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Submission (of proposals)
(All images Imagen 3)
From the early 1990s to 2019, the majority of my identity/biometric proposal work was with U.S. state and local agencies, with some work with foreign agencies (such as Canada’s RCMP), private entities, and a few proposals to U.S. federal agencies.
I had no idea what was going to happen in 2020, and one of the surprises is that the majority of my identity/biometric proposal work since 2020 has been with U.S. federal agencies. Many requests for information (RFIs) as well as other responses.
The L&M does stop at Bredemarket, apparently.
I’ve worked on client proposals (and Bredemarket’s own responses) to the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, and perhaps some others along the way.
And no, there’s no uniformity
Coincidentally, the two most recent identity/biometric proposals I managed for Bredemarket clients went to the same government department. But that’s where the similarities ended.
The first required an e-mail submission of a PDF (10 pages maximum) to two email addresses. A relative piece of cake.
The last required an online submission. No, not a simple upload of a PDF to a government website. While my client did have to upload 2 PDFs, the majority of the submission required my client to complete a bunch of online screens.
And there were two separate sets of instructions regarding how to complete these online screens…which contradicted each other. So I had to ask a clarification question…and you know how THAT can go.
Oh, and as the consulting proposal expert, I could not complete the online screens on behalf of the client. The client’s company had a single login, which was assigned to a single person (a company executive) and could NOT be used by anybody else.
So on the day of proposal submission the executive and I videoconferenced, and I watched as the executive answered the responses, in part using a document in which I had drafted responses.
And of course things were not perfect. The executive pasted one of my responses into the space provided, and only THEN did we discover that the response had an unadvertised character limit. So I rewrote it…at the same time that I resized a required image with unadvertised dimension restrictions.
But there’s some uniformity
Perhaps if I had written more federal proposals at Printrak, Motorola, MorphoTrak, IDEMIA, and Incode, I would have known these things. Perhaps not; as late as 2014 I was still printing proposals on paper and submitting 10 or more volumes of binders (yes, binders) along with CDs that had to be virus-checked.
But regardless of whether you submit proposals online, via CD, or in paper volumes, some things remain constant.
- Follow the instructions.
- Answer the questions.
- Emphasize the benefits.
- And don’t misspell the name of the Contracting Officer.
If you need Bredemarket’s proposal services, or my content or analysis services, visit my “CPA” page to get started.
How Bredemarket Adopts Your Point of View
The video embedded in my “Where is ByteDance From?” blog post included an interesting frame:
“So depending upon your needs, you can argue that”
This frame was followed by three differing answers to the “Where is ByteDance From?” question.
But isn’t there only one answer to the question? How can there be three?
It all depends upon your needs.
Who is the best age estimation vendor?
I shared an illustrative example of this last year. When the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) tested its first six age estimation algorithms, it published the results for everyone to see.
“Because NIST conducts so many different tests, a vendor can turn to any single test in which it placed first and declare it is the best vendor.
“So depending upon the test, the best age estimation vendor (based upon accuracy and or resource usage) may be Dermalog, or Incode, or ROC (formerly Rank One Computing), or Unissey, or Yoti. Just look for that “(1)” superscript….
“Out of the 6 vendors, 5 are the best. And if you massage the data enough you can probably argue that Neurotechnology is the best also.
“So if I were writing for one of these vendors, I’d argue that the vendor placed first in Subtest X, Subtest X is obviously the most important one in the entire test, and all the other ones are meaningless.”
Are you the best? Only if I’m writing for you
I will let you in on a little secret.
- When I wrote things for IDEMIA, I always said that IDEMIA was the best.
- When I wrote things for Incode, I always said that Incode was the best.
- And when I write things for each of my Bredemarket clients, I always say that my client is the best.
I recently had to remind a prospect of this fact. This particular prospect has a very strong differentiator from its competitors. When the prospect asked for past writing samples, I included this caveat:
“I have never written about (TOPIC 1) or (TOPIC 2) from (PROSPECT’S) perspective, but here are some examples of my writing on both topics.”
