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Articles tagged with: proposal team
Pressing commitments – how to be “fair” as proposal manager?
Dear Proposal Doctor,
I am running a big proposal. Several people on the team are critical to the effort because of how much they know. Each seems to have some kind of personal commitment that cuts into their day several times a week. It’s either kids, medical appointments, other professional commitments, a sick relative, a household repair, or something else.
I don’t want to have one standard for most of the team (you need to be in the office) and another standard for a select…
Capture & Proposal Tips eBrief – Nov. 2012
Welcome to Lohfeld Consulting Group’s Capture & Proposal Tips eBrief
November 2012 Edition!
The elections are over, but we continue to deal with low price/technically acceptable (LPTA) controversies, sequestration prognostications, doing more with less in government and industry, tighter B&P budgets, continual technology innovations, RFP quality issues, more competition for less work – and as always business development, capture, and proposal professionals must continue their day-to-day operations and efforts to maintain existing work and win new business for your companies.
Our November Capture & Proposal Tips eBrief supports your efforts.
Click to read Lohfeld Consulting Group’s Capture & Proposal Tips eBrief…
Winning solutions begin with a winning proposal team
by Lisa Pafe (originally published in APMP-NCA Executive Summary, Fall 2012)
Crafting a winning solution is an intellectual challenge, but it is also a team challenge. No proposal is won by an “I”; all are won by a team. Yet no matter how many masterminds you assemble, the proposal team is often its own worst enemy.
As a proposal or capture manager, how many times have you thought you did everything right? You develop the win strategy, win themes and discriminators; shred, outline and storyboard…
Building the technical solution – the Lego effect
One of a capture and proposal team’s goals should be early translation of client requirements into a solution addressing critical client business issues. Early development of a preliminary solution allows the team to preview the proposed solution with clients to verify decisions, test alternatives, and make create awareness of information that might improve their perception of us. Previewing also allows us to gather valuable feedback to refine our detailed solution so it is client-centric and specific. Previewing may also help shape requirements that will appear in the RFP, providing us with a competitive advantage.
Building the technical solution (The…
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…
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…
To Succeed, Deliver What You Promised
This article was originally published November 9, 2010 on WashingtonTechnology.com.
The victory celebration is almost over, and people are starting to say it’s time to get to work on the new contract. All the parties involved have raised their glasses and toasted to the many contributions made by all the players: the business development, capture and proposal teams. All players deserve a share of the glory that accrues to the winner, and yet there is this nagging feeling that we should put away the champagne glasses and begin preparing to perform the newly awarded contract. For the next five…
