TArticles tagged with: proposal

Pop Quiz – How Likely are You to Win Your Recompete?

A list of reasons why companies win recompetes

Pop Quiz – How Likely are You to Win Your Recompete? Table 1 contains a list of reasons why companies win recompetes. Take the quiz to determine how likely you are to win. Give yourself one point for every question you answer yes. Analyze your score and then click on the following links to learn more about winning recompetes. Table 1: Recompete Pop Quiz If you scored 35 – 40: Congratulations, you have excellent chance of winning. If you scored 25 – 34: Identify those areas, you must tweak and improve your road to success. If you scored 15 – 24; Recalibrate your win strategy and plan to win. If you scored 5- 14; I hope you are not too late, build your win strategy and plan from scratch. If you score 0-4; Maybe you can get on a competitor’s team, you are unlikely to win. For additional information … Continue reading Pop Quiz – How Likely are You to Win Your Recompete? →

Staffing Rationale

How the number, type, and mix of personnel you propose offers the best value to the customer

How many staff members does it take to turn a widget running at 1,000 miles an hour? A staffing rationale explains how the number, type, and mix of personnel you propose offers the best value to the customer. Staffing rationale can improve your proposal score A convincing staffing rationale improves your proposal score and mitigates the risk that the customer will find a weakness in your staffing approach or the basis of estimate (BOE) used to develop the price. A good staffing rationale can improve your proposal score by explaining how the number, type, and mix of personnel you propose increases productivity, decreases operations costs, eliminates skill gaps, supports work surges, and improves the customer experience using quantitative and/or qualitative data to support the estimate. Use complementary estimation methods To explain how many widget turners you need, you can use several complementary estimation methods: Historic data points. Using historic data, you … Continue reading Staffing Rationale →

Beware the dangers of groupthink

Proposal color team reviews don’t work

This article was originally published January 10, 2020 on WashingtonTechnology.com Proposal color team reviews don’t work. Why? In many cases, proposal reviewers make two critical mistakes: They read the proposal as if it was a novel, instead of scoring and rating it according to the evaluation criteria. They get tired of arguing about their comments, so they come to consensus—which really means they succumb to groupthink. These mistakes often result in a proposal that not only fails to offer a value proposition rich in discriminating strengths, in some cases it is non-compliant. Your proposal is not a novel Internal color team reviewers often derail your win because they don’t fully understand how the government evaluates and scores the proposal. They think the proposal should tell a story, and they comment on the merits of that story. In reality, government evaluators have a scoresheet to complete based solely on evaluation factors … Continue reading Beware the dangers of groupthink →

Bids with No Capture

Why do companies bid work without any capture effort?

I confess. I have bid work without any previous capture effort and no first-hand knowledge of the customer’s requirements. I understand that I just violated every proposal industry best practice and I may have to return my Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) certification. It is clear, bidding without any knowledge of the customer requirements greatly diminishes the chance of winning and increases transition and operational risks. So why do companies bid work without any capture effort when on paper it makes no sense? The root cause stems from how a company manages its pipeline. A company with mature pipeline practices allocates sufficient time and resources for all its capture and proposal efforts. A company with an immature pipeline has gaps between bids, has not effectively allocated capture and proposal resources, and has failed to engage with the customer. So, is it ever OK to submit a proposal on a … Continue reading Bids with No Capture →