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Articles tagged with: win strategy
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…
4 Keys to better capture analytics
This article was originally published August 29, 2012 in WashingtonTechnology.com.
By Bob Lohfeld
Capture analytics is the science of measuring how well you have performed each of the activities in your capture management process and then correlating these measurements with the outcomes of your bids.
Understanding this correlation can help you make better decisions about what deals to pursue and how likely you are to win, and they can improve the accuracy of your revenue predictions.
The foundation for capture analytics is econometrics, which uses statistical…
Improving Win Rates – Strategies and Tactics to Raise Your Success
Did you know your company can raise its win probability by 20% on each and every bid that it submits by following 7 proven steps?
Imagine how much additional revenue your firm could generate if you could increase your win rate by 20% — and imagine how much you could grow your business with the additional profit.
Increasing win rates is everybody’s goal, yet few people address the task of raising overall company win rates.
In this webinar, capture and proposal expert Bob Lohfeld shares…
How to raise your win rate by 20%
This article was originally published January 5, 2012 in WashingtonTechnology.com.
By Bob Lohfeld
All executives want to increase their win rate. If you could raise your company’s overall win rate by 20%, the payoff in additional revenue, earnings, and shareholder value could be huge. Company revenues would increase, earnings would increase by the marginal profit rate on the new revenue, and shareholder value would increase proportionally to your increase in earnings.
But, knowing which investments to make and predicting the payoff is the challenge….
Alternative content
This month, capture and proposal development expert and columnist for Washington Technology magazine, Bob Lohfeld, offers tips for positioning your company effectively by asking the right questions.
Ever wonder why some companies appear to be the odds-on favorite to win a contract?
Positioning is one of the fundamental steps in capture management. A well-orchestrated, pre-RFP ritual goes on long before a procurement is released for bid. Throughout the positioning ritual, companies aim to be viewed by the customer as one of the small group of top contenders for award.
A positioning score…
Why your win rate is hurting your business
This article was originally published May 24, 2011 in WashingtonTechnology.com.
By Bob Lohfeld
Win rates vary widely among companies, and we see them range from as low as 10 percent to as high as 80 percent based on a variety of factors, including companies that bid anything and everything to those that bid too conservatively. To assess how your win rate stacks up against your competition, take a look below. Equally important, examine the details behind your win rate. These can direct you to areas where you can make substantive improvements.
Win rate: 80% to 100%
Color score: Green
Assessment and recommendations…
Pitfalls to avoid in a down market
This article was originally published April 25, 2011 in WashingtonTechnology.com.
With all the talk about budget cuts, we see some companies overreacting and altering their bidding strategies. Budget reduction numbers out of Congress indicate that 2011 spending will decline by $38 billion.
According to Ray Bjorklund, senior vice president and chief knowledge officer at FedSources, the challenge is determining how many of those dollars are attached to contracts. “There’s spending, and there’s contract spending,” Bjorklund said. “A significant amount of the $38 billion is in government compensation loan programs, and subsidies and therefore not contractor-addressable.”
The net authority…
5 Passing Grades You Need to Lead the Pack
This article was originally published March 3, 2010 in WashingtonTechnology.com.
Ever wonder why some companies appear to be the odds-on favorite to win a contract?
A well-orchestrated, pre-request for proposals ritual goes on long before a procurement is released for bid. Company business development, technical and management professionals step up the frequency of visits to their customers to better understand customer objectives and to perfect their company’s solution. Those professionals also preview their solutions with government stakeholders to validate assumptions and build advocacy for their company’s offering.
Their focus is simple: ensuring their proposed solution meets or exceeds government requirements…
10 Reasons Why You Need Capture Management
This article was originally published April 29, 2010 on WashingtonTechnology.com.
When we examine why companies win or lose new business in the government market, the reasons are amazingly similar. Companies win more often when they focus on understanding customer requirements and objectives. They predictably lose more often when they don’t. Similarly, qualifying new business opportunities early in the business development life cycle results in better win rates, while late qualification results in fewer wins and cost increases in business development.
These and other activities are strong indicators of how well a company will do in competitive procurements. This correlation…
3 Keys to Creating Winning Proposals
This article was originally published June 14, 2010 on WashingtonTechnology.com.
A defined and efficient process is essential to success.
Creating winning proposals is not the same as writing a proposal. Anyone can write a proposal for government work, given enough time and resources. However, only one bidder writes the winning proposal. The best proposals have three things in common:
- They are directed and written by talented people experienced at writing proposals.
- They follow a similar, defined process.
- They are designed in an environment that creates proposals efficiently.
Your capture and proposal managers bring necessary skills to plan, staff, lead and control your capture…
