From the early days of our industry in the late 1960s, through the advent of the PC, to the present day, we have constantly refined the art and science of winning proposal development. But have we really created better proposals? This presentation posits that proposals haven’t really changed much over the last 25 years. In relation to the rate of change throughout our world, they have remained rooted in the past, and use about the same story-telling principles. We need to evolve the art of narrative and visualization. This presentation offers a view of different, more nuanced story-telling principles, and shows how these new methods are being used in other contexts. Can we create this change in a highly restrictive proposal environment?

In this presentation, SMA President and CEO, Ajay Patel, CF APMP, asks if we have neglected proposal text by focusing too much on the graphics? Do we need to re-emphasize proposal text as the cohesive glue that binds the graphics and tells our story? Should we redefine what we consider “best-practice” proposal writing to help us make our story more memorable?

You can download Ajay’s presentation here: Are We Stuck In the Past? (15850 downloads )

Ajay originally delivered this presentation at the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) California Chapter‘s Training Day in October 2014 and at APMP Bid & Proposal Con in Seattle, Washington, in May 2015. The research is original. Over 1,000 hours were spent researching data and scientific analyses, consulting experts outside our arena, and testing assumptions. References are given extensively throughout the presentation for further study by the audience as well as acknowledgement of source material.

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