Many companies reach a point when they consider creating a dedicated proposal center. It usually happens when they have a constant volume of bids, and they are looking for a more efficient way to develop proposals and win consistently. They want to scale up, grow aggressively, and create a true business development engine.

In the course of my career, I have worked in a number of different proposal centers, so I have seen the best and the worst of them – and anything in-between. So, when I met Bruce DeNormandie, Director, Proposal Development at GTSI Corp., and we started discussing his work, I realized that he had done something extraordinary. He built a highly successful proposal center from the ground up in an organization undergoing a challenging transition from selling commodities to bidding on complex solutions – so I thought that sharing his experience and lessons learned through this interview would benefit the business development community.

Olessia Smotrova-Taylor (O): Bruce, how did your career lead you to GTSI and building the proposal center?

Bruce DeNormandie (B): I started in the IT field with Digital Equipment Corporation. My career is best described as “zigzagging” back and forth from staff job to line job. I got exposure to both specific and general functions. I was in the trenches and moved up the line, gaining the understanding of what people have to do to get their jobs done.

During one of my zigzags I moved into capture and proposal management. After my company was sold twice and eventually acquired by HP, I decided it was time to go out on my own. GTSI recruited me 5 years ago after my short tenure growing a proposal capability at an 8(a) firm, so I submitted to them a business plan to grow their proposal center.

When I joined GTSI, it was built on commodity sales. Staying ahead of the current trend, the company decided to expand its portfolio with services and solutions. At the time, GTSI used to go after 2-3 bids a year. They were bidding on large IT product-oriented GWACs and IDIQs. Upon winning a contract, they passed it to the sales department to “go sell products.”  GTSI did everything in-house with a core group of 6-7 people – a director, a capture manager, a pricing person, two hardware solution architects and some engineering support personnel pulled in when needed. They did well at preparing for when an RFP would hit the street. They understood how to respond to the technical requirements. But they didn’t have professional proposal managers or other support. They even developed their own graphics in Visio and did their own editing.

This business development group was successful at what they did when they went after a couple of bids a year, but when you need to crank out 4, 5, or 10 proposals a month, it wasn't scalable, and not as efficient or competitive as it could be.

O: So, how did you start streamlining and reorganizing everything?

(B): Well, I knew that I needed the right people, systems, and tools to create a scalable organization.
I got nearly a blank check to start the whole process, because I had very supportive upper management. This was the most important thing, senior management buying into the vision.

I started with the people. First of all I added a professional graphic artist, editor, and desktop publisher. I also brought in professional proposal managers who already had Shipley experience. If you start out with a process and don't have the people who know the process, you're going to spend too much effort to retrain.

I have to say, I didn't hire 20 people right out the gate. As the volume increased, we brought in additional resources as needed to handle the increased flow of RFPs. I also trained the people who were already there. It wasn’t a straight-forward process, as we couldn’t stop doing all the proposal work – so we had to grow using existing people, working with the way they did things, while educating and training them.

As I brought people in, I developed job descriptions for them that fit well within the new processes. This was a challenge because prior to this, the job responsibilities were not clearly defined because the folks here did everything themselves, including graphics and editing. Now, instead of doing everything from A to Z, our people were able to focus. For instance, the engineers could focus on engineering instead of editing. I also got people involved with APMP so they understood there was a professional world out there and that it wasn't just a temporary job.

O: What kinds of qualities did you look for when you were hiring the people?

B: The main quality I seek is teamwork. It is extremely important to me that the people I hire work well in concert with other people. Proposal work is stressful enough, so I look for someone who can provide leadership without arrogance, and create harmony with great team chemistry. They have to have the skills, the talent, situational understanding, training, and knowledge of the Shipley process. Organizational ability is another important aspect of this work. You have to be organized to run a disciplined process, but be flexible and interpret what is needed along the way.

O: How exactly did you grow the team?

B: I realized that if you were going to do something that was scalable, you had to handle the production first. I promoted a proposal specialist to a production manager. We went and hired a desktop publisher, a technical editor, and a graphic artist.

I first focused on assessing the staff’s skills for whether this was a good fit, and on retooling some the people who were already here. We had a proposal coordinator who had potential to be a proposal manager, so I promoted her within a year. I also started interviewing proposal managers with experience in Shipley process. In the first year, I hired two of them. About two years into it all, we had four capture managers and five proposal managers.

O: How did you go about establishing the processes?

Once we had all the people on board, we then focused on making sure everyone had a clear role. We established a Standard Operating Procedures manual that included job descriptions. We also defined the various steps in proposal development to institute the process discipline - from capture to hand-off; kick off; pink, red, and gold teams; and white glove... As an advocate of Shipley, I adapted the process to our needs - I don't use all 96 steps, it’s more like 24 or 25. This became a standard baseline for how we handle an RFP.

