Ed Admin, Author at OCI Wins

Keeping up with Sequestration: Sequestration and the Proposal Services Market

Over the next couple of months we will focus on the effects sequestration will have on our customers, consultants and competitors.

Proposal consultants and employees everywhere are apprehensive about sequestration. We are entering uncharted territory. Last week on CNBC we heard Erskine Bowles, co-chairman of President Barack Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform comment on the market and the upcoming challenges we will be facing.

By Ed Admin|2012-10-18T13:20:34+00:00October 18, 2012|Miscellaneous|0 Comments

Can’t We All Just Get Along?

An expanded version of this article, Ten Steps to Oral Presentations that Bring Home the Bacon, will be published in the APMP-NCA Executive Summary on July 12, 2011

A Primer for Collaboration Between Proposal Professionals and Orals Team Leaders

The words in the title were uttered by Rodney King, who had been beaten by police after the OJ Simpson trial-inspired riots in 1995, and have become part of the national dialogue. Why use that phrase for this article? Because I believe, as a member of APMP-NCA, and also a member of the Project Management Institute of Washington, (PMIWDC), that those who create RFP-responsive proposals, and those who must present them in oral presentations tend to work in separate spheres. In effect, they should “get along” from the pre-release of an RFP/Solicitation to the oral presentation.

By Ed Admin|2011-07-01T19:06:04+00:00July 1, 2011|Proposal Orals Coach | Orals Coaching|0 Comments

Ten Tips for Presenting to Senior Executives

Summary
The opportunity to present to senior executives is a good news and bad news venture. The good news is that it gives the presenter the chance to showcase his or her capabilities before the people in the organization who have great influence on promotions and future assignments. The bad news is that a poor presentation to senior executives can cast a giant shadow over the presenter’s future. An old saying is particularly apt—People may not remember a good presentation, but they never forget a bad one. Nor do they forget the presenter of a bad presentation.

The Ten Tips below are not classroom theory, but evolve from my speaking experience, including being the senior intelligence briefer to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and are distilled from my book The Shortcut to Persuasive Presentations (available online at Amazon.com.) Adapt these Ten Tips to your own speaking, and you’ll not only avoid the career-damaging bad presentation, you’ll be eager to present to “the big dogs.”

By Ed Admin|2011-05-05T13:52:38+00:00May 5, 2011|Proposal Orals Coach | Orals Coaching|0 Comments

Will the Appropriations Bill Ever be Approved?

For proposal professionals, budgeting or appropriations delays within the federal government continue being a source of concern. With Congressional delays or patch-work Continuing Resolutions, we can expect there will be a significant reduction in the volume of RFP releases. If there is uncertainty, the federal departments processing solicitations have only one response – to sit on the programs until the budget situation is clarified.

By Ed Admin|2011-04-01T19:39:24+00:00April 1, 2011|Miscellaneous|0 Comments

Going from Subcontractor to Prime Contractor

Small businesses frequently wrestle with the question of how and when to become a prime contractor. This challenge faces any small business experiencing growth and development. Successfully meeting the challenge opens doors to a new career of expanded scope and revenue. Failing in the attempt wastes precious resources and may consign a smaller company to a perpetual role as a second-tier provider.

We realize any management consultant could write a book on the subject of becoming a prime contractor. However, our present purpose is to address it briefly, attempting only to highlight the main considerations.

By Ed Admin|2011-04-01T19:34:17+00:00April 1, 2011|Government Procurement|0 Comments

Bring Home the Bacon! Part Two:

The Four-Phase Collaboration between Project Managers and
Proposal Professionals that Develops Contract-Winning Synergy

Synopsis

This two-part article evolved from my November 4, 2010 presentation at the PMTools in Crystal City. Part One emphasized ( a) why proposal managers/writers and project managers/orals teams must work in concert, not separately as is often the case, and (b) specific guidance enabling Project Managers to improve their presentation skills to make them more effective in leading oral presentations. These oral presentations can be the “tiebreaker” in determining which company is awarded the contract.

In Part Two I outline a four-phase approach which unites the proposal and orals teams to enhance the chances of winning contracts.

By Ed Admin|2011-03-02T18:30:15+00:00March 2, 2011|Proposal Orals Coach | Orals Coaching|0 Comments

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to hire 1,000 IT workers during fiscal 2011

January 12, 2011 - The Homeland Security Department’s border protection agency plans to hire 1,000 additional IT staffers this fiscal year as it seeks to “federalize” its work force, a senior official said today.Ken Ritchhart, deputy assistant commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Information Technology (OIT), said at a [...]

By Ed Admin|2011-02-01T22:48:02+00:00February 1, 2011|Miscellaneous|0 Comments

Bring Home the Bacon! Part One: Why Project Managers Should Improve Their Presentation Skills

Introduction

This article is Part One of a two-part submission for the Project Management Institute, Washington DC Chapter (PMIWDC) webpage. It is evolved from my November 4 PMTools presentation at the Crystal City Sheraton. This article will:

Explain why proposal managers/writers and the proposed project managers must work in concert, not separately as is often the case; and
Provide advice that will enable proposed project managers to improve their presentation skills. This advice is based on the methodology that is the heart of my executive workshops.

In Part Two, to be published on the PMIWDC website at a later date, I will outline an integrated four phase process by which writers and presenters can develop contract-winning synergy.

What do I mean by “Bringing Home the Bacon?“ It’s what the proposed project managers are expected to do when they head an orals presentation team that is competing with other companies for contracts. Yet these proposed project managers are often brought into the proposal process relatively late. They are expected to win the business, but are not involved in developing the proposal. That, I submit, is not the way to win business.

By Ed Admin|2011-02-01T22:41:36+00:00February 1, 2011|Proposal Orals Coach | Orals Coaching|0 Comments

The Proposal Plan: The Proposal Manager Prepares this Document to Guide the Proposal Creation Activity

During the proposal creation process, another of the key documents is the Proposal Plan. The Proposal Plan is written by the Proposal Manager, in conjunction with the Capture Manager, as soon as the proposal effort begins.

By Ed Admin|2011-01-10T17:46:37+00:00January 10, 2011|Proposal Management|0 Comments

A Whole New Way to Think About Sales Proposals

Here’s a worthwhile experiment. If you’re interested in selling more stuff, that is.

Dig up a few of your company’s proposals from five-to-ten years ago and compare them with today’s. Have they changed much?

Chances are you’ve made incremental progress. Maybe you improved the look, created content that better reflects new and emerging client interests, or even restructured your proposals away from “all about me” and toward “all about you”.

Those are good changes to be sure. But alas, we suspect your proposals still use the same methodology you’ve always used. In other words, when you compare the old and new proposals, you’ll probably be looking at two “paper” documents, meant to be read from start to finish.

By Ed Admin|2010-12-06T20:12:12+00:00December 6, 2010|Proposal Writing|0 Comments

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