productivity. KPIs may vary from company to company, but they should all be simple, aligned, relevant, measurable, achievable, timely, and visible in order for them to be effective. 

Collecting data from KPIs merely gives you numbers. In order to understand each KPI and its impact on your business, you need to analyze this information. With cloud solutions like Salesforce & other mobile applications, it’s easy to analyze your data. So if KPIs are monitored frequently and analyzed often, it is easy to see areas in which your business performance may be lacking in comparison to others. After analyzing, you can reallocate your resources as needed and change your strategy to better fit your business objectives.

KPIs can be the key to increased business productivity, efficiency, and growth, but only if you measure them frequently and take the steps to analyze and adjust them because raw data can give you insight, but upon analysis, you will find that you will gain much deeper insights that will aid you in improving your business.

If you want some perspective on how you or your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Best PMO ROI metrics

Field Enablement sometimes involves working closely with the PMO for measuring project efficiency thus making it necessary for the PMO to establish their own metrics to show the PMO’s contribution to the success of the company. Typical ROI metrics that the PMO use include:

• Percent of projects using/following the system/framework
• Ratio of project manager to total project staff
• Customer satisfaction ratings
• Year-over-year throughput
• Percent of projects at risk or in trouble
• Number of projects per headcount (staffing tolerance for projects)
• Ways to improve faster closure
• Percent of scope changes per project
• Percentage of projects completed on time
• Percentage of projects completed within budget

It is important to understand that metrics management is an essential component of knowledge management and involvement by the PMO is essential. It is very difficult to improve processes and work flow without gathering metrics and storing the results for traceability.

If you want some perspective on how you or your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

KPI Library methodology

Getting back to Field Effectiveness, nowadays companies maintain metric and KPI libraries the same way that they maintain libraries for best practices and lessons learned. The key is to use a methodology or framework.Firstly identifying the clients and stakeholders, we then input the requirements,business case, and accompanying assumptions.The methodology then guides us through the different process groups of initiation ,planning ,execution ,monitoring and controlling ,and closure .The methodology also provides us with guidance in the identification of metrics, KPIs and dashboard reporting techniques for a particular client.

If you want some perspective on how you or your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Causes of Failure in a Sales Support Project

Before starting a project I usually try to take a mental note of the causes of failure in a project, some of them are issues that could persist throughout the duration of the contract. So I have compiled a generic list of common causes of failure that I have encountered that I keep my eye out for !, They are :

• End user stakeholders not involved throughout the project. (My biggest Gripe !)
• Minimal or no stakeholder backing; lack of ownership.
• Weak business case.
• Plan asks for too much in too little time.
• Poor estimates, especially financial.
• Unclear stakeholder requirements.
• Passive user stakeholder involvement after hand-off.
• Unclear expectations.
• Assumptions, if they exist at all, are unrealistic.
• Plans are based upon insufficient data.
• No systematization of the planning process.
• Inadequate or incomplete requirements.
• Lack of resources.
• Assigned resources lack experience.
• Staffing requirements are not fully known.
• Constantly changing resources.
• Poor overall project planning.
• Missed deadlines and no recovery plan.
• Budgets are exceeded and out of control.
• Lack of re-planning on a regular basis.
• Lack of attention provided to the human and organizational aspects of the project.
• Project estimates are best guesses and not based upon history or standards.
• Not enough time provided for proper estimating.
• No one knows the exact major milestone dates or due dates for reporting.
• Team members working with conflicting requirements.
• People are shuffled in and out of the project with little regard for the schedule.
• Each stakeholder uses different tools, which be incompatible with the tools of project partners.
• Weak project and stakeholder communications
• Poor assessment of risks if done at all.
• Wrong type of contract.
• Poor project management; team members possess a poor understanding of project management, especially virtual team members.
• Technical objectives are more important than business objectives.

If you want some perspective on how you or your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Defining Complexity

Having been a part of meetings where level of complexity of a given project is often discussed, I prefer to usually clarify my stand by mentioning that complexity can be defined according to the number of interactions that must take place for the work to be executed. The greater the number of functional units that must interact, the harder it is to perform the integration. The situation becomes more difficult if the functional units are dispersed across the globe and if cultural differences makes integration difficult. Complexity can also be defined according to size and length. The larger the project is in scope and cost, and the greater the time frame, the more likely it is that scope changes will occur significantly, affecting the budget and schedule. Large, complex projects tend to have large cost overruns and schedule slippages. Complex projects can differ from traditional projects for a multitude of reasons, including:

◾ Size
◾ Dollar value
◾ Uncertain requirements
◾ Uncertain scope
◾ Uncertain deliverables
◾ Complex interactions
◾ Uncertain credentials of the labor pool
◾ Use of large virtual teams
◾ Other miscellaneous differences

There are numerous definitions of a complex project, based upon the interactions of two or more of the preceding elements. Even a small, two-month project can be considered complex according to the definition. This can create havoc when selecting and using metrics. The projects that you manage within your own company can be regarded as complex projects if the scope is large and the statement of work is only partially complete so before starting a project just try to thrash out this important issue as well, wherever required.

