Shipley Articles

Article – Deepen customer focus by examining the worlds they inhabit

Customer focus is central to effective Capture Planning and execution, and subsequent proposal or bid planning and execution. Across the Shipley BD-Lifecycle – adopted by many leading businesses as their Business Development (BD) process framework – many Shipley clients work with us to assess the changing context in which they take key BD steps. For

Article – To get your team to embrace change, emphasise what will remain the same

Is your team: *Trying to bridge the sales to winning bids gap? *Having good sales conversations that are not translating into winning business? It is most likely because of a Business Development process gap between the two. New research recently published in the Academy of Management Journal adds a logical nuance to bringing teams along

Article – Trust > Competence

In managing customer interactions, it’s critical that you earn trust. It’s less important to demonstrate capability. Think about that next time you’re planning a client meeting. Is what you are saying establishing trust? To read the article by Jenna Goudreau click here

Article – The Power of a Positive No

The famous book on negotiation ‘Getting to Yes’ by Harvard negotiation guru William Ury, has since been replaced by his latest book “The Power of a Positive No.” Why? Because Ury found many misunderstood the point Vamos made in his advice. Being liked and winning are not the same thing. Winning and being respected are

Article – Giving Writers What They Need to Write Stronger Proposals

Business development managers can increase their win rate by sharing relevant information with the proposal team. Equipped with insights into the customer, they will prepare more competitive and persuasive proposals. To read more click here for the Shipley Associates blog post.

Article – Earning customer trust in an increasingly sceptical world

Earning customer trust in an increasingly sceptical world: Lessons from politics Trust is critical in Business Development. If your prospective client doesn’t trust you, they are unlikely to use you unless you incentivise the deal. Even then, you will probably need to “borrow” trust from others, either by teaming with someone your prospect trusts, or

Article – Are you at peak BD performance? Don’t hit snooze on your professional development.

Have you heard of Glen Mills? How about Patrick Mouratoglou? Surely you’ve heard of Butch Harmon? They are the coaches of some of the world’s most dominant athletes; Usain Bolt, Serena Williams and Tiger Woods respectively. These three athletes, in their prime, were/are nearly unbeatable. Not only are they the greatest of their era, they

Article – Why doesn’t your best solution win?

Reviewing live or recent proposals is one of the services that Shipley offers, providing impartial feedback and an “evaluator’s-eye view” of what you have written and submitted. As you can imagine, giving and receiving feedback on a proposal that hasn’t won can be a delicate and sometimes painful process. The thing is, we understand your

Article- Collaborate with your customer to identify their subjective needs

We’ve been writing about the March-April 2018 issue of Harvard Business Review (HBR) feature article on how to measure, and define, what B2B customers most value from suppliers. To ensure high win rates, it is essential to understand what Business To Business customers’ decision triggers are, and therefore your accessible and useful value levers.

Article – Are your budgeting practices cramping your business development style?

When their win rate is not tracking where they believe it should, Shipley clients embrace the concept of “left-shifting” their business development practice – that is, spending more business development effort in the period before a formal procurement is announced. This is time when they can build customer relationships and knowledge, test solution ideas