balancing quality with output: increasing proposal productivity (iron mountain)

Balancing Quality

with Output: Increasing

Proposal Productivity

BJ Lownie, Managing Director

Elise Gilbert

Director, Sales Support Services

Gary Mancini Sr. Director, Sales Technology and Support Services

Proposal Applications

What is required to develop high-quality/

high scoring proposals that win business?

Proposal Development

• Information (customer, competition, your offer)

• Skills and knowledge

• Processes

• Time

And ideally…

High quality, pre-written, approved content

Developing high-quality/high scoring responses that result in winning business requires:

Proposal Applications

If your pre-written proposal content was food…

…would you eat it?

Proposal Applications

• What is it?

• What does it taste/smell like?

• Who made it?

• How old is it?

• What happened to the last person that ate it?

Questions you might ask about food before eating it:

Proposal Applications

Is your pre-written proposal content suitable for a high-quality/high-scoring response?

Proposal Applications

• Who wrote it? (Was this an appropriate/approved author?)

• What does it say?

• How old is it?

• Is it well written (Is it easy to read, review, score?)

• What was the result the last time this was used?

Questions you might ask about the content:

Proposal Applications

Proposal Development and Cooking – An Analogy

Proposal Applications

• Highest quality, freshest ingredients (source known)

• Minimize time preparing ingredients while cooking

– As much as possible, ingredients prepared before hand, ready to use, easy to access

• Maximize time for actual dish preparation

– Cooking, seasoning, simmering, presentation

Cooking – An Analogy

Proposal Applications

What are the attributes of the ideal proposal development automation application?

Proposal Applications

• Supports development of proactive proposals and responses to RFPs

• Contains high-quality, pre-written, proposal ready, approved content (of varying lengths)

• Quick and easy content access and retrieval

• Easy to manage and maintain content and the application

• Provides guides and tools for proposal processes

The Ideal Application:

Elise Gilbert

Director, Sales Support Services

Gary Mancini Sr. Director, Sales Technology

and Support Services

Output and Productivity

• Alignment and collaboration of teams

• Messaging standards and framework

• An evolving process

• Customer experience

• User experience

People, Process, Technology and Content

Trucks and Boxes

Alignment and Collaboration

Messaging and Content

Core Messaging Document

We sell good stuff.

Okay, We’ll buy it.

Trends Insights

Target Market Critical Business Issues

Process and Standards

Process and Standards

Iterate until Approved

Create Proposal Structure Standard

Design & Build Product Proposal

Apply Core Messaging Content

Review Assembled Output Document

User Acceptance Testing

Release to Field

Sales Enablement

Product Marketing

Product Management

Sales Reps

Process and Standards

Iterate until Approved

Create Proposal Structure Standard

Design & Build Product Proposal

Apply Core Messaging Content

Review Assembled Output Document

User Acceptance Testing

Release to Field

Nuns and Roses

Nuns and Gum Nuns and Grammar

Grammar and Customers

Reps and Customers

Our Goals

• Customer finds our proposals to be engaging, informative and different

• Customer isn’t distracted by anything that doesn’t add value

• Rep sells what we can deliver

• Rep delivers brand-compliant messaging

Design and Reps

• Good user interface doesn’t require training

• Use in-place help, guidance, choices

• Hide complexity

• Too much to read = difficult to use

• Right-size user interface via expand/contract

Key Concepts

SAVO and Proposals

What does Success look like?

Thank you

For more information

SAVO Web Site: www.savogroup.com

Sales First Nation: www.savogroup.com/sales-first-nation/

SAVO Products: www.savogroup.com/products/

SAVO Phone: 312-276-7700