Erika Dickson

Here is a list of all the features you can use in the MustWin Now Proposal Writers tool and how to use them. They can be combined with the other tools in many different, creative ways to help you with your proposals. If you want to explore you can use this list to make sure you know how it works. If you find something isn't self explanatory or confusing, just let us know and we'll walk you through it. To work through the script, select an RFP. Which one hardly matters. Since the goal is to try every feature without impacting a real pursuit, think of this as training and remove the pursuit you create by following the script when you are done. Proposal Writers Tool After the Proposal Content Plan is complete, the Proposal Writers Tool provides a cleaner user interface for proposal writers by removing all the controls needed to create the content plan. It enables Proposal Writers to follow the content plan like a checklist to create the proposal. With the Proposal Writers Tool in one window and Microsoft Word (or other software) in another window, you can quickly write a proposal based on the content plan. Reviewers can also use this tool to validate that the draft proposal reflects all of the instructions that were given. # Feature Instructions 1 Change which proposal sections appear on the left Click the green "Show me…" button on the left and select either "Proposal Sections in sequence," "Proposal Sections with notes," or "Unlinked Proposal Sections" to change which ones appear on the left. 2 Read the instructions and RFP requirements for any section Select any proposal section from the left. Any linked RFP requirements will appear. You can click on them to read the full requirement. The instructions for that section will appear. 3 View the links and file uploads for any section Select any proposal section from the left. Any links or file uploads will appear under the instructions. You can click on them to view them. 4 Proceed to the next section Click the green arrow on the bottom right to continue to the next section.

Here is a list of all the features you can use in the MustWin Now Proposal Content Planning tool and how to use them. They can be combined with the other tools in many different, creative ways to help you with your proposals. If you want to explore you can use this list to make sure you know how it works. If you find something isn't self explanatory or confusing, just let us know and we'll walk you through it. To work through the script, select an RFP. Which one hardly matters. Since the goal is to try every feature without impacting a real pursuit, think of this as training and remove the pursuit you create by following the script when you are done. Proposal Content Planning The Proposal Content Planning Tool is where you figure out what should go into your proposal and how to present it. It works by inserting instructions and placeholders for your proposal writers. Even if you only have a little time, going quickly through the outline and providing a few instructions in each section will have a huge impact on what you see in the first draft produced by your proposal writers. With a little more time and attention, you can use this tool to think through your proposal and get it right on the very first draft. In many ways, the Proposal Content Planning Tool is the heart and soul of MustWin Now. The goal of every tool up until this one is to set the stage and make this one better. That is because what this tool enables you to do is to create a better proposal before you have even begun proposal writing. It will also make proposal writing go faster. Instead of assembling your proposal content from recycled parts, this tool enables you to instruction proposal writings in what to say and how to say it, so that they can complete their sections faster and with fewer iterations. # Feature Instructions 1 Add an instruction for the proposal writers Select any proposal section from the left. Under the "Add new instruction" heading, there is a box that you can type into. Type in your instruction and click "save". If you only have a few instructions, you have already made the writers task easier. But if you want, with a little more effort you can mock up the entire section and map out all the details. How you articulate your instructions will be the biggest driver of what your proposal writers produce. We recommend providing guidance that accounts for everything related to what it will take to win in that section, including not only what to write about, but also how to present it. Your goal should be to enable proposal writers to get it right on the very first draft. 2 Edit an instruction Choose any instruction and click on it. Begin typing to add more to the instruction or change it. When you click outside of the box it will automatically save. This greatly accelerates creating and editing instructions. 3 Change the sequence of the instructions Use the handle bars to drag and drop any instruction where you want it to go. 4 Add an annotation to an instruction Click the down arrow to the left of the instruction and select "Add annotation" from the drop down menu. Type what you want to add into the textbox and then click "Save." Use this for long-form text that you want to attach to an instruction. This could be re-use text with an instruction for how to tailor it, an example, or reference information relevant to the topic being written about. 5 Add a link to an instruction Click the down arrow to the left of the instruction and select "Add link". Give it a name, enter the URL, and click "Save." This can be used to point to a customer page, website with information relevant to the topic being written, or any other link. Use the instruction to help the user understand how to use the link. 6 Add a file to an instruction Click the down arrow to the left of the instruction and select "Add file." Give it a name and upload it with the "Choose Single File" button. Then click "Save." Use this to share a file within MustWin Now. This could be a graphic, a previous proposal file, a manual, or any other file. Use the instruction to help the user understand what needs to be done with the file. 7 Add a strikethrough to an instruction Click the down arrow to the left of the instruction and select "Strikethrough". This will add a strikethrough to the instruction and indicate that it is complete or no longer needed. It's an easy way to track progress. 8 Move an instruction Click the down arrow to the left of the instruction and select "Move". Add the proposal section that you want to move it to and click "Save." The instruction will be removed from this section and placed in the new section. Any annotations, files, or links that are attached to it will be moved as well. 9 Copy an instruction Click the down arrow to the left of the instruction and select "Copy". This will add it to another proposal section and keep it in the current section too. Any annotations, files, or links that are attached to it will be copied as well. 10 Delete any instruction Click the down arrow to the left of the instruction and select "Delete" to get rid of an instruction you no longer need. 11 Change which proposal sections appear on the left Click the green "Show me…" button on the left and select either "Proposal sections in sequence," "Proposal Sections with notes," or "Unlinked Proposal Sections" to change which ones appear on the left.