I then shared four writing samples, including something I wrote for my former employer Incode about two years ago. I did this knowing that my prospect would disagree with my assertions that Incode’s product is so great…and greater than the prospect’s product.
If this loses me the business, I can accept that. Anyone with any product marketing experience in the identity industry is guaranteed to have said SOMETHING offensive to most of the 80+ companies in the industry.
How do I write for YOU?
But let’s say that you’re an identity firm and you decide to contract with Bredemarket anyway, even though I’ve said nice things about your competitors in the past.
How do we work together to ensure that I say nice things about you?
That’s where my initial questions (seven, plus some more) come into play.
By the time we’re done, we have hopefully painted a hero picture of your company, describing why you are the preferred solution for your customers—better than IDEMIA, Incode, or anyone else.
(Unless of course IDEMIA or Incode contracts with Bredemarket, in which case I will edit the sentence above just a bit.)
So let’s talk
If you would like to work with Bredemarket for differentiated content, proposal, or analysis work, book a free meeting on my “CPA” page.
Bredemarket’s CPA Short Talkie
If you only have 20 seconds, not 3 minutes and 40 seconds. (But you don’t get the pricing.)
Book a meeting here at bredemarket.com/cpa.
Finding and Filtering For Your B2B Firm’s Hungry People
(Takeru Kobayashi Image CC BY-SA 2.0)
B2B companies want to do business with certain companies, but not with others.
Using Bredemarket as an example:
- I want to do business with identity and technology companies who seek collaborative content, proposal, and analysis services for their products.
- I don’t want to rewrite your resume.
How can B2B companies—mine, or yours—find niche prospects that are “hungry” to do business with them—your target audience?
By marketing their products in ways that attract their hungry people and filter out the others.
The “pay my price” filter
For example, my recent long (3:40) Bredemarket “CPA” talkie video included prices for three of my services, starting at $500 (as of January 2025) for my Bredemarket 400 Short Writing Service.
If you continued to watch the video after the pricing discussion, you may be among Bredemarket’s niche hungry people.
If you stopped watching the video and searched for a 2¢/word writer on Fiverr, you’re definitely NOT among my hungry people.
The “IPVM China post” filter
Another way to find your hungry people is to discuss things that interest them.
For example, I shared the following LinkedIn post on Saturday:
“Betcha IPVM isn’t inconvenienced by the TikTok ban…”
If you slightly smiled when you read that, you may be among Bredemarket’s niche hungry people.
Precious and few
Most people are NOT hungry for Bredemarket’s marketing and writing services.
My IPVM-TikTok LinkedIn post will never get the 20,000+ impressions and nearly 400 engagements that I’ve received on my Private Equity Talent Hunt LinkedIn post.
But since I don’t bait and switch jobseekers by offering 17x resume writing services, that’s a good thing.
If your humor has evolved to a point where the very idea of an IPVM account on TikTok amuses you—and if my use of the word “evolved” amuses you further—then perhaps Bredemarket offers the background and experience to help you convey your
- identity,
- biometric,
- government ID,
- geolocation, or
- technology
product/service information.
Hungry for more? Check out my “CPA” page and book some time to talk to me.
And by the way, my long-term hungry people knew this was coming…
Where is ByteDance From?
Know Your Business!
I am VERY familiar with questions regarding the nationality of a company. There are three questions:
- Where is it incorporated?
- Where is it headquartered?
- Who owns it?
IDEMIA
For my former employer IDEMIA, the answers are France, France, and primarily a U.S. investor (Advent International).
(So depending upon your needs, you can argue that IDEMIA is a French company or a U.S. company.)
ByteDance
For ByteDance, the answers are the Cayman Islands, China (Beijing), and primarily global investors (Blackrock, General Atlantic, Susquehanna International Group, etc.).
