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We publish our newsletter weekly. You will receive the next one when it comes out. Please make sure to put it on your email white list or move it to your priority tab so that your email software doesn't hide it from you.   Here is the link for downloading your copy of our eBook: Turning Your Proposals Into a Competitive Advantage   Here are some other useful links: Beginners should start here Why your good proposal is going to lose What is the simplest, eas

I’m passing some of my time in isolation talking to people free of charge and assessing how to improve their pursuit and capture processes in the new world we find ourselves in. We can talk about reengineering how you go about winning business and come out of this better than you ever were before. Want to know what Carl would recommend? Just ask me. Click here to send me a question Or use the widget below to grab any open spot on my calendar before they’re filled and I’ll

You’ve got to start somewhere. So companies often start by responding to as many RFPs as possible, hoping to win a few to get the company established. Once they are established, they can reassess and start doing things strategically. When should they reassess and begin to change? That day is now. How do I know? Because your win rate is so low that you can double your revenue by increasing your win rate without chasing any more leads. Your win rate is low because you’re bidding without a com

Pursuit and capture set the stage for the proposal. But while the proposal process gets a lot of attention, pursuit and capture are often left to someone to just figure out. The roles are commonly referred to as sales, business development, or capture. Without much process or at least guidance, the entire pre-RFP phase can devolve into an exercise in lead tracking instead of lead pursuit and capture. This table implies what you should accomplish during pursuit and capture. You can build a p

Most proposals are won or lost before they begin. Either you go into the proposal with an information advantage, or you are trying to fake your way through the proposal without one. Even though this is true, most companies don't have a mature process for pursuing a lead before the proposal starts. Their process amounts to: Hire a good salesperson, whatever that means, to dig up some information. Create the illusion of process by having bid/no bid reviews.  As a company matures,

Most companies think that the best way to win on price is to figure out what price your competitors will bid and try to come in below that. But that’s just believing the lie. It also doesn't point you towards any viable bid strategies other than lowering costs and hoping the customer lets you get away with it without destroying your past performance record. It sets you up to bid less for the same amount of work, and either make little or no profit, or to actually lose money. When it’s up to

Instead of looking at preparing proposals as a process, try looking at it as solving problems. A "process" implies steps. Proposal development is reactive, so processes based on steps tend to fail. But solving the problems you will face in preparing a proposal implies the process. The problems you face also imply the goals you should have. Most companies that think they have a proposal process still spend their time solving problems. So looking at those problems in an organized way can help you

Our instincts betray us. Playing it safe will lower your chances of winning. In our regular life, sometimes playing it safe is necessary for continued survival. But in order to have a superior, winning proposal, it must first be different. Different in a way that no one else can match. You don’t get there playing it safe. Anticipation and research. What professionals do is try to anticipate the issues, conduct research, and start the proposal already informed with your mitigations and s

Mark Amtower and I go back over a decade. That's Mark on the left and me on the right above. We have over 530 mutual connections on LinkedIn. I've been interviewed by Mark for his radio show at least seven times. But on the March 16th show we really got into it and explored the lies that contractors tell in their proposals as well as the huge insights about the proposal process I've had from building MustWin Now.  Here are all the times I've been interviewed by Mark for Federal News Network

If you tell lies like those below, you hurt your credibility. Even when you tell them with good intent they still hurt your credibility. Even if you believe them, they hurt your credibility. Yet it seems like everyone does it. And if you tell the same lies that they do, your proposal will lack differentiators. Even though people know that customers only buy from people they trust, they tell lies like these that the customer can see straight through. The point here isn’t to hold a trial

This module is a chance to finalize the work from the previous exercises and prepare them for implementation. The course materials for this module provide an opportunity to reflect on what you have created so far, look at it from several perspectives, and ensure it is ready for real-world use. During this module you should review and make any improvements needed to the process items you have created. You should also apply final formatting and production to them (logos, headers, footers

This module takes the approach to building lists of questions from the last module and applies it proposals that start at RFP release. The difference is subtle but important. Proposal inputs forms must ask questions that can be answered immediately and probably without being able to conduct much research. They are about discovering what you already know and articulating it in a way that proposal writers can use. They can have a big impact. Having some information to work with is a lot bette

Responding to RFP requirements is not simply a matter of checking off the fulfillment of each specification. Understanding the reasons why the customer asks for those requirements can give you insight into what really concerns them. Writing to what really concerns them can increase your win probability. Includes strategies for writing about fulfilling the RFP requirements, what might impact the customer's evaluation, and what can make the difference between winning and losing your proposal.

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This eBook is your?reward for signing up for our newsletter. It addresses how to write great proposals, bid/no bid decisions, winning before the RFP is released, proposal re-use repositories, improving your win rate, and more! Within a week you should receive your first copy of our newsletter, with new free content and updates.

This eBook is your?reward for signing up for our newsletter. It addresses how to write great proposals, bid/no bid decisions, winning before the RFP is released, proposal re-use repositories, improving your win rate, and more! Within a week you should receive your first copy of our newsletter, with new free content and updates.

Why do customers ask you to describe your approaches in your proposal? What do customers care about related to your approaches? It's not what it seems... Plus strategies for writing about your approaches, what you should avoid when writing about them, what the customer will evaluate, and what can make the difference between winning and losing your proposal.

There are so many ingredients that go into winning a proposal that we developed a whole methodology to account for them all. But one stands out. It is an attribute that should be a part of every other ingredient. Everything about your strategies, approaches, qualifications, writing, aspirations, and goals should revolve around it. Understand it and you gain a key to unlocking the secret to winning in writing. Nothing else you do will have as much impact on winning as this one, crucial ingredient

This course divides the pre-RFP pursuit into these modules: Activities that occur during pre-RFP pursuit (this module) Bringing structure to the pre-RFP phase (next module) Preparing to transition from pre-RFP pursuit to the proposal Starting at RFP release (because it happens) This module is primary about setting the stage for customer interaction in anticipation of a proposal. In this module we'll document the activities that occur in a pursuit before the RFP

Why do customers care about your capabilities? What do customers care about that's related to your capabilities? How do you use your capabilities to support other things that customer cares about? Strategies for writing about capabilities. What should you avoid writing about and what will the customer evaluate? What can make the difference between winning and losing?