Remote training with tangible benefits

Our tangible training programs are all based on exercises that create the tools you’ll need to be successful. Instead of just talking about process, we’ll create the checklists you can use to improve your process. Instead of focusing on steps and procedures, we’ll focus on goals and accomplishments. We’ll help you understand how to approach each topic, how to define success, and how to measure your progress toward achieving it.

These are private sessions. Only staff from your company will participate. We will be able to discuss your specific circumstances, goals, and environment. We will tailor the course presentation and materials to be specific to your needs.

This training is delivered remotely and is based on three 1.5-hour sessions. The exercises and course materials are based on our existing content library, but we will customize them as part of the course. The result will be checklists that are specific to your business, but enhanced through our content and training. Course sessions are scheduled at mutually convenient dates and times.

The following four training topics are the most popular and all involve your participants creating and doing things of lasting value for your company.

Course 1: Creating lead qualification and pursuit checklists

This course provides business developers and capture managers with checklist-based guidance regarding what information to seek in order to maximize win probability. This is vital to improve beyond simply accepting what information you can find. It is an easy way to introduce some structure to the pre-RFP pursuit, without being burdensome. The checklists will help business developers and capture managers be more successful. They will also help executive sponsors to assess leads and the progress being made toward being ready to win at RFP release.

Topics for Session 1: 

• Introduction of course
• Topics: Checklists for lead qualification and determining what to offer
• Introduction of exercises

[Participants complete exercises as a group and submit them 24 hours before next session]

Topics for Session 2: 

• Review of completed exercises
• Checklists for developing customer awareness, measuring customer intimacy, and competitive assessment and teaming
• Introduction of new exercises

[Participants complete exercises as a group and submit them 24 hours before next session]

Topics for Session 3: 

• Review of completed exercises
• Feedback for finalization of checklists and implementation of process improvements

At the end of the course you'll have tailored checklists as a tool that business developers and capture managers can use to make sure they aren't overlooking anything. You'll also have a tool executives can use to review and assess progress. As a result, your company will start more of its pursuits with an information advantage and improve its win rate.

Course 2: Creating Proposal Input Forms
This course will enable you to start your proposals with the information proposal writers need to be successful. Your team will learn how to quickly assess what proposal contributors know that could impact the way you write your proposal. This is vital to enable proposal writers to be capable of writing a great proposal. It will produce the forms your team needs to collect that input, enable more rapid proposal startups, improve your ability to plan before your write, and increase your win probability.

Topics for Session 1:

• Introduction of the course
• Topics: How to create and use proposal input forms to gather input about your competitive environment, the incumbent contract, teaming, customer awareness and insights, and understanding the customer’s procurement process
• Introduction of exercises

[Participants complete exercises as a group and submit them 24 hours before next session]

Topics for Session 2:

• Review of completed exercises
• Topics: How to create and use proposal input forms to gather input about the opportunity, what you will be proposing, positioning, and win strategies
• Introduction of new exercises

[Participants complete exercises as a group and submit them 24 hours before next session]

Topics for Session 3: 

• Review of completed exercises
• Feedback for finalization of forms and implementation of process improvements

Course 3: Creating goal-driven proposal quality criteria checklists

This course will produce a set of checklists that measure success during proposal development. The checklists will be based on the quality criteria that will define whether key goals have been achieved. They can be used to help proposal contributors to accomplish their goals or by proposal reviewers to determine whether the goals have been accomplished. They can even be used to define a goal-driven proposal process for companies that do not have one.

Topics for Session 1:

• Introduction of course
• Topics: Quality criteria for proposal input, data calls, handoffs, outline, and compliance matrices
• Introduction of exercises

[Participants complete exercises as a group and submit them 24 hours before next session]

Topics for Session 2:

• Review of completed exercises
• Topics: Quality criteria for proposal content planning and improving proposal writing
• Introduction of new exercises

[Participants complete exercises as a group and submit them 24 hours before next session]

Topics for Session 3: 

• Review of completed exercises
• Feedback for finalization of forms and implementation of process improvements

Course 4: Proposal writing skills enhancement

Send us up to 25 pages from one or more of your previous proposals. We’ll use them to select and tailor a set of exercises designed to prevent the problems we find from coming back in future proposals. Your team will practice identifying and fixing the problems. This can also be used as a train-the-trainer course, to provide a tool to key staff who can then use the technique to train others at your company.

Topics for Session 1:

• Collaborative course planning session: Discuss findings from our review, the lesson plan for addressing the issues, and select the exercises we’ll use from the dozens we have to choose from

[We tailor the selected exercises]

Topics for Session 2:

• Introduction of course
• Discussion of the issues found in your company's proposals and how the exercises address them

[Participants complete exercises as individuals and submit them 24 hours before next session]

Topics for Session 3:

• Compare and contrast the exercises completed by participants so they can see things that worked well and things that didn’t
• Discuss the lessons learned related to completing the exercises, and how to better approach future proposals

How to schedule your training

• Let's have a conversation to discuss your needs and how to move forward.
• Decide which of the courses you are interested in. You can take a single course or multiple courses.
• The courses are intended for a group at a single company. You can have as many participants as you want. You decide how to best balance whether having a small group or a large group will best meet your needs. If the group is large, we will cherry-pick which completed exercise answers we discuss.
• The three sessions can be scheduled over 3 weeks or 2 weeks. If we schedule all three in a single week, you risk people not being able to complete the exercises in between the sessions.
• The cost for the training described above is $2500 per course. After our discussion and dates are selected, we'll send you an invoice so you can pay online.
• If you need something specific, we can design a training program specific to your needs and give you a quote. We want our training to have the maximum impact possible. While each of the courses above involves a certain amount of customization, we regularly design complete tailored training programs for our customers.
• We can usually schedule your training within the next few weeks. 
• For individuals who want to take these courses, we collapse the 3 sessions down to 2. You get all the attention and do all exercises. The cost is $1500 and comes with a $495 subscription to PropLIBRARY or credit for renewals.