Problem: The proposal team is doing too much rework before writing the proposal.

While the proposal team is  separate from the capture or opportunity team, this shouldn’t automatically sever any communication between them. Each team in a company’s business development lifecycle should convey relevant information as they pass an opportunity on to the next phase of business development. This creates a cohesive approach that minimizes the amount of rework required by each team to be successful.

Solution: Handing off an opportunity from the capture team to the proposal team is not a simple pass of the baton. To ensure a customer-focused, winning proposal, the capture manager should provide relevant information about the customer and the opportunity to help the proposal team.

Transition Information Phase-to-Phase. The most effective businesses win more when they implement cohesive practices between each business development phase. Proposal development should not be the time to restart information gathering. When proposal teams must perform extensive research on the customer to learn the customer’s hot button issues and other relevant information, they waste time that could be better spent writing and reviewing the proposal. The capture team should know the customer. The capture manager is responsible for transferring knowledge of the customer to the rest of the team.

Reuse Capture Tools in Proposal Development. While specific aspects of the proposal will be unique to proposal writing, often the customer focus strategies the capture team employed can also be applied in the proposal. Capture strategies in the capture plan can be passed directly to the proposal manager for implementation into the proposal strategy.

Contribute to Color Team Reviews. Capture managers can make other key contributions to proposal development through relevant color team reviews. For example, during a Pink Team review, they can provide context on the customer to reviewers who may not be as familiar. While capture managers should support proposal efforts by attending proposal reviews, it is important that capture managers participate, not try to lead or take over.

Your Pwin will improve as the proposal team minimizes rework and works cohesively with the capture manager. The less time proposal writers have to spend researching the customer, the more time they have to develop a winning proposal.