Proposal Writing Archives

Want to Ace your Virtual Short-List Interview? Follow These Tips to Keep the Focus on You and Your Message Instead of on the Technology.

February 10, 2021 by Jim Rogers

One year into the pandemic, MS-Teams and Zoom meetings have become the new normal for most of us. What’s more, your clients are now routinely conducting most, if not all, short-list interview presentations remotely.

More so than an in-person interview presentation, video conferencing inherently has many variables that could distract your audience, undermine your confidence, and ultimately compromise your team’s chances for the award. The variables are compounded by the number of presenters you have and how many virtual sites are involved. If you have six presenters presenting from separate locations, that’s 6x more chances something could go wrong.

With proper preparation, you can reduce the chances for such distracting problems and you can deliver a more polished and professional presentation that outclasses your competitors. If you and your team members are equally polished, then your professionalism will be all the more impressive.

In this post, you will learn techniques to make sure your technology comes off without a hitch and creates a more professional perception of you with your client. While you should check in with your “IT guy,” here are some DIY steps you can take, regardless of how much tech support you get.

Technology/Bandwidth at Home

Your office is a safe, fast, reliable place to be for an interview. That said, most of my clients have been in their home offices because of the recent surge. Home is not usually as reliable.

At home, be sure to head off any connectivity issues. First, if you can, connect your computer to your router through an ethernet cable instead of Wi-Fi. Your ethernet cable will be more reliable. If your computer is within sight of the router, you may find that your 5G frequency will perform better than 2G. However, if your router is in another room, you may find 2G to be more reliable.

Reboot

If you haven’t rebooted your equipment in a while, take the time to restart your laptop, cable modem and router. Your internet service provider should have instructions on the sequence you should use. Play it safe by doing it the day before, not hours or minutes before showtime — you don’t want to get frantic the day of the presentation if you encounter an issue that takes some time to resolve.

Pause Sync

Contention for bandwidth can yield poor audio and video quality. To ensure that your video conference software isn’t competing for bandwidth, pause any backup synchronization software such as Dropbox, OneDrive, iDrive, or Google Drive. This is especially important if you do not have blazing fast internet. Then, make sure you’re not competing with other members of your household. If it can be helped (hey, lots of us have kids at home doing remote instruction), take care that they’re not downloading or streaming movies or music — or gaming!

Checklist for go time

Ask household members not to stream music and movies or play games online during the call
Close any applications not needed for the presentation
Pause any backup services
Fully charge your headset
Fully charge your laptop, or better yet, plug it in.

Sound

The key here is that your voice should be heard clearly — and it should be the only thing heard. Make sure you are close enough to your microphone. Check for ambient noise in the room, for example, a fan. If you are using two computers, make sure that you only have one microphone open and that you only have one speaker active.

Checklist for go time

Place a do not disturb sign on your door
Turn off the cell phone ringer
Mute email alerts on your computer
Mute Alexa or Siri, or whoever your personal assistant may be
Mute yourself when not speaking, so the client can hear your teammate.

Video

Even though their cameras may be off, your client wants to see your face — and your expressions: camera positioning and lighting drive that. Try to avoid having a window behind you and be sure to have a light in front of you. A selfie ring light is a good choice, but a desk lamp will do. I have a $20 desk lamp in front of me with a low wattage bulb, pointed a bit downward so I’m not blinded by it.

Proportion matters: Don’t center your face on the screen; this leaves a big open space above the top of your head, which is distracting. Vertically, your screen should show from armpit to top of cowboy hat (that’s 3 fingers above-head if you don’t have a cowboy hat!) with your eyes at 2/3 of the way up. Laterally, your face takes up the middle 30% of the screen. Put your laptop on a box or stack of books, if necessary.

Get a Quality Camera

Make sure you are happy with the quality of your camera and microphone. Many laptop cameras are grainy and hate low lighting.

For a high stakes presentation, consider an upgrade to an external HD camera with a better lens and more features, like adjustments for low lighting. I have a Logitech C920 for under $100 that has worked great for hundreds of webinars and video calls over the years. [Note: Many firms have been buying and shipping equipment upgrades directly to interview teams or are reimbursing them after the fact, because they know what is on the line … and it’s a small price to pay.]

A word about virtual backgrounds … because it is friendlier, I recommend using your office (wherever that may be) as a natural work setting if you are able to stage it nicely. Make sure the scenery behind you is professional and reflects your work personality. As I live in Kentucky, I have a bottle of bourbon (unopened, mind you) on the table behind me for a conversation piece. If I had a high-stakes presentation with a client that didn’t know me well, I would consider stowing it out of sight.

Alternatively, a meaningful virtual background would be one that reflects work that you have done or are doing, such as a clear photograph of a client project you’re proud of. Such green screen-type, virtual backdrops are tricky, though — when you move, you break up around the edges of your head and body outline. Parts of you can disappear as you are talking if you’re an animated presenter.

