If you are in any form of business or profession, then this podcast from Harvard Law School is a must-listen item because its packed with valuable insights on how to share good and bad news, how to sell your ideas to a reluctant or untrusting client or business partners using powerful tools of persuasion. This podcast is based on an article by Deepak Malhotra and Max H. Bazerman of Harvard Business School – from August 2007 issue of PON newsletter.
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If you are involved in any form of sales, client engagement, pre-sales, or business management, this is a must watch video. It’s one of the best videos on the Internet on how to prepare a good sales proposal. Thanks very much to Bill Dotson for sharing his experience along with numerous real-life examples. This is a very practical video that you can use right after watching it.
Often, there is so much rework at the last stages of proposal development just because some team members involved in the proposal were not aware of the full picture and customer business needs. If you are the manager, you have probably been giving your tips to the team every time you have a proposal.
In fact most companies, and that includes some very large companies, don’t have a clear business proposal checklist. It’s very much left for the sales manager to train his team — again and again. If you have been there, you will know exactly how it is like.
So make a note of this page and use it the next time you are submitting any business proposal. And more importantly — share it with all your team members who are involved in making your business proposal.
The Hong Kong Jockey Club Institute of Chinese Medicine recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Canada’s national food and biotech research institute AFMNet, one of four between Hong Kong and Canadian organisations.
AFMNet Chairman Dr Murray McLaughlin says the MOUs help to develop the research and expertise available on the medicinal benefits of plants, by using Chinese herbal techniques. Co-operation will hasten Hong Kong’s goal to become a regional biotech center. There are also benefits for Hong Kong institutes in using the Canadian synchrotron, the light beam technology that facilitates analysis and diagnostic work across wide industrial and agricultural fields. It could make sense for Hong Kong to develop its own synchrotron, Dr McLaughlin adds.
About this Video: This video has been produced by HKTDC Hong Kong Trade Development Council (www.tdctrade.com), which is the global marketing arm and service hub for Hong Kong-based manufacturers, traders and service exporters, with more than 40 offices worldwide. Thanks to Irene Wong, the Webcast Producer of HKTDC for sharing the video. She can be reached at: tdctrade [at] tdc.org.hk ; MyOrbit will continue to show business update videos of Hong Kong and Asia-Pacific region.
Collaborative team effort – is a must to achieve something big — but as anyone who has worked in a team to prepare a proposal or a business plan or any document will know — it’s a big challenge to ensure that people are working on the right versions and tracking who’s changing what. So often, one person in a team is made responsible just for this work – the anchor! But if you want to do it better — Google Docs offers a good system.
The adoption is still very small because most of us in business feel uneasy about putting our “next quarter projections on the Internet”. But if you asked the opinion of a neutral 3rd party software specialist, you will realize Google has built a fair amount of security around the docs. And like is most cases, those of us with the biggest need and smallest budget will get onto this before others who have more disposable capital and effort. But give it a try- we found it good!