We use a flexible approach. If we have a 6-week RFP, we might use a full process. If we have something that needs to be turned around in a week, we still go through everything but compact the process and reduce the number of reviews. We are very structured in regards to having a start and a stop. To instill quality, you can't depend on the final review - you have to engineer excellence throughout the entire process. For example, we have a standard package for kickoff that includes all the materials such as the compliance matrix, annotated outlines, storyboards, and so on. That's how we reached our significant win rate of 70-75%.

O: That’s excellent! This is much higher than the industry average – and in fact, this is one of the highest rates one can get as a company, since you are always going to deal with the factor of price so it is hard to go much higher than that. How did you end up structuring your proposal center?

B: Currently, our organization is scaled up and it's geared to produce a significant amount of material. In our business development and proposal group, there are 30 people, with directors, capture managers, solutions architects, a pricing manager, proposal managers, and a service solutions team that coordinates with our professional services organization. We have an intern here who helps with production, and we've been grooming him to become a proposal specialist. We also have a really large sales section, with about 250+ people (which is half of what we used to have), as we are transitioning from being a commodity company to the solutions and services company.

We have five levels of proposals in our company. The first level is general proposals and white papers, very low-end, mostly services and product-related offerings that we sell off of contracts. We crank out 10-15 of these types of proposals a week. That's probably accountable for about 50% of our revenue because that's the type of contracts we have. Level two are proposals for more complex service solutions. Level three are task orders. Level four are solicited RFPs. Level five is the large GWACs and IDIQs which some companies call “strategic bids,” where you need a capture manager.

Our company is a little more complex than many other companies out there. Others may only focus on the $5-$20 million dollar IT infrastructure labor contracts, or go after commodity deals, or the $150-$200 million dollar large O&M contracts. We do it all. As we grow and focus on these different levels, we want to make sure that everything we put out is a quality product.

O: When you say you have multiple directors but five levels of proposals, do those directors somehow correlate to the five levels?

B: No, the four directors correlate to pricing and solution architecture, proposal development, service solutions, and capture management. Then we have a senior director that heads everything.

O: Speaking of processes. You mentioned how you write processes and job descriptions – how exactly do you get it done?

B: Developing process and job descriptions is an iterative process. In proposals, the challenge is not so much the interaction between a proposal manager and a capture manager or the proposal manager and the technical editor, but the interfaces as we bring more people into the fold and start developing complex solutions using the engineering resources from other departments that never took part in a proposal development process before. They have to know how to interface with us: what they should do during kickoffs, stand-ups, reviews, debriefing, and the review recovery process. This is what we constantly revise as we add new people. Maintaining a quality driven proposal process is an on-going training process with people that do not deal with it on a day to day basis.

We don't have dedicated process people - we have workgroups that come together across functional areas to articulate their own and company requirements, and we put them into the workflow.

O: Did you put together specific processes for each of the five proposal levels you defined?

B: Working together, the management team established processes and gate (or step) reviews for each of the five levels – starting with opportunity review and evaluation criteria and into proposal development. You have a sales rep that’s working for a customer and they learned that the government is looking to expand their network storage environment. So before it goes out as a competitive RFP, we'll inform the customer that “you have a contract with us, so we can get our engineering people to work with you.” This results in our writing a proposal to add scope to an existing contract to get that work done. This effort flows through the engineering department. Our engineers interview the customer or sit down with a sales rep, and then put the proposal together.

O: Did you develop a proposal collateral library to speed up proposal development?

B: Yes. For the level 1 and 2 proposals, we develop material but don't use a commercial tool for organizing it yet. It's sorted and kept in files, based on customer and what the material covers, more as a best practice. Almost all our solicited proposals are custom jobs, but as we go through our reviews, we capture things like program management office descriptions, or good language to describe our large warehouse integration and distribution facility in Chantilly. We give our authors and writers a sample of the material at kickoff together with the writing assignments.

O: Do you retain resumes, past performances, or graphics?

B: Oh yes. We have a graphics database, and a past performance database in SharePoint – and we even have a dedicated past performance specialist, which is unusual for a company of our size. When we complete a project, the past performance specialist interviews the project manager and puts that information into the library, including full past performances and cameos.

O: What kind of tools do you use in your proposal center?

B: Right now we have a homegrown workflow and collaboration tool. Because we have a production support team of desktop publishers and graphic artists, they have very tight control over versions and workflow processing. However, because, the company has grown and expanded and we have more remote people now, we are currently working on integrating Microsoft SharePoint with our proposal workflow tool.

For the RFP side, we recently initiated the use of XR Solutions’ Meridian that helps us shred RFPs, and automate action items, compliance matrices, outlines, and storyboards. We also use the CRM tool from salesforce.com. Because we have five levels, we examine the tools specific to each level and its processes.

