You’re responding to a lot of RFPs but not winning much business.Many companies believe that casting a wide net and submitting proposals for every opportunity that comes their way will increase revenue. However, this is not the case. Responding to every RFP can spread your resources and proposal team thin, leading to poor proposals and less business overall.

How do you move from an unknown position to a favored position?...

Supporting the proposal while continuing your capture activities is essential to ensuring capture and proposal strategies are aligned and implemented in the proposal...

Capture planning is the process of identifying opportunities, assessing the environment, and devising and implementing winning strategies oriented toward capturing a specific business opportunity...

A proposal strategy is a plan to write a persuasive, winning proposal that sets you apart from your competitors. Proposal strategy must align with the capture strategy in order to create win themes that tell the story...

A proposal strategy is a plan to write a persuasive, winning proposal that sets you apart from your competitors. Proposal strategy must align with the capture strategy in order to create win themes that tell the story...

Theme statements are not sales slogans, like the catchy phrases most commonly seen in consumer marketing. They are based on customer hot buttons and motivators.

Color team reviews are business development milestones at which experts and managers work to improve the win potential of pursuits. Done correctly, they are a cost effective way to improve the overall success of your capture planning and proposal development efforts.

Proposal writing is different from general business or technical writing. It includes elements of compliance and persuasion that aren’t always part of basic writing.

More than ever, virtual proposal teams are both increasingly common and necessary. Proposal managers must complete the same tasks in a virtual environment that are required when managing a co-located team. The increased challenges are most often communication and accountability. . .

Discriminators are features of your offer or solution that differ from a competitor’s offer and are acknowledged by the customer as important. Both conditions must be met.

Capture (opportunity) management requires careful and precise execution of a well-developed capture plan. Developing the plan is important. Executing the plan is difficult but essential. Capture managers are generally made, not born. Most organizations develop capture managers internally as they gain awareness of company strategies for growth or market positioning. The capture manager is generally the primary person responsible for winning or losing opportunities and directs customer contact before, during, and after a proposal is submitted.

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?

Proposals go through several iterations and reviews before final submission not the customer. Careful and thorough proofreading, editing, and revising help you focus on complying with customer requirements and convey a clear sales message.

What characteristics make one proposal more customer-focused than another proposal? Do different individuals perceive customer focus differently? Do individuals with different cultural backgrounds or positions perceive customer focus differently?

Bid decisions are decisions gate reviews triggered by ongoing customer or opportunity intelligence. The opportunity manager (or capture manager) along with management determines whether to advance, defer, or end the pursuit. The decision hinges on whether you have the capability or can obtain the resources to pursue and subsequently capture an opportunity that meets your business objectives.

Executive Summaries are often the most important sections in a proposal. They set the tone for individual evaluators and are sometimes the only pages read by the decision makers.

Storyboards and Mockups are planning tools used to develop and review new content before writing text. Like any tool, they should save time and improve quality to justify their use...

Planning before writing saves more time than it takes. In parallel with ongoing capture planning activities, plan and validate your proposal plan before you begin writing new material or tailoring reuse material.

A cycle is a progression through a series of stages leading to a desired result. In business development, the lifecycle is about winning business. You’re not winning just any business, but business that is sustainable and profitable that helps the organization meet its objectives.

The quality and competitiveness of a proposal depend on a number of criteria. How well did you comply with the customer’s bid instructions? How did you respond to the requirements and issues that drove the procurement? ...

How you propose your solutions to the customer can give your company a competitive edge.

Graphics are one of the most effective ways to persuade the customer to select your solution. Graphics convey both facts and emotion, equally important aspects of effective persuasion. Effective graphics improve evaluator retention and understanding.

Value propositions establish customer value based on the business relationship. They describe how the seller’s solutions will improve the customer’s business and how that improvement with be measured. Value propositions are opportunity and customer specific and are developed collaboratively with the customer throughout the pursuit cycle...