Here is a list of all the features you can use in the MustWin Now Requirement Cross-Referencing tool and how to use them. They can be combined with the other tools in many different, creative ways to help you with your proposals. If you want to explore you can use this list to make sure you know how it works. If you find something isn't self explanatory or confusing, just let us know and we'll walk you through it. To work through the script, select an RFP. Which one hardly matters. Since the goal is to try every feature without impacting a real pursuit, think of this as training and remove the pursuit you create by following the script when you are done. Requirement Cross-Referencing Once the RFP has been imported and you've finished creating the proposal outline, you are ready to cross-reference the RFP requirements to your proposal outline. This will enable MustWin Now to show which RFP requirements are relevant when you view a section of your proposal. For each section in your proposal outline you can simply drag and drop the relevant RFP requirements over to the landing zone. This goes very quickly. In addition to the RFP requirements, you can use this tool to map the insights from the Win Strategies Tool to the proposal outline. # Feature Instructions 1 Link an RFP requirement to a proposal section Select a proposal section from the list in the left column. When it opens, you will see a box that you can drag RFP items to. We recommend that you start with the RFP content instructions. Then cross-reference the evaluation criteria. Finally cross-reference the performance requirements. It is not unusual to need to modify your proposal outline you go. This is because the current outline you have may not have anticipated every requirement. You can switch back and forth between the Outline Tool and the Cross-Reference Tool as needed until you get the outline just right and all of the requirements that will impact proposal writing cross-referenced to it. 2 Link a win strategy to a proposal section Click the green "Matrix mode" box on the left column and select "Map win strategies". Now the win strategies appear instead of the RFP requirements. Just like with the RFP requirements, you can drag and drop your win strategies to the proposal sections where they should be written about. Once you understand how this works, you can use the process of completing the Pursuit Capture Q&A Forms, Proposal Input Forms, and Win Strategies Tool in combination with the Cross-Reference Tool to drive winning strategies into the proposal before it is even written. 3 Edit the win strategy instructions This is a convenience feature for when you think of something related to the win strategies before you have completed the RFP requirement cross-referencing. Click on a proposal section. Under where it says "Instructions for Proposal Writers", click the red "Content Planning Tool" link. This will take you to a page where you can edit, delete, or add new instructions. To get back to the cross-referencing tool, click the "Go to.." button on the top right and select "Requirement Cross-Referencing" from the drop down menu. 4 Add a note to a proposal section Select a proposal section and scroll to the bottom. There is a box that says "Notes". Type anything that may be useful in the text box. 5 Change which sections appear on the left sidebar. Click the green "Show me…" button at the type and choose whether you want to view "Proposal Sections in sequence", "Proposal Sections with notes", or "Unlinked proposal sections". If you use the notes function, then displaying sections with notes may be useful. Displaying unlinked proposal sections will show you sections that have no relevant RFP requirements linked to them. There can be reasons to create a proposal section based on something you'd like to say that wasn't in the RFP. But it could also indicate an oversight. Displaying unlinked sections can help you ensure that none of your proposal sections got overlooked during cross-referencing.

Here is a list of all the features you can use in the MustWin Now Proposal Outline Editor tool and how to use them. They can be combined with the other tools in many different, creative ways to help you with your proposals. If you want to explore you can use this list to make sure you know how it works. If you find something isn't self explanatory or confusing, just let us know and we'll walk you through it. To work through the script, select an RFP. Which one hardly matters. Since the goal is to try every feature without impacting a real pursuit, think of this as training and remove the pursuit you create by following the script when you are done. Proposal Outline Editor MustWin Now supports creating a proposal outline with or without an RFP. You can add headings one at a time or in bulk. You can reorder and change the hierarchy. If you have an RFP, you can turn the RFP headings into proposal sections, or you can read the RFP instructions and create the headings the customer expects to see. # Feature Instructions 1 Create a proposal section from an RFP requirement Scroll your cursor over any of the RFP requirements on the left and click the arrow the says "Turn this into a proposal section." Fill out the proposal section and parent section (if there is one). The title should already be filled out based on the RFP requirement that you chose. When finished, click "Save." 2 Manually add one or more new headings Scroll to the bottom of the page and find the "Add proposal headings to your outline" box. Type in any headings you want to add. You can either add one, or multiple. Just be sure to only enter one per line. When you're ready, click "Save." 3 Change the order of the outline headings In the center column use your mouse to grab the handle bars and drag and drop the heading up or down to where you want it to appear. 4 Change the heading numbers Click in the box to the left of the proposal heading and type what you want to change it to. You can make a change to your outline and quickly, but manually renumber. We don't automatically number the headings because customers use all kinds of strange numbering in their RFPs and you may need to emulate them. 5 Outdent a heading Click the left arrow icon to the right of the heading to move the heading up one outline level. Be careful. If the heading you want to move has subheadings, they will move with their parent heading. The sequence can change because if you outdent a heading in the middle it may need to go to the bottom of that section to be at that level. 6 Indent a heading Click the right arrow icon to the right of the heading to indent it one lower outline level. This will make it a subheading under the heading above it and it will become grouped with its parent heading. Outdenting the heading will change the parent heading to the next higher level. 7 Edit a heading Click the pencil icon to the right of the heading and make any necessary changes to the heading number, heading title, or parent heading. You can use this to manually re-assign the parent heading in the outline. 8 Delete a heading Click the "X" icon to the right of the heading to delete it.