Checklist for go time

Point camera at eye level
Wipe camera lens clean
Check the background for distracting items
Make sure you are front-lit, not backlit
Position yourself close enough to adjust the camera if needed
Turn off the camera when not speaking, so you can feature the speaker (but follow whatever rules your presentation team has agreed on)

Finally

Remember, your work does not speak for itself — your video presentation speaks for it. If your work is worth a client’s attention, aim to deliver it flawlessly. To keep your work from being obscured by any distractions, there is a lot to attend to.

Adopt the mindset of an athlete — respect the importance of pregame preparation by attending to these many variables. And when you’re done, win or lose, you’ll be satisfied knowing that you left it all on the playing field.

The Best Way to Start Your Proposal

June 3, 2020 by Jim Rogers

The strongest way to begin your cover letter or executive summary is by answering the question “Why now?”

Think about this question from your client’s perspective. Why are they undertaking this project now and not later … or never?

In other words, why is this a higher priority than other endeavors on which they could be spending their money and time?

Examples of answers to the question “Why now?” include these:

Strengthen the community
Streamline processes to save money
Improve public safety
Get (and stay) in compliance
Make work easier
Heal people
Economic development
Create classrooms where kids can learn and grow
Make customers happy
Win new business
Take control of your professional destiny
Be a better leader
Grow market share
Provide affordable housing
Create healthy, safe workplaces.

Clients aren’t ready to listen to you talk about yourself until you’ve demonstrated that you understand something about them and their problem.

In other words, that you “get” them.

Answer the question “Why now?” early in your cover letter, executive summary, or approach section (or all three) and you will be on your way to winning more work.

There’s more about this topic in my book Win More Work: How to Write Winning AEC Proposals.

If you have an important proposal, reach out to me at [email protected]. We’re here to help in whatever way we can to help you win.

Best,

Jim

It’s Always a Good Time to Grow Market Share . . . Writing Superior Proposals Can Help

June 1, 2020 by Jim Rogers

Whether your business has been positively or negatively affected by the changing economy, there is still an opportunity to strengthen your firm. That’s because there’s one unalterable truth in business — regardless of whether there’s contraction or expansion in your industry, there’s always an opportunity to grow your market share.

That is, your chance to outsell your competitors never goes away.

In the unfortunate event that your markets shrink, there’s still the chance to take work away from your competitors and emerge in a stronger financial position than they will.

You’ll be able to retain the best talent because they won’t lack for work.

And you’ll cement your relationships with your most profitable clients at the expense of your competitors, which will pay off handsomely down the road.

On the other hand, if you’re fortunate enough to be in an expanding industry, as always, you can grow at a faster rate than your market does as a whole. After all, why be content with your usual share?

So what’s the best way to outsell your competitors?

Right now, uncertainty in some industries means that projects and contracts have been delayed or canceled, therefore it’s important to close on immediate opportunities that have been funded and will proceed. Spend extra time and care on these proposals.

If you’re the front-runner for the project, it’s not the time to assume that the work is yours to lose, but rather it’s time to slam the door shut and remove all doubt that you deserve the work. Ratchet up your proposals a notch.

If you’re neck and neck or within striking distance, it’s time to distinguish your proposals and separate yourself from the pack. Pull out all the stops.

Have Discipline in Your Go/No-Go Process

Be honest about whether you’re in striking distance or if you’re a long shot.

If you’re a long-shot, now may be the time to no-go those opportunities and instead put more care and attention into your higher probability pursuits.

Desperate consultants will pursue everything they’re qualified for in the hopes of hitting the elusive jackpot. Unfortunately, because those rare events do happen from time to time, principals and project managers will point back to them as justification for long-shot pursuits.

I may be wrong, but for your clients in vulnerable industries, unless they perceive you as a lower cost option, your chances of winning a long-shot drops to near zero. Clients in vulnerable sectors will likely consolidate their work around their top go-to consultants. If you’re not in their elite pool, you are probably a long-shot in the short term.

In all cases, your best bet is to write superior, not routine, proposals.

Strategies for Preparing Superior Proposals

In my next series of posts, I’ll share my best tips to help you separate your proposals from those of your competitors, including these:

The most powerful way to begin your proposal
How to put the focus on the client rather than on yourself
Win themes that sell
How to strip your proposals of marketing blather that clutters your best ideas
How to describe your strengths in a way that differentiates you from your competitors
Graphic design choices that make your best ideas shine through
Twenty proposal mistakes that can sink your proposal.

Much of the advice I share is also captured in my book Win More Work: How to Write Winning A/E/C Proposals. Since writing it, I’ve built examples that I’ll be sharing with you that didn’t make it into the book, but the book is the best place to start.

My first article in the series will help you kick off your proposals in a way that makes an immediate positive impact on the decision maker.

If you have a high-stakes proposal in the works and can’t wait for all these tips, email me at [email protected]. I may not be able to help, but I usually can. Jim