Capture and proposal innovations: activate your listening campaign

What do customers really want? As capture and proposal professionals, that question haunts us. We work very hard to understand customer hot buttons and craft our solution accordingly. However, too… Continue reading Capture and proposal innovations: activate your listening campaign

5 ways to give thanks (without saying it)

I had to chuckle at one of my favorite Mad Men episodes, The Suitcase. Peggy is miffed because Don is not being a thankful boss. Don: It’s your job. I give you… Continue reading 5 ways to give thanks (without saying it)

Implementing healthier choices into our proposal development environments

The federal proposal development environment is not conducive to good health; we often experience lack of sleep, physical inactivity, and poor nutrition. We diminish our cardiovascular capabilities day-by-day, sitting in… Continue reading Implementing healthier choices into our proposal development environments

Is DOD moving away from LPTA?

DOD is moving away from the use of lowest price contracts. At least that’s the message from the top, but how long will it take to trickle down?

Improving the quality of proposal content with a writing model – Part 1

Proposal managers are frequently faced with the challenge of proposal resources who can’t write well. We are often assigned technical resources with a reputation for poor writing and new resources… Continue reading Improving the quality of proposal content with a writing model – Part 1

The end of the incumbent empire: Part 2 – 10 ways to retain your incumbency

Lisa Pafe provides 10 proven best practices to keep your incumbency intact in today’s changing Federal Government contracting environment.

Q&A Part 4 from The end of the incumbent empire – 10 ways to unseat the incumbent

Winning a bid against an incumbent contractor is a challenge because best informed wins, and the incumbent is still the best informed.

Q&A Part 4 from The end of the incumbent empire – 10 ways to unseat the incumbent

In the past several years, incumbents have lost their advantage in the Federal Government market. Industry studies show that incumbent contractors now have approximately the same win rate on rebids… Continue reading Q&A Part 4 from The end of the incumbent empire – 10 ways to unseat the incumbent

20 ways to reduce B&P costs and win now

To find out why proposals cost too much, I asked our proposal consulting team to share their insights. Since this team works on the front lines of about 400 proposals per year, I was sure they could offer valuable insight into why costs are too high and what companies can do to reduce proposal costs without lowering win rates.
Here are some of the reasons we found that proposal costs are higher than they should be.

Q&A Part 3 from The end of the incumbent empire – 10 ways to unseat the incumbent

Lisa Pafe answers questions related to winning against incumbents in the federal marketplace.