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Capture Pro Essentials: Customer, Solution, Competition, Price, Process

Learn the top 5 things every capture professional needs to know to succeed in the industry. Gain insights from industry experts on customer knowledge, solutioning, competition analysis, pricing strategies, and effective capture processes. Get ahead in the game and increase your chances of winning contracts.

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Capture Pro Essentials: Customer, Solution, Competition, Price, Process

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  1. Robert Lohfeld, Lohfeld Consulting Group Capture and Business Development Conference September 23, 2014 Top 5 Things Every Capture Pro Needs to Know www.apmp.org The Association of Proposal Management Professionals

  2. Top 5 things to know to be a capture pro • Opinions may differ among capture professionals Bob’s Top 5 PicksEric’s Top 5 Picks • Customer • Solution • Competition • Price • Process • Team attitude – it is everything • Proposal manager – your best friend • Poor performers – fire them fast • Customer – if not speaking honestlywith you, you have already lost • Can’t win – recommend a no bid

  3. Two things you must know about capture • Capture is an intellectual game played by the best and brightest in our industry and the team who plays it the best usually wins • Best Informed Wins

  4. My Top 5 • What they are and why I believe they should be in the top 5 • Customer – is everything • Solution – focused on strengths and the end game • Competition – know what they are going to do • Price – technical/ management evaluation is significantly more important than price, not • Process – don’t reinvent capture for every deal, build on what you have learned before

  5. Number 1 – Customer It is all about the customer • Why it’s important • Customer knowledge has the highest correlation with winning • No customer knowledge = no bid • Best Informed Wins! • What happens when you ignore it • Your proposal is sterile, abstract, flat, and is a dead looser

  6. Number 1 – Customer It is all about the customer • How do you make sure you succeed with it • Start early • Define what you need to know to win • Capture has deliverables • What are the risks to watch out for • Stagnate capture efforts – no forward progress • Tracking vs. capturing

  7. Number 1 – Customer It is all about the customer • How do I know I am succeeding with it • Measure your progress on all Capture KPIs • Color score your progress monthly – Blue, Green, Yellow, and Red • What leadership skills do I need to ensure success with it • Technically, managerially, and politically smart • Very curious about everything • Best informed wins

  8. Number 2 – Solution Strength based solutioning • Why it’s important • Best value tradeoffs focus on proposal strengths, weaknesses, and price • A compelling solution is rich in features that can be scored as strengths • Convey your solution so the evaluators can build their briefing to the Source Selection Authority • What happens when you ignore it • No strengths give you a zero score

  9. Number 2 – Solutioning Strength based solutioning • How do you make sure you succeed with it • Challenge your team to create better solutions than they ever have before • Identify your strengths • Focus on the end game – draft your Source Selection Briefing • What are the risks to watch out for • Stagnate capture efforts – no forward progress • Inability to get leadership to invest in solutioning • Tracking vs. capturing

  10. Number 2 – Solution Strength based solutioning • How do I know I am succeeding with it • Set up a strengths budget for each section • Compare your strengths with your budget • What leadership skills do I need to ensure success with it • Lead the team by saying the solution is not good enough • A compelling solution is rich in features that will be evaluated as strengths

  11. Number 3 – Competition Obsess about the competition • Why it’s important • What you don’t know will kill you • Learn everything about the competition • Your competition is learning everything they can about you • What happens when you ignore it • You have no way of knowing if you can win • You have no way to neutralize your competitors strengths • You get blindsided by companies aligning in powerful ways

  12. Number 3 – Competition Obsess about the competition • How do you make sure you succeed with it • Create a competitive assessment • Keep up on street talk • Build on prior research • What are the risks to watch out for • Competitive assessments are actionable, internet research is not

  13. Number 3 – Competition Obsess about the competition • How do I know I am succeeding with it • Black hat reviews are a good indicator • Teaming discussions can provide powerful feedback • Plan to neutralize competitor strengths and accentuate their weaknesses • What leadership skills do I need to ensure success with it • Technically, managerially, and politically smart • Very curious about everything

  14. Number 4 – Price Constrained budgets are driving change • Why it’s important • Everything trades off against price • The government just doesn’t have the money they used to • What happens when you ignore it • Your price can be 30% too high and you will fail!

  15. Number 4 – Price Constrained budgets are driving change • How do you make sure you succeed with it • Start early and create pricing models • Research competitor pricing • Do your own tech/management – price tradeoff • What are the risks to watch out for • Guessing vs. knowing

  16. Number 4 – Price Constrained budgets are driving change • How do I know I am succeeding with it • Estimates and models improve over time • Pricing confidence will increase • What leadership skills do I need to ensure success with it • Technically, managerially smart with good pricing experience • Be a “gammer” and use the tricks

  17. Number 5 – Process Capture is a defined and repeatable process • Why it’s important • Good process and good review will ensure you run a good, competitive capture • No process is what some people want • What happens when you ignore it • Steps are missed in the process (think 9 KPIs) • Win probabilities decline • You bid deals that you shouldn’t

