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Olessia Smotrova-Taylor, President and CEO of OST Global Solutions, Inc.
January 10, 2012
As I was teaching our IDIQs and Task Orders course on Monday, we were reviewing the best practices for a quick and efficient proposal development process. One practice was conducting a proper kickoff meeting. After attending many proposal kickoffs (some of which included a proper breakfast and a long PowerPoint), and then watching a proposal unravel, I have figured out what needs to happen in order to prevent a disaster. I distilled the information that needs to be shared with the proposal team into nine kickoff goals. It doesn’t matter what the size of the team is and what the length of a proposal is, you have to address all the goals – or there will be problems, guaranteed.
One of these goals is obtaining a management buy-in. First, make sure that you and your teammates’ senior management is present at the kickoff. Since management usually grapples with a busy schedule, the portions of your kickoff content that you want them to hear the most should be put in the beginning of your brief, and addressed in a discreet chunk of time, with management in attendance, so they can leave afterwards. You especially need to win their support for your:
- Plan for conducting your proposal (how have you tailored the proposal process to fit your opportunity and the resources you have available),
- Win strategy, and
- Level of confidence in your ability to pull it off with the resources you have at hand – or any resource-needed requests if you don’t think you can do it with what you’ve got.
The kickoff is the time to express confidence in your team’s ability to win, and to get everyone excited and ready for the “fight.” But, do not sound overconfident – so that you inspire complacency in your team, and don’t commit career suicide with the senior management, in case you make it seem like a slam dunk. This may prevent you from getting the resources and support needed if you run into trouble around mid-proposal stage, and will definitely backfire if you don’t win.
If you would like to find out more about conducting kickoffs or masterful proposal management? We have courses coming up just for you:
Foundations of Proposal Management Seminaron February 2-3, 2012 in Rockville, MD.
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 that is 40 percent lecture, 50 percent exercises, and 10 percent discussion. It is built around a hands-on proposal development simulation exercise to practice, discuss, and integrate each step of the proposal process.
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Do you wonder how to work on capture like a pro? Get all the most effective techniques for capture from our two 2-day capture classes:
- Foundations of Capture Management, Jan. 31 - Feb. 1, 2012, Rockville, MD.
- Advanced Capture Management, Mar. 15-16, 2012, Rockville, MD.
In these classes you will master basic and advanced techniques for customer engagement, intelligence gathering, win strategy development, competitive analysis, teaming, and solution development. Learn more or register at www.ostglobalsolutions.com/training/schedule
UPCOMING WORKSHOPS AND SEMINARS
Jan. 9-10, 2012
Monday - Tuesday, 8.30am - 5.00pm (EST, -5 GMT), 2-day course |
 Preparing Winning Multiple Award and Task Order Proposals
Everything you need to prepare winning multiple award contracts (IDIQ, GWAC, MAC, MAS, BPA, etc.) and the task order proposals that follow. This class will show you how to dominate task order competition and maximize earnings from your IDIQs.
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Jan. 31 - Feb. 1, 2012
Tuesday - Wednesday, 8.30am - 5.00pm (EST, -5 GMT), 2-day course |
 Foundations of Capture Management
This class will arm you with real knowledge and tools you can apply immediately to capturing contracts. We will cover master techniques for customer engagement, intelligence gathering, win strategy development, competitive analysis, teaming, solution development, and more. This is an interactive 2-day workshop that is 40 percent lecture, 50 percent exercises, and 10 percent discussion. It will teach you real skills to raise win probability on the government contracts you pursue.
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Feb. 2-3, 2012
Thursday - Friday, 8.30am - 5.00pm (EST, -5 GMT), 2-day course |
 Foundations of Proposal Management
This course offers a rich toolbox of the most sophisticated best practices-based techniques and tools for every step of the proposal management process. It is an interactive 2-day workshop that is 40 percent lecture, 50 percent exercises, and 10 percent discussion. It is built around a hands-on proposal development simulation exercise to practice, discuss, and integrate each step of the proposal process.
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Feb. 6-7, 2012
Monday - Tuesday, 8.30am - 5.00pm (EST, -5 GMT), 2-day course |
 Proposal Speed-Writing and Persuasion
This unique course shows how to develop compliant and highly persuasive proposal sections in at least half the time that it would normally take. It covers detailed methods for outlining within the sections, developing section content, infusing proper structure and flow, and implementing correct writing processes and section planning techniques. But this course goes beyond mere compliance -- it shows you how to write tighter, sharper proposals that will win.
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Feb. 8, 2012
Wednsday, 8.30am - 5.00pm (EST, -5 GMT), 1-day workshop |
 Win Themes Development Workshop
This workshop offers valuable skills in win theme 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 helps increase win probability.
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Feb. 9, 2012
Thursday, 8.30am - 5.00pm (EST, -5 GMT), 1-day workshop |
 Executive Summary Workshop
This workshop shows how to write one of the most critical proposal elements: a highly persuasive executive summary. The course starts with the common executive summary mistakes, and shows how to avoid them. It then walks the participants through when and how to develop executive summaries, who should develop them (and various management strategies for making it happen), optimum length, and other vital considerations. It provides the six-part formula for executive summaries based on direct response, a marketing-related persuasion technique that fuels a trillion-dollar consumer market.
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Mar. 15-16, 2012
Thursday - Friday, 8.30am - 5.00pm (EST, -5 GMT), 2-day course |
 Advanced Capture Management
This course takes capture management to the next level - maximizing win probability; masterminding the most effective win strategy using cutt ing edge techniques; masterfully facilitating brainstorming sessions such as Black Hats, Win Strategy Sessions, and CONOPS workshops; performing advanced competitive analysis; creating advantageous teaming arrangements; applying formulas to solution development; and much more. The course also focuses on measuring and improving cost-efficiency and effectiveness of the capture team.
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… PROPOSAL support: If you are short-staffed, your proposal load is heavy, or you don’t have the right skills in-house, we can get you the right help. Please contact us for your proposal development needs at 301-384-3350 ext. 104, or send us an inquiry at service@ostglobalsolutions.com.
… BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT support: Outsource your business development to our experts and find government contracting opportunities in your core competency areas. Contact us at 301-384-3350 ext. 102, or send u s an inquiry at service@ostglobalsolutions.com.
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OST Global Solutions, Inc.
Your resource for Capture and Proposal Management
...Because there is no second place in proposals!
+1.301.384.3350
service@ostglobalsolutiuons.com
www.ostglobalsolutions.com
7361 Calhoun Pl, Suite 560 Rockville, MD, 20855
Olessia Smotrova-Taylor
President/CEO
OST Global Solutions, Inc.
Feel free to reprint or reference this with full attribution.
Copyright © 2008-2011, OST Global Solutions, Inc.
All rights reserved.
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