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CapturePlanning.com, LLC is the company behind PropLIBRARY. Between our web properties, LinkedIn groups, and email newsletter we reach over 100,000 professionals every week.   CapturePlanning.com This is our first and original site. We still host several hundred free articles here that you are welcome to browse and put to use.     PropLIBRARY We took the best of what we had published over 10 years,

The first thing to realize when reading a U.S. Federal Government RFP is that you don’t have to read the whole thing! It's easy to feel intimidated by an RFP that’s hundreds (or even thousands) of pages long. But when you know how to read an RFP it's not nearly so bad. The format for most Government RFPs is fixed by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). The FAR mandates that Government RFPs be divided into sections A through M. Each of these sections has a certain purpose and must

We're turning PropLIBRARY into a platform for corporate-wide continuous win rate improvement. We're starting by adding three days' worth of online training to our single user subscriptions and creating a new Advanced Subscription that will have a week's worth of online training. Guess what we're doing for our Corporate Subscriptions... Currently a Here's a list of topics that training includes. One of our goals is to provide a cost-effective way to train everyone in your organiz

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Thanks for another year of double-digit growth. We had over half a million visitors in 2016 and served over a million page views, with a 25% growth in new users. Visitors from social media about doubled. Thank you for all the social media reposts and referrals that made that growth happen. And another thanks for the many fascinating discussions it made possible and the inspiration it provoked. In case you missed any of them, here are the 10 most popular items we published last year:

We have some really exciting things planned for 2017. And while it's not yet time for a public announcement, I'd like to discuss them with you so that you know what your options are... If business development or proposal training is part of your plans for 2017, we should talk. If assessing the effectiveness of your business development or proposal groups is part of your plans for 2017, we should talk. If you need to assess the quality of the proposals you will prepare in 201

Proposal risk increases as the deadline approaches. A simple mistake at the last minute can ruin a great proposal and all the effort that went into creating it. And yet, your best opportunities to mitigate the risks at the end of the proposal happen long before you get to the end of the proposal.   To reduce your risk, in each of the following areas, consider what is at risk, what the stakes are, and what you can do about it. Then think about whether your efforts are proportionate to the ri

Courses are divided into modules with course items that can include things like articles, files, exercises, quizzes, etc. Course items can also include: Event descriptions with purchase, registration forms, and attendance/participation instructions Videos An event could be a live-instructor presentation, a proposal, or other real world activity. You can add an event to your course, record it, and then replace the event item with the recorded item afterwards. Th

This is a system for hosting online training. This is a system for selling and managing live instructor-led training. This is a system for recording your live training and reselling it. This is a system for selling webinars. This is a system that enables you to wrap all of the above with exercises, quizzes, content, and certification options. It also lets you combine online and offline options in the same course. It also features a content management system that enables you b

Ingredients What types of training will you offer? Who are the target audiences for the training? What is the training medium: instructor-led sessions, computer-based training, exercises, or simulations, or something else? Where will training be provided? What materials/courseware will be used? How you develop the curriculum? What certification(s) will students receive? What accreditation does your organization and/or instructors have?

Part of a presentation for the University of Nebraska Business Development Center. It provides an introduction to the Readiness Reviews that are part of the pre-RFP phase of the MustWin Process.

This app has three main features that help you win your proposals: Search for Consultants. To search for consultants who are available locally, enter your zip code. If no one is available locally, try the advanced search. With the advance search you can search for future dates. For example, if you expect an RFP to come out in 30 days, you can see who expects to be available then. When you get the search results, if you tap on a consultant their LinkedIn page will load.  You have a cho

This checklist is a companion to an article we wrote describing 30 reactions the customer might have to your proposal that could result in your losing. That article provides hints for what you should say in your proposals and how you should say it. We created this item to make it easier to use as a checklist or a test, so you can see whether you'd accept your own proposal. Have you actually made contact and had a conversation with the customer? Does your proposal rely solely on exp

We have a couple of tools coming out that will make it much easier for companies and consultants to find and work with each other. The beta release will be unlike anything else out there, but very simple. It won't take hours to figure out. All it will do is solve two key problems that make it easier for companies to get the help they need to win their pursuits. Did I mention simple? Simple, but useful. And given the size of our audience, we anticipate thousands of users within 60 days of re

The heart of this app is the "Set Availability" page. It updates the database used by the companion app, Get Proposal Help, so that potential customers know your status. Once per week, the app will send you a notification to update your status. All you have to do is slide and set it to keep everyone updated on your availability. Other options If you are working on an extended project, take a long term job, or are going to be unavailable for any other reason, click the "Unavailable un

Too many companies lead with their experience as if it’s the most important consideration for the customer. This is especially true of incumbents. The problem is that every company that’s a serious competitor will have relevant experience. Maybe it won’t be the same. But it will be enough for the customer to consider their offer. If all you put on the table is your precious experience, then you’re at risk of losing to someone with a better offering. The main reason you are at risk is that e

PropLIBRARY A We have four different ways we can get started working together for less than $5,000.  The content you see on PropLIBRARY will give you a good idea of our expertise and approach to doing things. Click the Concierge Button so we can start a conversation and find out what we can do to help each other. There are several ways we help consultants who want to grow their practice If you are a consultant there are several ways we can work together. We can support your growth wit

There are so many options for publishing content that it’s easy to get overwhelmed: blogs, websites, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, email, online forums, etc. "How should you choose?" is really the wrong question. How you publish your content depends on your goals: If you are trying to attract anonymous strangers to your website, search engine optimization matters If you are trying to directly engage with potential customers, then social netwo

What is "content marketing?" Content marketing uses the publishing of material to achieve your marketing goals. It can be used to support inbound or outbound marketing. Content marketing has become extremely popular because of the web, where it is used primary for inbound marketing. Companies post content that brings visitors to their websites. Because of the growth of the web, sometimes this is the only form of content marketing that you hear about, with some additional references to sea