The Varelas

Well, things have calmed down at work, and I have much more time now to post. And I have a personal/work victory to report: last week, I scheduled a meeting with annoying salesperson Kate for this past Monday. In the meeting request, I wrote that we should meet to discuss "some ways we can improve how we work together"--so she expected something. I wrote out the 3 main issues I needed to discuss (I have to write these things out or else I become flustered and usually start crying), and off I went on Monday morning! Things went VERY well! Here's what I came away with (these are the notes I brought over to Kate's office but now with post-meeting additions; Kate asked that I send her a copy of this so that she could remember):

Multiple drafts
▪ Sending multiple proposal drafts back and forth is not the most efficient use of our time. When you send me a draft that is not as updated as the one I’m working on, I have to go back and forth between documents and try to update from one to the other.
▪ Solution: one draft. That is, we have an initial meeting to go over what needs to be done on the proposal, including reports to request, people in other departments to go to, etc. (I will schedule this meeting on our calendars within 1-2 days of receipt of the proposal.) Then I work on the proposal (with input from you as necessary question-by-question) and send you my final draft when I’m done—with plenty of lead time for you. Then you work on your input/changes and get your final draft, including executive summary, cover letter, etc. to me at least one day before the proposal needs to be mailed. No more changes should be made after this. This will give me time to make edits, ensure that the proposal follows our department style guide, add in formatting and page breaks, and print and bind the proposal.
- The edits are very important to me. Proposal writers get audited each month on at least one RFP each, and the last RFP of mine that got audited was one you and I did together; because of all the typos and small errors (which, for the most part, were entered last minute), I got docked enough points that my proposal fell below the department standard. This reflects poorly on both of us.
- We will consider our “due date” of the proposal one day before mailing, so that we can work with that as our deadline.

Telephone & time management
▪ It’s a waste of both your time and mine for you to be typing on your computer/doing other things while I’m on the phone with you.
- I could be working on things I still need to get done for you or other salespeople.
▪ It is not necessary to call immediately after you send me an e-mail. I will read the e-mail immediately. Say anything you need to tell me in the text of the e-mail. Calling me just wastes more time.
- You are concerned that I will make assumptions or inferences. Solution: I will always reply to those e-mails and reword what it is I think you want me to do. If I’m wrong, then we should talk on the phone.

Duties that are not the proposal writer’s
▪ Making copies, printing non-proposal documents, training on computer programs
- While I am happy to help, the proposal writer is not the one who should be doing these things. It wastes my time and takes time away from proposals for other salespeople or from your own proposals.
- Solution: Tiffany. From now on, I will copy Tiff on the proposal files we send out, so that she can keep the files on her computer. I will help her if necessary when she needs to print/bind extra copies of things.

Things I (Katie Varela) will keep in mind and work on:
▪ Not making assumptions
- I will think outside the box and not assume that, just because we don’t have data “available,” I can’t get it somewhere. I will identify data that doesn’t seem to “fit” exactly what we want and either find out if we can get the right data or get a good explanation about why we can’t.
▪ Being proactive
- I will be more proactive at the beginning of the proposal process about going to outside departments and subject matter experts (SMEs) to get data reports and answers to other questions.


So I will report back here on whatever progress is made! :)