Winning Proposal & Capture Management Tips for Small Businesses

Jeffrey ShenGC-207

Red Team Consulting is one of the premier providers of proposal consulting and training in support of government contractors. Founded in 2004, we are a WOSB with a broad range of clients across a wide variety of industries supporting nearly every federal agency. We use a streamlined proposal process developed specifically to reflect government acquisition trends.

Jeffrey Shen is the EVP of Red Team.  He brings more than 15 years of proven leadership in federal contracting, program management, and business development. Since joining the company in 2006, Mr. Shen has been responsible for developing and delivering the company’s corporate growth strategy and has supported contracts totaling over $20 billion.

About Red Team Consulting and Your Speaker

Use Efficient and Effective Tracking Tools

Develop an Annotated Outline

Create Compelling Win Themes

Use a Sequential Writing Process

Manage Color Reviews

Agenda

Capture and Proposal Challenges Faced by Small Businesses

Advice and Tips for Overcoming These Challenges

Resources: They have other roles within the company They have multiple roles on the proposal

Time: Lengthy capture process is simply not a reality Due to other commitments/priorities, proposal effort

starts late

Budget: Can’t hire a proposal team Can’t afford multiple consultants

Capture and Proposal Challenges Faced by Small Business Personnel

Too many companies spend too much time and use use too many resources on the following:

Developing proposal management (PM) tools that are not used Trying to figure out where everything is and who is doing what

because no PM tools are developed Developing win themes that aren’t, in fact, win themes. Developing win themes that never become a part of the proposal Writing proposal text that isn’t compliant and compelling Participating in lengthy color reviews that are not productive.

Elements that Consume Too Much Time and Resources

There are four primary proposal areas that need to be managed or tracked…

Schedule Progress Responsibilities Compliance

…which are most effectively managed through three tools:

Proposal Schedule/Calendar – keeps the team aware of all milestones and review dates.

Proposal Compliance Matrix – uses one spreadsheet that has multiple purposes (compliance matrix, responsibility matrix and progress tracker).

Annotated Outline – provides the details of the request for proposal (RFP) for compliance.

Create Efficient & Effective Tracking Tools

All information in one place means you can spend more time managing the proposal, not updating different tools.

Create Efficient & Effective Tracking ToolsProposal Calendar

See Handout #1

One, multi-purpose spreadsheet that serves four purposes:

Track compliance with all RFP requirements

Assign responsibilities Manage milestones and track

progress Manage action items

The compliance matrix should be organized along the same proposal structure as your outlines

Compliance needs to include The instructions Mapping the evaluation criteria

into the appropriate area Additional requirements and/or

guidance from other sections Targeted page counts for each

major section

Create Efficient & Effective Tracking ToolsProposal Compliance Matrix/Tracker

If it must be submitted, it must be in the compliance matrix

Responsibilities Every area required for submission must be assigned to someone No area should have more than one “owner” Depending on the RFP, the “owner” may not be the person writing, but

he/she is the person “responsible” for ensuring his/her portion of the proposal is done

Progress Tracker Includes the same milestones as the calendar Uses color coding to indicate progress Provides a quick snapshot of the overall proposal progress and status Identifies areas of concern

Create Efficient & Effective Tracking ToolsProposal Compliance Matrix/Tracker

Create Efficient & Effective Tracking ToolsProposal Compliance Matrix/Tracker

See Handout #2

The single most critical proposal tool in submitting a compliant response is the annotated outline!

The outline can be a living document – but it must initially include a separate heading for everything asked for in the RFP.

The outline will guide all writing.

Develop your outline in such a way that if a writer never reads the RFP, he/she could still write a compliant and compelling response

Develop an Annotated OutlineA Writing Guide for the Entire Proposal

Steps to creating an outline/shell:

1. Establish your styles for headings and layout.

2. Create the headings.a. Unless otherwise directed by the

RFP, follow the instructions. If the instructions require a point-by-point response to the performance work statement (PWS), follow the PWS order.

b. Incorporate additional elements from the evaluation criteria, either as separate main headings or as subheadings where appropriate.

c. Incorporate additional requirements from the rest of the RFP

d. Use exact wording from the RFP for the headings, they can be shortened later if necessary.

Develop an Annotated Outline/ShellA Writing Guide for the Entire Proposal

3. Add the relevant RFP language into the appropriate sections. Use red text for instructions, blue text for evaluation criteria, purple text for other RFP text (i.e. the PWS).

4. Provide guidance to the writer in your outline.

a. Define RFP language (i.e. what does “understanding” mean, what should be discussed).

b. Use green text for this guidance.

5. Insert the win themes that have been developed into the appropriate places in the outline.

6. Create table “shells” where applicable with appropriate guidance.

7. Provide page targets in the outline.

8. Provide a space for the writer to write.

Develop an Annotated Outline/ShellA Writing Guide for the Entire Proposal

Develop an Annotated Outline/ShellA Writing Guide for the Entire Proposal

See Handout #3

Ensure the client’s win themes align to the RFP evaluation criteria and instructions.

