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Bid decisions are decisions gate reviews triggered by ongoing customer or opportunity intelligence. The opportunity manager (or capture manager) along with management determines whether to advance, defer, or end the pursuit. The decision hinges on whether you have the capability or can obtain the resources to pursue and subsequently capture an opportunity that meets your business objectives.

A proposal strategy is a plan to write a persuasive, winning proposal that sets you apart from your competitors. Proposal strategy must align with the capture strategy in order to create win themes that tell the story...

Theme statements are not sales slogans, like the catchy phrases most commonly seen in consumer marketing. They are based on customer hot buttons and motivators.

The role of business development (BD) and sales professionals is the same across all industries—to win business. The key difference between high performing BD professionals and organizations relative to their peers lies not in their ability to close deals, rather their ability to effectively qualify their pipeline opportunities. Most importantly, high performers know when to kill a low-probability opportunity and they get it out of their pipeline as quickly as possible.

Value propositions establish customer value based on the business relationship. They describe how the seller’s solutions will improve the customer’s business and how that improvement with be measured. Value propositions are opportunity and customer specific and are developed collaboratively with the customer throughout the pursuit cycle...

Capture planning is the process of identifying opportunities, assessing the environment, and devising and implementing winning strategies oriented toward capturing a specific business opportunity...

The quality and competitiveness of a proposal depend on a number of criteria. How well did you comply with the customer’s bid instructions? How did you respond to the requirements and issues that drove the procurement? ...

You've done your homework on a strategic opportunity. You know the customer; you know who likely competitors are; and you know what solutions you'll offer on the competitive bid. Now what?

One of the best parts of seeing a massage therapist is having all the knots worked out of a particularly sore spot. However, if you have an appointment and the massage therapist spends the entire time rubbing ...

Active and passive voice sentences both convey action, but active sentences are more persuasive, decisive, and confident. Use active voice unless you have a good reason to choose passive voice...

Pricing to Win (PTW) is a process for achieving a combination of capability and price that produces the desired win probability.Some people believe that “pricing to win” equates to being low price. In today’s marketplace, lowest cost is not necessarily the winning price. Lowest price only works in Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) competitions.

Discriminators are features of your offer or solution that differ from a competitor’s offer and are acknowledged by the customer as important. Both conditions must be met.

Would You Like That with or without Buttons?

In the world of proposal writing, the customer is always right. Their preferences and the instructions in the RFP shape what you write. It is up to the proposal team to create a document that matches those specifications

Kickoff meetings are critical milestones that require careful core team planning followed by flawless execution. Good kickoff meetings inspire a team, poor ones can demoralize a team.