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The MustWin Process was developed in 2004 by thinking about how to discover what it will take to win a proposal and then create a proposal around it. It was goal-driven in nature, focusing on what has to happen in order to win and less on how you do things. This makes it very flexible in implementation. MustWin Now is an online tool that started off tackling just one part of the process: Proposal Content Planning. How you figure out what should go into your proposal is the crux of

First, create your pursuit if you have not already done so by clicking on the “Add a new pursuit” button and completing the form. Make sure you check the “RFP has been released” button and ignore the RFP Version Number. Give “Carl Dickson (Administrator)” access to your pursuit. This will enable me to see your coursework and to help you during screen sharing sessions. If you skip this step, I will not be able to see what you see or access your pursuit. Download the ORISE RFP

In addition to this step-by-step description, here is a video of how to add a pursuit to MustWin Now. When you first visit MustWin Now it will appear until you add your first pursuit. To add your first pursuit, go to your MustWin Now dashboard. At the top right, click on the green “Start a new pursuit” button. Then complete the form that pops up. Give your proposal a name. The name should be whatever people in your company will recognize. Most people use the name given b

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To build a compliance matrix, you need to copy and paste the RFP into MustWin Now. The many ways that customers format their RFPs are just too inconsistent to automagically import them. So we made it quick and easy to copy and paste them instead. In addition to this step by step description, you can view a video on how this works. Open the RFP and Compliance Matrix tool by clicking on the name in the tool banner or the icon on the right side.   Click on “open current RFP

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How do you go about influencing the customer’s RFP to give your company an advantage? When you start thinking about it and peeling back all the layers, it can seem quite complex. There's a lot to consider. And where should you start? Here is a simple formula that’s easy to memorize and can help you cover all the important aspects of the problem. Who. Who is the customer? Who is the decision maker? Who needs help? Who can make changes to the RFP? Who is playing the contracts role? Who i

Most proposal software fits one (and sometimes more) of these seven categories. Some are a better fit for winning proposals than others. Your needs depend partly on the nature of what you offer and partly on your corporate culture. It may very well be that what you need the most isn't proposal software at all... Automating proposal assembly. The only time you should automate the assembly of your proposals from reusable parts is when you sell a commodity, compete primarily on price, and

The proposal process is not about efficient repetition. It is not even primarily about managing the steps that go into creating a proposal. The proposal process is about problem solving, starting with figuring out what will it take to win. It is about solving the problems that can reduce your chances of winning. Each time you execute the proposal process you will encounter new, unanticipated problems that mostly result from the customer asking for things in different ways. This is where you shou

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We've already revealed a couple of screenshots and some description of the new RFP cross-referencing and compliance matrix building tool we've created that's almost ready for release. Now we're going to show you some useful features that were hidden from view in the previous screenshots. For more info, see also: MustWin Now: Everything you need to know Creating a compliance matrix requires you to look at things from both the perspective of the RFP and the perspective of the proposal out

This week's teaser is a key screen in the process for building a compliance matrix. The gray column on the left is the RFP. The gray column on the right is the proposal outline, as you build it. The main column is the text of the selected RFP requirement. The proposal outline starts empty. As you read and interpret the RFP instructions, you add proposal headings. And as you add a new proposal heading, you can link all of the relevant RFP requirements to it. You can even drag and drop an RFP requ

This week's teaser shows an RFP compliance matrix created using MustWin Now. This is really just an in-between step. The next step turns it into a content plan. That's really where things get fun. For more info, see also: MustWin Now: Everything you need to know Those who have experienced the pain of manually creating a compliance matrix will appreciate seeing this image. Once you've linked your RFP requirements to your proposal outline, which incidentally can be done using drag and dro

We’re giving away free training to people who help us test our new MustWin Now proposal software. We're going to focus on how to actually achieve the goal of planning before you write. Students will gain functional skills enhancement, while also testing MustWin Now and learning how to use it. We’ve completed technical testing for MustWin Now and we want to use it some more in the real world before general release. The training is not really about the cool new tech, it's about achieving your prop

HAPD Week 2: Government RFP and Proposal Basics Overview of Week 2: This is a busy week! Monday, 1-April-2019 Module 2.1 introduces the world of federal acquisition and proposals. Emphasis will be on the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), acquisition planning, requirements definition, the acquisition process, and risk. This module will be presented via web lecture and includes reading assignments with links to selected readings. This week’s quiz includes a lot of question

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al Developer Immersive Boot Camp Home Page here

Week 1: Welcome and the Basics Overview of Week 1: Monday, 25-March-2019 Module 1.1 introduces students to the Hinz Academy Proposal Developer Boot Camp course and our first assignment. Exercise 1.1 introduces students to the basics of proposal writing and live editing. Tuesday, 26-March-2019 through Thursday, 28-March-2019 Module 1.2 introduces students to content planning and live editing. Exercise 1.2 allows students to apply the content planning and l

Back in the day, the techniques below were what you had to work with. You had to be super gifted and super diligent to succeed at relationship marketing. Relationships took years to develop. If you didn’t have someone with the right skills and experience on the payroll, you relied on public announcements and databases for prospecting. It was easy to fall into low win probability habits like blind bidding. However, the old ways are no longer competitive. Relationship marketing can seem so di