Much of effective, customer-focused capture involves gathering information on the opportunity and then maintaining it. A capture team has no substitute for good opportunity intelligence...How can you show customer focus without knowing what your customer cares about?

Agility is a fundamental principle of winning business. When it comes to capture and proposal efforts, you must be able to adapt to changes as they come...

For some people, efficiency is synonymous with speed. Sometimes there is very little time from when the RFP drops to the submission deadline, and this means the proposal team must work very hard and very quickly to prepare a proposal for submission. However, efficiency is not just doing things as quickly as possible. It is also about doing things right the first time, so you do not waste time on rework.

Winning a task order master contract is not easy! Typically, many people have worked many hours (and many after-hours) to help our organization win this master contract...

Yes, a proposal must persuade the customer and help lead them to a buying decision. But the words and visuals on the page or screen don’t tell the whole story. There’s much more to winning business than developing a compliant, compelling, and persuasive proposal...

This is one of the most common questions in our industry. The funny thing is most people and organizations want to create all sorts of complex dynamics, conspiracy theories, dreams, fables, and excuses as to why their proposals fail to win and why their win rates and capture ratios are so low...

In every novel there’s a problem to solve. For most business development opportunities, a proposal is submitted as a solution to a customer’s problem. But the similarities between the most common three-act novel structure and the business development lifecycle don’t end there...

All business development leaders must balance priorities such as time, resources, and short-term vs. long-term objectives. In your business culture, do you expect to win?

Choosing to engage someone outside of your organization for proposal support is a decision that can significantly change the success of your business.

Hunting involves many decisions and steps before you actually take a shot. These preliminary steps prepare a hunter to experience the most success. Similarly, when a business is just starting out, you must be on the hunt for opportunities that will sustain your organization.

When measuring business development success, it’s not about the process—it’s about winning. Winning means outscoring your opponent. How you get there is less important than getting there.

From tailored workshops to experienced Shipley consultants, the ways for Shipley to help you win business are endless.