Insights Blog
Articles tagged with: past performance
Working with project managers on recompetes: project manager as proposal SME (Part 3)
Lisa Pafe’s previous blogs discussed how capture and project management can work together during recompetes to influence the customer and gather competitive intelligence. This week, Lisa discusses how the project manager must work with the proposal manager to provide essential information for the recompete proposal itself.
In addition to providing customer and competitive intelligence, the project manager also has a role to play in helping the proposal manager gather artifacts that can be used as proof points for discriminators. Additionally, the project manager serves as an…
Industry experts’ proposal war stories and lessons learned – Part 3 of 4
What do two or more capture and proposal folks inevitably talk about when we get together – our latest war stories, of course!
Just like ants and bees go back to their nests and hives and share information with their peers, I think the sharing of war stories at every capture/proposal gathering is some sort of subliminal survival mechanism in this profession.
I recently asked a number of my colleagues to share their favorite war stories – and tell us what they learned from the experience….
Don’t make these mistakes – 12 past performance lessons learned
Here are some of our Lohfeld Consulting Group team’s top past performance-related lessons learned from our collective experience managing and submitting thousands and thousands of proposals over our careers.
- In terms of populating your past performance repository (every company must have one), enforce a company-wide policy for project/program managers (PM) to develop detailed past performances for every project. Enforce the policy, update the past performances every 6 months, and provide PMs with incentives for compliance.
- Develop comprehensive templates for collecting past performance information…
30 must-have data elements for proposal past performance templates
Over the years, I’ve developed a proposal past performance contents template that combines requested past performance write-up contents from hundreds of government requests for proposals (RFP).
Here are the items I typically include in a master past performance write-up – which can then be cut down and tailored as needed.
- Contract name
- Project name
- Customer name
- Standard industrial code
- Task/delivery order number (if applicable)
- Task period of performance (if applicable)
- Classified/non-classified
- Contracted contract value
- Actual contract value (and explanation of any variance)
- Contracted task value (if applicable)
- Actual task value (and explanation of any variance) (if…
12 Ways to mitigate proposal strategy review risks
At the 2011 APMP International Conference, Lohfeld Consulting Group’s Managing Director Brenda Crist presented an informative session on mitigating proposal risks. Here are Brenda’s identified Proposal Strategy Review Risks and recommended Mitigation Strategies:
- Proposal strategy review is not held. Hold a proposal strategy, storyboard, or pink team review approximately one-third of the way into the proposal life cycle. Not holding a review results in inconsistent messages communicated across the proposal or missing key win themes and substantiating evidence.
- Proposal is inconsistent with customer instructions. Verify your storyboards or strategy (writing plan) is consistent with the customer’s instructions for preparing…
10 Ways to mitigate competitive analysis risks
At the 2011 APMP International Conference, Lohfeld Consulting Group’s Managing Director Brenda Crist presented an informative session on mitigating proposal risks. Here are Brenda’s identified Competitive Analysis Risks and recommended Mitigation Strategies:
- You do not know the competitors or their relationships with the customer. Talk with your employees, the customer, stakeholders, users, and vendors to identify potential competitors. Determine if competitors have self-identified on market research databases.
- You have limited knowledge of competitors’ solutions and capabilities. Use open-source research information, e.g., Internet, news, annual reports, and professional associations, to identify competitors’ capabilities. Hire subject matter consultants who are knowledgeable…
10 Ways to mitigate pursuit phase risks
At the 2011 APMP International Conference, Lohfeld Consulting Group’s Managing Director Brenda Crist presented an informative session on mitigating proposal risks. Here are Brenda’s identified Pursuit Phase Risks and recommended Mitigation Strategies:
- Is the bid a strategic fit for your company? If no, consider not bidding.
- Do you understand the customer’s requirements? Use the time during the pursuit phase to learn more about the customer’s requirements.
- Do you know who constitutes your competition? Use this time to learn more about the competition through open-source documents, employees, partners, vendors, and hired consultants.
- Do you have advocacy with the customer? Use this time…
