Latest / What is Business Development? / Episode 81: BD-BOK Chapter 12 Waterfall versus Agile Proposal Development

Transcript

Episode 81: BD-BOK Chapter 12 Waterfall versus Agile Proposal Development · What is Business Development?

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the deep dive. Now, if you've ever
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: been involved in business development, especially with those big, complex proposals,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: you definitely know that feeling. It's like this grueling administrative marathon.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, just managing the paperwork alone can feel like
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: a full time job exactly.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: We're talking about the proposal process itself. It's this beast
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: that's known for being painfully slow, super costly, and well
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: often incredibly rigid, almost absurdly so. But the good news
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: really is that this whole model seems to be finally
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: undergoing a pretty major transformation.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Which is long overdue. I think most would agree totally.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: So today we're doing a deep dive into this big shift.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: We're moving from that traditional model, let's call it the
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: old guard Richard Shipley's nineteen seventy two Waterfowl method, and
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: we're going to contrast that with the more dynamic, modern approach,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: the Agile proposal method. It's loosely based on the ideas
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: from the two thousand and one Agile Software Development Manifesto.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: And look, this is just some academic exercise about methodologies,
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: is it? For business developers listening? This really hits the
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: bottom line, right, So our mission today is basically to
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: look at the real impact, specifically, how does switching to
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: agile affect your costs and crucially your win rates. Oh
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: and then we kind of need to zoom out, don't we.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: We have to connect this internal change, this evolution, to
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: what's happening out there in the market, that huge accelerating
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: trend of sales automation.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Ah.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, it's completely reshaping the direct to consumer or DTC
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: by your journey, So you need to understand not just
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: how to write a better proposal, but also why the
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: market is demanding it faster, much faster than ever before.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Okay, right, so let's unpack where we actually came from.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: It still kind of blows my mind that a process
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: thought up over fifty years ago by Richard Shipley still
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: dictates how huge organizations handle proposals.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: It is pretty amazing, isn't it. Sheeplea's work back in
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: seventy two, it definitely provided structure and that was needed then,
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: no doubt. It eventually led to APMP being found in
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  Speaker 2: that Association of Proposal Management Professionals back in nineteen eighty nine.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: But the core idea of Waterfall, it's all about order predictability.
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  Speaker 2: It's very strictly scheduled, driven and strictly linear, step by step, which.
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  Speaker 1: Means, you know, it starts with that formal kickoff meeting.
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  Speaker 1: You read the RFP specs, you lay out this super
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: detailed production schedule, and then you assign out these work
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: packages to various subject matter.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Experts, right, the technical folks, yeah.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Who are now suddenly tasked with writing their sections, whether
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: they're good writers or not.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: And then, of course come the famous or maybe infamous
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  Speaker 2: sequential review cycles. This is the bit that adds days,
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: sometimes even weeks to the whole process. You start with
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: that initial draft review, the Pink team. The goal there
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  Speaker 2: is usually just checking compliance structure, you know, did we
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: cover all the required sections? Basic stuff?
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Then the technical experts they spend ages integrating those comments.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Then you get to the second draft review, the Red team.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: That's where the consolidated inputs get evaluated, often looking at
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  Speaker 1: the actual strategic content, things like win themes supposedly right.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: And then finally you've got the white glove review. That's
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: the absolute final polish before you hit printer submit.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: Let's get on paper perhaps.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: But okay, if these steps are so regimented, so orderly,
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  Speaker 1: Why does everyone describe waterfall as this this grueling waste
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: of time and resources.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: Well, because it's fixed and it's linear. Like we said,
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  Speaker 2: the sources we looked at really point out to critical
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  Speaker 2: operational failures here. First, it just takes immense resources to
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: run these separate, huge review cycles, right, And the deadlines
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: often fixed kind of arbitrary. They're not really tied to
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: how the solution is actually evolving, just dates on a.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Calendar, deadlines for deadline's sake, exactly.
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  Speaker 2: And second, and this is where the real inefficiency bits.
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  Speaker 2: The actual value you get from those massive scheduled reviews
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  Speaker 2: is often questionable. So, well, think about who the reviewers
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: usually are. They're typically independent stakeholders, right, They might have
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  Speaker 2: zero connection to the actual prospect you're trying to win over,
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  Speaker 2: or even the solution you're proposing.
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  Speaker 1: So they're just ticking boxes pretty much.
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  Speaker 2: They add costs, they add time, but often they provide
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  Speaker 2: very little in terms of genuine, actionable insight that actually
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  Speaker 2: improves the proposal.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, wait, if the red team, for instance, is often
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  Speaker 1: so ineffective, why are companies still so reliant on this
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  Speaker 1: scheduled tradition. Is it just inertia, people doing what they've
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  Speaker 1: always done.
