We recently published a blog with highlights from a webinar in which a panel of seasoned APMP-certified experts from the Responsive Professional Services team shared their insights on the expanding role of Strategic Response Management (SRM), using metrics and results to stand out in the company, and the role AI is poised to play in the years to come.
While we were able to cover the first half of the webinar in that recap, there were some valuable takeaways we couldn’t quite fit into that article without turning it into a novel-sized post.
In this follow-up, we’ll cover the second half of the webinar in which the panel outlined how to set yourself up for success as a proposal professional, among other topics.
Highlights include:
- Demonstrating and expanding your impact with leadership
- Pro tips and personal advice from the expert panel
- How to start using RFP software for the first time
Keep reading for practical advice from the lively conclusion to this webinar.
Demonstrating and expanding your impact with leadership
The webinar featured a lot of discussion about metrics and quantifiable results for leadership, but one topic the panel brought up in the closing section was celebrating your personal wins with your leadership team to demonstrate your value in the company.
Sasha Spektor, a Professional Services consultant at Responsive, brought up her “Yay me!” report, which she sends to Chris Dunne, the webinar host and Director of Professional Services at Responsive. This report highlights personal wins that move the company forward, how she helped the team grow, and specific examples of generating revenue for the company.
“I love when people advocate for themselves,” Chris said. “And I’ll tell you what, it makes it so much easier come time for performance reviews, because I know all the great things you’ve done. So I encourage the ‘Yay me!’ reports. I think it’s a fantastic idea.”
Kimberly Bara, Onboarding Consultant at Responsive, added that it’s important to ask for help. We all get overwhelmed from time to time, or don’t know how to move forward on a project, so always keep in mind that your team is there to help you.
“I used to have a manager that would tell me, ‘You know, Kimberly, you’re not the Lone Ranger,’” she said. “‘Ask people, what’s working, what could be improved, where I could make some changes in what I’m doing.’”
Susan Berger, Professional Services Consultant at Responsive, discussed the importance of quality training for new hires as a way to build loyal brand advocates on your teams.
“When you provide that proper training, you’re going to end up with users that are more receptive rather than resistant,” Susan said. “They’re going to be implementing the tools and the processes as you intended, which is a big plus, avoiding bad habits. And in the end, it’s going to increase productivity.”
This foundational training creates a team of competent users who know your company’s complex processes and tech, which will ultimately help you streamline your product and/or software rollout. All of this, in turn, will help you see greater success and provide more opportunities for you to demonstrate the value you add to your leadership team.
Pro tips and personal advice from the expert panel
Towards the end of the webinar, Chris asked the panel a series of questions that came from the Responsive community. From general work tips to specific questions about AI, here’s what the panel had to say in response to the community questions.
The Four P’s: Proactive, Progress, Partnership Drive, and Planning
Chris started by talking about the importance of what he calls The Four P’s, a mantra he uses to help his team prioritize progress over perfection, as mistakes in all things are inevitable.
- Proactive — Taking initiative with whatever role you have.
- Progress — Keeping moving forward and constantly adjusting to challenges. Embrace the journey. Perfection is a distant dream.
- Partnership drive — Demonstrating impact at all levels and as equal partners versus as a proposal team that is merely seen as a support function.
- Planning — Implementing systems and tools that will help you think ahead and help you strategize as a team.
This guiding principle is seen both in the Responsive team and our customers as a way to work together as a team to answer the questions: What’s the best way to accomplish our goals? How can we surpass expectations? What steps can we take to meet deadlines?
These are just a few sample questions, but they convey the core idea of working together to accomplish goals, without worrying about getting caught up in trying to perfect every step along the way. Proposal and response management is inherently a collaborative process, and it’s only through extensive collaboration that any team will succeed in the long run.
“So maybe you all can consider this your star index,” Chris said. “These four trades, these four behaviors, these Four P’s really embody the approach from our most successful customers. These are the traits of proposal stars, and these are the traits of leaders within the industry.”
As you’ll see in some of the responses below, The Four P’s came up a few times during the webinar as Sasha, Susan, and Kimberly answered community questions.
Dealing with proposals that require identifying generative AI use
Generative AI (GenAI) has become increasingly widespread as a way to automatically generate and fill in responses for bids and proposals of all sizes.