Here is a list of all the features you can use in the MustWin Now Import RFP Requirements tool and how to use them. They can be combined with the other tools in many different, creative ways to help you with your proposals. If you want to explore you can use this list to make sure you know how it works. If you find something isn't self explanatory or confusing, just let us know and we'll walk you through it. To work through the script, select an RFP. Which one hardly matters. Since the goal is to try every feature without impacting a real pursuit, think of this as training and remove the pursuit you create by following the script when you are done. Import RFP Requirements In order to cross-reference the RFP requirements to the proposal outline, you need to import the RFP into the MustWin Now database. When you do this, your proposal writers will see the requirements that are specifically relevant to whatever they are working on, without having to page flip through the document while trying to write. The challenge is that a lot of customers do a terrible job of formatting and writing RFPs. Any automatic parsing will still need a set of human eyes to painstakingly review the work. So MustWin Now involves human eyes on the front end to prevent the mistakes. You tag the headings will simple mouse actions, and MustWin Now will do the rest. We rarely spend more than 20 minutes importing an RFP, but the first time you do it may take longer. # Feature Instructions 1 Add a single RFP requirement This is so you can see how manual RFP requirement entry works. On the left sidebar, click the green "Add new RFP requirement" button and then select "Add single requirement." Copy and paste the RFP requirement from your RFP. You can also add a parent requirement, requirement type, item response (whether or not a written response is needed), and any additional notes. Click "Save." Nobody wants to enter an entire RFP this way, but it can come in handy to know how to enter or change a single RFP item. 2 Add an RFP section On the left sidebar, click the green "Add new RFP requirement" button and then select "Import an RFP section via copy and paste." Then pick a small RFP section to try. You can complete an import in as many pieces as make sense. You also only need to import the pieces that impact proposal writing. Copy the RFP text you select into the designated paste text area and click on the "Save" button. After you mark you headings, click on the green button at the top to import them. Once you see how it works, you can do more imports by copy and pasting more from your RFP. 3 Read any of the RFP requirements Click any of the requirement headings on the left sidebar to read it. 4 Change the way the headings appear in the left sidebar On the left sidebar, under the two green buttons, click "Fix RFP input." You can: "Resequence RFP items" to change the order they appear in by dragging them and dropping them, and to edit their headings/heading numbers; "Merge separate RFP items" to combine separate items into a single item; and "Mark RFP items that don't require a written response" to designate items that don't require proposal writing. 5 Sort the RFP items On the left sidebar, click the green "Show me…" button. Select either "RFP requirements by type", "RFP requirements with notes", or "RFP requirements that need a response" to change how RFP items are grouped. 6 Select if the RFP requirement needs a response or not Click any of the requirement headings on the left sidebar and go to the bottom of the requirement. Select either "Requires a written response" or "Does not require a written response." To change this setting in bulk, go to Fix RFP. 7 Add notes, explanations, problems, judgement calls, or other annotations to an RFP requirement Click any of the requirement headings on the left sidebar and scroll to the bottom. In the text box under "Notes, problems, judgement calls, or other explanations/annotations", write any notes you have. When you click outside of the box, it will automatically save. The notes feature is just a place to quickly record things you might want to revisit and take action on later. We added it because sometimes you can't help notice things while importing and cross-referencing the RFP. 8 Edit an RFP requirement Click any of the requirement headings on the left sidebar and click on the "Item actions" button on the top right. Select "Edit RFP requirement" from the drop down menu and make any necessary changes. You can use this to fix formatting issues, remove extra lines, etc. If the RFP contains an image or content that can't be copy and pasted, you could replace the problematical item with text saying "See the original RFP for this item." You can also use this feature to replace the text of the RFP requirement with a new copy and paste or make a change needed because of an RFP amendment. 9 Delete an RFP requirement Click any of the requirement headings on the left sidebar and click on the "Item actions" button on the top right. Select "Delete" from the drop down menu. 10 Turn an RFP requirement into a proposal section Click any of the requirement headings on the left sidebar and click on the "Item actions" button on the top right. Select "Turn this into a proposal section" from the drop down menu. This will add an item to the proposal outline with the heading of the RFP item and automatically cross-reference it. This can come in handy if the RFP instructions specify the exact headings you should use in the proposal. When you get to the Outline Editor Tool you can adjust the sequence and add any other headings you might want. This is just a convenience feature and you don't have to use it during RFP import. It may be better to wait until you are ready to focus on your proposal outline. In the Outline Editor Tool you can create any headings you need and then cross-reference them to the relevant RFP requirements.

Here is a list of all the features you can use in the MustWin Now Win Strategy Development tool and how to use them. They can be combined with the other tools in many different, creative ways to help you with your proposals. If you want to explore you can use this list to make sure you know how it works. If you find something isn't self explanatory or confusing, just let us know and we'll walk you through it. To work through the script, select an RFP. Which one hardly matters. Since the goal is to try every feature without impacting a real pursuit, think of this as training and remove the pursuit you create by following the script when you are done. Win Strategy Development This tool takes the intelligence you've collected in the Pre-Proposal Capture and Proposal Input Forms and enables you to convert your insights into instructions for proposal writers that will then be picked up by the Cross-Reference Tool where they will be mapped to the proposal outline. Instead of a simple "list of themes," your proposal writers will get the guidance that's relevant to their particular proposal sections. Instead of a simple "list of themes," your insights will be turned into actions. The instructions you write will tell proposal writers what to do or say about your insights. # Feature Instructions 1 Go the Win Strategy Tool Note the charts. They will tell you how many topics you have created win strategies for. It is not necessary to have a win strategy defined for every topic, but the more guidance you provide your proposal writers, the better. 2 Click on one of the forms assigned to you Users can only add win strategies to topics they've been assigned to. Pick one of yours. At the top of the next page, you'll see who has been assigned to that topic. Below it you'll see a report of which questions were answered using the Pre-Proposal Capture Q&A Forms and the Proposal Input Forms, and which questions were not answered. Scroll down and create win strategies for one or more of them to see how it works. While you can articulate your win strategies as claims or statements, we find that articulating them as instructions to proposal writers provides better guidance and has more impact on the proposal. In addition, you can provide an (optional) explanation. This can be helpful to put the instruction in context. Instead of thinking of your win strategies as a list of themes, think of them as instructions for shaping the future proposal and guiding proposal writers to create something great. 3 Create an ad hoc win strategy On the left sidebar, under "ad-hoc win strategies", click on the "+Add win strategy" button. Complete the form the same way you would when adding it to a proposal form and click "save". Ad hoc win strategies don't have to be based on any particular topic and give you the freedom to openly conceive of differentiators and strategies of any kind. Plus, if there were no questions or input forms answered, you still should create some win strategies.

