#83: Getting the Buy-In You Need to Manage Proposals
One of the most frequent challenges I hear from Proposal Pros is that their proposal management plans and proposal production schedules are often ignored by their internal teams. This week’s episode addresses how to reshape your thinking and approach to help you get the buy-in you need for your proposals.
This audio comes from a part of a lesson inside the Proposal Pro Course. Originally recorded in 2019, I’m in the process of revamping, and re-recording the entire course including many of these mindset lessons. However, because there are some good nuggets that can help you today, I didn’t want them to just stay hidden on my server somewhere. And, this lesson is especially good because you can start applying it today, right after you listen to the episode.
We have internal scripts running through our minds as we approach a new proposal or try to implement a new process. These internal scripts are the stories you tell yourself about the task at hand.
Often, what I see from marketers can be called a victim mindset. These types of internal scripts you tell yourself are “someone else is preventing me from doing my job” or “I can’t do my job or finish this proposal because of someone else.”
When you run these internal scripts through your mind, you feel powerless. This isn’t good. This can make you dread or even hate your proposal work. Even worse, it makes you resent or dislike the person that is stopping you.
However, what you can do is to take charge of this. You can make some mindset shifts in how you approach your work. This will result in happiness or at least not dread or hatred at work. And you can do this in how you talk about your work.
Any big change starts with having the mindset before taking any action. And in this episode, I cover a few tricks or hacks to help you shift your mindset.
Here are some highlights:
What is a HOW mentality
How to use this HOW mentality to approach new or challenging situations
Reframing “we can’t” to “how can we” help with collaboration
Expansive thinking vs. closed thinking
The benefits of being the most prepared person in the room
Feed off of the positive participants
Commit to this challenge
Commit to This Challenge
For the next week, I want you to stop yourself every time you are faced or think “we can’t” or “I can’t.” Then rewrite or reframe that sentence into a question that starts with “how can I” or “how can we.”
Commit to this challenge by commenting below – I commit! Then report back here with any a-ha moments or situations where reframing that statement turned a seemingly impossible situation into a doable one. It might feel uncomfortable, but just like anything, it will get better with practice.
Links mentioned in this episode:
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