Georgia Chattahoochee Chapter of the APMP

Question:  How long have you been a proposal manager/specialist/ writer?

Basil:  8 Years

Question:  How did you become involved with proposals?

Basil:  I was in between projects at my company and my manager asked me to help with a proposal.

Question:  Do you work in a “corporate office” or “home office” environment? 

Basil:  Corporate

Question:  What do you like best about working in your current environment? 

Basil:  Being a key contributor to business growth for high dollar, high profile pursuits

Question:  What do you like least?

Basil:  Late nights and weekends

Question:  What do you feel is the most challenging aspect of your job?

Basil:  There are several but a few come to mind.

·         Insufficient B&P budgets

·         Overcoming lack of capture due diligence once we have entered the proposal preparation phase (i.e., immature win strategies)

·          Very few proposal team members have formal training or experience writing proposals. Getting those authors to create compliant, responsive and persuasive proposal sections is challenging, especially when they are assigned to work proposals after finishing their regular jobs.

Question:  What shortcuts or helpful best practices about working with proposal teams could you share?

·         Think visually

·         Establish tools, templates and checklists for every step of the proposal process

·         Create a schedule hold people accountable

Question:  Why did you join APMP?

Maintain and grow my proposal skills and meet other people in my profession

Question:  What is your method for successfully working with your proposal teams?

Use of communication/collaboration tools, conference calls, LiveMeetings.

 Question:  Which type of proposals do you do most? Commercial, government or other?

Basil:  Federal Government