How to Develop Comprehensive and Compelling Win Themes Bruce Morton, APMP Fellow DRAFT

How to Develop Comprehensive and Compelling Win Themes

Bruce Morton,APMP Fellow

DRAFT

Differentiation vs. the 10-80-10 model

Differentiation among Contractors• Contractors strive to differentiate themselves BUT• Customers just don’t get it - they think we’re all the sameThe 10-80-10 ModelRef.: Roger Baker, Chief Strategy Officer, Agilex (formerly Veterans Affairs CIO)• Ten percent of contractors are worth fighting to keep because they deliver

results and are focused on making the government customer successful• Ten percent of contractors you should fight to fire because they just don’t

care about results• But with 80 percent of the contractors, it doesn’t matter who gets the work

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Bruce Morton - 28 May 15

APMP BID & PROPOSAL CON 2015 | PAGE 3

Far Side Cartoon


Repetitive Process Perspective

Insanity is doing the same thing over & over again, expecting different results.*

* Source: Albert Einstein

Hope is NOT a Strategy.* * Source: Title of Book by Rick Page, 2002

The idea is to develop an effective and successful process, and use/replicate it over and over again.*

* Source: Bruce Morton

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The 3 C’s for Win Themes(Source: Bruce Morton)

Comprehensive Compelling/Convincing Compliant



Win Themes – Typical Issues and Pitfalls

Generic Generic Themes vs. Company/Team Specific Themes Generic Themes vs. Opportunity Specific Themes Generic Themes vs. Solution Specific Themes

Comprehensive Themes focus on one topic vs. Themes focus on all key topics “Our Company” vs. “Our Team”

Compelling “Me Too” vs. “Why Us?” “We” vs. “You” Value Proposition Features vs. Benefits

Proposal: Generic Captions vs. Action CaptionsBruce Morton - 28 May 15

2014 Mid-Atlantic Conference & Expo

Generic Themes vs. Company/Team Specific Themes

Generic Themes– Bullets that most competitors will claim– Reused Filler & Boilerplate

Opportunity Specific Themes– Unique to your company and/or team– Specifically created for this opportunity

Litmus Test: Substitute another company’s name in your win themes and see if anyone realizes the difference

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Generic vs. Opportunity Specific Themes - 1Your Generic Win Theme Customer Reaction

We read the RFP You can read! We all learned to in 3rd grade.

We understand what we read OK. You’re capable of understanding what we wrote. So …?

We agree with the customer mission That’s nice, but you really have no choice. Would you actually disagree?

We want to work with you Well, that’s good I guess

We have a Team And this benefits me how?

We have a Program Manager Well, you know you need one!

We have an experienced Program Manager Is the experience specifically relevant to this program?

We have a Management Process Anything special or proven about it?

We can do this Based on what? Any past performance or other evidence?

We have an approach So what is it, and what successful experience is it based on?

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Generic vs. Opportunity Specific Themes – 2

Generic Theme– We have a Team– We have a Management Process– We have a Program Manager– Etc.

Opportunity Specific Theme: Proposed Program Manager has successful relevant experience with customer and with industry– Dr. Andrea Brady will serve as Program Manager, reporting directly to

Ms. Susan Thomas, Operations VP– Dr. Brady has 17 years experience with NASA, and after joining

industry has successfully managed NASA and other spacecraft programs of similar size, scope, and complexity, helping to assure low risk and a high probability of success on the proposed program

11.21.14 4Bruce Morton - 28 May 15

Generic vs. Solution Specific Themes - 1

Generic Theme: Vague references to solution capability without actually offering a specific approach or solution

Opportunity Specific Theme: Proposing a specific technical and management approach (backed up by successful past performance)

Litmus Test: Are you offering a specific approach or solution or just talking around it?


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Generic vs. Solution Specific Themes - 2

• Excellent client relationship (with supporting evidence/specific examples)

• Proven performance on relevant Contract A (for related client D1)• Knowledge/insight of data in critical area (political “hot potato”)

via Teammate L• Proven data retrieval process via Contract B (for related client

D2)• Providing a COTS solution that is a proven, secure, successful,

low technical risk, low schedule risk, cost effective approach

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2014 Mid-Atlantic Conference & Expo 12

Themes focus on one topic vs. Themes focus on all key topics

Develop and list win themes by key topics – Technical – Management – Schedule– Transition/Phase-In/Start-up– Best Value – Past Performance– Risk– etc.

Develop win themes for each topic to help organize thoughts and avoid skipping tough topics

Also list Potential/Desirable Win Themes in blue font Convert to Win Theme bullets and word-smith on one or more

PowerPoint charts11.21.14 Bruce Morton - 28 May 15

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“ “Our Company” vs. “Our Team”

Why Team if you’re a prime? Opportunity Specific

– Teammate helps fill out the weaknesses/holes/gaps in the Requirements vs. Capabilities matrix (meatball chart)

– Teammate is incumbent (prime or sub), brings customer experience, brings customer intimacy, has a desirable facility location, has a presence at the customer site; and/or etc.

– Teammate is a certified Small Business; Veteran Owned; Service Disabled Veteran Owned, Woman Owned; HUBZone; and also meets one of the above criteria

Business & Other Considerations – Examples– Quid Pro Quo– We like the company/have worked with them before/they do good work/mentor protégé, etc.

