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Articles tagged with: lessons learned
This article was originally published November 14, 2011 in WashingtonTechnology.com.
By Bob Lohfeld
In last month’s column, 6 ways your proposal can fail, I wrote about a company that submitted a less-than-professional proposal and wondered how pervasive this problem really is. After all, as professional proposal managers, how bad can our proposals really be?
All professional proposal managers strive to make every proposal compliant, responsive, and compelling, yet a recent presentation reinforced my assessment that only about 15% of the firms bidding…
Audio Tip: Creating your proposal outline and compliance matrix
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This month, proposal development expert Beth Wingate, APMP Fellow (aka AppMaven), offers insights and tips for developing your proposal outline and compliance matrix.
I attended a roundtable presentation given by the Association of Proposal Management Professionals’ (APMP) National Capital Area (NCA) Chapter where three government contracting officers agreed with my assessment that you need to develop your proposal outlines following the hierarchy of Sections L (Instructions), then M (Evaluation Criteria), then C (Statement of Work (SOW)),…
6 ways your proposal can fail – and how to avoid them
This article was originally published October 5, 2011 in WashingtonTechnology.com.
By Bob Lohfeld
I received a call from a mid-sized large business that had submitted a proposal for IT services and had just learned their proposal did not make competitive range. They were irate and wanted to protest, alleging that the government had not fairly evaluated their proposal.
They had hired a proposal consultant, spent lots of money developing their proposal, and were assured their proposal was professionally done. Before filing the protest, the company…
Creating a Winning Task Order Proposal Process
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Integrating the Capture and Proposal Management Processes in Business Development
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Creating an Optimal Path for a Losing Proposal
Dear Proposal Doctor:
I am currently the proposal manager on what I believe to be a losing proposal. We have never met the customer and have no first hand insight to the customer’s requirements or hot buttons. Our technical architect has developed a solution that meets 75% of the customer’s requirements. My management is very enthusiastic about our chances of winning. What should I do?
Sincerely,
Troubled
Dear Troubled,
As proposal managers, we have to develop a range of skills and behaviors. Right now, your job is to learn to…
3 Steps to Improving Your Proposals
This article was originally published August 27, 2010 on WashingtonTechnology.com.
No proposal is ever perfect. Every company executive wishes he or she had just a few more days to tweak the last sections. But after the proposal goes out the door, it is time to reflect on what did or did not go well in the proposal process and what could have been done to improve the outcome. A review of lessons learned is a valuable step in improving proposal development efficiency and raising your win probability on the next bid.
Surprisingly, not all companies do such reviews. Even more…