Here is a list of all the tools in MustWin Now and the features you can use in them. They can be combined in many different, creative ways to help you with your proposals. If you want to explore you can use this list to make sure you know how it all works. If you find something isn't self explanatory or confusing, just let us know and we'll walk you through it. The scripts below are organized to go tool by tool, with the collaboration features last. In reality, the collaboration and proposal management features can be used at any time. For learning, it's good to have data to collaborate with. But in reality, you'll use the collaboration features hand-in-hand with each of the tools to shape the proposal. To work through the script, select an RFP. Which one hardly matters. Since the goal is to try every feature without impacting a real pursuit, think of this as training and remove the pursuit you create by following the script when you are done. Where to start # Feature Instructions 1 Access the new version of MustWin Now The new version of MustWin Now has not been publicly launched, so it doesn't show up on the menu yet. PropLIBRARY Subscribers who are adventurous and want to access it before the public launch can get to the new version of MustWin Now here. The entry page will be a bit sparse until you add a pursuit and start working on it. But while you are here, you should review the help articles on bottom of the page. 2 Add a new pursuit Click on the green "Start a new pursuit" button. The same button is used for both pre-RFP and post-RFP pursuits. Give the pursuit a name and if the RFP has already been released, click on the toggle switch. When you click the "Save" button MustWin Now will set up the dashboard for your pursuit. 3 Give people access to the pursuit After adding your pursuit, you may get a message that will take you to the add user page. If not, click the gear icon in the upper right corner and select "Role Assignments". Users must be paid PropLIBRARY Subscribers, but it is easy to add more if needed. Add "PropLIBRARY Support" in any role if you want us to be able to see your pursuit and help you along. Familiarize yourself with the role options. Pre-Proposal Capture This tool is for collecting information about a wide range of topics. It is intended to guide intelligence gathering during the pre-RFP phase of pursuit. It is especially useful when combined with the win strategy tool because it enables you to drive your insights into the proposal. It is based on completing question and answer forms. # Feature Instructions 1 Go to the Pre-Proposal Capture Q&A Tool On the main dashboard for your pursuit, the list of tools available is in the column on the left. Click on a tool to go to it. Some tools have prerequisites. For example, it doesn't make sense to enter the Cross-Reference Tool if you haven't imported the RFP yet. Find the Pre-Proposal Capture Q&A Tool and click on it. 2 Add a new form to the pursuit Under the "More questions you can add to this pursuit tab" in the left sidebar, click the "+" icon to the right of the name of the form you want to be used for on this pursuit. Then, select the people that you want to assign to the form and click "Continue". If you have not been assigned a form, you won't be able to contribute to answering the questions. For now, just assign it to yourself. 3 Complete a pursuit form On the left sidebar under "Assigned to you", you will see which forms you should be working on. Click on any of them, type your answers into the text boxes and click "Save." The goal is not to answer every question, but to answer those you can. A useless or obvious answer doesn't help anyone. But it's okay for training purposes. 4 See the forms with unanswered questions Select the green "Show me.." button and select "Unanswered questions". Now you can see and work on the forms that haven't yet been completed. Click "all questions" to go back to seeing all of them. 5 Expand/collapse the category of forms To choose which types of forms you can see at any time, click the banner with the arrow. You can focus on "Assigned to you," "More questions you can add to this pursuit," and "Pursuits you are assigned to". 6 Edit a Q&A form Choose any form from the left sidebar. Then click on the "Form Actions" dropdown menu and select "Edit form". This enables you to tailor the questions and guidance on the forms. For example, you might have customer or pursuit-specific questions you'd like to add. Only Configuration Managers can change the Q&A Forms. 7 Delete a form Choose any form from the left sidebar. Then click on the "Form Actions" dropdown menu and select "Delete form." Now this form will no longer appear. 8 Hide a form Choose any form from the left sidebar. Then click on the "Form Actions" dropdown menu and select "Hide form". This enables you to hide the form from your users without deleting it. 9 Save a form as a System Form Choose any form from the left sidebar. Then click on the "Form Actions" dropdown menu and select "Save as System Form". This is used to (…) 10 Change the form assignments Choose any form from the left sidebar. Then click on the "Form Actions" dropdown menu and select "Form assignments." This is used to edit who can edit/complete the form. Proposal Input Forms This tool is for quickly assessing what you know at the start of the proposal effort to inform proposal writing. It is similar to the Pre-Proposal Capture Forms tools, only its intended to aggregate what you know instead of guiding research. The two can be used separately or together. Proposal Input Forms can also be combined with the win strategy tool to enable you to drive your strategies into the proposal. # Feature Instructions 1 Work on one of the Proposal Input Forms Proposal Input Forms work exactly the same as the Pre-Proposal Capture Q&A Forms. The lists of questions and the purpose are what's different. Instead of prompting research, the goal of the Proposal Input Forms is to assess what you know that can be used in the proposal. To try using the Proposal Input Forms Tool, follow the same script provided for the Pre-Proposal Capture Q&A Tool. Win Strategy Development This tool takes the intelligence you've collected in the Pre-Proposal Capture and Proposal Input Forms and enables you to convert your insights into instructions for proposal writers that will then be picked up by the Cross-Reference Tool where they will be mapped to the proposal outline. Instead of a simple "list of themes," your proposal writers will get the guidance that's relevant to their particular proposal sections. Instead of a simple "list of themes," your insights will be turned into actions. The instructions you write will tell proposal writers what to do or say about your insights. # Feature Instructions 1 Go the Win Strategy Tool Note the charts. They will tell you how many topics you have created win strategies for. It is not necessary to have a win strategy defined for every topic, but the more guidance you provide your proposal writers, the better. 2 Click on one of the forms assigned to you Users can only add win strategies to topics they've been assigned to. Pick one of yours. At the top of the next page, you'll see who has been assigned to that topic. Below it you'll see a report of which questions were answered using the Pre-Proposal Capture Q&A Forms and the Proposal Input Forms, and which questions were not answered. Scroll down and create win strategies for one or more of them to see how it works. While you can articulate your win strategies as claims or statements, we find that articulating them as instructions to proposal writers provides better guidance and has more impact on the proposal. In addition, you can provide an (optional) explanation. This can be helpful to put the instruction in context. Instead of thinking of your win strategies as a list of themes, think of them as instructions for shaping the future proposal and guiding proposal writers to create something great. 