Proposal & Capture Management Consulting & Training from Lohfeld Consulting Group » bid/no bid decision http://www.lohfeldconsulting.com/blog Tue, 14 May 2013 10:00:26 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Industry experts’ proposal war stories and lessons learned – Part 4 of 4 http://www.lohfeldconsulting.com/blog/2013/01/industry-experts%e2%80%99-proposal-war-stories-and-lessons-learned-%e2%80%93-part-4-of-4/ http://www.lohfeldconsulting.com/blog/2013/01/industry-experts%e2%80%99-proposal-war-stories-and-lessons-learned-%e2%80%93-part-4-of-4/#comments Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:00:14 +0000 Beth Wingate http://www.lohfeldconsulting.com/blog/?p=883 Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;

Or close the wall up with our English dead.

In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man

As modest stillness and humility:

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,

Then imitate the action of the tiger;

Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood…

Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,

Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit

To his full height. On, on, you noblest English. (-William Shakespeare, Henry V, Act III, 1598.)

Here’s the wrap-up of my current 4-part series on capture and proposal war stories shared from industry veterans (stay tuned for more jaw-dropping war stories as I’ve received many from readers that I’ll share in future posts).

As you engage in your next capture and proposal effort – unto the breach again – consider the war stories shared in my previous posts and those below, and commit to avoiding them in your future engagements.

  • The experience from which I learned the most valuable lesson happened early in my career, when I was a very green proposal center manager (and lead writer/coordinator as well). The proposal was due at 12:00 p.m. to a State Department of Transportation (DOT). That morning, I was still receiving edits from reviewers and coordinating graphics and word processing. Printing and binding wasn’t completed until about 11:00 a.m., so I canceled our courier and held on to the proposal for dear life as our graphic artist sped down the Mass turnpike. Literally jumping out of the moving car, I raced up the escalator to the third floor, pushing past everyone and anyone in my way, only to arrive at the DOT secretary’s desk at 12:03 p.m. 12:03 p.m. – 3 minutes too late; 180 seconds too late. No amount of cajoling changed her mind (and rightly so) – she could not stamp our proposal. The phone call I made to our VP of Sales/Marketing was the lowest moment of my young career. I learned the hard way – deadlines are deadlines…period. And, if the client can impose them without exception, then so can the proposal manager. I now build in so much time at the end of proposal schedules that SMEs frequently grumble about their initial draft due dates. Recounting that story is a great way to silence those complaints. –Luanne Smulsky, Principal, ib4e Writing Solutions LLC
  • A non-native English speaker confused the word “improve” with “improvise,” and informed the customer we were going to improvise their processes. No one noticed this error until production. I learned that neither color team reviewers nor spell check catch all errors – a fresh pair of eyes is always useful! –Lisa Pafe, Principal Consultant, Lohfeld Consulting Group
  • During an orals presentation that was being taped by the government, the videographer dropped to the floor and started crawling under the table pulling on cables. After a few minutes, he got up and went back to recording. During the Q&A session, the contracting officer asked whether or not there was anything that caused the team distress or was a distraction, and the bid program manager responded with a simple, “No.” Lesson learned: One doesn’t have to repeat the process or implement a “do-over” strategy if one believes it wasn’t their problem. –Betsy Blakney, Senior Proposal Development Manager, CACI, Inc.
  • My favorite proposal-related war story was when, on a beautiful sunny day, the power went out and fried the chargers of 3 of our 5 laptops (mine included). Three of us working on one side of the room had our laptops plugged into the same electrically outlet. Unexpected? You bet! Apparently, a car hit a utility box a few blocks away causing a massive outage. Luckily, I had recently saved my work to the external hard drive that I use. What I learned from that experience was to carry an extra charger and to save often to an external hard drive! –Mary Beth Frazza, Owner, Frazza Formatting
  • I worked very hard on a capture and proposal activity for a major NASA bid and thought we had done a good job on it. Apparently the government didn’t think so, and when they debriefed us as a losing bidder, they found lots of shortcomings in our bid. After reflecting on the loss, I concluded we should never have bid this deal. It was just too much of a stretch for us to be a credible winner. After that, I had a new appreciation for making good pursuit and bid decisions and raised my personal standards for what deals we would chase. Tightening up our pursuit and bid criteria raised our win rate, reduced our workload, lessened our B&P expenditure, and produced steady revenue growth for the corporation. Looking back at this it all seems so simple. To be a winner, you just have to stop chasing losers. –Bob Lohfeld, CEO, Lohfeld Consulting Group

What lessons learned stand out in your mind? What would you share with someone new (or experienced) in the capture and proposal field? Send an email to me at BWingate@LohfeldConsulting.com with your lessons learned, and I’ll share your advice in upcoming posts!

In the meantime, check out related articles, advice, and our blog archive and subscribe to get more insights from the Lohfeld Consulting Group team every month in our Capture & Proposal Tips eBrief.

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  • The better you understand a new business opportunity, the more likely you are to make an informed decision about whether you should bid.
  • Similarly, the better the government understands your firm’s capabilities, the more likely they are to want your company to compete. Meeting the client is an essential first step in this process.
  • You must conduct face-to-face information-gathering meetings with clients to increase your knowledge about the opportunity and to begin positioning your firm as a leading competitor for the procurement. While market research provides a running start at understanding the opportunity, the clients are the ones closest to the opportunity and can provide information that outsiders cannot.
  • By holding true conversations with a client as soon as possible in the opportunity identification and qualification stages – versus holding thinly veiled marketing meetings – you can gather information that helps you to understand the client’s requirements and objectives,  tailor your capture strategy to the client’s needs, and identify other key client staff with whom you should be meeting.
  • When you meet with multiple client staff, you begin to understand more fully the opportunity, the different desires of the individuals involved from the government client’s staff, their preferences, and their concerns. This interactive process not only helps you to understand the requirement and objectives, but if done well, can establish your company as one of the top competitors in the procurement and influence potential decision makers to favor your approach.
  • These client conversations improve your ability to prepare for an RFP and are essential to making an informed qualification decision.
  • Your goal is to be the best-informed competitor because we all understand that as Bob Lohfeld succinctly puts it, “Best informed wins.”

    • By the Lohfeld Consulting Group Team

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