A huge thank you to all of our readers, new and old, who stay up to date with our weekly blog, Pens Down - we look forward to sharing so much more the rest of the year! A look back at The Executive Summary It’s been a few weeks since we’ve started this new weekly
Three Ways Proposals Are Like Building a House Happy 2021! After a challenging and rocky 2020, I know so many of us are looking forward to new beginnings and a smoother year in 2021. I’m definitely no exception. In fact, my fiancé Kevin and I are in the process of building our dream home. But
I’ll Get In Shape After This Proposal, and Other Lies We Tell Ourselves The Number 1 Lie The number 1 lie the general population tells themselves at the beginning of each new year: This year I will finally get in shape. I’m going to be a new person starting January 1! The number 1 lie
New Year, New Universe - Working and Living in a Distanced World Maybe not everyone, but I’d say a good majority of us would agree that 2020 was just not the best year. There are silver linings to find for sure, such as our advanced 21st century technology that saved the day and let a
Working from home and social distancing present obvious obstacles to conducting in-person proposal reviews during the ongoing public health crisis. While conducting virtual proposal reviews was a common practice prior to the pandemic, today’s remote workplace introduces challenges that proposal managers must address to conduct effective reviews. Whether you’re conducting virtual proposal reviews for the
In the early 19th Century, Scottish lawyer-turned-geologist Sir Charles Lyell argued, “The present is the key to the past, and the past is the key to the future.” In other words, if we want to know what’s going to happen in the future, we look to the past, to its patterns. A more contemporary source,
As a student of proposal writing rather than an active member of the field, it does feel presumptuous to be writing about the topic with a mere two semesters of writing for proposals (barely) under my belt. However, as a newcomer to the field, I do think I have an interesting perspective on the nature,
The author, Jim McCarthy, founded AOC Key Solutions in 1983. However, contrary to popular belief, he was NOT the proposal manager for the first design-build contract for the original Egyptian pyramids. These are Jim’s observations, rough at the edges and worn by the passage of time. Do you agree with some (any) of them? Can
Capture and proposal team leaders face challenges inherent to our business: fluid team composition, multiple concurrent tasks and opportunities, competing demands, changing priorities, and short deadlines. Most companies have a permanent cadre of full -time capture and proposal professionals supplemented by Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), consultants, and other specialists (contracts, pricing, Human Resources) for specific
Wouldn’t it be awesome if our proposals managed themselves? We’d have more time to spend on writing and reviewing and the producing the quality that buyers crave--not to mention more freedom to spend with family and friends and to pursue our passions. Most of us proposal managers have dreamed of such a world – only
