Business Development – Jump Start & Sustain Your Growth in the Federal Market
If you want your company to grow consistently in the Federal Government market, you need a sound Business Development (BD) strategy that focuses your entire organization’s business development efforts. A successful BD strategy involves: conducting market...Six Strategies to Grow Your Business with the Treasury
Olessia Smotrova-Taylor, OST’s President and Chief Executive Officer, presented “Six Strategies to Grow Your Business with the Treasury” as a speaker at the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Small Business Outreach in May. More than a hundred of businesses, Government...The Seven Deadly Proposal Sins, Part 5: Sloth
In our series covering the Seven Deadly Proposal Sins started last year, we have discussed the first four: Pride, Gluttony, Greed, and Envy. These covered the common mistakes and misconceptions we have come across throughout our work as business development...The Seven Deadly Proposal Sins, Part 4: Envy
In our series covering the Seven Deadly Proposal Sins, we have discussed the first three: Pride, Gluttony and Greed. The articles cover the common mistakes we come across throughout our work as business development consultants. Committing one or more of these sins is...The Seven Deadly Proposal Sins, Part 3: Greed
This seven-part series is based off of the most common proposal mistakes that we see throughout our work. In our first two parts we discussed the sins of Pride and Gluttony. Committing one or more of these proposal sins is the surest way to lose a bid while wasting...The Seven Deadly Proposal Sins, Part 2: Gluttony
In Part 1 of our seven part series on the Seven Deadly Proposal Sins, we covered Pride, which is often synonymous with incumbentitis. Thinking that “the customer loves us too much to lose,” underestimating the competition, and developing proposals that are...The Seven Deadly Proposal Sins – Part 1: Pride
Olessia and I recently spoke at the 2014 NCMA World Congress on proposal quality control. As we were working on the presentation, we started talking about the common proposal flaws we keep encountering on our clients’ proposals. We came up with the seven deadly...Turning Ops Personnel into a BD Army
Training your operations people to be business developers reminds me a lot of patrolling in Afghanistan. On a patrol, security is everyone’s job, but it’s not everyone’s full-time job. Although the most experienced soldiers can better recognize something unusual, more...The Difference between Proposals and Super-Proposals
Cue “Welcome to the Jungle,” by Guns and Roses. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQJJjcrwXQE). Slash’s guitar riffs sound as smoke forms and Megamind exclaims, “You dare challenge Megamind?” Titan, the eventual antagonist of the movie, responds with a not-so-witty...Nailing Business Development for Indefinite Delivery Vehicles
In the U.S. Army Infantry, the actual execution of an ambush is less than 10 minutes. Once the mission starts, you move to the area, set up, conduct a leader’s recon of the ambush site, set up security elements, plan the firing line, place your gun teams, and...Incumbent-itis pitfalls
The cardinal sin of any Government contractor is to lose the bread-and-butter contract that they rely on as a major source of income. This is a job they know inside out. They have bonded with the customer; they could recite the customer’s challenges and hot buttons...A memorable story can make all the difference in winning proposals
While the Super Bowl was forgettable, some of the commercials were excellent examples of telling a story that evokes emotion in two minutes or less. Apple’s iPad Air commercial features a passionate voice-over from Robin Williams’s performance in Dead Poets Society....Pwin, Any Given Sunday
How many of you woke up last Sunday and predicted that the best offense in the history of the NFL wouldn’t score a point until the third quarter? Most people figured that the game would be relatively even, but the thought of the blowout that occurred didn’t even seem...I Once “Captured” a Fish… THIS BIG
Every fishing story sounds similar. It starts out with a description of the setting, a little nibble, then the sudden strike setting the hook, and the fight. Often, the story concludes with a drawn-out struggle where the line almost breaks and the buddy brings the net...BD is not drinks, golf, and dinners. It is goals, customers, and pipeline
A great business developer is a “people” person who builds and sustains long-term relationships with customers and partners, finds opportunities, and closes deals. This naturally requires legwork and face time with people, sometimes translating into drinks, golf, and dinners. Unfortunately, some business developers equate business development with kicking the bobo with friends high up in the Government, fine dining, and exclusive golf courses. They call it “opening doors.” They say BD takes time. And while that much is true, it is easy to mistake movement for progress, and lose sight of the goals.
Win themes and Strategy Brainstorming Session… Is it OK to Wait if the RFP Slips to the Right?
One of the first steps in capturing an opportunity is to conduct a win themes development and strategy session. Win themes are a conclusive set of reasons why the customer should select you over the competitors. Win strategy is determining what it takes to win, and what a potential winner would have to do to make it an obvious choice from the customer’s standpoint.
5 Simple Rules for Constructive Feedback
When you are in a position of an editor or a reviewer, remember that the authors put a lot of work into the proposal, so be respectful and productive in your criticism. You want to treat your team members like fellow adults, and shape your feedback accordingly.
Say No to Bureaucratic Compliance
Let’s talk compliance. Compliance, as you know, starts with a proper proposal outline. Proposal managers need to decide which sections of the statement of work to discuss in the outline, and which sections to exclude. It is the outliner’s job to really understand the big picture, and ensure it is structured and annotated in the way that the writers understand the context of their sections. The outliners have to figure out how to tell a great story within the constraints of being compliant.
Gratitude For Our Veterans & Food for Thought
I spent about 7 years in the infantry, 5.5 years with the 82nd Airborne Division, and 27 months in Afghanistan. This Veterans Day, I want to encourage everyone to work more with veterans and understand the unique skills they bring to business development. Veterans often struggle with transitioning back into the civilian workforce, like I did when I first exited the Army. They often find it hard to translate their valuable experience from their time in the military into the business environment. Yet, many of the skills that our highly trained military personnel have picked up in the field translate very well into the office environment.
