This article is #5 of our “Opportunity Development” series.

Crafting a Robust Win Strategy for Competitive Bidding

In the world of competitive bidding, winning government or business contracts requires a well-defined and strategic approach. As the proposal development process unfolds, it becomes crucial to establish a robust Win Strategy that sets your company apart from competitors and demonstrates why you are the best choice for the contract. Crafting a compelling Win Strategy entails creating specific artifacts that serve as the foundation for your proposal’s success.

In this article, we will delve into essential Win Strategy artifacts that will elevate your proposal and increase your chances of securing the contract. These artifacts form the bedrock of your proposal, providing detailed insights into the differentiating actions your company will undertake to outshine competitors.

Essential Win Strategy Artifacts for Proposal Success

At this point your Win Strategy artifacts should be:

  1. We Will Win If We… (do what differentiating actions?) themes document
  2. Draft Executive Summary (ES)
  3. Theme-driven Tech-Management-Past Performance introductions (1 pager’s)
  4. Updated/improved Tech-Management-Past Performance approach “proof” baselines

The win strategy artifacts we have recommended become plug-and-play inserts into your blank proposal mockups or storyboard templates. The Draft ES, the Tech-Management-Past Performance introductions and the New and Improved Tech-Management-Past Performance approach baselines should fill in the proposal/mockup document gaps at the detailed outline/topic level. If they do not – assign action items to get those done by the storyboard owners or the Strategy Teams. Internal peer reviews for strategy horizontal integration and consistency should also be conducted now to catch breakages before starting the development of draft narrative.

Avoiding Red Team Failure: The Importance of Capture Team Involvement

And, above all else – don’t let the strategy team pitch the artifacts to the proposal team and run. Not having Capture actively involved in proposal development is the leading cause of Red Team identified failure #1: “no evidence of a win strategy or reason to choose our company.”

A Blueprint for Winning: We Will Win If We… (Abbreviated Example)

An abbreviated example of the We Will Win If We… document follows. Once completed, it should be posted around the proposal room, distributed to the entire proposal team, and uploaded to the share drive/common work environment.

We Will Win If We…

Theme 1 – Upgrade our Financial, Technical Progress/Reporting systems to exceed customer…

  • In the Technical Volume, provide text/art examples of both the new and existing tools and deliverables with descriptions of their application to solving end customer needs.
  • In the Management Volume, provide detailed descriptions/art of integrated new and existing systems as well as a complete description of each: “who does what, when, and how” to complete contract deliverables and provide timely Customer ad hoc reports.
  • In the Past Performance Volume, provide evidence of where we have used these approaches before and/or where we have successfully integrated contract tools.

  Themes 2, 3 go here.

Experiencing Inadequate Growth?

If you have been “surprised” by recent losses. Or you are experiencing inadequate growth results from your Capture/B&P investments; OCI can help get you back to the proven basics of Best Value winning, before and during proposal development.

Start early, do your homework, and define the win before you commit to the bid.