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Proposal & Capture Tips eBrief© November 2012
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Welcome to Lohfeld Consulting Group's
Capture & Proposal Tips eBrief
November 2012 Edition!
The elections are over, but we continue to deal with low price/technically acceptable (LPTA) controversies, sequestration prognostications, doing more with less in government and industry, tighter B&P budgets, continual technology innovations, RFP quality issues, more competition for less work - and as always business development, capture, and proposal professionals must continue their day-to-day operations and efforts to maintain existing work and win new business for your companies. Our November Capture & Proposal Tips eBrief supports your efforts.
Check out our Proposal Doctor's prescription for dealing with proposal politics, and read Bob Lohfeld's latest Washington Technology article on the 7 steps from good to great proposals!
Take a look at our latest blog posts focused on the five stages of teamwork and how to jump-start proposal team performance
and our updated 2012/2013 capture and proposal training schedule and webinars - all aimed to help you improve your skills and support your team with expert knowledge and insights.
To your success! -The Lohfeld Consulting Group Team |
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Proposal problems?
Ask the Proposal Doctor
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Dear Proposal Doctor, My proposal has become a hornet's nest. The capture manager is intensely unpopular. She makes arbitrary and often unwise decisions with zero transparency. People have to go behind her back to get her decisions reversed because she will not engage in discussion. Although this could be a unifying force, instead the proposal team has broken up into factions, each trying to curry favor with senior management in an effort to get the capture manager replaced with a candidate of choice. The amount of politicking is mind-boggling. It is no wonder that no one is able to meet any proposal deadlines-they are all too busy plotting and scheming. It's a demoralizing atmosphere, needless to say, all the more so because the behavior makes it less and less likely that we can win. As a proposal manager, my power is limited. Yet I am dying to do something to change the atmosphere and get people working productively. What do you suggest? Fed Up With Politics Read more... |
Latest Lohfeld Insights blog posts
Enjoy our latest capture and proposal-related blog posts:
Share your requests for future topics with our blog editor
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Lohfeld Consulting Group in the news
7 steps from good to great proposals
By Bob Lohfeld
We all strive to write great proposals and often pat ourselves on the back when our proposals win. Each victory fills us with pride and reassures us that we're writing great proposals, but that's not always the case.
Great proposals frequently lose on price, and poorly written proposals win when competition is limited or the bid price is low. Because of this, victory is not always a good indicator of proposal quality.
All great proposals have seven essential attributes, and you can use these attributes to measure the quality of your proposal. Once you make it a practice to measure these attributes, you'll be surprised at how quickly all of your proposals improve.
To be a great proposal, a proposal must embody the following...
| Read Bob Lohfeld's article from Washington Technology.
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Winning solutions begin with a winning proposal team
by Lisa Pafe (originally published in APMP-NCA Executive Summary, Fall 2012) Crafting a winning solution is an intellectual challenge, but it is also a team challenge. No proposal is won by an "I"; all are won by a team. Yet no matter how many masterminds you assemble, the proposal team is often its own worst enemy. As a proposal or capture manager, how many times have you thought you did everything right? You develop the win strategy, win themes and discriminators; shred, outline and storyboard the RFP; pick solid teaming partners and issue data calls; and assemble a team of experts to architect, write and review...only to result in a color team draft that offers a non-compelling or even non-compliant solution. With a proposal draft that does not reflect the winning vision, what happened?
| Read Lisa Pafe's article from the APMP-NCA Executive Summary
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Educational opportunities
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Proposal Management - How government contractors create winning proposals (Multiple dates available)
Dec. 4, 2012, Herndon, VA
March 5, 2013, Herndon, VA
June 18, 2013, Herndon, VA
Proposal Management covers the process government contractors use to create winning proposals for full-and-open competitions and task order contracts. We'll explore Lohfeld Consulting Group's structured process comprising a series of scalable actions and steps aimed at creating high-scoring proposals that result in winning bids.
