“Everything becomes clearer, the clearer you understand someone’s body language signals.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert (Click to Tweet)Click here to get the book!
“Avoid Negotiation Failure – Body Language Advice – Proven Ways On How To Win More”
People don’t realize they’re always negotiating.
When you negotiate, do you consider how you can avoid negotiation failure by observing body language signals? People who discount themselves as avid negotiators do not calculate the value of using body language as an aid to enhance their haggling. And that sets them up for fewer positive negotiation outcomes.
Observing body language, which also consists of noting nonverbal communication, becomes an integral factor in increasing negotiation efforts. Consider the following advice about body language and how you can use it to avoid negotiation failure during your negotiation discussions.
“It works somewhat, but it’s absolute chaos every time.” Sound familiar?
Are you and your team constantly scrambling toward the RFP response finish line? Do you wake up from the chaotic proposal-building fog just in time to hit “submit” at the last moment? If your answer is yes to either of these, it is likely time to take a step back to review, revisit and revise.
Most RFP-responding teams have the basics down: receive the RFP, organize a kick-off meeting right away, divvy up the answers, note the deadlines, and get to work. But shifting from low efficiency and frequent losses into high gear requires a reassessment of your proposal process, from receipt through award/loss notification.
Over the last 25 years, I’ve seen everything from teams chasing down a UPS truck to get their response shipped, to the heartbreaking reality of losing a bid because due to one missed signature. These mistakes are the result of an inefficient process. The difference between a proposal and/or capture team in chaos and a fine-tuned winning machine can double, triple… even quintuple your win ratio (and thus, your revenue).
In this article, we’ll share five tips to shift your team out of chaotic drifting and into maximum (efficiency) overdrive. By implementing these five RFP process tips, you’ll introduce structure to your team and take the initial, must-do steps to a culture of winning.
How to shift out of RFP chaos and into the (efficient) driver’s seat
Get a baseline
You can’t figure out where you need to go without knowing where you are. Data and measurement are essential to decreasing chaos. What’s your win rate? How much revenue are you making from each new RFP? Which competitor are you losing to the most? Why have you lost each bid?
Create a report with hard-number statistics so that you can assess exactly where you are on a number of levels. You likely won’t have every number readily available, but here are a few RFP data points that are important to know:
The number of RFPs you bid on per month, on average
The amount of money in staff time spent on each RFP response
The average contract value per opportunity
The time spent responding to each RFP (this will help when designing your process order and priorities)
Average contract length
Conduct an audit
A process audit will give you the clarity to see exactly where your roadblocks exist. But, before you can fairly review your RFP process, you must dedicate the time!
A highly valuable process audit requires you to:
Review the process over multiple days. This gives you a chance to thoroughly understand, question and come back to discussion points.
Involve multiple internal parties. Be willing to get vulnerable here and encourage honest feedback.
Engage an unbiased, 3rd party. In our experience as RFP process and team consultants, an outside perspective dramatically impacts future win rates and RFP success. In many instances, an outside RFP expert can improve overall win rates by 50 to 60 percent. To get the most out of an outside reviewer, commit to receiving feedback and ideas your team may not have had on their radar, even if it’s uncomfortable.
Indicate the pain points, big or small. Notate the exact pain points at every step of the process. This allows you to create an action plan for how to eliminate these pain points.
Revisit your foundation
Why are you bidding on RFPs? What does winning (or losing) an RFP do for your company? Why are you the best solution? What is your value proposition? These questions are vitally important to answer as a team. Put them in writing! Have your team members contribute in writing. You’ll see what preconceived ideas each team member has been operating on as they contribute to the proposal lifecycle.
Identify resources
From the right technology to the right people, a smooth (and winning!) RFP process requires a careful blend of resources. In this step, you’ll identify which resources are already present as well as the gaps. Suggested key resources to explore include, but are not limited to:
Efficient teams have clear processes that are documented thoroughly. Make a concerted effort to create written, step-by-step processes that are easily accessible and updated routinely. Task one team member with owning this responsibility.
Document processes such as assessing opportunities, onboarding a new RFP, internal debriefs, external debriefs, use of software tools, and the list goes on. Even the smallest of processes should be included.
This documentation should include proposal team training to ensure all team members know the processes and know where to access this documentation. This should also be part of your new hire onboarding training for any new team members involved in RFPs.
Start shifting now
The time to make a move is now.
It’s easy to ignore processes. They aren’t sexy. They feel hard. But having the right systems and processes will make a massive difference.
Shifting from Chaos to Crushing It requires your time, a commitment to ever-improve your team’s processes, and the flexibility to shift when your review uncovers potential gaps and fail points.
