News & Knowledge Center
Can you keep your bid out of the reject box?
This article was originally published May 16, 2012 in WashingtonTechnology.com.
By Bob Lohfeld
I was asked to review one of the proposals submitted for the first stage of the Army’s multi-billion dollar “Army Eagle” logistics procurement and to advise an unsuccessful bidder why the company had failed to make the cut. My answer was straightforward – the bidder failed to write a proposal for the evaluators to evaluate. Here’s how the proposal went wrong.
Army Eagle is a multiple award procurement for large and small businesses that is being competed in stages. The first-stage submission, which I reviewed, was an advisory stage that required bidders to submit a short proposal describing their understanding of the Army’s logistics program and how their team’s capabilities and resources could help fulfill that mission. Based on this response, the…
April 2012 Section L Update eZine
Our capture and proposal experts share capture and proposal management best practices and offer helpful tips and techniques – see our latest Insights Blog posts, Wendy Frieman’s latest Proposal Doctor advice for what to do with proposal “graphics & mayonnaise” complainers, and Bob Lohfeld’s 6 quick fixes that will improve your company’s win rate.
Thanks to everyone who stopped by our exhibit at APMP National Capital Area’s (NCA) Proposal Boot Camp 2012 – we really enjoyed visiting with you! Kudos to the NCA Chapter for another great event!
The whole Lohfeld team is looking forward to APMP’s Bid & Proposal Con 2012 in Dallas, TX in just a few weeks (May 22-25). Be sure to stop by our booth for your chance to win a NEW iPad (iPad3), and add our team’s presentations to your “must see” schedule for the conference! Pick up a copy of AppMaven’s Favorite PC Tools and…
6 quick fixes that will improve your company’s win rate
This article was originally published April 23, 2012 in WashingtonTechnology.com.
We’re frequently asked how to improve a company’s overall win rate, and I outlined these in the article I wrote in my January 2012 column “How to Raise Your Win Rate by 20 percent” using our seven-factor model. Since then, we’ve been surveying companies to see how well they perform in these seven factors and to identify areas where companies can make immediate improvements.
In this article, I’ll share some of the survey results and show you immediate actions you can take to help raise your company’s overall win rate.
In February and March 2012, we conducted two surveys – one with the Association of Proposal Management Professionals and the other with the Deltek GovCon team. The surveys asked proposal managers, capture managers, and business…
What to do with proposal “graphics & mayonnaise” complainers?
Dear Proposal Doctor,
Managing a big, complicated proposal is hard enough without having to listen to my complainers all day. I have two of them. They complain about everything from the quality of the graphics to the mayonnaise on the sandwiches at lunch. Responding to their issues and listening to them vent is just taking too much of my time, and I am worried about meeting our deadline for red team. I might even have to postpone it. How can I deal with these individuals?
Sick and Tired
Dear Sick,
I guess you didn’t see the column I wrote on proposal archetypes. The complainer exhibits many of the behaviors of the martyr and the talker, and probably the worst of both.
Here are two principles to keep in mind. First, forget responding to their specific complaints. The complaints are symptoms…
