Hold an Effective Kick-Off Meeting

Like any complex project, writing a major proposal can be intimidating at first. You can get off to a good start if you hold an effective kick-off meeting. Your kick-off meeting process should include developing an agenda, creating checklists of requirements, gathering insight into the client, making key decisions, and generating a basic outline for the proposal quickly.

One tool that you should develop immediately if you regularly work with a team of contributors is an opportunity analysis worksheet. (See the sample in Figure 8-3.) Leave it blank before the meeting. Then work as a team to fill it in. The template should include information about who the customer is, who the decision makers are, what business relationship exists between your company and the prospective customer, and the size and focus of the opportunity. It should also cover the seven critical questions that we discussed in Chapter 5. What else? You may want additional insight into the customer's business, technical, political, economic, and social concerns; the values that will drive the selection process; the competitive landscape; the most effective strategy for positioning your firm (your best value proposition and win theme); and your firm's readiness to bid. Having said all that, let me add a word of warning: don't make it too complicated. A one-page opportunity analysis will get used. Three or four pages will be ignored.

Opportunity Analysis Worksheet for Trust Administration

Customer's business profile

1. Who is responsible for decisions affecting the trusts? How do they make decisions?

2. What would they change about the way the trusts are set up or administered if they could?

3. What is the main benefit they want to gain from improving the way trusts are managed?

4. What elements of the customer's business situation are driving this opportunity?

5. Is there a compelling reason why they need to move quickly in changing the administration of their trust?

6. Are we positioned with the key decision maker? Do we have access to the authorities who can make this decision? Do we have strong champions within the customer organization?

The financial issues:

1. How many trusts does the customer have? How large are the trusts?

2. Is the customer completely satisfied with the performance of the trusts?

3. Are they completely satisfied with the yield?

4. What gross return did they earn on the trusts last year?

5. Who is currently handling the trusts?

6. How are the funds invested? Certificates of deposit or stocks/bonds?

7. What is the customer's investment strategy?

8. How many different fund managers do they have? Who are they?

9. What trustee fee does their current trust administrator charge?

10. What investment management fee do they charge?

11. Does the current trust administrator offer profit sharing?

Figure 8-3: A Sample Worksheet.

So it's time for your kick-off meeting. Here are some tips for making it go smoothly:

1. Invite the right people, as outlined above. Don't neglect people you may need to work with later on the project. They're less likely to feel put upon if they're included at the outset, even if they choose to skip the meeting.

2. E-mail everyone the relevant background information, including a copy of the RFP, and other useful data before the meeting. This information might include:

   • Nature and scope of the RFP

   • Why this has been determined to be a "bid" project

   • Why it's important from a strategic perspective to win

   • Background information on the customer and its current situation

   • Historical data on previous relationships, if any, with this customer

3. Assume that no one will have looked at any of this information when they arrive. Hey, we're all busy, you know?

4. Create an agenda for the meeting, but empower the attendees to modify it. That will give them some ownership in the success of the meeting.

5. Briefly review the material you sent them in advance and then complete the opportunity analysis form. This is also a good time to review the initial technical approach/solution that has been developed for this project, if there is one.

6. Discuss and agree as a team on the primary value proposition and any secondary strategies that you will use in writing the proposal.

7. Brainstorm as a team for evidence to support the value proposition.

8. Assign team members their responsibilities, along with milestones, due dates, accountability, and deliverables. Emphasize the importance of early reviews and sticking with the plan as developed in the kick-off meeting.

9. Create a requirements checklist, either during the kick-off meeting or very soon after, in which you list every requirement from the RFP, if there is one, or everything the customer has asked you to provide. You probably have the bones of your requirements checklist from the careful reading of the RFP you did when it first arrived. Now it has to be fleshed out, because when your proposal is done, you will use the requirements checklist to make sure nothing has been missed. Remember that the easiest way to get yourself thrown out of a bid is to miss one of the key requirements.