2021 Western Inaugural Training Day
After missing a year due to the COVID pandemic, the APMP California Chapter was scheduled to hold an in-person conference in 2021, which would have been the 16th Annual Training Day. However, the APMP California Chapter merged with the APMP Valley of the Sun Chapter to form the APMP Western Chapter, and the event, held on October 29 at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel in Anaheim, California, was renamed as the Inaugural APMP Western Chapter Training Day, and attracted 73 attendees.
WIN THEM ALL! 8 Master Techniques to Make Props for ALL Evaluators
To win, you want to appeal to all decision makers, evaluators, and influencers. In bids and proposals that is difficult. Learn Mike’s eight techniques to communicate with a mixed audience quickly and clearly—at the same time. Discover how to make winning proposals for apathetic reviewers. Walk away with practical, real-world techniques and tools to win your next bid. Don't miss Mike’s newest high energy keynote with practical, proven, and innovative tips you can use immediately.
Mike Parkinson, CPP APMP Fellow
Mike is a geek. He is a CPP APMP Fellow, one of only 36 Microsoft PowerPoint MVPs in the world, a best-selling author, and an industry thought leader. Mike’s keynotes, training, books (“Billion Dollar Graphics” and “A Trainer's Guide to PowerPoint: Best Practices for Master Presenters.”), and tools (Build-a-Graphic.com) help companies succeed while saving money and time. He a partner at 24 Hour Company, a premier creative services firm, and owns Billion Dollar Graphics.Making Winning Choices: an Intellectually Agile Approach to Developing Successful Win Strategies
The new approach to win strategy avoids protracted decision-making while still being transparent and repeatable. Making Winning Choices™ is team-based and depends on identifying evidence that establishes a clear, explainable burden of proof for key questions. Just as important, it is adaptable to unique, albeit often changing, RFP, and proposal requirements and circumstances. Furthermore, it forces real decisions and trade-offs on the four central issues driving winning proposals:- The technical offering
- The enterprise offering
- The program approach, and
- The pricing and contract terms
John Prior, SMA, Inc.
John is Vice President of Management Consulting at SMA, Inc. He specializes in market analysis, growth strategy, and strategic planning. As a strategist, John has broad in-house and management consulting experience. Prior to joining SMA, John led the effort to establish a strategic HR capability at Sonos, leading a team of HR business partners to globally deliver strategy, organizational design and people management solutions across Sonos’ Marketing, Go-To-Market, and Infrastructure teams. John is currently a Lieutenant Colonel with the U.S. Army Reserves serving as an instructor with the Command and General Staff Officer Course.Incumbent Bid Strategies
Most people feel that being the incumbent on a program is an automatic win. I would like to discuss pitfalls and the need for competitive intelligence even when you are the perceived favorite. Competitor and customer intel, as well as, understanding your industry and where that industry is moving in the future is key.
Gene Metcalf, Richter & Company
Gene is Director of Price To Win (PTW) at Richter & Company, with 20+ years of success and experience in business development, and management within the public and private sectors. He has led or contributed to PTWs for large scale programs with increasing importance with Deloitte, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Amentum, among other companies. He has a proven record of high accuracy on multiple programs spanning various disciplines from information technology (IT), missile defense, aerospace, facility support, contractor logistics support (CLS), and many other areas. He has developed expertise in multiple industries, including international, defense, civilian, state & local, and commercial.Coast-to-Coast in Agile Proposal Development
To embrace and become an Agile proposal shop, you’d have to first dive deeper into Agile software development, what it means and where it comes from and why it applies so well. We’ll walk through the Manifesto and Principles and discuss why they’re crucial for APMP professionals to embrace before renaming proposal managers to scrum masters. After following Shipley proposal development processes for multiple years, Ventura, CA-based VSolvit, LLC, began incorporating elements of Agile. The IT company has found that applying Agile 1) accommodates rapid changes during proposal development; 2) breaks work into Sprints that increase collaboration, efficiency, and flexibility; and 3) is a good fit with the company’s IT culture where many team members are already familiar with Agile processes and terminology. The presentation includes an introduction, definition of Agile, explanation of how we adapted Agile for proposal development, strengths and challenges of using Agile, and Q&A.
Anatalia Macik, CP APMP
Anatalia has more than 17 years of experience as a writer/editor and more than 12 years in proposal development. A member of APMP’s International 40 Under 40 Class of 2020 and International Board of Directors (2021–2022), she brings lessons learned from over a decade of impact on bids and proposals’ processes, quality, and efficiency. As the Proposal and Bid Director for the Security Detection and Automation organization within Leidos, she is establishing efficient processes, functional templates, and adaptive procedures that align with the corporate standards and expectations set by Leidos.
Eric Billingsley, CF APMP
Eric is a proposal writer for the Ventura, CA-based information technology company VSolvit, LLC. The company serves federal government agencies such as the Navy, Army, Marines, Drug Enforcement Agency, US Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He has worked as a proposal writer for nearly three years and is an APMP Foundation-Level certified. Prior, he worked in public relations and marketing for nearly 10 years and spent nearly 20 years working as a journalist full-time and on a freelance basis for a variety of local, regional, and national publications.Weave Your Sales Message with Golden Thread: Developing an Effective Value Proposition
Let’s face it. Developing a clear value proposition is hard work. It takes an understanding of your customer’s needs, your company’s solution, and even your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses. Once you’ve done all the work, use it! Make the Value Proposition the “Golden Thread” that runs through all your customer communications. Marsha and Mark will talk about how to build the Value Proposition and adapt it throughout your campaign. You’ll learn how to:- Develop a value proposition that is consistent with your firm’s brand
- Adapt that value proposition for different audiences and communication styles
- Fill in the gaps when your knowledge of the client is limited
Marsha Lindquist, CPP APMP Fellow, NCMA Fellow
Marsha is an experienced price proposal manager and lead at Granite Leadership Strategies. She is an expert in strategic pricing and has built a tradition of quality consulting to Government contractors for over 30 years. She has wide-ranging experience with Government contracting firms—mostly scientific & high technology companies. Marsha is adept in persuasive pricing that wins and is masterful in authoring customer-focused winning pricing strategies and create value.
Mark Wigginton, CP APMP, CAP APMP
Mark, a Regional Vice President at Shipley Associates, is a skilled business professional experienced in sales, customer support, and training. His hands-on business consulting experience provides him with broad insight into business best practices across an array of industries. His primary focus has been business-to-business strategic sales and satisfaction for a diverse client base. Mark is an active member of APMP and is asked to present regularly on business development topics.Psychology of Messaging
Psychology is all around us and historically, it’s been linked to mental health without much application for other fields. What if psychology can equip us to tips and tricks to influence the decision makers through subtle layout design and/or color choices? What if we can give our clients a little nudge in the right direction with a small adjustment in how we present the information? Understanding how we, as humans, make decisions can come in handy when working through the proposal lifecycle.