Working on Workers Day

Time flies like an arrow and fruit flies like a banana. I blinked and 6 months flew by on my broomstick. Christmas came and New Year went. The Easter bunny hopped, the tooth fairy did her stuff and April fooled none of us. And yet, the more things change the more they stay the same. Here I am, working on workers day - if you can call writing work.

Yet, life in the proposal world still rocks. nFold's clients won some big bids lately. One of the deals in the banking industry involved the transfer of 738 people with zero jobs lost. nFold helped our client to turn around a likely loss into a winning bid.

“You went the extra mile. Big bidding is a specialized field and without expertise in this area you setting yourself up for failure - in any battle you need a strong team. I would prefer to have you on my team than my competitors.”

So the mood of celebration is in the air. Bring on more big bids and we'll be ready to sparkle!

Talking about sparkling, nFold recently hosted an event to announce the results of a sales execution survey and launch the latest release of Qvidian proposal automation. As autumn blossoms in SA, the spring release from Qvidian in the US promises even more time saved with a brand new interface that's even easier to use. Come along to our online demos and live lab session in the coming weeks to learn more. Be there or be square. Click on one of these links to register...

Online Demos:

Thursday 15 May 07h30 – http://nfold.celebrations.com/QvidianOnlineDemo1

Tuesday 20 May 12h00 – http://nfold.celebrations.com/QvidianOnlineDemo2

Wednesday 28 May 16h00 - http://nfold.celebrations.com/QvidianOnlineDemo3

 

Live Lab at nFold Office:

Wednesday 4 June 13h30 - http://nfold.celebrations.com/QvidianLiveLab

Sandy got her beach fix last week but she left me behind. How rude! I do hope she lets me out to play again sometime soon. The local APMP chapter is hosting an all Africa round table event on 13 May at Aurecon's offices in Pretoria. Maybe if she takes me along I'll be adopted into a bid team again. Who knows, I might even get to go on an African safari. Watch this space while I brew my magic.

SPACE

Okay you can stop watching the space and come back again later. Still working on getting out of this pesky box. I seriously need a new wand or some more newts for the potion. Bye for now.

You can teach an old dog new tricks!

It’s always a good thing when you get a chance to visit an old friend that you haven’t seen in a while.  So what a treat when I got a surprise invitation to visit Scylla Gardiner at her new home-away-from-home, Paracon.  I flew in and parked my broomstick next door in the Nicolway shopping centre. Handy, very handy!

Scylla tells me she joined Paracon (part of the Adcorp group) in February this year to formalise a bid management function for the company and several of its subsidiaries.She's been learning a heap of new tricks, even if she seems to be quite a young rascal.

So, there we were, sitting chatting about the challenges (and fun) of setting up processes, creating new proposal templates and guidelines, getting to know many new brands and the general excitement of starting something new when all of a sudden Scylla pulled a rather strange face…

Why the face, you may ask yourself? I know I did! The realisation had suddenly hit Scylla that, even though she’s been in the proposal writing game since before the continents drifted apart (I personally didn’t realise she was THAT old), she is still learning something new about bids and proposals every day. I assured her that this is a very good thing and I’m sure you would all agree. That put her mind and her face at rest.

After the four compulsory cups of ‘bid management fuel’ (also known as coffee) and lots of talk about concentrating on improving both proposal quality and our own skills in the proposal profession, I had to unfortunately take wing.  Us witches have quite the social calendar. Until the next time...let’s remember to keep on learning those new tricks. Woof!  Wag! Pant!

Last chance saloon

Next week I will be making a guest appearance at the third annual APMP conference in SA. All proposal and sales and new business development people eager for my autograph - oh and to "Raise your Game" - must register this week. You snooze you lose! You're in the last chance saloon...click here to book now: events@apmp.org.za. Spread the word like wild-fire by bush telegraph before it's too late.

Neil Philipson, with one 'l', is the current chair person of the Association of Proposal Management Professionals in sunny South Africa. He's SO excited about the line-up. Here I am looking over his shoulder while he shares the programme with me on his zooty ipad. Doesn't he look excited?

Other than my distinguished and humble self, there will be no less than TWO international guest speakers. Rick Harris, executive director of APMP international, will be making the keynote address. He has oodles of global business development experience. Chris Kaelin from Switzerland will be yodelling too - all about putting the sizzle back into proposals. But wait, there's more. For a copy of the programme, visit www.apmp.org.za. The conference is cheaper for members - at only slightly more than the cost of a meal for 2 with wine at a local restaurant, it's a positive steal. To check out the calibre of previous international guest speakers, click here to find out some more great reasons to become a member of the APMP: Colleen Jolly and Jon Williams promote APMP Membership at 1st APMP SA Conference.

Neil says Theresa Monoyoudis has been the key driver behind the conference. I overheard her make no less than 90 phonecalls last week to check up on members and to promote the conference. In the last few weeks she only flew off the broom handle once while knocking off all the items on the lengthy 'to do' list to make such a great conference happen. But luckily I wasn't to blame for the mishap. Close shave! And within minutes Theresa the cheer leader was her usual enthusiastic self. Go T Go!


Neil has no reason to climb the walls about the conference. But he has a day job at PDNA that makes him responsible for winning engineering projects worth billions. So there are never enough hours in a day. Since he handles it all without breaking a sweat, I decide to climb the walls for him. Or does it look as though he's encouraging me to fly off the handle? What do you think?

Guerillas in the Midst

I was keen to see what Bill Graham, Bid veteran for more than 30 years, had to say at the last APMP event in Joburg. His first slide showed a female guerilla, of the gorgeous variety, with battle regalia. This is when I knew we were in for an entertaining treat. He drew examples from sources as diverse as reality TV and World War 2. Here I am with Bill at the event.

Bill shared many pearls of wisdom with us, but my favourite pearl was his advice to find the need and fill it, which reminded me of that inventor character from the kiddie’s movie ‘Robots’. My favourite anecdote was his story about a speaker who said “I’m as sweet as sugar” but the client heard “I’m a Swedish hooker”. Just another reminder, I guess, to keep your messages clear and communicate them well.

You can see the audience paid close attention to Bill’s tips, including:

1) New business is won on purpose, not by accident – reinforce a winning culture in your company.

2) Get a sponsor – if you executive buy-in, your success will soar.

3) Make a plan – keep an active account plan and proposal plan

4) Follow a process – use continuous learning to tweak your process.

5) Know your client’s shoe size – their strategy and supply base, your relationship, and more.

6) People buy people – match your people to theirs and have meaningful conversations.

7) Beware the guerillas – don’t let big egos in your team take over and derail your efforts.

8) To bid or not to bid – spend more time on the bids you can win and say ‘no’ if you can’t.

9) Keep your enemies close – know the competition and make them irrelevant.

10) Find the power – remember who signs the cheque and who influences them.

I was curious to see Bill in action as a consultant. He works with several companies including Gateway Communications (rebranding to Vodacom Business Africa) in Woodmead. He says they’re known as street-wise strategic thinkers. I met Geoff Hardwick, Managing Director for the Southern Region, who has warm hands and a warm heart. I overheard Bill telling Geoff that he can help them to turn their street-wise strategy into reality by helping the Gateway team comply with best practice bid process. This is where it all happens. Go Bill!