The multi-faceted approach laid out above ensures your team members are committed to implementing RFP processes that will benefit you all.
Comfortable in Your Current Position? Uncomfortable Life Lessons to Safeguard Your Career
If you are perfectly satisfied with your job and your company and have no plans to seek other employment any time soon, congratulations. This article is for you.
Because, here’s the thing: you are not totally in control of your future.
While you may plan to stay with your company for many more years, your company may have other plans. In response to the Covid-changed market, companies may discontinue product lines, outsource functional areas, or abandon previously served markets. The restructuring will require fewer employees. The action may be swift and unexpected. One day you may be doing your best work and the next you are handed the ubiquitous white cardboard box and given an hour to gather your personal items before being escorted out by security.
Of course, I’m not saying that this will happen to you – as a matter of fact, I truly hope that it doesn’t. But what I can predict with certainty is that if you are not prepared to hit the ground running and you find yourself without a job, it will take a LOT more time to get prepared for a search than you think it will. My certainty comes both from my own experience with unexpected job loss (2011) and the work I have done with C-Suite executives and senior leaders since then to prepare them to enter a job search or their next endeavor following an unexpected job loss.
I offer these personal life lessons learned through my own unanticipated job loss in the hope that you will take action now to become better prepared.
Creating and communicating your personal brand online is imperative for the health of your career. Do it now.
I’m not saying that a powerful LinkedIn profile will save your job. If your company is eliminating whole departments, they are not making case-by-case decisions about who will stay and who will go. However, what I do know is that if you have done the work to understand your personal brand – the things you want to be known for and your differentiators – and you’ve articulated your brand online on LinkedIn, you will be able to rebound much more quickly than if you haven’t.
One thing few people anticipate is the extent to which an unexpected job loss delivers a visceral blow to one’s self-esteem. You simply cannot effectively communicate your personal brand powerfully when you are feeling low, and a LinkedIn profile that is weak and underdeveloped will not be an asset in your job search when you need it most.
A vibrant professional network outside your company is essential to your career. Build it now.
You’re too busy, you say. That was my problem, too. Sure, I had lots of friends and colleagues within the company, but when everyone from the department is out on the street, suddenly you are all competitors. Everyone knows networking is the top way people find senior-level positions, but creating a network from scratch when you really need one is hard to do. Build a network of professional friends outside your current company now so that you’ll have people who are ready to cheer you up and cheer you on when you need that. Be a resource to others, too.
Your same skills and experiences can be applied in new ways in different settings to bring you joy.
I assumed that I had the very best job for me in the world, and that the absence of that job meant the absence of joy in my life going forward. I wallowed in the misery of this untruth for many months. Fortunately, I learned that instead, one’s skills and experiences are like the pieces of glass in a kaleidoscope. Each time we turn the wheel on the kaleidoscope, the picture that appears could be even more beautiful than the last one. Test out the hypothesis that your skills are portable by using some of your core skills in a volunteer capacity. Begin to expand your mind to the alternative ways you can find joy and add value by applying your skills. Yes, the job that I did before my job loss was perfect for me then. However, the business I have created for myself is perfect for me now. My skills are the same; only the context and content are different.
You are bigger than any job you hold. You are not your job. You are worthy.
Believe this now. You ARE bigger than any job you hold.
Many of us intertwine our own identity and our own brand with our job. This is dangerous thinking; the corollary to this reasoning is that if we lose our position, we have lost ourselves. What despair this causes! Understanding the difference between ourselves and our job is important; it allows us to move forward, past the real but temporary grief of job loss.
Does it take work to optimize your LinkedIn profile, create a robust professional network, and understand that our skills and ourselves are distinct from our job? You bet it does. But the return on investment is high: by doing this work, you will create a firm foundation for the continuity of your career and your mental health that no one can take away.
LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive – Second Edition is a Featured Selection of the C-Suite Book Club.
If you are a C-Suite executive or senior leader who would like to improve your LinkedIn profile and presence, I can make it easy for you. I have a track record of working effectively with C-Suite executives and senior leaders to create LinkedIn profiles and other executive-branded materials that help them show up as authentically and powerfully online as they do in person. This way, they can attract the talent they want to hire, increase their visibility and influence, and control their career. I also mentor clients on LinkedIn etiquette and effective posting strategies to ensure their success. Let me help you use this essential business tool effectively. Contact me through my website: www.carolkaemmerer.com or profile: www.linkedin.com/in/carolkaemmerer.
Other resources for you and your team:
For a virtual or in-person presentation on personal branding via LinkedIn, contact me. I am a member of the National Speakers Association, a Certified Virtual Presenter, and an Advisor to the C-Suite Network.