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  Speaker 2: Mostly, yes, inertia plays a huge part, and also maybe
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  Speaker 2: a sense of perceived liability management. They feel like they
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  Speaker 2: have to check that box, run that review. But think
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  Speaker 2: about it, if you mandate, say a four week review cycle,
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  Speaker 2: you are spending thousands, maybe tens of thousands on labor
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  Speaker 2: costs just pushing content through stages. It doesn't matter if
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  Speaker 2: the content is actually ready or if the reviewers even
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  Speaker 2: have anything useful to add. Wow, and that leads straight
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  Speaker 2: to that fundamental rigidity that Agile really aims to just
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  Speaker 2: completely dismantle.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so if Waterfall is slow, schedule driven, often inefficient,
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  Speaker 1: let's talk about the modern fix, the Agile proposal method.
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  Speaker 1: It sounds like it's basically the philosophical opposite.
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  Speaker 2: It really is. The shift in thinking is profound. Waterfall
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  Speaker 2: remember prioritizes hitting the schedule. Agile prioritizes nailing the.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Solution, solution driven, not schedule driven.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly. The Agile process is completely customer focused. It starts
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  Speaker 2: with a baseline understanding of the solution, sure, but then
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  Speaker 2: it immediately focuses on identifying and closing what it calls
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  Speaker 2: a backlog of technical gaps.
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  Speaker 1: A backlog like in software development.
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  Speaker 2: Precisely, the whole effort is about continuous gap closure. That
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  Speaker 2: makes it dynamic, not linear. You're constantly evolving the draft,
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  Speaker 2: refining it until the solution is perfect and you've addressed
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  Speaker 2: absolutely all the prospects needs in questions.
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  Speaker 1: And you mentioned this changes who's responsible for the content?
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  Speaker 1: That sounds huge.
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  Speaker 2: Oh it's a massive shift under waterfall. You give the
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  Speaker 2: writing task to the technical expert, even if, let's be honest,
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: the writing skills might be questionable.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Right, Engineers writing marketing copy always fun.
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  Speaker 2: Agile flips that completely. It emphasizes using expert writers, people
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  Speaker 2: who are professional communicators.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: First and foremost. Okay, so the writer isn't just editing.
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  Speaker 2: No, they're driving it. The writer consults with the technical
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: experts to gather the data to validate the solution. But
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  Speaker 2: the writer owns the pros ensuring quality right from day one.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: Ah, I see.
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  Speaker 2: And they're the ones who are skilled at reusing similar
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  Speaker 2: content boilerplate from previous wins marketing materials to rapidly create
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  Speaker 2: that initial draft, which gets you started faster, much faster,
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  Speaker 2: And that first draft immediately highlights where the gaps are
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  Speaker 2: so the team can start closing them right away, no
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  Speaker 2: waiting for a scheduled review down the line.
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  Speaker 1: So this changes the leadership role.
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  Speaker 2: To them entirely. In Waterfall, it's the proposal manager who
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  Speaker 2: leads managing that administrative schedule. In Agile, the professional writer
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  Speaker 2: actually steps up and acts as the scrum.
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  Speaker 1: Master, the writer as scrum mass Interesting.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, the writer in that scrum master role prioritizes that
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  Speaker 2: backlog of gaps we talked about. They schedule specific, targeted
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  Speaker 2: reviews with the right experts, and crucially, they make the
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: necessary draft changes immediately, right then and there. Compare that
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  Speaker 2: to the waterfall manager, whose main job is often just
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  Speaker 2: monitoring progress toward a fixed, maybe arbitrary deadline. It's a
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  Speaker 2: very different focus.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, shifting technical experts away from writing and more towards
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  Speaker 1: consulting on the content. That sounds fantastic for proposal quality.
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  Speaker 1: But how tough is that cultural shift really, especially in
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  Speaker 1: maybe a highly technical or say irregulated industry.
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  Speaker 2: Oh it's definitely challenging, no question, but it's essential, and
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  Speaker 2: the mechanism Agile uses actually helps with that transition. The
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  Speaker 2: reviews themselves are functionally different, so well, instead of those
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  Speaker 2: massive often weeks long pain or red team meetings with
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  Speaker 2: dozens of people. You conduct targeted daily scrums. These are
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  Speaker 2: short calls, maybe fifteen minutes, with only the necessary technical experts,
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  Speaker 2: and they are used specifically to close identified gaps in
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  Speaker 2: the backlog. Laser focus exactly their solution focus, not just
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  Speaker 2: progress monitoring chats. They talk for fifteen minutes, they close
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  Speaker 2: a gap, figure out the solution detail, and then they
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  Speaker 2: move on.