Ensure the win themes clearly articulate a: High-level feature of your solution Benefit to the customer Discriminator Proof statement

A win theme is not: “Our IT services solution offers the best value to the government.” “We offer the lowest-risk solution to the government.” “Our stellar past performance as an incumbent ensures the government continued

success on this contract.”

Win ThemesEnsure They are Compelling to the Evaluator

When developing the win themes, think like the customer.

Win ThemesEnsure They are Compelling to the Evaluator

Feature Benefit Discriminator Proof

Blind-spot indicator and rear-view camera

Reduces the number of accidents

Only car in this price category with the feature

National Institute for Highway Safety (NIHS) study shows reduction in accidents by 53%

Compelling Win Theme:As the only car under $25,000 with blind-spot indicators and rear view cameras, the new Honda Civic’s unparalleled safety features can reduce your chance of an accident by as much as 53 percent (NIHS study, 2010).

Poor Win Theme:The new Honda Civic provides the consumer with unparalleled safety.

Consumer Example

Win ThemesEnsure They are Compelling to the Evaluator

Feature Benefit Discriminator Proof

Unique recruiting process & model, staffed by highly experienced recruiters

Dedicated recruiters residing in the PMO and managed by the PM, focused solely on this contract

Ability to staff task orders quickly, achieving fill rates and timeframes, ultimate cost savings for government

100% of task orders met fill rate and staffing timeframes on a similar contract

Compelling Win Theme: Team ABC’s mature and successful recruiting methodology provides for contract-dedicated recruiters that report to the Team ABC PM, resulting in significant cost savings for Agency XXX. This methodology was successfully used on Contract XXX where our 100% fill rate resulted in a cost savings of $2 million for Agency XXX.

Poor Win Theme: Team ABC provides the government with a mature and successful recruiting methodology.

Government Example

Step 1: Review outline with

subject matter experts (SMEs)

and writers

Step 2: Request data from outside

parties

Step 3: Populate outline with win

themes and discriminators

Step 4: SMEs develop

detailed bullets

Step 5: Review bullets to agree

on basic content (White

Team)

Step 6: Write, review and

recover

Use a Sequential Writing ProcessAvoid Rewrites

Red Team Proposal Development Process requires bulleting and storyboarding in the outline PRIOR to draft writing.

Under each section and subsection, bulleted points should be developed that respond to the instructions and evaluation criteria, while also supporting the themes and discriminators

Bullets should use RFP terminology where applicable

Bullets should provide statistics and facts (or indicate where they are needed)

Identify potential areas for graphics and rough versions (even hand-drawn) if possible

Use a Sequential Writing ProcessAvoid Rewrites

Hold an interactive review session (white team) to go through bullets:

Are all relevant pieces of information listed? Are the bullets on point? Is there overlap between sections? Are any areas off track? Should any additional information be included?

This helps ensure writing is compliant, compelling, and credible.

Use a Sequential Writing ProcessAvoid Rewrites

Organize your content properly In addition to following explicit instructions, the flow of writing should

go as follows:

1. Convey Understanding. Describe why the requirement is important to the customer. This is a good place to convey “hot buttons”

2. Provide Your Approach. Describe what the company will do, or what the solution is.

3. Provide Your Capabilities. What capabilities does the company have in terms of resources, partners, tools, etc.

4. Demonstrate Feasibility. Substantiate the claims you have made with proof and examples of success.

Use a Sequential Writing ProcessAvoid Rewrites

We will…. Here’s how… We can because… As proof…

Three main reviews of content: White Team Review: Review of bullets that will be used to develop

content Pink Team Review: First draft of narrative content Red Team Review: Final review of narrative content

Additional reviews include: Blue (capture plan review) Green (pricing volume review) Gold (final review performed by executives/limited people) White Glove (page through the printed, bound document prior to

copying)

Color ReviewsManage Reviews to Ensure You Get Useable Feedback

Ideally, no more than 2 - 4 people should review each section or volume’s content

Your reviewers should be across-section of technical experts and compliance checkers

Your reviewers MUST have thoroughly read the RFP

Your pink team and red team reviewers should be the same people

You can drop someone from the red team if they did not contribute meaningful input at the pink team

Have clear assignments for each reviewer

Writers should not review their own sections

Color ReviewsManage Reviews to Ensure You Get Useable Feedback

Break reviewers out into logical teams

By volume By focus area

Win strategy, themes, discriminators

Compliance Solution gaps

Assign a leader for each team Leads a group discussion that

occurs between the review and the debrief

Consolidates comments from group, including the recommended solutions

Spokesperson for the group during the debrief

Color ReviewsManage Reviews to Ensure You Get Useable Feedback

25 ©2012 Deltek, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Want to Know More with Deltek? View the resources below or visit Deltek.com for additional information and analysis to help you find and

win more government business.

Team More with Deltek

Free White Paper: How Prime Contractors Can Win More Business Through Effective Teaming and Partner Management

Comply More with Deltek

Free White Paper: Compliance 101: Understanding the Greatest Challenges of GSA Schedule Contracts

Win More with Deltek

Video Case Study: How Citizant Increased Their Pipeline From $250 Million to $960 Million in One Year

Know More with Deltek

Thank You!