3 Create an ad hoc win strategy On the left sidebar, under "ad-hoc win strategies", click on the "+Add win strategy" button. Complete the form the same way you would when adding it to a proposal form and click "save". Ad hoc win strategies don't have to be based on any particular topic and give you the freedom to openly conceive of differentiators and strategies of any kind. Plus, if there were no questions or input forms answered, you still should create some win strategies. Import RFP Requirements In order to cross-reference the RFP requirements to the proposal outline, you need to import the RFP into the MustWin Now database. When you do this, your proposal writers will see the requirements that are specifically relevant to whatever they are working on, without having to page flip through the document while trying to write. The challenge is that a lot of customers do a terrible job of formatting and writing RFPs. Any automatic parsing will still need a set of human eyes to painstakingly review the work. So MustWin Now involves human eyes on the front end to prevent the mistakes. You tag the headings will simple mouse actions, and MustWin Now will do the rest. We rarely spend more than 20 minutes importing an RFP, but the first time you do it may take longer. # Feature Instructions 1 Add a single RFP requirement This is so you can see how manual RFP requirement entry works. On the left sidebar, click the green "Add new RFP requirement" button and then select "Add single requirement." Copy and paste the RFP requirement from your RFP. You can also add a parent requirement, requirement type, item response (whether or not a written response is needed), and any additional notes. Click "Save." Nobody wants to enter an entire RFP this way, but it can come in handy to know how to enter or change a single RFP item. 2 Add an RFP section On the left sidebar, click the green "Add new RFP requirement" button and then select "Import an RFP section via copy and paste." Then pick a small RFP section to try. You can complete an import in as many pieces as make sense. You also only need to import the pieces that impact proposal writing. Copy the RFP text you select into the designated paste text area and click on the "Save" button. After you mark you headings, click on the green button at the top to import them. Once you see how it works, you can do more imports by copy and pasting more from your RFP. 3 Read any of the RFP requirements Click any of the requirement headings on the left sidebar to read it. 4 Change the way the headings appear in the left sidebar On the left sidebar, under the two green buttons, click "Fix RFP input." You can: "Resequence RFP items" to change the order they appear in by dragging them and dropping them, and to edit their headings/heading numbers; "Merge separate RFP items" to combine separate items into a single item; and "Mark RFP items that don't require a written response" to designate items that don't require proposal writing. 5 Sort the RFP items On the left sidebar, click the green "Show me…" button. Select either "RFP requirements by type", "RFP requirements with notes", or "RFP requirements that need a response" to change how RFP items are grouped. 6 Select if the RFP requirement needs a response or not Click any of the requirement headings on the left sidebar and go to the bottom of the requirement. Select either "Requires a written response" or "Does not require a written response." To change this setting in bulk, go to Fix RFP. 7 Add notes, explanations, problems, judgement calls, or other annotations to an RFP requirement Click any of the requirement headings on the left sidebar and scroll to the bottom. In the text box under "Notes, problems, judgement calls, or other explanations/annotations", write any notes you have. When you click outside of the box, it will automatically save. The notes feature is just a place to quickly record things you might want to revisit and take action on later. We added it because sometimes you can't help notice things while importing and cross-referencing the RFP. 8 Edit an RFP requirement Click any of the requirement headings on the left sidebar and click on the "Item actions" button on the top right. Select "Edit RFP requirement" from the drop down menu and make any necessary changes. You can use this to fix formatting issues, remove extra lines, etc. If the RFP contains an image or content that can't be copy and pasted, you could replace the problematical item with text saying "See the original RFP for this item." You can also use this feature to replace the text of the RFP requirement with a new copy and paste or make a change needed because of an RFP amendment. 9 Delete an RFP requirement Click any of the requirement headings on the left sidebar and click on the "Item actions" button on the top right. Select "Delete" from the drop down menu. 10 Turn an RFP requirement into a proposal section Click any of the requirement headings on the left sidebar and click on the "Item actions" button on the top right. Select "Turn this into a proposal section" from the drop down menu. This will add an item to the proposal outline with the heading of the RFP item and automatically cross-reference it. This can come in handy if the RFP instructions specify the exact headings you should use in the proposal. When you get to the Outline Editor Tool you can adjust the sequence and add any other headings you might want. This is just a convenience feature and you don't have to use it during RFP import. It may be better to wait until you are ready to focus on your proposal outline. In the Outline Editor Tool you can create any headings you need and then cross-reference them to the relevant RFP requirements. Proposal Outline Editor MustWin Now supports creating a proposal outline with or without an RFP. You can add headings one at a time or in bulk. You can reorder and change the hierarchy. If you have an RFP, you can turn the RFP headings into proposal sections, or you can read the RFP instructions and create the headings the customer expects to see. # Feature Instructions 1 Create a proposal section from an RFP requirement Scroll your cursor over any of the RFP requirements on the left and click the arrow the says "Turn this into a proposal section." Fill out the proposal section and parent section (if there is one). The title should already be filled out based on the RFP requirement that you chose. When finished, click "Save." 2 Manually add one or more new headings Scroll to the bottom of the page and find the "Add proposal headings to your outline" box. Type in any headings you want to add. You can either add one, or multiple. Just be sure to only enter one per line. When you're ready, click "Save." 3 Change the order of the outline headings In the center column use your mouse to grab the handle bars and drag and drop the heading up or down to where you want it to appear. 4 Change the heading numbers Click in the box to the left of the proposal heading and type what you want to change it to. You can make a change to your outline and quickly, but manually renumber. We don't automatically number the headings because customers use all kinds of strange numbering in their RFPs and you may need to emulate them. 5 Outdent a heading Click the left arrow icon to the right of the heading to move the heading up one outline level. Be careful. If the heading you want to move has subheadings, they will move with their parent heading. The sequence can change because if you outdent a heading in the middle it may need to go to the bottom of that section to be at that level. 