TArticles tagged with: competitive intelligence

Discriminating your offer: 5 steps to competitive edge

As we look back on 2015 and ahead to the challenges of 2016, it is clear you must find ways to discriminate your bid from the competition. Discriminating your offer is especially difficult for service providers (vs. product providers) as the playing field is fairly level and more bidders are competing for less work. Market competition is a battleground, and your goal should be to win the war…or at least the must-win battles that comprise your target revenues. This edition of the APMP-NCA Executive Summary eZine focuses on discriminating yourself from the competition. In my experience, five steps are key to gaining competitive edge. Understand your industry. First things first! In order to discriminate your bid, you must know who your competitors are. Amazingly, many companies have cut their competitive intelligence capabilities due to budget constraints. Reserve enough B&P dollars to at least research your industry and lines of business … Continue reading Discriminating your offer: 5 steps to competitive edge →

How experts got involved in capture and proposals – and what keeps them coming back: Part 1 of 3

Ask anyone working in the capture or proposal profession how they got started in this “crazy” business (check out my “war stories” blog series), and you’ll get a different answer every time. There’s often an underlying theme in each response, though – most folks never intended to become a capture/proposal professional. Once someone becomes immersed in this profession, however, a number of factors keep them coming back for more “excitement” year after year. I asked a number of colleagues how they got started in capture/proposals – and what keeps them coming back for more. Here are their responses. Necessity to grow my company. It’s swim or sink in the federal business. Over time I realized that to grow we need to be A+ at capture/proposal, so it has become our #2 priority – only behind serving our customers. –Hamid Moinamin, President, Inserso A friend of a friend asked if I … Continue reading How experts got involved in capture and proposals – and what keeps them coming back: Part 1 of 3 →

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 essential subject matter expert (SME) for the recompete. Before RFP release, the proposal manager should make a list of the artifacts the project team must gather to help support and prove the win themes, features and benefits, and discriminators. Some items the project manager can continuously gather and share include: Congratulatory emails Awards and certificates of appreciation Customer quotes and kudos Award fees achieved … Continue reading Working with project managers on recompetes: project manager as proposal SME (Part 3) →

Working with project managers on recompetes: Project manager as an ethical spy (Part 2)

This week, Lisa Pafe provides additional insights into how incumbents can work with their project managers when preparing for recompete procurements. Project managers have an enormous role to play in gathering competitive intelligence that the capture manager can use to build recompete win strategies. Because the project manager is on-site, the capture manager can coach the project manager to serve as an ethical spy in preparing for a recompete: Who is visiting with the customer? Who has offered brown bags, seminars, and other freebies? What other companies are working for this customer? Because the project manager knows the scope of work intimately, (s)he knows what is most important to the customer. Capture and project management working together can ethically influence the new solicitation to favor incumbent discriminators. For example, if evaluation factors rate key personnel, relevant past performance, and seamless transition as of greatest importance, then the incumbent has an … Continue reading Working with project managers on recompetes: Project manager as an ethical spy (Part 2) →