(So depending upon your needs, you can argue that ByteDance is a Chinese company, a mostly American company, or a British company off the coast of Cuba.)
Your company
Not that I create TikTok videos (at least not for paying clients), but I provide other services.
More information on Bredemarket’s Content-Proposal-Analysis marketing and writing services:
TikTok Watch, Saturday 8pm
How to remind everyone you’re Chinese-owned:
Time your January 19 “go dark” to happen before 11pm EST on January 18.
TikTok Watch, Saturday 5:30 pm
(Imagen 3)
Curiouser and curiouser. A recap:
- On Friday morning, the Supreme Court ruled against TikTok.
- By Friday evening, we learned that TikTok may “go dark” on Sunday rather than risk prosecution.
- By Saturday morning, we learned that incoming President Trump may give ByteDance another 90 days to sell TikTok.
The chatter in recent days has speculated that Elon Musk may buy TikTok, or that Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta may buy TikTok. (Both men were slated to attend Trump’s inauguration, although that may have changed since the festivities have moved indoors.)
CNBC reports one more interested party—Perplexity AI:
“Perplexity AI officially made a play for TikTok on Saturday, submitting a bid to its parent company, ByteDance, to create a new merged entity combining Perplexity, TikTok U.S. and new capital partners, CNBC has learned.”
What’s next: Procter & Gamble?
TikTok Watch, Saturday 11am
TikTok may still go dark Sunday…but (apologies to Tony Campolo) Monday’s coming!
“President-elect Donald Trump told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker in a phone interview Saturday that he will “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from a potential ban in the U.S. after he takes office Monday.
“Trump said he hadn’t made a final decision but was considering a 90-day extension of the Sunday deadline for TikTok’s China-based parent company to sell to a non-Chinese-buyer or face a U.S. ban.”
Trump’s announced intention to possibly grant ByteDance a 90 day extension to sell TikTok means nothing until something actually happens. But it’s somewhat more likely than Liz Cheney in jail. Or the post-inauguration Trump tariffs.
And Trump (or, for that matter, Biden) has the power to grant such an extension.
“A 90-day extension under specific conditions is explicitly allowed for in the bipartisan law passed last year.”
But think about it.
- Congress deemed ByteDance ownership of TikTok as a national security threat.
- The Supreme Court agreed that Congress acted in accordance with the Constitution (I.e. the First Amendment) in making that determination.
- In a show of unity, Biden and Trump decided, “Never mind.”
In the political world, deadlines are but a dream.
Digital Driving Licences With Two Cs
(Imagen 3)
In my country, the issuance of driver’s licenses is performed at the state level, not the national level. This has two ramifications.
REAL ID
The U.S. government wanted to tighten down on identification cards to stop terrorists from hijacking planes and crashing them into buildings.
But it couldn’t.
When it told the states to issue “REAL ID” cards by 2008, the states said they wouldn’t be told what to do.
Today all of them support REAL ID cards as an option, but use of REAL IDs for federal functions such as plane travel won’t be enforced until 2027…if then.
mDLs
For years there has been a move to replace physical driver’s licenses with mobile driver’s licenses, or mDLs.
Again, in my country this has been pursued in a piecemeal basis on the state level. Louisiana has its own mDL, with a separate one in Oklahoma, one in California, others in other states, and none in other states. And one state (Florida) that had one, then didn’t have one.
Some mDLs are in custom wallets, while others are or are not in wallets from Apple, Google, and Samsung.
Oh, and don’t try using your Louisiana mDL to buy a beer in Arkansas.
Meanwhile, in the UK
Things are different in other countries. Amit Alagh shared a BBC article with me.
“Digital driving licences are to be introduced in the UK as the government looks to use technology to ‘transform public services’…. The new digital licences will be introduced later this year….”
Throughout the entire United Kingdom, including Scotland and Northern Ireland, apparently.
In one fell swoop. Entire country done.
Bredemarket 