So refer to “Our Team” vs. “Our Company” throughout the proposal

11.21.14 72014 Mid-Atlantic Conference & Expo



“Me Too” vs. “Why Us?” – 1

Answer the question: “Why Us?” vs. “Me Too” Value Proposition: What is the benefit of us from the customer(s)

point of view? What is our proposed approach/solution?

– Technical; Management; Schedule; Transition/Phase-in/Start-up; Performance; Best Value; Risk; Etc.

Do our teammates fill out the weaknesses/holes/gaps in our Requirements vs. Capabilities matrix (meatball chart)?

What is the compelling evidence that supports that we and our team can successfully do/perform – what we say? – what we say at low or acceptable risk?

11.21.14 8Bruce Morton - 28 May 15


“Me Too” vs. “Why Us?” – 2

The Death Strategy for a re-compete: “The customer doesn’t like the incumbent so we will win!!!”

Actually, if this is really true, then one of the competitors will likely win, but not necessarily you!!!

Best to assume that the customer does like the incumbent, and then explain why you should win

Still need to answer “Why Us’ vs. “Me Too”

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“We” vs. “You” Value Proposition

What is the benefit from the customer(s) point of view? Change perspective from “we” to “you”:

• Poor: We will achieve a significant improvement in customer satisfaction

• Good: You will see a 30% improvement in customer satisfaction within 9 months as measured by 3rd party customer surveys

• Poor: We are providing a 3 Terabyte hard disk drive• Good: You will have the highest capacity COTS hard disk drive

available todayBruce Morton - 28 May 15


Features vs. Benefits

Feature: We are providing a 3 Terabyte hard disk drive– Implication: Isn’t that great?– Problem: Leaves it up to the reader to decide significance

Benefit: You will have the highest capacity hard disk drive available today: 3 Terabyte– COTS (Commercial-Off-The-Shelf)– Meets all requirements– Cost effective– Available now: low schedule risk and low technical risk

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Win Themes: Review Techniques - 1Source: Bruce Morton

1. Cross Out Bullets• Put Win Theme bullets on PowerPoint chart• Cross out all generic strategy bullets• Cross out all bullets that most competitors will claim • See what’s left (may not be much)• Review/discuss and figure out how to mitigate

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Win Themes: Review Techniques - 2

2. Typical Issues & Pitfalls Carefully and critically evaluate Win Themes against each

bullet of “Win Themes - Typical Issues & Pitfalls” Generic

Generic Themes vs. Company/Team Specific Themes Generic Themes vs. Opportunity Specific Themes Generic Themes vs. Solution Specific Themes



Identify and Mitigate any issues


Win Themes - Review Techniques - 3Source: Bruce Morton

3. Create Loss Debriefing Create a customer debriefing for the loss Use prior loss debriefings as a source (ref. next page)

– Example - Best Value: lost because cost differential (vs. the winner) was too high

Identify and Mitigate any issues

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Customer Loss Debriefings - Examples

1. “The Offeror appears to understand the Program, but the lack of specificity made it difficult to evaluate and fully assess the viability of their proposed solution.”

2. “The Offeror’s proposed price reflects multiple omissions in their proposal and a relatively low number of bid labor hours. The labor mix for Task Orders 03-05 is not realistic (i.e. too low).”

3. “The Offeror’s proposed price is too high (vs. competitors) to justify the best value benefits that were proposed”

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Win Themes – Typical Issues and Pitfalls

Generic Generic Themes vs. Company/Team Specific Themes Generic Themes vs. Opportunity Specific Themes Generic Themes vs. Solution Specific Themes



Proposal: Generic Captions vs. Action CaptionsBruce Morton - 28 May 15

Generic Caption vs. Action Caption - 1

In your proposal, the captions should convey the key elements of your story independent of the text– Some customer evaluators are better at reading and

comprehending graphics & captions – Some customer evaluators are better at reading and

comprehending text– Customer evaluators can read their assigned proposal

section, then refer back and copy the captions as justification to support their evaluation score


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Fig. 1-1: Horse24Bruce Morton - 28 May 15

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Fig. 1-2: Horses Bruce Morton - 28 May 15

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Fig. 1-3: Pie ChartBruce Morton - 28 May 15


Graphic: Photo of a computer screen showing a bunch of data formatted as a table

Generic Caption: “Fig. 7: Screen Shot” Specific Caption: “Fig. 7: Program Data displayed in real time

on client’s desktop by our proven, successful, award winning PMMT (Program Management Monitoring Tool), which has been successfully implemented on multiple programs and is also proposed for use on the proposed XYZ program”



Figure 2A: “As-Is” State Figure 2B: “To-Be” StateWe plan to use the same proven Cloud Computing Environment methodology that we successfully used on the similar and highly complex XYZ Program to transform from the “As Is” to the “To Be” state

Generic Caption:

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Figure 2: State’s Cloud Computing Environment

Action Caption:



Presenter Name

TitleOrganizationPhone Email

Thank You

Bruce Morton,APMP FellowPresident2 Oceans Consulting (703) [email protected]



Questions


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How to Develop Comprehensive and Compelling Win Themes Bruce Morton, APMP Fellow DRAFT