What If Your Win Strategy Is Built on an Assumption the Customer Doesn't Share?

You're waiting for the RFP to drop. Your competitors are already sharpening their strategy.

Most capture teams treat the time before RFP release as a holding pattern. They wait. They monitor. They refine capture plans in isolation. By the time the solicitation hits, they're pressure-testing assumptions under deadline, when pivoting is expensive and clarity is impossible.

That's backward.

A pre-RFP Pink Team (or what some firms call a Pre-RFP Strategy Review) is a strategic review held before solicitation release, sometimes months before, to validate whether your positioning will survive contact with reality. It's one of the most underutilized tools in competitive capture, and it's exactly what you should be running right now.

A note on terminology: The Shipley Method calls this a pre-RFP Pink Team. But depending on your company's Bid & Proposal (B&P) policies, you may find it easier to label this activity a Pre-RFP Strategy Review. Many firms restrict B&P dollars to activities tied to active solicitations. Calling it a strategy review opens access to new business or capture funds, which means you can actually run it when it matters before the RFP exists.

Why Run a Pre-RFP Strategy Review Right Now?

Capture plans can look coherent in PowerPoint. They can also fall apart when someone asks hard questions.

If you're waiting for the RFP to drop before testing your strategy, you're gambling. You're assuming your positioning will hold. You're assuming the customer sees the problem the way you've framed it. You're assuming your discriminators are defensible.

A Pre-RFP Strategy Review forces those assumptions into the open while there's still time to fix them.

Does the customer actually see the problem the way we've framed it?

Are our discriminators defensible, or will they collapse under scrutiny?

Can we prove what we're claiming, or are we building on assumptions?

You're reviewing the strategy and belief system underneath the proposal.

And it's not just for major course corrections. When run 10-20 days before RFP drop, a Pre-RFP Strategy Review cements what already works. It validates that your positioning is sound, your messaging is consistent, and your proposal team understands the strategy they're about to execute. That alignment prevents the chaos that happens when a proposal team inherits a capture plan they don't believe in or can't clearly articulate.

You're waiting anyway. Use the time.

Who Should Run a Pre-RFP Strategy Review?

You need this if you're pursuing a competitive recompete where incumbent advantage is real, if your win strategy depends on reframing how the buyer sees the problem, or if your differentiation hinges on narrative instead of technical dominance.

If your capture plan includes phrases like 'we'll educate the customer' or 'we'll shift their priorities', you definitely need this. You're trying to reshape requirements. You need to know if that strategy will survive evaluation.

When to Schedule Your Pre-RFP Strategy Review

There are two optimal windows for running a Pre-RFP Strategy Review, and each serves a different purpose.

30-90 days before RFP drop: Positioning adjustment

This is the window for strategy correction. You have real intel, draft messaging, and a capture plan developed enough to challenge. You're still early enough to pivot if your positioning doesn't hold.

Too early and you're reviewing speculation. Too late and you've locked in positioning that won't survive evaluation.

If you're anticipating a solicitation in the next 90 days and you haven't pressure-tested your strategy, this is the time to act. The goal isn't to perfect your approach. It's to kill bad assumptions before they become expensive mistakes.

10-30 days before RFP drop: Proposal transition

This window is for teams with strong existing positioning. The review validates that your strategy still holds, your messaging is tight, and your discriminators are defensible. More importantly, it ensures the proposal team understands what they're executing.

This is primarily about cementing the capture-to-proposal handoff so your writers start Day 1 with clarity, confidence, and a unified understanding of what they're arguing and why.

What Outcomes to Expect

A Pre-RFP Strategy Review forces your strategy to hold up under scrutiny. You'll surface gaps in your competitive intelligence. You'll discover which discriminators the buyer actually cares about versus the ones you convinced yourself matter. You'll identify where your messaging contradicts itself or relies on claims you can't substantiate.

You won't leave with a perfect plan. You'll leave knowing which parts of your plan are built on sand and where you need to reinforce before the solicitation drops.

We've seen a team run a pre-RFP strategy review 60 days out and discover their entire win strategy was built on an assumption the customer didn't share. They pivoted. They won. Without that review, they would've written a proposal that never had a chance.

The output is clarity about where your positioning is strong and where it's wishful thinking. That clarity separates teams who adjust their approach from teams who submit a proposal that was doomed before they started writing.

When the review validates your positioning, your proposal team starts writing with confidence and a clear understanding of what they're arguing and why. That alignment shows up in tone, structure, and coherence across every section.

How Pre-RFP Strategy Reviews Differ from Traditional Color Teams

Traditional Pink Teams review draft proposals for compliance and persuasiveness. Pre-RFP Strategy Reviews review strategic assumptions for coherence and credibility. You're asking "will this survive the customer's actual decision-making process?"

The panel should include people who know the customer, people who know the competition, and people who will challenge your team's groupthink. If everyone in the room already agrees with your strategy, you're not running a review. You're running a validation exercise.

The Discipline Required to Run It Well

Run it like you mean it. No defensive posturing from the capture lead. No softball questions from the panel. The goal is to break what's breakable now, not during evaluation.

If your positioning holds up under aggressive questioning, you're ready. If it doesn't, you just saved yourself from spending six weeks writing a proposal that was never going to win.

Most teams don't run Pre-RFP Strategy Reviews because they're afraid of what they'll discover. The smart ones run them for exactly that reason.

Don't Wait. Move Now.

If you're anticipating a major solicitation in the next 90 days, waiting for the RFP to drop is a strategic mistake. Your competitors aren't waiting. They're pressure-testing their positioning right now.

Use this time to validate your strategy, sharpen your discriminators, and align your capture-to-proposal transition. That's what separates teams who react from teams who win.

Need help designing or facilitating a Pre-RFP Strategy Review for your pursuit?

We run these reviews for competitive captures. We bring the external perspective, the hard questions, and the discipline to make sure your positioning holds up.

Don't let the RFP drop be the first time your strategy gets tested.