How executives, managers, and workers look at business development and proposals differently

Most people are a mix of all three perspectives. This is especially true in organizations that don’t have someone assigned to each level. You will substantially improve your value if you can at least look at every issue from all three perspectives. People who like the comfort and security of staying within the box of their chosen level are not people needed to drive the organization to win.

So what we’ve done is start with the Executive, Manager, and Worker’s perspectives, and then applied them to both business development and proposals. You can really see from the results, the different ways that people look at these functions and their roles in them.

If you don’t have someone in your organization (regardless of their title) asking all of these questions, your organization’s ability to win business will be negatively impacted. That is because each organization has to strike the right balance. If a perspective is not present, then you can’t strike the right balance. Even when all three are present, it can be difficult to get them into the right balance.

The Executive Perspective: What should we target? Where should I invest resources to get the best ROI? What should I expect? How can I influence events? What should the plan be? How do I measure progress? How do I know if the results are right?

The Manager Perspective: How do I achieve my target? How should I coordinate my team? How do I execute the process or plan? How do I make sure everyone is doing what they should?

The Worker Perspective: How do I complete my assignment? How am I required to coordinate with others? What process or plan should I follow? What am I supposed to do?

Business Development

The BD Executive Perspective: What customers and core competencies should we target? Is our pipeline healthy? Where should I allocate resources to improve our win rate? What is our contribution to the company’s strategic plan? How do we implement the company’s strategic plan? Are our bidding strategies profitable? What should we be doing to better position what we offer? How do I know if we are on track to be in position to win our pursuits?

The BD Manager Perspective: How do I hit my numbers? Are the leads we’re finding valid and worth pursuing? Where should people prospect and how? What processes do I have to get people to follow? How should I flow down the strategic plan and corporate positioning to our pursuits? What plans and reports do I have to submit? How should I track process toward being in position to win and how do I verify everybody is doing what they should?

The BD Worker Perspective: What numbers do I have to hit? How should I go about prospecting? What do I need to do to qualify each of my leads? What will it take to win each of my leads? What do I have to do to comply with our process? How do I know if I’m on track? What do I have to do to pass my reviews?

Proposal Development

The Proposal Executive Perspective: What bids should we anticipate? What do we need to do to be ready? What information do we need to flow into the proposal process? Where are we going to get it and how? How should proposals reflect the company’s strategic plan and positioning strategies? Does our process match our business needs? Where should we focus to improve our win rates? How should we allocate resources? How do we address issues that cross organizational boundaries?

The Proposal Manager Perspective: What bids do I need to prepare winning proposals for? What resources do I have to work with? What information does the company possess that will impact the proposal? Who should I assign what? What can I do to maximize their effectiveness? What channels do I need to go through to coordinate with all of the stakeholders? What strategies and positioning will drive each bid? How do I apply our process to the particular bids I have to pursue? How do I balance process, resources, and my deadlines? What reviews should I plan for and how? How does it all get integrated into the final document?

The Proposal Worker Perspective: What are my role, responsibilities, and assignments? How do I fulfill them? How am I required to coordinate with others? What process or plan should I follow? What am I supposed to do? What needs to go into it? When is it due? What is my role in the review process and how will I be impacted?