6 Indent a heading Click the right arrow icon to the right of the heading to indent it one lower outline level. This will make it a subheading under the heading above it and it will become grouped with its parent heading. Outdenting the heading will change the parent heading to the next higher level. 7 Edit a heading Click the pencil icon to the right of the heading and make any necessary changes to the heading number, heading title, or parent heading. You can use this to manually re-assign the parent heading in the outline. 8 Delete a heading Click the "X" icon to the right of the heading to delete it. Requirement Cross-Referencing Once the RFP has been imported and you've finished creating the proposal outline, you are ready to cross-reference the RFP requirements to your proposal outline. This will enable MustWin Now to show which RFP requirements are relevant when you view a section of your proposal. For each section in your proposal outline you can simply drag and drop the relevant RFP requirements over to the landing zone. This goes very quickly. In addition to the RFP requirements, you can use this tool to map the insights from the Win Strategies Tool to the proposal outline. # Feature Instructions 1 Link an RFP requirement to a proposal section Select a proposal section from the list in the left column. When it opens, you will see a box that you can drag RFP items to. We recommend that you start with the RFP content instructions. Then cross-reference the evaluation criteria. Finally cross-reference the performance requirements. It is not unusual to need to modify your proposal outline you go. This is because the current outline you have may not have anticipated every requirement. You can switch back and forth between the Outline Tool and the Cross-Reference Tool as needed until you get the outline just right and all of the requirements that will impact proposal writing cross-referenced to it. 2 Link a win strategy to a proposal section Click the green "Matrix mode" box on the left column and select "Map win strategies". Now the win strategies appear instead of the RFP requirements. Just like with the RFP requirements, you can drag and drop your win strategies to the proposal sections where they should be written about. Once you understand how this works, you can use the process of completing the Pursuit Capture Q&A Forms, Proposal Input Forms, and Win Strategies Tool in combination with the Cross-Reference Tool to drive winning strategies into the proposal before it is even written. 3 Edit the win strategy instructions This is a convenience feature for when you think of something related to the win strategies before you have completed the RFP requirement cross-referencing. Click on a proposal section. Under where it says "Instructions for Proposal Writers", click the red "Content Planning Tool" link. This will take you to a page where you can edit, delete, or add new instructions. To get back to the cross-referencing tool, click the "Go to.." button on the top right and select "Requirement Cross-Referencing" from the drop down menu. 4 Add a note to a proposal section Select a proposal section and scroll to the bottom. There is a box that says "Notes". Type anything that may be useful in the text box. 5 Change which sections appear on the left sidebar. Click the green "Show me…" button at the type and choose whether you want to view "Proposal Sections in sequence", "Proposal Sections with notes", or "Unlinked proposal sections". If you use the notes function, then displaying sections with notes may be useful. Displaying unlinked proposal sections will show you sections that have no relevant RFP requirements linked to them. There can be reasons to create a proposal section based on something you'd like to say that wasn't in the RFP. But it could also indicate an oversight. Displaying unlinked sections can help you ensure that none of your proposal sections got overlooked during cross-referencing. Proposal Content Planning The Proposal Content Planning Tool is where you figure out what should go into your proposal and how to present it. It works by inserting instructions and placeholders for your proposal writers. Even if you only have a little time, going quickly through the outline and providing a few instructions in each section will have a huge impact on what you see in the first draft produced by your proposal writers. With a little more time and attention, you can use this tool to think through your proposal and get it right on the very first draft. In many ways, the Proposal Content Planning Tool is the heart and soul of MustWin Now. The goal of every tool up until this one is to set the stage and make this one better. That is because what this tool enables you to do is to create a better proposal before you have even begun proposal writing. It will also make proposal writing go faster. Instead of assembling your proposal content from recycled parts, this tool enables you to instruction proposal writings in what to say and how to say it, so that they can complete their sections faster and with fewer iterations. # Feature Instructions 1 Add an instruction for the proposal writers Select any proposal section from the left. Under the "Add new instruction" heading, there is a box that you can type into. Type in your instruction and click "save". If you only have a few instructions, you have already made the writers task easier. But if you want, with a little more effort you can mock up the entire section and map out all the details. How you articulate your instructions will be the biggest driver of what your proposal writers produce. We recommend providing guidance that accounts for everything related to what it will take to win in that section, including not only what to write about, but also how to present it. Your goal should be to enable proposal writers to get it right on the very first draft. 2 Edit an instruction Choose any instruction and click on it. Begin typing to add more to the instruction or change it. When you click outside of the box it will automatically save. This greatly accelerates creating and editing instructions. 3 Change the sequence of the instructions Use the handle bars to drag and drop any instruction where you want it to go. 4 Add an annotation to an instruction Click the down arrow to the left of the instruction and select "Add annotation" from the drop down menu. Type what you want to add into the textbox and then click "Save." Use this for long-form text that you want to attach to an instruction. This could be re-use text with an instruction for how to tailor it, an example, or reference information relevant to the topic being written about. 5 Add a link to an instruction Click the down arrow to the left of the instruction and select "Add link". Give it a name, enter the URL, and click "Save." This can be used to point to a customer page, website with information relevant to the topic being written, or any other link. Use the instruction to help the user understand how to use the link. 6 Add a file to an instruction Click the down arrow to the left of the instruction and select "Add file." Give it a name and upload it with the "Choose Single File" button. Then click "Save." Use this to share a file within MustWin Now. This could be a graphic, a previous proposal file, a manual, or any other file. Use the instruction to help the user understand what needs to be done with the file. 7 Add a strikethrough to an instruction Click the down arrow to the left of the instruction and select "Strikethrough". This will add a strikethrough to the instruction and indicate that it is complete or no longer needed. It's an easy way to track progress. 