[51553] in Zephyr_Bugs
Proposals: Wild Cards Can Delude You
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Fedmarket)
Sun Jun 4 21:06:26 2006
Date: Sun, 04 Jun 2006 18:34:48 -0600
From: "Fedmarket" <noreply@fedmarket.com>
To: zephyr-bugs@mit.edu
Reply-To: "Fedmarket" <noreply@fedmarket.com>
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<p align="left"><img src="http://www.fedmarket.com/images/logo.gif" width="254" height="51" alt= "Fedmarket.com"></p>
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<b>Welcome to our series called "Proposal Writing." This newsletter is the thirty-ninth installment in a series of email
newsletters about proposal writing and federal sales.</b></font><br>
<hr>
<p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2"><b>Installment 39 - Wild Cards Can Delude You
</b><br><hr>
</font>
<p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2">
<p>An attendee at one of our proposal writing seminars stated that her company calls blind bids on FedBizzOpps solicitations "wild cards".
Every once is a while when the stars line up correctly they play a wild card and they won one last year. An example scenario might be:
<p>There were no proposals being written at the time.
<p>The company was very qualified to meet all the requirements of the RFP.
<p>A win would meet a critical strategic goal of the company.
<p>Our position that you should never bid blindly on a FedBizzOpps solicitation is general and there are always exceptions to a generality. But we would stress that they should be rare and done with your eyes wide open. In other words, knowing that you probably won't win.
<p>Also keep in mind that winning a wild card bid can be dangerous. Sales people want to bid everything; their job depends on winning and they have a tendency to believe that every opportunity is winnable regardless of the customer relationship. Most experienced proposal managers want to write only winners based on customer relationships. These opposing positions can come up in almost every bid/no bid decision. A wild card win can tip the scale to bidding too much. The sales manager might argue for a blind bid saying: "remember that blind bid we won back in Agency X", not mentioning that it was in 1999.
<p>Wild card bids a fine as long as you don't let them influence current bid/no bid decisions. As our mantra goes: poor bid/no bid decisions will drain your company of its expensive, precious proposal resources and you will end up in a downward, losing spiral.
<p><b>CRMFederal provides specific guidelines for the bid/no bid decision as one of the individual processes in the overall sales and proposal writing process.</b><br><br>
<hr width = 500><br><br>
<P align=center><font color="#000000" size="3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><i><font face="Courier New, Courier,
mono">A
winning proposal begins with a customer relationship.</font></i></b></font></P>
<P align=center><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2"><IMG
src="http://www.fedmarket.com/CRMFederal/crm_logo.jpg" alt = "CRMFederal"></font></P>
<p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2"><b><i><font size="3">A
Complete Business Process for Sales & Proposal Writing</font></i></b></font></font></p>
<ul>
<li><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2">An interactive tool to
help technical writers think </font></li>
<li><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2">Time saving model text
</font></li>
<li><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2">Proposal writing instructions
and electronic content generation </font></li>
<li><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2">Proposal library and
version control </font></li>
<li><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2">A training tool for new
proposal writer</font></li>
</ul>
<p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2"><i><b>CRMFederal</b></i> is
about developing relationships, our interactive technology enables you to know
how strong your customer relationships are and your chances for success in a
simple and straight forward manner.</font></P>
<div align = center>
<table width =450>
<tr>
<td><a href
="http://www.fedmarket.com/CRMFederal/index.shtml">
<font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2"><li><b><i>CRMFederel</i> Home Page </b>
</font>
</a> </td>
<td><font color="#0000FF"><a href = "http://www.fedmarket.com/CRMFederal/demo/chart.html">
<font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2"><li><b>Demo <i>CRMFederal</i></b></font>
</a></font></td>
</tr>
</table>
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<font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2"><Br>
If you would like more information about CRMFederal call 888-661-4094
ext 8.
</font> <br><br>
<hr>
<font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2" color="#0000A0"><br>
<b><font size="3">Proposal Writing Breakfast with CRMFederal Author, Richard White</font></b>
</font><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2"> </font>
<P align=left><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2"><b>Is your company
experiencing proposal writing problems? Join the crowd of most federal contracting
companies. Learn why your proposals are less than successful in this two hour
breakfast training event. </b></font></P>
<P align=left><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2"><b>Date:</b>
Friday, June 16, 2006 in Bethesda, Maryland</font><br>
<strong><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2">Time:</font></strong><font face="Courier New,
Courier, mono" size="2"> 8:30 am - 10:30 am</font><br>
<font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2" ><b>Location:</b>
The Federal Sales Academy</font><br>
<font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2" ><b>Cost:</b>
$100 per person</font>
<P><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2"><b>Richard White, author of
CRMFederal, a Complete Business Process for Sales Proposal Writing will address:
</b></font>
<ul><li><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2">Why sales and proposal
writing must be treated as a single business process </font>
<li><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2">Defensive proposal writing
</font>
<li><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2">Advanced proposal writing
techniques </font>
<li><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2">Features and benefits of
CRMFederal </font>
<li><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2">Demonstration of CRMFederal
</LI>
</UL></font>
<p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2"><A
href="http://www.fedmarket.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=38"><STRONG>REGISTER
HERE</STRONG></A></font></p>
<p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2"><b>Question? </b>Call Suzie
White at 301-652-9504 ext. 10</font></p>
<hr>
<DIV align=center>
<P><IMG height=56 src="http://www.fedmarket.com/images/whitepaper.jpg" width=72; alt ="federal proposals"> <FONT
color="#0000a0"><FONT face="Courier New, Courier, mono" color="#000000"
size=2><b>Free Informative Whitepaper by Richard White: <A
href="http://www.fedmarket.com/whitepaper_download.php?which_one=crmfederal">
Solution to the Proposal Dilemma</b></A></FONT></font>
</B></P></DIV><br><hr>
<p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2">If you need help with any other product sales, call or write as follows:
(888)
661-4094 ext. 8 or <a href="mailto:"><b>sales@fedmarket.com</b></a>.
</font>
<p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2">Regards, <br>
Richard White<br>
President <br>Fedmarket.com <br>
The Federal Sales Academy <br>
<a href = "mailto:"><b>rwhite@fedmarket.com </b></a><br>
(301) 652 - 9506 (office)<br>
(434) 962-9508 (cell) </font>
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