Those of us in the consulting industry will know that preparing proposals and working in Bid Teams is generally far more stressful than project work (this is more so when bidding for project implementation as opposed to a scoping exercise like Discovery).
Turnaround time is always ‘not enough’, as is the amount of time to gather sufficient information required for good estimates.
Words are hastily copied and pasted from past ‘similar sounding’ projects without enough due diligence in making sure the t’s are crossed and the i’s are dotted.
If at all possible, take the time to write that SoW.
Review, proofread, re-write, consult, re-write, review again.
Collaborate closely with the client to close any gaps between expectations and articulate them so they are clearly understood by both parties.
95% of the time, you will probably not need to pull out that SoW once the project has kicked-off.
But in the 5% of situations… if you have to do that – you know you’re already in trouble.
However, if you had paid attention at the beginning of the engagement and done your due diligence – then you’ll probably be alright.
When you don’t take time to lay down the foundation for a solid partnership, then things might get a bit hairy when the journey gets a bit bumpy.
If you’ve discovered a leak in your boat, you’d want a partner that can help bail out the water and plug that leak.
What you don’t want is a tussle about whose fault it is while said boat slowly sinks into the abyss of this fictional anecdote*.
😁
*ok – i still need to work on my anecdote-telling!
#proposals
#zenhaoprotip
#projectmanagement
#writingsows
#salesforce
#crm