The Blended Bid:
Synergizing the Written Proposal
and the Oral Presentation
A speech delivered on May 23, 2007 to the Association of Proposal Management Professionals of the National Capital Area (APMP-NCA)
Thank you, Michael, and thanks to the Board of the APMP of the National Capital Area for inviting me to speak this evening. As I look out at row upon row of filled tables, I remember something a friend told me about a speech he attended at Princeton University, when he was a Grad student.
William F. Buckley, Jr. was the speaker, and the turnout was overwhelming. When Mr. Buckley walked on the stage, he gazed at the audience virtually hanging from the rafters and said “I am humbled, deeply humbled, that so many of you have come to listen to my speech--exquisitely wrought though it is.”
I cannot promise that my presentation will be “exquisitely wrought,” but I am indeed humbled that so many have chosen to attend this evening, and also reassured that the topic I chose to speak on resonates with you, proposal managers and writers.
Before going into tonight’s subject of having proposal writers and presenters working hand-in-glove, let me answer a question you probably all have as a result of Michael’s introduction: How did a retired Army colonel, now a presentation skills coach, wind up in the April 2007 issue of MAXIM magazine, euphemistically described as a Men’s Lifestyle” publication?
It all started last December, when I was called by a MAXIM writer who said he was doing an article on career development, had reviewed my website, and thought I was ideally suited to provide advice to MAXIM’s three million readers, many of them professionals with a median income of 70 thousand dollars a year. Thinking of the commercial possibilities of those demographics, I readily agreed to a lengthy interview.
When the April issue hit the newsstands, I found the article quite different from what I had expected. The “Career advice” included “Arm wrestling,” “Curing a hangover,” and concluded with “Belly flopping.” Ensconced among these secrets of career success was my advice on making “Boardroom presentations.” The writer actually...