As to interoffice communications, we use Microsoft Communicator with its instant messaging capability. We use Live Meeting widely, and we're pushing our people to use video cameras used with Live Meeting.

O: What kind of training do you give to your proposal center staff?

B: We do both the internal training and send people to Shipley classes. Now all our capture and proposal managers are Shipley-trained. We also get other training that’s more specific to our proposal people’s skill sets. For example, I have been looking into additional graphic artist training with Mike Parkinson and the 24-Hour Company. We also plan to get personnel from other departments to take Shipley training, but that’s on the horizon.

O:  What do you do to get quality consultants pre-positioned when you need surge support?

B: Well first of all, I encourage all of my proposal managers to participate in the APMP functions, to network, and to get our name out there as a professional organization; and most importantly, to learn about different consulting companies available to help during proposal surges, so that we can get them pre-qualified ahead of time. We have lined up a number of firms, with agreements and pre-negotiated prices. We have matured to the point where we can manage the budgets very closely, plan ahead, and forecast much better. When something is released early, we have processes in place by which we can rearrange priorities, substitute people, and get coverage in-house.

Interdepartmental communication is critical in getting consultant help quickly. We do it through bid review meetings, and weekly interdepartmental reports on everything we're doing, such as the opportunities in the pipeline, in process, and pending award. We also invite cross-functional people from throughout the company to participate in kickoffs so people can learn the expectations and what resources are needed.

O: How does a company decide when it needs a proposal development center?

B: Well, it is a complex issue and every company handles it differently.  It all comes down to the business case. The company has to determine where it is going, what type of business they want to be in, and would a proposal center suit their goals. You have to understand the basis of your growth to create the kind of organization that can best support the business you're in.

Here, because we had so many contracts, we had to handle a high volume of white papers and proposals, and have the flexibility to respond to multiple $500 thousand to $1 million task orders, and $5 million to $500 million RFPs. On the other hand, I have worked in the past for a $15 billion dollar company where we went after one or two deals a quarter, with only three opportunity managers.

You have to ask yourself, what is the volume of the opportunities, and then look at the skill sets and the tasks at hand. I hired a desktop publisher, a graphic artist, and an editor because I knew that we were preparing to handle the production volume of 20 proposals a month. I also started out with 2-3 proposal managers based on the throughput.

We also grew the team so we had to invest into developing reoccurring materials in a repository database instead of starting our responses from scratch. But it wasn't until we saw the volume that we started to maintain the best effort descriptions of our warehouse and similar pieces.

Some large companies do their proposals and business development in sectors. Then again, there may be conflicts between proposal centers and the sectors because of deciding who pays the bills. There are some sectors that don't want to pay that the costs for using the proposal center, and they prefer to develop business on their own. The downside for using the proposal center is that it can be expensive internally to the company and at what level do you carry the cost. So it doesn't work in all places.

O: What kinds of challenges have you encountered?

B: Because our sales organization is so large, the biggest challenge for our proposal center is to constantly make sure that the deals we get are fully qualified. As sales managers look to make their quotas, you get a lot of opportunity reviews that turn into education and coaching.

We now incorporate opportunity qualification into our training nationwide, and we also have instituted a gate review process. We also initiated an overall culture change. As a result, the quality of the opportunities brought to my attention now is so much better than the deals from 5 years ago. I don't see as many deals as I used to, but they are better deals.

Sorting through people has also been tough – although many have the skills, they also have to have the temperament to fit into a kind of a meat-grinder operation where you have to get along with everyone. My career has been about personal development, so I have been coaching and counseling people and trying to get the right people to work well within the framework of a high-volume throughput organization. My biggest challenge was getting the right group of people to work in this environment, and getting them to have the same commitment to excellence and passion that I have.

O: Any other lessons learned you could share with a company that's just starting their proposal center? 

B: Well, you can't get people to adopt a process overnight – especially in a larger company. The way I did it was to hire people who understood what I wanted to do, and managed the pipeline as the gate-keeper. Then, I slowly expanded my sphere of process development and education by bringing in other constituents periodically, educating 4-5 people at a time. The challenge has been maintaining their mind share. When you are in front of them, you have their total attention. When you walk away, you're lucky if you maintain one small portion of their mind share. The whole success of educating people depends on how often you interface with them. If I have a person that deals with me daily, I can educate them and work with them. It is a lot trickier when you have hundreds of people you see once or twice a month, so keep it in the perspective and don’t get frustrated.

I am a full believer in maturity management: you don't get to level 4 overnight, you start with level 1. You have to crawl before you can walk. You can’t change the company overnight. You have to be able to do it in incremental steps. It is also important to get the authority with a lot of control and the financial discretion to create that change.

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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