Join Beth Wingate for this 1-day training course. We'll examine the Proposal Management process from pre-proposal through post-submission activities. ...And, we'll share our industry best practices, tips, tricks, and tools for managing every aspect of your proposals.
Register now for Dec. 4, 2012 class! Register now for March 5, 2013 class! Register now for June 18, 2013 class! Proposal Writing - How to write better technical and managerial proposals that outscore the competition (Multiple dates available)
Jan. 8, 2013, Herndon, VA
April 9, 2013, Herndon, VA
Do you have to write the technical or management sections of proposals? Would you like to learn the process professional writers use to create compelling content quickly for the technical and management sections of a proposal?
Join Brooke Crouter for this 1-day training course. We'll show you how to write better proposals more quickly and consistently receive higher scores.
Register now for Jan. 8, 2013 class! Register now for April 9, 2013 class! Capture Management - How government contractors win business (Multiple dates available)
Feb. 5, 2013, Herndon, VA
Join Brooke Crouter for this 1-day training course. We'll show you how to improve your win rate when pursuing government contracts.
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 Professional training classes | |
Proposal Management - How government contractors create winning proposals (multiple dates available)
Dec. 4, 2012, Herndon, VA
March 5, 2013, Herndon, VA
June 18, 2013, Herndon, VA
Join Beth Wingate for this 1-day training course. We'll explore Lohfeld Consulting Group's 5-phase government business acquisition framework. We'll share our industry best practices, tips, tricks, and tools for managing every aspect of your proposals.
Register now for Dec. 4 class!
Register now for March 5 class!
Register now for June 18 class!
Proposal Writing - How to write better technical and managerial proposals that outscore the competition (multiple dates available)
Jan. 8, 2013, Herndon, VA
April 9, 2013, Herndon, VA
Join Brooke Crouter for this 1-day training course. Learn the process professional writers use to create compelling content quickly for the technical and management sections of a proposal. We'll show you how to write better proposals more quickly and consistently receive higher scores.
Register now for Jan. 8 class!
Register now for April 9 class!
Capture Management - How government contractors win business (multiple dates available)
Feb. 5, 2013, Herndon, VA
May 7, 2013, Herndon, VA
Register now for Feb. 5 class!
Register now for May 7 class!
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 Corporate training classes in capture, proposals, and proposal writing - delivered on-site
| Let us design and provide your corporate on-site capture, proposal management, and proposal writing training programs.
On-site APMP Foundation-level Accreditation training
Train your capture and proposal team and achieve APMP Foundation-level Accreditation for everyone in your organization.
Training Office -
Briana Coleman 703.615.7596 BColeman@LohfeldConsulting.com |
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Let us manage your must-win proposals
Our expert proposal staff can manage and support your proposals.
We provide:
- Capture managers
- Proposal managers
- Volume leads
- Technical writers
- Graphic artists
- Editors
- Desktop publishers
- Proposal coordinators
- Orals coaches
All of our proposal leadership team members are experts in winning government contracts.
Contact Amy Barden at 703.820.0075 or ABarden@LohfeldConsulting.com to discuss your upcoming proposal-support requirements.
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Schedule capture and proposal support now
Make Lohfeld Consulting Group part of your winning solution
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Our mission is to help our clients win more government contracts.
When you need help with capture management or creating a winning proposal, let our capture and proposal experts support you.
Our team members average more than 20 years' experience pursuing, managing, and writing competitive proposals for government contractors. We specialize in IT, aerospace and defense, professional services, and other technology-related procurements.
Contact us, visit our web site, or call us today at 703.820.0075.
Some free support
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 Need help with capture and proposal processes and infrastructure?
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We provide capture and proposal process evaluations and develop process-improvement roadmaps to increase your government business acquisition win rate. We can tune up your existing processes and build and implement your business development infrastructure enterprise-wide.
Contact Bob Lohfeld at 410.336.6264 or |
Copyright © 2012 Lohfeld Consulting Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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