If you are doing capture or preparing a proposal response, do not forget about searching for articles on the topic of your pursuit. The reason articles are important is that a lot of the times you get to hear the voice of your customer. Journalists routinely interview government and corporate officials and often you will find out exactly what keeps your customers up at night, and what they care about the most.

If you are pressed for time, you may not want to spend hours on generalized search on the Web because it is oversaturated with information. Do take a look at the links on the first couple of pages that the browser yields, but then move on to publications specific to your industry.

For example, if you are an IT company, you should have shortcuts to the following specialized publications’ websites:

Government Computer News: www.gcn.com

Federal Computer Week: www.fcw.com

Infoworld: www.infoworld.com

Computerworld: www.computerworld.com

Washington Technology: www.washingtontechnology.com

Wired: www.wired.com/techbiz

All you need to do is use the search function on these websites for some key words related to this procurement, not forgetting to search by the names of the customer personnel who may be involved in source selection, issuing agency’s or company’s name, and some opportunity-specific terms. Then, go ahead and paraphrase or even regurgitate customer’s own words and ideas in your proposal, so that you speak straight to their needs and dearly held beliefs.

About the Author: Olessia Smotrova-Taylor is president of OST Global Solutions (www.ostglobalsolutions.com), a consulting and training company that helps businesses grow by winning government contracts. She is the chair of the APMP NCA Executive Summary newsletter, and a practicing capture and proposal manager with a 94% win rate. She teaches popular webinars on proposal and capture topics – find out more information at www.ostglobalsolutions.com/training/schedule.  You can reach her at service@ostglobalsolutions.com or at 301.384.3350 .

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Copyright © 2008-2009, Olessia Smotrova-Taylor and OST Global Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.