8 Move an instruction Click the down arrow to the left of the instruction and select "Move". Add the proposal section that you want to move it to and click "Save." The instruction will be removed from this section and placed in the new section. Any annotations, files, or links that are attached to it will be moved as well. 9 Copy an instruction Click the down arrow to the left of the instruction and select "Copy". This will add it to another proposal section and keep it in the current section too. Any annotations, files, or links that are attached to it will be copied as well. 10 Delete any instruction Click the down arrow to the left of the instruction and select "Delete" to get rid of an instruction you no longer need. 11 Change which proposal sections appear on the left Click the green "Show me…" button on the left and select either "Proposal sections in sequence," "Proposal Sections with notes," or "Unlinked Proposal Sections" to change which ones appear on the left. Proposal Writers Tool After the Proposal Content Plan is complete, the Proposal Writers Tool provides a cleaner user interface for proposal writers by removing all the controls needed to create the content plan. It enables Proposal Writers to follow the content plan like a checklist to create the proposal. With the Proposal Writers Tool in one window and Microsoft Word (or other software) in another window, you can quickly write a proposal based on the content plan. Reviewers can also use this tool to validate that the draft proposal reflects all of the instructions that were given. # Feature Instructions 1 Change which proposal sections appear on the left Click the green "Show me…" button on the left and select either "Proposal Sections in sequence," "Proposal Sections with notes," or "Unlinked Proposal Sections" to change which ones appear on the left. 2 Read the instructions and RFP requirements for any section Select any proposal section from the left. Any linked RFP requirements will appear. You can click on them to read the full requirement. The instructions for that section will appear. 3 View the links and file uploads for any section Select any proposal section from the left. Any links or file uploads will appear under the instructions. You can click on them to view them. 4 Proceed to the next section Click the green arrow on the bottom right to continue to the next section. Collaboration: Working together to solve issues and complete assignments This is the panel on the right that appears in every tool to support assignment management, issue tracking, and enable people to work together at the moment of need from anywhere in MustWin Now. When a new item is added, anyone assigned to it will see it on their personal dashboard. It will also appear on the dashboards for the relevant tools. # Feature Instructions 1 Use the collaboration tool to assign a task Do this by going to the "Add a collaboration item box" and selecting "Assign a task" from the "Type" drop down menu. The green "More details" button on the bottom right of the box will give you more options to add to the issue. People can submit issues quickly, without all the details and they can be added later. Or you can add them at the beginning by using the "More details" button. Anyone on the pursuit can submit issues or create new collaboration items. The proposal manager can then review new issues and assign them, clarify their status, set deadlines, mark them resolved, etc. 2 Use the collaboration tool to ask a question or ask for help Do this by going to the "Add a collaboration item box" and selecting "Ask a question or ask for help" from the "type" drop down menu. Any user can do this and it creates a quick, trackable item. 3 Use the collaboration tool to report a potential problem, gap, or risk Do this by going to the "Add a collaboration item box" and selecting "Report a potential problem, gap, or risk" from the "type" drop down menu. You can use this to identify problems with what you intend to propose long before a draft review. 4 Use the collaboration tool to ask an RFP question or an interpretation issue Do this by going to the "Add a collaboration item box" and selecting "Ask an RFP question or an interpretation issue" from the "type" drop down menu. This is a version of "Ask a Question" specific to the RFP. It can be used to gather questions to consider submitting to the customer before their deadline. It can also be used after the deadline to determine what to do about a question or RFP interpretation issue. 5 Use the collaboration tool to request a review of this item Do this by going to the "Add a collaboration item box" and selecting "Request a review of this item" from the "type" drop down menu. This can be used for informal and formal reviews, depending on your review process. It creates a simple way to ask someone to take a look at something in MustWin Now and provide some validation. 6 Use the collaboration tool to request an approval Do this by going to the "Add a collaboration item box" and selecting "Request an approval" from the "type" drop down menu. This provides a quick and easy way to ask for resources or permissions. It can also be handy for simply yes/no questions about approaches and proposal writing. The receiver, who must also be a user, can approve the item by clicking a thumbs up/down icon. 7 Use the collaboration tool to get tech support for MustWin Now Do this by going to the "Add a collaboration item box" and selecting "Get tech support for MustWin Now" from the "type" drop down menu. This will notify us that you are having a technical issue you need assistance with. Note: If you want us to be able to see your pursuit content, you must use the assignment feature to give us access to your pursuit. 8 Change the severity of the issue Click on any submitted issue. In the "Item actions" dropdown, select "Edit Item." Then select the red, yellow, or green traffic-light icon based on the severity of the issue. 9 Add a description to the issue Click on any submitted issue. In the "Item actions" dropdown, select "Edit Item." Type a description in the box to explain the issue you are having, to describe what you need, ask a question, etc. 10 Add a parent issue Click on any submitted issue. In the "Item actions" dropdown, select "Edit Item." Issues can have sub-issues, but usually it's easier just to keep issues simple. If you need to make an issue or assignment part of something larger, you can do it by completing the parent field. Simply type the description of the issue you'd like to become the parent and when it is displayed select it from the list. 11 Select an impact Click on any submitted issue. In the "Item actions" dropdown, select "Edit Item." Impact is not a required field, but it can help with setting priorities. Select which of the listed impacts apply. 12 Choose a due date Click on any submitted issue. In the "Item actions" dropdown, select "Edit Item." Due dates are not required to report an issue or create an assignment, but they are recommended. You can sort issues in the dashboard displays by due date and better manage the schedule by using them. 13 Change the status of the task Click on any submitted issue. In the "Item actions" dropdown, select "Edit Item." Click on the collaboration item, and then click on "status" to change it to submitted, in progress, or complete. You can mark an issue "Complete" and then re-open later if needed. This can help you work the issues as a process of elimination. 14 Comment on a task Resolving some issues requires discussion. Anyone can comment on an issue. This can be used to provide answers to questions, seek clarifications, or otherwise discuss what to do. Click on any issue and then at the bottom, type into the Comments box in order to discuss the item. 15

