This article was published in Proposal Management (The Journal of the Association of Proposal Management Professionals), Fall 2001.
Net-Working the Web
By Peter J. Ognibene
| The Internet has not only changed the way we work; it has created new opportunities for proposal professionals who go into business for themselves. In this article, Peter J. Ognibene, an independent proposal manager and writer, describes how to leverage the immediacy and connectivity of the Web to find assignments and improve the way you work. He shares his own experience as a case study. |
In 1995, I became an independent consultant with two principal lines of business, smart card technology and proposals for information technology (IT) and telecommunications companies. As a VP of corporate development for a firm that specialized in smart card applications, I wanted to continue working with that niche technology even though I knew I could not make a living on smart cards alone. The market for smart cards was then, and remains, limited and narrow. Or, as one wag put it: "Smart cards are the technology of the future—and always will be."
My experience in corporate development centered on managing and writing proposals. So, when I went into business for myself, it made sense to emphasize that experience.
To drum up business, I began networking the old-fashioned way—calling colleagues and acquaintances and sending letters to CEOs, marketing VPs and proposal center directors. In my first six months, I made lots of contacts, got positive feedback but had little in the bank to show for it. Then, I wrote a winning proposal for a smart card project, which led in turn to a position managing the project. Though the takeoff roll seemed long at the time, my little enterprise managed to wobble its way into the air before I ran out of runway.
1995 was also the year I first signed on the Internet. I used it for e-mail, quick research and file exchanges. The Internet was still unusual enough that I recall looking for, but seldom seeing, Web addresses on TV ads. Today, of course, one cannot imagine any enterprise, large or small, without a Web site.
When I got started, my principal technological tool was mail merge, which I used to generate seemingly personalized letters to managers who, I fervently hoped, might need help with proposals. With the rise of the Internet, mail merge has become (for me) as much an anachronism as the old DOS prompt. Though meeting face to face remains the most effective way to convince a prospect to become a client, the power of the Internet to match buyers and sellers makes it a marketing tool unlike any other.
For the business executive or proposal center director who wants someone smart, experienced and now, nothing beats the Internet. I still get some business from people with whom I worked in the Antiquarian Age (viz., before the Web), but close to 90 percent of my revenue in recent years has resulted from contacts first made through the Internet.
The Internet is many things, but its two most salient characteristics are immediacy and connectivity. Learning how to leverage those characteristics is essential to succeeding as an independent proposal professional.
Immediacy, or You Want It—I Got It
You met the marketing and proposal executives; they liked your work but didn’t have anything for you just then. A month or two has passed. With everyone "multitasking" and "moving at Internet speed," chances are their neurons no longer spark with fond recollections of that meeting. Your impressive résumé drowned in the tsunami of paper that has since swept across their desks. Your tickler e-mail stands forlornly in a queue with dozens of other messages, unopened or DOA (deleted on arrival).
Yes, the Internet can serve as a high-speed substitute for phone calls and letters, but it’s much more than that. To exploit the immediacy of the Internet, you need a presence on the Web. So, when decision-makers need someone just like you, it’s you they’ll find.
Creating a presence on the Web takes time and thought; the technology makes it easy. I set up my Web site in December 1996 and typically get 15-20 hits a day. The site focuses on smart cards, but I often direct potential clients seeking a proposal manager or writer to the site. They can browse my articles and presentations and take their measure of my ability to analyze management and technology issues and propose solutions. (Your site should demonstrate what you know rather than expound the manifold wonders of you to a waiting world.)
In addition to your own site, use job-related Web sites that allow you to post résumés. If you have multiple specialties, post multiple résumés. These sites also let you search for openings that match your skills and locations where you are willing to work. Simple criteria, such as the word "proposal" and two-letter state abbreviations, are what I typically use. On Monster, DICE or HotJobs, I get many irrelevant hits, but it’s easy to sort through them and click open only those with job titles of interest.
Job Search Agents are the most powerful feature on these sites. They automatically search for jobs and send you an e-mail of positions that match your search criteria. (See the inset, "Putting the Web to Work for You," for my capsule review of some of the more prominent job-related sites.)
Connectivity, or How to Run the World from Your Desktop
Whenever a new client asks me to manage a proposal or take responsibility for a technical or management volume, I tell them I will work on-site as much as they wish. Then, I make them an offer: Allow me to work out of my own office, and I guarantee I will get more work done in fewer hours and save you money. Most take me up on the offer.
Though every proposal requires meetings and other collaborative exercises, I have yet to see a meeting write a proposal. (All too often, alas, I am forced to witness mass editing sessions that resemble nothing so much as locusts devouring a field of wheat.) With telephones, e-mail and file attachments, a proposal manager can guide and coordinate the work of people anywhere on Earth.
