What makes wise capture management these days? It seems that as you plan for new Federal Government contracting opportunities, the surprises around every corner, the delays, and the funding questions are making it harder for you to plan for the wins that are so important now. Every opportunity causes you to get serious about winning just about every bid you pursue. This environment makes it harder to get new business. We decided to focus on what it takes to bring you Federal Government contracting success. There are so many that it is difficult to list them all. In the interest of focus, here are the top three questions that our clients ask us about at every opportunity.
What are the steps you take to identify winning proposal themes and is there a secret to finding those?
First, understand that it is a process. Theme development can only occur if you know something about the Federal opportunity. That means also having developed a relationship with your customer or potential customer allowing you to identify hot buttons your competition may not know about and other unique qualifiers about the requirement that only you or a very few people may know about. An example may be a customized software application that is an integral part of a system. If you are still not done; you also need to know something about the competition.
Start theme development at a high level by addressing what and why (features and benefits). A rule of thumb is to have about 3 to 5 themes for each volume. Then once you have defined what they are, you will need to take the theme development to the next level by substantiating them with quantifiable data.
The secret is not in the tools, methodologies, and best practices that support the capture process, nor is it just having a team of people in a room. The secret is in having the right people. Your capture manager will insist that you use what is in your toolbox and will consistently think out of the box in applying them. The rest of the team will help with the brainstorming and execution of a successful proposal. The capture plan will drive this exercise if your organization has the discipline to develop and apply it. By the way, every Federal Government contracting opportunity should have a capture plan.
How would you recommend that a company differentiate their company from its competition?
You will never hear me say price because there is always someone willing to go cheaper, and that is the quickest way to go out of business. Your relationships are one of the most impactful ways of creating and maintaining a competitive position. And it goes beyond that – being an incumbent means you have a relationship, but if it is not nurtured, maintained, and growing, then you are now a liability to the customer, not a value-added partner.
Additionally, incorporating a sustainable competitive advantage model as a focal part of your company’s strategic plan allows for the maintenance and improvement of the company’s competitive position in the marketplace. This model, if properly embraced, continually addresses the company’s distinctive capabilities in the marketplace. Models vary. If your company can focus on competency and capabilities in your target marketplace, your customers, strategies for growth, innovation, and the organization and its processes, then your company has a way to always know what they do best. These areas can be addressed in tangible (i.e., intellectual property rights, exclusive licenses, etc.), intangibles (i.e., leadership, organizational culture, business processes, etc.), and reproducible capabilities (i.e., technical, financial, and marketing capabilities, etc.).
How can you tell if an RFP is “wired” for someone other than your client?
There is no real empirical way to know, however, there are certainly signs or flags before the Federal Government contracting RFP is even released that indicate a customer’s preference. For example, you cannot get a meeting with any of the key decision-makers, but you know that one or two or three companies are repeatedly getting meetings. During Q&A, the customer presents information but does not clarify to your satisfaction, or if they do, their responses are vague or conflicting. During a site visit, they will not answer questions and only the incumbent knows what is going on in the environment. After the RFP is released, if you have qualified for the opportunity as best possible, but the response time is so restricting, that you cannot develop a quality proposal, that is probably an indication someone else has had more time to put their response together. Also, Section M Evaluation Criteria, is an indicator – if you are going to be evaluated on resumes of personnel with institutional knowledge of the program, then the only company that can provide them is the incumbent.
Hopefully, you have made enough inquiries to know, before the RFP is released, that the requirement is “wired” for an incumbent or other competitor. Better to know early than to waste a lot of time developing a proposal you know has a low probability of winning.
Utilizing the capture process will also help with a bid/no bid decision by the time the RFP is released. In Federal Government contracting, there is certainly no shame in halting a proposal effort in full swing if you obtain any data that significantly lowers your probability of winning. Perhaps you decide to submit anyway in hopes of learning more about the customer during the debrief. It is an alternative if you plan to continue responding to requirements in that Federal Government contracting space. They may learn something about you in your proposal response they would not have known otherwise. More importantly, you ought to focus on gaining more knowledge about the customer and their preferences as well.