  18. Number 5 – Process Capture is a defined and repeatable process • How do you make sure you succeed with it • Capture is a disciplined process – follow it • If you don’t know where you are going, any path will get you there • What are the risks to watch out for • Capture efforts stagnate – no forward progress • Tracking vs. capturing

  19. Number 5 – Process Capture is a defined and repeatable process • How do I know I am succeeding with it • Measure your progress on all capture KPIs • Color score your progress monthly – Blue, Green, Yellow and Red • Create KPI color mosaics for each deal • What leadership skills do I need to ensure success with it • Be willing to follow a good process, but creative enough to continually improve the way it is implemented

  20. Eric Gregory, Senior Vice President Shipley Associates Capture and Business Development Conference September 23, 2014 Top 5 Things Every Capture Pro Needs to Know www.apmp.org The Association of Proposal Management Professionals

  21. My Top 5 1 2 3 4 5 Leadership creates the difference between winners and losers

  22. Critical Thoughts • Why it’s important • What happens when you ignore it • How do you make sure you succeed with it • What are the risks to watch out for • How do I know I am succeeding with it • What leadership skills do I need to ensure success with it

  23. Number 1 Team Attitude is Everything • Winning attitude is more important than a winning solution • Creating a winning team attitude is tough • Ignore the winning attitude and lose • Create the winning attitude by • Example • Confidence • Mentoring • Coaching • Insistence

  24. Number 1 Team Attitude is Everything • Watch for slumps, disaffection, clear morale issues, whining, and lack of accomplishment • Energy, accomplishment, creative solutions, self-policing, initiative, drive indicative of success • Leadership: Communication, clarity, vision, expectation, accountability, reward, decisiveness, interference running The winner’s edge is not in a gifted birth, a high IQ, or in talent. The winner’s edge is all about attitude, not aptitude. Attitude is the criterion for success. Denis Waitley

  25. Number 2 Your Proposal Manager is Your Best Friend • It’s the team stupid! Team begins here. Vision, knowledge, planning, action/schedule, message, tracking, solution, quality, process • If the team of 2 fails, the team of 30 stands no chance • Get the best proposal manager you can afford • Working at odds. Not committed. No fire. Not helping to drive team. No proposal plan. Not active in capture, solutioning, and strategy.

  26. Number 2 Your Proposal Manager is Your Best Friend • When Capture and Proposal Manager click the team clicks • Progress, focus, good customer reactions, team accomplishments, quality output, good questions, offers to help • Leadership: Leave ego at the door, promote the team, make it clear proposal manager is the second, give them team face time

  27. Number 3 Fire Poor Performers Fast • Can’t allow poor performance to drag the team down • Morale suffers, productivity suffers, energy decreases, creativity flags, actions slip, Pwin drops • Be polite, be firm, be honest, emphasize good of the team • Missed deadlines, asking same questions multiple times, poor quality output, withdrawal from team, lack of confidence

  28. Number 3 Fire Poor Performers Fast • Action taken swiftly results in immediate capture improvements • Team morale improves quickly • People tell you you did the right thing • People thank you for taking action • Leadership: Accountability, decisiveness, professionalism, concern, maturity, commitment In the minds of great managers, consistent poor performance is not primarily a matter of weakness, stupidity, disobedience, or disrespect. It is a matter of miscasting. Marcus Buckingham

  29. Number 4 If the Customer is not Speaking Honestly With You, You’ve Lost • Honest communication of needs, wants issues, risks, preferences gets results • When customers are evasive, they are looking for another solution • Declare honesty/trust is important to you to help achieve a successful procurement • Watch for misrepresentations, fabrications, contradictions, prevarications, and tales

  30. Number 4 If the Customer is not Speaking Honestly With You, You’ve Lost • Customers are engaged, share, and converse. They agree, disagree, suggest, advise, and debate • Leadership: Invite conversation, leaders listen, followers talk excessively. Leaders propose ideas and look for reaction. Success is not certain until you are obsessed by your goal. Vijay Dhameliya

  31. Number 5 If You Can’t Win, Recommend a No Bid • The greatest sin is wasting time, money, and people on deals you can’t win. • Great people turn mediocre under poor leadership and decision making • Courageous, smart, committed pros make firm bid/no bid recommendations • Beware the abdicator, the sniper, the hindsight expert, and the toady but make your recommendation regardless

  32. Number 5 If You Can’t Win, Recommend a No Bid • First order metric of business development health…how many no bids are you making? • When you make clear no bid recommendations for the right reasons • Leadership: Courage, honesty, thought, accountability, responsibility, and stewardship It is only in our decisions that we are important. Jean-Paul Sartre Bid No Bid

  33. Remember…. Go Win Business

  34. Thank You Bob Lohfeld CEO, Lohfeld Consulting Group, Inc. Rlohfeld@LohfeldConsulting.com 410-336-6264 Contact Info: Eric Gregory Senior Vice President, Consulting-East egregory@shipleywins.com 703-690-9422 Images provided through PhotoSpin subscription www.apmp.org

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