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  Speaker 1: Done. That structural change alone must be what delivers the
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  Speaker 1: efficiency gains.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely and the measurable results the one cited in the
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  Speaker 2: source materials we looked at. They're the clear incentive for
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  Speaker 2: every business developer listening to really consider making this shift.
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  Speaker 2: Consistently agile methods lead to cycle times down, win rates up,
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  Speaker 2: and costs down. You'd argue with that, you save time,
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  Speaker 2: you save money, and you win more deals. It's pretty compelling,
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  Speaker 2: it really is. I mean, if you can achieve the
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  Speaker 2: same or even better quality assurance in maybe one week
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  Speaker 2: through this continuous gap closure instead of four weeks tied
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  Speaker 2: up in sequential scheduled reviews, the cost savings and labor
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  Speaker 2: alone are just monumental.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, Okay, So let's transition a bit. We've talked
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  Speaker 1: about the profits waterfall versus agile. Now let's focus on
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  Speaker 1: the final product itself, because regardless of the methodology you use,
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  Speaker 1: the ultimate goal is winning the business. And to do that,
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  Speaker 1: the final proposal document has to satisfy what our sources
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  Speaker 1: called the five seas of a winning proposal.
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  Speaker 2: The five seas.
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  Speaker 1: The first three are really about foundational quality, getting the
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  Speaker 1: basics right. First, must be clear, simple language, logical structure,
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  Speaker 1: you know, proper grammar, easy to read and understand.
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  Speaker 2: Second, it needs to be concise. You're fighting against buyer fatigue,
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  Speaker 2: information overload. You have to simplify your offer, get straight
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  Speaker 2: to the point.
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  Speaker 1: And how does agile help here, Well, think about it.
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  Speaker 2: By using those expert writers from the start, you immediately
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  Speaker 2: boost clarity and conciseness. You reduce the risk of getting dense,
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  Speaker 2: unreadable technobabble from an expert who isn't a trained writer.
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  Speaker 1: Good point. Okay. Third, c this one's a non negotiable
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  Speaker 1: gait compliant. You absolutely must meet every single buyer's specification,
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  Speaker 1: page length, font size, submission deadline. Get it wrong and
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  Speaker 1: you risk automatic disqualification out before you even start.
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  Speaker 2: And this is another area where that agile backlog of
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  Speaker 2: technical gaps is really beneficial. Compliance isn't treated as some
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  Speaker 2: final check. It's identified as a gap that needs closing
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  Speaker 2: early on. That initial draft gets measured against all the
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  Speaker 2: compliance criteria immediately, so you guarantee the structure, the format,
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  Speaker 2: everything meets the requirement right from day one, not as
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  Speaker 2: an afterthought.
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  Speaker 1: Makes sense, so clear, concise, compliant. The final two SE's
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  Speaker 1: seem more about strategy exactly.
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  Speaker 2: Fourth is credible. You have to demonstrate convincingly that you
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  Speaker 2: can actually do what you're proposing, that you have the capability,
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  Speaker 2: the resources, the track record to successfully execute the contract.
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  Speaker 1: Proof points essentially yes.
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  Speaker 2: And the fifth see arguably the most strategic one is compelling.
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  Speaker 2: This is where you really win hearts and minds.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, what does compelling really mean in this context?
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  Speaker 2: It means ensuring all your strategic elements truly resonate with
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  Speaker 2: the customer, your unique value proposition or UVP, your key
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  Speaker 2: competitive differentiators, your win themes woven throughout, and importantly, it
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  Speaker 2: also requires the effective use of ghosting themes.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Right, ghosting themes. We touched on that for listeners who
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: might not be familiar, what exactly are we ghosting. Who
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: are we ghosting?
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  Speaker 2: You're essentially ghosting your competition. A ghosting theme subtly highlights
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  Speaker 2: a weakness your competitor has, or maybe a specific risk
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  Speaker 2: associated with their approach, but crucially without ever naming them directly.
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  Speaker 2: It's about framing the solution you are proposing as the clear,
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  Speaker 2: superior alternative that neatly avoids those pitfalls or weaknesses associated
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: with other approaches. It's highly strategic, requires really deep customer
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: understanding and competitive intelligence.
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  Speaker 1: Got it, So nail the five c's.
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  Speaker 2: You win, hopefully, but winning is great. Consistency is even better.
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  Speaker 2: So after every single bid, win or lose, doesn't matter,
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  Speaker 2: you absolutely must conduct a postward analysis lessons learned exactly
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: your lessons learned session, your root cause analysis? What went right?