If you want some perspective on how you or your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Points on Proposal Development

Often I hear Business Development Managers cribbing about Proposal development which can be quite a headache and prospective clients giving them a hard time, so I have gone ahead and placed some important pints on a list to help you differentiate you from your competitor by mentioning :

1. Track record 
2. Awards
3. Endorsements
4. Incumbent
5. Patent technologies
6. Influence
7. Size
8. Partnerships

I use a set of Microsoft Excel templates to do track these.

So start this process by :

Identify each strength, for example size and see:

Where this can be flipped around so that it becomes a disadvantage.

For example, size can imply inflexibility and red-tape. You can highlight your nimble work force and the speed of response. You can then work through all of the strengths and write your bid so that:

Each ‘strength’ is identified - but the risks are flagged next to it. You then show how you would resolve these and build trust in the proposal assessor’s mind.

Each ‘strength’ is identified - but the issues are discussed next to it. You then show how issues may arise if the grant provider chooses a larger firm and why selecting your firm may be a safer option. 

If you want some perspective on how you or your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Identifying Your Competitors Strengths

The usual way to go about analyzing Competitor strength is to go ahead and build a SWOT analysis starting with the strengths and moving into the weaknesses.The key point here is that you need to reduce whatever anxiety the client has with your firm. Go through each objection they may have and show how you are a safer bet and are more likely to deliver the goods, ahead of schedule.
 
Usually the client gets a good feeling once he knows that the seller understands his problem
So if you help the client see where they could go wrong with other applicants, then that helps us reduce the number of applicants. Write to reduce the assessor’s anxiety. Once you tailor your material in this way, your success rate will increase dramatically.

If you want some perspective on how you or your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

The Solution Approval & Review Meeting(SOAR) - Points to remember

Often I have seen people feel overtly cocky about the SOAR meet and then get shot down in a couple of seconds, so in order to prevent the sort of disasters that SOAR meets can be, I have laid down some important points which can be followed to ensure your proposal has a fighting chance to succeed

• Analyze thoroughly the Approval process
• Try to engage people before for a informal talk to gauge the mood and also form alliances
• Prepare, prepare, prepare & prepare - The single most important thing to consider
• Position it for your audience to help them convince them of their benefits
• Keep it simple
• Answer questions with confidence

Do:

• Meet with important stakeholders in advance of needing their formal approval
• Position your idea in terms of the benefits your audience stands to gain
• Answer questions concisely and confidently

Don’t:

• Assume that your audience will believe it’s a good idea just because you do
• Overwhelm your audience with detailed analysis or specifics
• Get defensive or angry when people challenge your idea

If you want some perspective on how you or your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Guidelines for Modelling

The best advice/guidelines that I usually lay down for a modelling process especially a client facing data model is as follows :

•  Model should be iterative
•  Model should be dynamic
•  It should be economical in data
•  It should be economical in its views
•  Concepts should be clear and recognized
•  Model structure should be clear and recognized
•  Models should be consistent to previously available models ie. -  if they exist
•  Try and make models as correct and complete as required
•  The different concerns/viewpoints regarding the components should be treated orthogonally rather than in a scattered manner.

If you want some perspective on how you or your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

Basic Modelling Activities

As real life modelling is usually not linear and tends to be highly interactive, I have often tried to detail the activities involved in a modelling process, some of them are explained as follows :

1. Establishing the purpose, scope and focus- What part of reality will be described (Mine usually consists of three categories - conservative,normal, optimistic
- What aspects will be described - (probably the features of the product)
- What level of detail will be available - (Very important aspect as a lot of detail tends to confuse people...;-))
2.Selecting one or more viewpoints
3.Creating and structuring the model- Enterprise architecture to be used/not used ?
- Can you elicit and add additional info if you need
- Based upon the available information  you then engineer a model
- Or you can create a model via a visual representation
4. Visualizing/Using/Testing the model- Validation.Obtaining Commitment (The hardest part, so be ready to fight it out !)
- Informing the other stakeholders
5. Maintaining the model

If you want some perspective on how you or your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com

The Zachman Framework - Helping define perspective

Whenever asked to advise on a framework that helps project an ideal set of rules and architecture for the management of complex IT products, I have always recommended the Zachman Framework as it helps define how perspectives are related according to certain rules or abstractions and also the schema of the architecture

All in all It allows different people in the team to look at the same thing from different perspectives. This helps create a holistic view of the environment, an important capability illustrated in this figure provided by zachman

If you want some perspective on how you or your company needs to enhance their Sales/Client Management Capabilities, please email me at shubhanjan.saha@gmail.com