Proposal Management

Managing proposals in a technical environment is a discipline all its own. Twennie aims to provide needed resources where too little is available.

Not all services organizations have dedicated proposal management personnel, but they can all adopt at least a few best practices. A proposal is a project in itself, which is why it needs a “project manager.” To distinguish the role in a technical services organization, however, we must call this person the “proposal manager.” A shortage of training opportunities for proposal managers in technical services makes this topic an essential element of Twennie’s library. We aim to fill that gap.

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ARTICLE: 10 Steps to a Win Theme

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Twennie Founders

A good win theme facilitates a decision-making process in the client’s mind. That decision might be to entrust you with a project that could define someone’s career. It might involve working side-by-side with your project manager for two years, or inviting your team into their office space for six months. Whatever the case, the client is making a high-stakes choice—and your job is to help them feel confident in it. This 10 step process helps you do it comprehensively and persuasively.

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ARTICLE: Proposal Preparation - Common Delays and How to Avoid Them

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Twennie Founders

Proposal preparation often feels like a race against the clock, made harder by the usual suspects: late contributors, disorganized planning sessions, missed details, and chaotic final edits. This article outlines the most common delays in technical proposal preparation and connects each one to relevant Twennie learning tools. If you're new to Twennie, this article points you in the direction of some excellent resources on this topic. This article helps you identify the bottlenecks and the Twennie units to fix them.

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VIDEO: 10 Steps to a Win Theme

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Twennie Founders

A good win theme facilitates a decision-making process in the client’s mind. That decision might be to entrust you with a project that could define their career. It might involve working side-by-side with your project manager for two years or inviting your team into their office space for six months. Whatever the case, the client is making a high-stakes choice and your job is to help them feel confident in it. This 10 step process helps you do it comprehensively and persuasively.

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VIDEO: Rapid Fire Methodology Storyboarding

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Twennie Founders

Rapid Fire Methodology Storyboarding brings proposal contributors together for a focused session in which, in just 2 to 3 hours, you’ll generate all the content needed to build a strong work plan — content that normally takes days or weeks to collect. You can also extend this exercise to storyboard your entire proposal. This video focuses on the work plan portion and uses recognized best practices for proposal strategy, while throwing in some helpful hints for running an effective storyboarding session. Look for related units on this exercise under the topic, Proposal Management.

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PROMPT SET: Identifying a Proposal's Many Parts

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Twennie Founders

The methodology section is one of the hardest parts of a proposal to write well. This prompt set helps you break it down into four essential elements: key issues, tasks, deliverables, and value-added items. You'll practice identifying and writing each one using real-world examples from RFPs and proposals. By the end, you'll know how to build a clear, client-focused methodology that sets your team apart.

to practice the skill of identifying proposal content and categorizing for better clarity
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EXERCISE: 10 Steps to a Win Theme

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Twennie Founders

A good win theme facilitates a decision-making process in the client’s mind. That decision might be to entrust you with a project that could define their career. It might involve working side-by-side with your project manager for two years or inviting your team into their office space for six months. Whatever the case, the client is making a high-stakes choice and your job is to help them feel confident in it. This 10 step process helps you do it comprehensively and persuasively.

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EXERCISE: Rapid Fire Methodology Storyboarding Exercise

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Twennie Founders

Rapid Fire Methodology Storyboarding brings proposal contributors together for a focused session in which, in less than 2 hours, you’ll generate all the content needed to build a strong work plan — content that normally takes days or weeks to collect. If you want, you can also extend this exercise to storyboard your entire proposal.

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10 Steps to a Win Theme Mural Template

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Twennie Founders

Mural is a visual collaboration platform designed for quick idea capture. You can add sticky notes and comments, but Mural does not offer a way to export all your text automatically. To save your input outside the board, you will need to manually copy and paste. We recommend using Mural for brainstorming, and relying on Twennie's downloadable templates when you need structured, exportable files.

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Pink Team Review Template Form

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Twennie Founders

A storyboard is a medium for outlining and planning a proposal. During a collaborative online or in-person exercise, proposal writers review a list of scope items on the storyboard. To each item they add key issues, tasks, and deliverables until all scope items are addressed. The Pink Team is a group of professionals in your organization who were not present during the exercise. They review this storyboard for its competitive potential before the document is written. Their input can provide valuable insight before a lot of work is done, and can be managed using this form.