OST President and CEO Olessia Smotrova taught a business development workshop to 48 veteran entrepreneurs this week at the Veteran Institute for Procurement (VIP) START Session. The course was a hands-on workshop reviewing a Government Request For Proposals (RFP)....
Last time we talked about having enough opportunities in your pipeline so that even after you have a flood of solicitation releases and you forego some opportunities because you are short-staffed, you have enough to bid on during the months when it’s barely a trickle....
Win Themes are pithy, memorable phrases in a proposal that tell the Government customer exactly why they should choose you — not your competitors — for a contract. Win Themes explain the benefits you can bring the customer through your solution, and they’re supported...
Last time, we described the opportunities pipeline and why it doesn’t look like a straight pipe. It looks like a funnel with a series of progressively thinner pipes with increasingly finer filters in between them. Today, we will talk about another reason to have...
Many Government contracting business owners ask us: “How many opportunities per month do you need to find so you can submit enough proposals to reach your financial goals?” The answer is somewhat detailed and has three parts with information we will send to you in...
To Identify Opportunities Worth Pursuing and Avoid Risky Gambles Download your copy of this FREE Bid-No-Bid Calculator It can be extremely difficult to say no to an attractive opportunity, seemingly created just for you (except you found out about it right before RFP...
Download this free flowchart as a part joke and part helpful tool to add some color to your office or cubicle. It’s time to stop procrastinating! Or not. It depends on where you are in the Proposal Procrastination Flowchart. Maybe your deadline is a long way off and...
Most problems that surface when Government contractors struggle with writing winning proposals are systemic, upstream issues related to flawed opportunity identification, qualification, and capture, not the just proposals themselves. If a company bids on an...
Business development metrics offer insights into your business that help you maximize your growth and success. For example, your win rate has a major impact on how many opportunities you need to qualify, capture, and bid on to make your target revenue goals. If your...
Finding the opportunities starts with identifying your ideal set of customers through market research who buy what you sell, and who have money to buy. You first need to define the profile of your ideal opportunity. Here are some of the parameters you could use:...
Win Themes are pithy, memorable phrases in a proposal that tell the Government customer exactly why they should choose you — not your competitors — for a contract. Win Themes explain the benefits you can bring the customer through your solution, and they’re supported...
Part of persuasion is getting people to understand your point of view. It is convincing someone that what you’re saying is true and that they should do what you suggest. With proposals, you don’t have the advantage of being face to face with your customer. You can’t...
A proposal kickoff meeting is arguably the single most important event of the entire proposal schedule. It can set a Proposal Manager and his team up for success or failure on a bid. If you botch the kickoff, your team will leave the meeting without a clear plan, and...
With summer half over, it’s time for those in the Information Technology industry to begin preparing their scorecards and supporting documentation in anticipation of the next large Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC): GSA’s Polaris. GSA plans to release the...
This course covers the process and nuances of how to write an unsolicited proposal and help the Government justify the issuance of sole-source contracts. It is a way to get work under contract fast. It helps both the contractor and the Government avoid lengthy and...
