Proposals

Julie is APMP certified, the industry standard for developing and demonstrating proposal management competency for professional working in a bid and proposal environment. Over the past 15 years, she has helped companies win projects in excess of $35 billion. From this experience, Julie has developed several presentations focused on strategies for winning proposals, meeting compliance standards and supplier diversity.

 

Ignite Your Proposal Process

A strong proposal process can eliminate much of the chaos and last minute panic that often haunts proposal development, resulting in stronger deliverables that help you win more. Having a kickoff meeting and a red team for every proposal does not mean you have a process. Your process should guide your actions and make sure you don't forget anything. It should be documented, useful and easily followed.

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Proposal Team & Production Team (The Perfect Marriage)

For larger pursuits, that require separation of duties and tasks between the proposal team and the production team often results in "two sides" and should not. This session will share success stories on when expectations are clearly set and all team members truly understands each other's roles this marriage can be healthy!

Julie teaches attendees will explore the "behind the scenes" of both proposal management and production tools and processes to help each team better understand their workflows and processes.

Quick Start Interview Preparation: Getting from Proposal to Presentation in 72 Hours

Julie teaches a session on Quick Start Interview Preparation: Getting from Proposal to Presentation in 72 Hours. In this session, Julie explains how you can minimize stressful hours between learning of interviews and getting to present. She uses real world examples to share best practice tips learned throughout her own career, such as her experience at Walt Disney World as a presentation specialist as well as her 20+ years of working with proposals. 

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Winning Your Next Proposal

This presentation is all about using the right proposal strategy and execution to increase your win rate.

While most companies agree that their work is the primary focus of any RFP, many create documents that are never read due to non-compliance. Or, they're overlooked due to poor presentation quality and lack of readability. This can become demoralizing for teams who have invested time and energy; it can even bankrupt businesses.

 

In Proposal Secrets, Julie will review how to find opportunities, decide whether to pursue an RFP, and choose an effective design for increased readability. She'll also discuss the difference between compliance vs. responsiveness and how to do a competitive analysis against the incumbent and other submitting companies. Whether you're part of a large company with an internal proposal departments or a small business looking to expand or partner with others to create a team, this webinar will share great insights on how to manage a successful proposal process to increase your win rate. 

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Proposal Secrets

Julie's Proposal Secrets course is a shorter proposal session that covers a specific topic related to designing and winning an RFP. She can do a shorter version of one of the above sessions or customize based on the needs of the organization and audience. 

Julie Irvin, President and Owner of Keystone Resources, facilitated a training session for the University of Houston HUB Operations Department on “How to Write a Compliant Solicitation Response”. It was one of our most highly attended trainings to date! The presentation was very informative and filled with witty expressions that will help vendors remember key points when they begin to prepare their solicitations. We highly recommend that vendors reach out to Julie at Keystone Resources who provides a wealth of information, expertise and professional guidance!

Tanya Douglas – HUB Specialist & Maira Artola – HUB Specialist
Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) Operations Department
University of Houston

“In my role as Education Director for the Houston Chapter of SMPS (The Society for Marketing Professional Services), I have had the pleasure of working with Julie on several of our educational offerings. She has served in our Professional Development series as a speaker focusing on improving and streamlining the proposal process, and as a panelist discussing the latest marking trends.”

Alayne Bomba Bryant, CPSM, LEED AP
Marketing Director at Satterfield & Pontikes
Education Director at SMPS Houston

Julie Irvin was very informative. She taught me so much, I cannot say it all in one sentence. Now I can take the knowledge and information she gave and apply it to make better decisions, assuring me that I will be acknowledged when delivering my proposals to different agencies. I am eager to input this information into my bidding process!

Ty Travelbee
Wyatt Management