Orals Slidecraft - Part 1
While opinions may differ on the desirability of orals as part of a proposal response, I am wholeheartedly part of the “yes” group. Why? Because orals are a great way to showcase the bid team and make those all-important personal connections with the evaluators…whose inherent human subjectivity may help us win the “fair and open” competition.
While most engineers and PMs have developed and presented briefings many times at design and monthly reviews, they have never given an orals proposal response. An important difference between the two forums is that the proposal evaluators are not necessarily expert in the subject matter presented. To be successful then, we must simplify the communication stream to them by packaging it into easily digestible, bite-sized pieces.
How is this achieved? We present more slides, each having easily graspable ideas or concepts, and not fewer slides, each having complex text messages and/or graphics. My proposal experience indicates that one slide per 60-90 seconds is an achievable, sustainable pace to successfully communicate simple concepts (vs. three or more minutes per slide for complex ideas). Key benefits of this approach are:
Easier for the speaker to assuredly communicate the several key points per slide vs. possibly getting lost or forgetting items during the presentation
Easier for the evaluator to understand clear, concise points during the presentation vs. long, drawn out explanations of complex ideas
Post presentation, the evaluators will not have to try to decipher (or remember your description of) complex items while reviewing/going over hard copies
Black Dog Technology LLC's innovative processes and Proposal Navigator® tool efficiencies add productive work days to your constrained proposal development timelines. Contact us for your capture/proposal support needs or to arrange your Proposal Navigator® system capability demonstration. 2015 pricing is $25,000 annual subscription (unlimited use) per proposal center site.
The Proposal Team's Mission
Synthesize and package the capture team’s vision into a compliant, convincing and compelling offering whose selection can be successfully defended ... without breaking the pursuit budget “bank”...