Industry experts’ proposal war stories and lessons learned – Part 2 of 4

We’ve all heard, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” (–Albert Einstein) Has this quote applied to any capture or… Continue reading Industry experts’ proposal war stories and lessons learned – Part 2 of 4

21 Experts’ predictions for capture/proposal industry changes – Part 3

Bundled contracts, unbundled contracts, emphasis on well-trained procurement support staff, training axed in cost-cutting measures, short turnarounds, extended and extended extensions, virtual proposals, everyone in the war room… The more… Continue reading 21 Experts’ predictions for capture/proposal industry changes – Part 3

21 Experts’ predictions for capture/proposal industry changes – Part 2

The old adage says, “Nothing’s constant except change.” (We can add death and taxes, but even the taxes part seems in constant flux these days!) Stay in the government capture… Continue reading 21 Experts’ predictions for capture/proposal industry changes – Part 2

21 Experts’ predictions for capture/proposal industry changes – Part 1

It’s a fact of life that government contracting experiences cyclical changes. Hang around in this game long enough, and you’ll start to recognize “patterns.” Over the last 25 plus years,… Continue reading 21 Experts’ predictions for capture/proposal industry changes – Part 1

5 questions to derail an LPTA procurement

Recently, while teaching a capture management class, a capture manager asked me what he could do when the contracting officer for a pending IT services bid said he wanted to use lowest price technically acceptable (LPTA) evaluation criteria versus the traditional best-value tradeoff approach.

Industry experts’ proposal war stories and lessons learned – Part 1 of 4

We’ve all heard the war stories around the office coffee pot and at industry events and cringed, thinking, “Wow! I’ll make sure that NEVER happens to one of my proposal… Continue reading Industry experts’ proposal war stories and lessons learned – Part 1 of 4

Better Buying Power 2.0 DOD Memo

USD(ATL) Signed Memo to Workforce BBP 2 0 (13 Nov 12) with attachments Bob Lohfeld references this DOD Memo in his January 2013 Washington Technology article.

Pressing commitments – how to be “fair” as proposal manager?

Everyone on the proposal team should be able to deal with pressing personal commitments. Proposals can go on for a long time, and we can’t turn off the outside world.

Today’s market demands benchmarking proposals – here’s how

I attended a session on proposal benchmarking at the Association of Proposal Management Professionals, National Capital Area Chapter’s (APMP-NCA), Mid Atlantic Proposal Conference & Exhibition a few months ago and was surprised to learn how few companies actually benchmark the quality of their proposals or the capabilities of their proposal departments.

The art of the data call: 7 questions to ask pre-RFP

In today’s blog post, Lisa Pafe provides advice on 7 questions to ask before RFP release… Over the past few months, I have served as a Color Team Reviewer on… Continue reading The art of the data call: 7 questions to ask pre-RFP