All glossary terms
Shipley Proposal Process

Customer Focus

A writing and communication approach that is directly organized around the customer's stated needs, issues, and the benefits they will receive, rather than a company's own internal capabilities.

Related terms

Action Plans
Specific tasks with deadlines assigned to individuals or teams during the capture phase, typically tracked in an action plan log.
Annotated Outline
A proposal outline with embedded RFP references so writers can see relevant requirements for each section.
APMP Body of Knowledge
The collected best practices of proposal management professionals — 51 topics across 7 categories.
Association of Proposal Management Professionals
Global professional association for proposal and BD professionals. Founded in 1989 by Shipley Associates.
Bidder Comparison Chart
A tool used to compare an organization's capabilities against competitors' likely capabilities, typically built against the customer's stated issues or requirements.
Bid/No-Bid Decision
A milestone that validates whether the company is positioned to win based on capture data collected to date.
Bid Readiness
The state of having gathered enough capture intelligence, such as customer insight, teaming, staffing, and price-to-win understanding, to justify committing resources to a compliant, competitive proposal.
Black Hat Review
Analysis of competitors including their strengths, possible teaming, discriminators, potential solutions and strategies, and knowledge of the customer.
Blue Team
Reviews initial capture plans to evaluate knowledge of customer and opportunity. Occurs early in the lifecycle.
Business Development Capability Maturity Model
Shipley's organizational assessment measuring maturity across Customer, Leadership, People, Process, and Support.
Business Winning Process
Shipley's methodology: seven phases (0–6) from Market Segmentation through Post-Submittal Activities.
Capture Plan / Capture Strategy
A plan developed by the Capture Manager and management team laying out the process to win a specific bid.