In return, some companies have started requiring others to identify when and where GenAI has been used to prepare proposals. Chris asked if this could become a new norm and if customers may end up frowning upon the use of GenAI in preparing proposals.
Sasha said this isn’t something to be alarmed about as the requirement to identify GenAI is typically done so a company can see if information is coming from an open-source or closed-source large language model (LLM).
“So specifically, I’m hearing it’s coming out of government bids,” Sasha said. “They just want to know that the information you’re providing is truly accurate and not kind of being pulled out of the World Wide Web.”
In short, these companies want to ensure that their private information isn’t going to end up in an open-source LLM when they do business with you.
Convincing leadership to invest in technology and scalability
A frequent question we see is how individuals can convince their leadership team to invest in new proposal technology to help secure more deals and scale for future growth.
Susan suggested picking out some quantifiable metrics you can track over a period of time and then presenting them to management to show that you need more resources or a new platform. In particular, if you can show potential revenue losses resulting from a lack of resources, your leadership team is far more likely to listen and take action.
Sasha added that you should ask vendors if they can help you communicate ROI so they know how their tool is going to save you time. In short, ask the vendor to help you make the sale.
“I bet you their marketing team or their sales team has some sort of a spreadsheet or slides to really show the impact of having reusable content in a library on your SMEs, whatever those metrics are,…time saved, increase in win rate, more RFPs or proposals able to be handled,” Sasha said.
Advice for those starting out in the proposal profession
While this webinar panel was made up of seasoned response professionals, Chris wanted to know what advice they could give someone who is just starting out in the proposal profession.
Sasha said the two most important things you can do when starting out are getting to know your content library as in-depth as possible (or starting one if your company doesn’t already have one) and getting to know your Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) on a personal level.
“Make that connection because you’re going to be coming to them all the time,” Sasha said. “Start making those connections internally because you are one of the departments that touches every single department in the organization. So don’t be afraid to make yourself known.”
It’s also important to demonstrate personal value as early as you can. Start thinking about how you can convey and demonstrate your value, how you contribute to the organization, how you contribute to winning business, and how all of this contributes to revenue.
Susan said simply, “Make yourself a real person.” People on your team are far more likely to take time out of their busy day to help you with an urgent request if they know you.
Kimberly finished this section by telling everyone new to proposals to take advantage of APMP’s vast resource library of webinars, learning resources, and industry reports.
How to start using RFP software for the first time
At Responsive, we work with customers with all levels of RFP software experience. On one end, we work with seasoned professionals who want to migrate their solutions to the Responsive platform. On the other end, we also work with teams who are brand new to RFP software and are setting up their first platform.
To that end, Chris asked the webinar panel: What specific guidance would you provide a team starting to use RFP software for the first time versus migrating from another system?
Kimberly answered the question first, bringing the panel back to the Four Ps Chris mentioned a little earlier in the webinar: progress over perfection.
“Don’t get caught in that trap of everything has to be perfect,” Kimberly said. “Your content might evolve and grow. Your process may change as you adapt. So, yeah, progress over perfection. Don’t get caught in that analysis paralysis trap. Just keep moving forward.”
Implementing an RFP solution is a big task, and it’s going to take both time and effort to get everyone on the same page when it comes to training, best practices, and practical daily usage following the initial launch period.
One way to simplify this process is to build and maintain an expansive content library. It’s the very foundation from which everything is pulled, especially if you’re using GenAI to help build and populate proposals.
Creating an expansive content library from day one that includes past proposals, company brand guidelines, and proposal templates will go a long way toward helping your team migrate over to the new platform and encouraging adoption.
“Look at your company, see how it’s structured, and then begin laying out your content that way initially,” Susan said. “And if you start thinking about how your company is organized, it’s gonna make a little bit more sense for your users in the long run to find that content as well.”
Finally, Sasha recommends that teams looking for new RFP software specifically ask questions about the onboarding process when they’re conducting research and reviewing demos.
The onboarding and post-sales support process is a crucial time for team adoption, and you want to make sure that the vendor you’re signing with is going to support your team through the entire process. If not, you risk running into a scenario where your team lacks the proper training to effectively use your new RFP solution, wasting both time and money.
Final thoughts
Interested in learning more? Check out the full on-demand recording of “Behind the curtain: Pro tips from proposal stars.”