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: What went wrong? This feedback loop ensures that the next
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: iteration of your annual process gets even sharper, even more efficient,
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: continuous improvement.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, great advice. Now let's pull back for that macro
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  Speaker 1: view again. Connect the pressure for proposal speed, which agile
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  Speaker 1: delivers directly to the wider market dynamics. Why is this
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: shift from rigid waterfall to dynamic agile becoming so urgent
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: for basically every business developer out there. You mentioned the
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: automated sales frontier.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: Exactly that corporations large and small are rapidly automating the
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: entire sales journey from that initial customer activation right through
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: to the final conversion, and often they're removing the human
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: salesperson from large parts of that process entirely.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, driven by tech.
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  Speaker 2: Completely driven by technology. I mean, just think about E
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: commerce and M commerce, mobile commerce. These platforms deliver huge
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  Speaker 2: efficiency gains, faster transactions much that's less friction for the prospect.
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  Speaker 2: It's all about speed and convenience in purchasing.
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  Speaker 1: And you're saying that expectation is bleeding over from consumer
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  Speaker 1: buying into the B to B and even B to
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: G space.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, buyer expectations are being reset everywhere. We're even seeing
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: this trend accelerate in social commerce. Prospects can now research, engage,
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  Speaker 2: and sometimes self navigate their entire purchase journey right within
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  Speaker 2: a social media platform. The buyer is taking near total
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: control of the pace and the process.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: That's a profound shift towards self service. Is their data
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: backing this up? Oh?
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  Speaker 2: Definitely. The sources highlighted a key twenty twenty one McKinsey study,
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: and it found that buyers overwhelmingly now prefer an online
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  Speaker 2: is self navigated journey that direct to consumer or D
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: two C model over the traditional face to face sales
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  Speaker 2: interactions that really dominate a business for decades.
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  Speaker 1: Overwhelmingly prefer it.
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  Speaker 2: Wow, it really points to a massive change in preference,
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: and this raises the critical strategic question for everyone listening.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: If buyers can purchase complex consumer goods, cars, even almost
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: instantaneously online, they now expect procurement B to B engagement
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  Speaker 2: proposals everything to move with similar speed and clarity. If
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: the market is demanding instantaneous self navigated purchasing, your internal
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: proposal process simply cannot afford to be stuck in a slow,
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: linear nineteen seventy two model.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it just won't cut it anymore.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: The speed and clarity expectations of this automated market absolutely
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: demand the efficiency and responsiveness you get from agile.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: That really is the ultimate takeaway, isn't it. The market
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: demands speed, and your internal process, your proposal engine needs
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: to deliver it. Okay, let's crystallize this. Let's make sure
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: everyone walks away with the top three insights from our
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: deep dive.
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  Speaker 2: Today sounds good. Takeaway number one has to be about methodology.
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  Speaker 2: The fundamental shift you need for both efficiency and quality
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  Speaker 2: is moving away from scheduled driven proposal management, that rigid
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: waterfall approach towards the solution driven gap closure model of agile.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: And remember the benefits.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, remember those measure ruble benefits, cited costs go down,
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: cycle time goes down, and win rates go up. Hard
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: to argue with that.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: Compo definitely not okay. Take Away number two focuses on
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  Speaker 1: leadership proposes success more and more relies on empowering those
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: expert writers to take the lead acting as scrum masters.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: We really have to move away from forcing technical experts
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: who might not be great writers, to produce the core content.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Instead empower the professional writers to drive content development, manage
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: the consultation process, and ensure that clarity and conciseness right
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: from the very start.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: Well said, and finally, take away number three is all
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: about that market trend. The global buyer preference is shifting
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: dramatically towards online self navigation and D two c That
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty one Mackenzie data really cements this reality.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: It's not speculation.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: That's fact exactly, so, proposal teams simply must adapt their
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: internal speed, their clarity, their responsiveness to meet the non
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: negotiable demands of this increasingly automated fast paste.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: Market adapt or risk becoming irrelevant. So we want to
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: leave you, our listeners, with this final, maybe provocative thought
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: to chew on. If buyers already prefer automating their entire
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: purchase journey, and they value speed and self service above
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: almost everything else, then how quickly must our own internal
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: proposal and development processes, whether they're agile or heaven forbids
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: still stuck in waterfall? How quickly must they evolve just
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: to keep pace with the market's absolutely insatiable desire for
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: speed and self service.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: That really is the multimillion dollar question that should be
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: driving every single business developer strategy right now.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Couldn't agree more. Thank you so much for joining us
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: for this deep dive into transforming the way you build
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: proposals and win business. We'll catch you next time.