Developing your 2012 pipeline and preparing for a great year of winning business

January 31st, 2012

A Couple of Logistical Notes
before the main article.

Only 2 days left to register for our brand new class: Foundations of Proposal Management on Feb. 2-3, 2012. This course offers a rich toolbox of the most sophisticated best practices-based techniques and tools for every step of the way. It is an interactive 2-day workshop with 40 percent lecture, 50 percent exercises, and 10 percent discussion. Register at www.ostglobalsolutions.com/proposal-management-training.

We have other neat classes coming up in February such as Win Themes Development Workshop (Feb. 22), and Proposal Speed Writing and Persuasion (Feb. 23-24) – that still have a few spots left. Both of these courses are for your whole team – to make your proposals sharper, and easier to write. We also still have early bird pricing on some February and March-April classes: Cost Strategy for Proposal Managers (Mar. 12), Advanced Capture Management (Mar. 15-16), Preparing Winning IDIQs and Task Orders (Mar. 19-20). Register for any of these courses at http://www.o stglobalsolutions.com/training/schedule

Now on to our article of the day.


Today’s Article:
Developing Your 2012 Pipeline
and Preparing For a Great Year of Winning Business

government proposal writing workshopIf you are anything like me, you’ve dealt with three challenges during the holidays – trying to keep from overindulging too much and gaining hard-to-shed pounds; fighting off a recurring cold; and trying to juggle family time with proposals that are due early to mid-January. By the way, I am officially envious if you faced no challenges or dealt with them through advance planning and orderly life. You are my hero. Read the rest of this entry »

Overcoming difficulties in calling government customer

January 25th, 2012

At OST, we often get a call to line up proposal support for an upcoming RFP. We hear that “RFP is about to drop, so send us a proposal manager, pronto.” Instead of reaching out to our consultants, however, we first pick up the phone and call the contracting officer to find out whether the RFP is truly expected to drop on the stated date. Sadly, often our prospective clients operate with old capture data. They ramp up, spend the money, and all the while they don’t do the simplest thing – pick up the phone.

Same during the capture process – many times companies COULD find out from the customer what the customer really needs, but they don’t. It’s true that many govies won’t talk to us, and many of us have become gun shy. We are afraid to reach out. We are reluctant to ask for a visit. We get comfortable in that dark cone of silence that the government bidding process becomes at times – and forget to venture out to seek clarity. Or, we feel constrained by our jobs: “I am a proposal manager (or technical writer), and I don’t interface with customers in our organization.” It doesn’t help that your personnel designated to interface with the customer fails to do so as well. As a result, we miss precious opportunities to learn more about our customers’ needs – and to write winning proposals.

People generally lean towards one or the other side of the spectrum: “people people” and “project people.” If you are a people person, you are probably right now shrugging your shoulders and saying that you have no problem calling anyone. If you are more of a project person, like most proposal managers and some capture managers, the story may be different. Read the rest of this entry »

Create powerful win themes by attending our Win Themes Development Workshop on February 8, 2012

January 19th, 2012

Once and for all learn how to develop incredibly powerful win themes that will make your proposal stand out (no matter how many binders are piled on an evaluator’s desk) at our Win Themes Development Workshop taking place on Feb 8, 2012 in Rockville Maryland: www.ostglobalsolutions.com/win-themes-development-workshop.

This workshop offers valuable skills in win themes development as the most important element of proposal persuasion. The course walks you through the purpose of win themes and their building blocks. Then, it advances the learning beyond the mere mechanics to the inner core of win themes. It shows how to design win themes that deeply touch the customers exactly where and how it is necessary, in order to become memorable and influence them to select your company. It demonstrates how win themes morph into win strategies, and help increase win probability.

The workshop helps practice an efficient process of getting to the right win themes within hours instead of spending days in boring and unproductive brainstorming sessions.

This workshop is 30 percent lecture, 60 percent exercises, and 10 percent discussion. Participants will learn how to masterfully facilitate win themes development sessions, and will never have to struggle with creating the right win themes or win strategies.

Read the rest of this entry »

Top 7 Problems With Proposal Win Themes

January 18th, 2012

Most companies, despite their best intentions (and even understanding of what a win theme is supposed to look like), fail to sell in their proposals. Win theme is one of the top five elements of proposal persuasion – and if they don’t work, it will be much harder to stand out.

Read the rest of this entry »

Advanced Capture Management Seminar on Mar. 15-16, 2012

January 11th, 2012

Masterfully facilitate brainstorming sessions such as black hats, win strategy sessions, and CONOPS workshops; perform advanced competitive analysis; create advantageous teaming arrangements; apply formulas to solution development; and much more. The course also focuses on measuring and improving cost-efficiency and effectiveness of the capture team.

This course takes capture management to the next level – what does it take to maximize win probability; mastermind the most effective win strategy using cutting edge techniques. It is an interactive 2-day workshop that is 50 percent lecture, 30 percent exercises and case studies, and 20 percent discussion.

Read the rest of this entry »