Panda Eats Shoots and Leaves

I recently entertained an international proposal ambassador. His mission to South Africa was to attend the first ever AGM of the local APMP chapter. We both have certificates to prove it. For those of you who don’t understand cryptic TLA’s, too bad – refer to the table of abbreviations on page 999 of the proposal I forgot to attach. Here I am greeting Proposal Panda. He eats shoots but he hasn’t left yet. Proposal Panda inspired me to continue the work he started. He shared with me some secrets on how to motivate bid teams in the dead of night and discouraged me from making potions for them to drink. Instead he showed me how to make a mean cup of coffee and explained what Red Bull does.


Sporting his new cap, he took some time off to go on safari to the local zoo. This elephant tickled his ear – how rude! Unfortunately his hectic globe-trotting schedule didn’t allow for a trip to the Kruger Park game reserve to see the rest of the animals known as the Big 5. And he’ll have to save Cape Town for next time. We told him that Table Mountain and the wine-lands are amazing. And the garden route is worth exploring. He fancies a pony trek in the Drakensberg and a beach holiday on the wild coast to unleash the wild panda within. He says he’ll be back for our first APMP conference!


We got chatting about the NOSE I use for persuasive proposals, and the 10 tips I train nFold customers to use. He thought I meant my own pointy nose. He’d forgotten all about Need Outcome Solution and Evidence to make my proposals more client-focused and differentiated.

It never hurts to re-visit the basics, so I decided helped him brush up on Tom Sant’s persuasive methodology by recommending Panda should read his classic and his latest books. I liked his concept of avoiding the pseudo-languages: fluff, guff, geek and weasel, in “The Language of Success” and found it an easy read. Even my emails have improved. His best practice theories are expounded in “Persuasive Business Proposals” - a great reference for proposal teams.

It’s great to have a new friend in proposals, even if he is a bear. And I guess that’s why the South Africans started the local chapter of APMP. There’s nothing like moral support to cheer one up. It’s nice to know you’re not the only witch trying to meet a proposal deadline – doing the impossible, with the unwilling, for the ungrateful. Here we are with our fellow proposal pioneers at the first ever annual general meeting of the local Association of Proposal Management Professionals. What a mouth-full!