Consider, for instance, a proposal I managed for a major American corporation responding to an RFP from the municipal government of an Asian capital. After a kickoff meeting at company headquarters, the team dispersed across half the globe. I received technical input from engineers in the US, Asia and Australia; I got insight into customer concerns from the account team in the host country and marketers in several Asian locations. To accommodate differences in time zones, we held conference calls either late at night or early in the morning. From my office in Maryland, I took the input of more than a dozen contributors and developed the proposal in English. When it was complete, we had it translated into the customer’s Asian language and submitted the proposal through the corporation’s local subsidiary in the host country.
So, the Internet not only makes it easier to find new assignments; it gives you the connectivity to manage your work from wherever you happen to be.
Getting Started as an Independent
Whether you should go solo, I leave to you, your significant other and financial or spiritual adviser. If you do, you will find three options. They are not mutually exclusive: you can select one or mix and match among the three in whatever works best for you. This is, after all, your business.
Option One: You’re On Your Own
Building one-to-one relationships with prospective clients means you must do the marketing, contracting and billing. With this approach, the rewards are higher rates and stronger bonds with your customers. The drawbacks include administrative chores and downtime while you’re drumming up that next assignment.
Most of my experience has been as a solo practitioner. As one proposal nears completion, I look ahead to the next job. Some magically materialize—an e-mail or phone call from a previous client or someone who learned of me from a colleague or saw my résumé on one of the employment-related Web sites. When the magic doesn’t happen, I respond to proposal-related ads on those Web sites until something clicks.
Option Two: You’ve Got An Agent
Some consultants prefer to work through agencies or recruiters, and the practice has its advantages. A number of large corporations avoid solo consultants. For some, it’s a make-or-buy decision: they’d rather pay to have a specialist sort through multiple prospects and single out the top candidates. Others are concerned with potential hassles regarding consultants who, in the eyes of the IRS, might look more like employees than independent contractors. Whatever the reason, these companies prefer to work through agencies even though the hourly rate for your services may go up 40 or more percent as a result. If you abhor the thought of marketing yourself—unavoidable in Option One—this may be your best bet. Personally, I’m a pragmatist: I’ll take the first solid offer no matter where it originates.
Option Three: You’re a "Cog" in a Great Proposal Machine
Readers of Proposal Management will find a number of ads from companies that specialize in proposals. In addition to placing managers, writers and editors in proposal assignments, these firms offer methodologies covering every aspect of creating proposals. With some, you don the fig leaf of a "W-2 employee" for tax purposes; with others you remain an independent contractor. If you have solid skills but want to broaden your experience, the "credentials" you might gain working with such firms could enhance your marketability.
The high hourly or daily rates these firms charge tend to restrict their customer base to large corporations. The rates they pay proposal professionals, by contrast, are considerably less than they might make under Options One or Two. When the economy’s hot, these firms can keep you very busy, allowing you to accumulate in hourly billings what you might otherwise lose through a lower rate. Let the economy hit an air pocket, as it did at the start of 2001, and you may well lose altitude.
As I write this, I have just put behind me a challenging proposal that took nearly four months to complete. I finished work on a Friday and handed it off to a production company that worked through the weekend, around the clock, sending me page proofs at all hours via the Internet. Periodically, I checked my e-mail, reviewed the latest pages and sent in corrections but otherwise enjoyed a normal weekend. In times past, I might have been sequestered in a proposal war room with stale air, cold pizza, tepid coffee and other grumpy people waiting for pages to review. By bringing people together with their work wherever they are, the Internet not only lets proposal professionals work more efficiently; it gives us a bit more control over our time and, in many instances, opportunities to improve the quality of our lives.
| Sidebar: Putting the Web to Work for
You
Here (in alphabetical order) are some employment-related sites I find useful. Unless otherwise noted, these sites allow you to post résumés and use job search agents that notify you by e-mail once a day of assignments that match your search criteria. |
| Association of Proposal Management Professionals
(APMP)
The APMP Web site has a relatively small job bank, but all the slots are for proposal professionals, which makes it a good place to start. Because the site lacks job search agents, you need to return periodically to see new listings. |
| CareerExchange
http://www.careerexchange.com/searchjb.htm This site allows you to search by job title as well as ad content. That’s a helpful option most sites lack. |
| CareerMagic
Good listings, mostly on the East Coast, but you need to go to your Jobs "In-box" to see them. Search agents provide job titles but little detail. |
| DICE
Mostly for engineers, programmers and other techies, but IT proposal opportunities frequently turn up. |
| HeadHunter
A useful site, but you need to go there to use it. |
| Hot Jobs
In terms of quality, this site has some of the best jobs posted on the Internet. |
| Monster
Always worth a visit, Monster may have the largest number of listings, but their quality is spotty compared to HotJobs. |
| Net-Temps
Oriented toward contract assignments, the site also lists full-time employment. |
| Yahoo! Classified
Set up your own Yahoo site, post one or more résumés and have these "Classified Ads" search on your behalf. You must go to the site to use them. |