Proposal content planning is where you really start to see a payoff from using MustWin Now. Because you used it to import the RFP and create your proposal outline, it can now greatly accelerate figuring out what to write about to address the requirements and how to best present it. The first thing it does is create the content plan shell for you. In the column on the left, you'll see all the proposal sections. Click one. If you used the Cross-Reference Tool to map the RFP requirements to the outline, you'll see all of the RFP requirements that are relevant to this section as colored banners. Click the banner and you'll the the requirements. If you used the Win Strategy Tool to articulate your insights regarding what to do to win, and then used the Cross-Reference Tool to map them to the outline, your proposal content plan will already have those instructions preloaded. Now you can see how MustWin Now enables you to drive your win strategies into the document. Consider all of the ingredients that go into a winning proposal. Then simply click on the button to add them into the content plan. We recommend phrasing them as instructions to proposal writers. That way, when you've completed your proposal content plan, your proposal writers will be able to follow it to write the proposal. The Proposal Content Plan Tool enables you to capture all of the thoughts people have about what should go into the proposal and how to present it, and then fine tune it so that the proposal writers can get it right on the very first draft. To add a new instruction, type it into the "Add a new instruction" box and click "Save". The instruction will then appear with the others. To change the order of the instructions simply click on the handle bars to the left and drag and drop the instruction where you want it to go. See also: Help using MustWin Now You can edit or add more text to the instruction by simply clicking on it and typing. It will automatically save when you click outside of the box. This enables you to very quickly move through the proposal and fine tune your messaging and presentation. Before MustWin Now, most companies didn't take the time to do proper proposal content planning, and their proposal quality suffered as a result. The more proposal content planning you do, the better. But even a little tiny bit of it can have a huge impact. Simply having the requirements and win strategies in each section will change the quality of what your proposal writers produce. Spending even 20 minutes going through the proposal to capture your thoughts on what it should address and how will improve your proposal outcomes. One of our favorite ways of using it is during proposal planning meetings. Instead of everyone talking in circles and then forgetting it all when they sit down to write, you can capture what they say right there in the meeting, and as soon as it breaks up the guidance will already be there to help them get it right. Annotations, links, and files MustWin Now goes beyond simple instructions. For example, you can add annotations, helpful links, and files. Click the arrow to the left of an instruction to see the options. To add an annotation, click "Add annotation". An annotation is a large text block. Potentially very large. You can use it to provide examples and text with instructions for how to tailor it. You can use annotations to provide reference information for them to read and use in what they right. You can use them to explain your instruction at length. You can use it anytime you need to share a lot of text with the proposal writers. To use it, either type in your text or copy and paste the text into the box and click "save." You can add helpful links to web pages with information you want the proposal writers to see. It could be guidance, like a PropLIBRARY article with tips on writing the section they are working on, or it could be reference information, like a page from the customer's website. Or a Wikipedia entry with an instruction for your proposal writers like "Check out this article which has a technique that might be relevant." To add a link, simply click "Add link". Give it a name or instruction, copy and paste or enter the URL, and click "Save." You can upload files that you want your proposal writers to use. Like annotations, there are many reasons this can come in handy. You could provide an instruction manual, a format template, a graphic, or anything you think would be helpful. And MustWin Now makes it easy to explain what they should do with it. To add a file, simply click "Add File," give it a name or instruction (it doesn't have to be the same as the file name), and upload it with the "Choose Single File" button. All annotations, links, and files will appear under the instruction. If you provide instructions, it will be more clear to your proposal writers why they are there. Managing content plan instructions When you click the arrow to the left of an instruction, you'll also see options for strikethrough, move, copy, and delete. When you click "Strikethrough" it will change the appearance of the instruction to indicate that it is complete. Proposal writers can use this to visually show when they've written something that fulfills the instruction and can visually track their progress towards completing all of the instructions for their section. You can use the "Move" button to attach the instruction to a different proposal section. Simply type a few letters from the heading where you want it to go to. Use the "Copy" button to add it to another proposal section and keep it in the current section too. Any annotations, files, or links that are attached to it will be moved as well. You can use this for instructions that apply to several sections so you don't have to recreate them each time. Click the "Show me..." button to see all proposal sections on the left sidebar in sequence, only proposal sections with notes, or only unlinked proposal sections.

Before something can go into your proposal, you have to decide where in your outline it should go. MustWin Now provides several ways to connect RFP requirement to the proposal outline. You can even drag and drop RFP requirements onto the landing zone for each proposal section. Once the association is made, MustWin Now remembers all the RFP requirements that are relevant to each section. See also: Help using MustWin Now If you want, you can use this to generate a very traditional looking compliance matrix and download it in Excel. Only you probably won't need to, because when interact with their proposal sections, the requirements will just be there. And the same way you can cross-reference RFP requirements to the proposal outline, you can cross-reference your win strategies. If you use the Win Strategy Development tool, you'll convert your ideas into instructions for proposal writers. When they are cross-referenced to the outline, they'll show up without you having to do anything other than make the association. When you start Proposal Content Planning, you'll have the most important parts, the RFP requirements and win strategies already in place to guide your proposal writers. Here is the main screen from the cross-reference tool. What you see, from left to right, is the list of RFP requirements, then the proposal outline, the currently selected proposal section, and the Collaboration tool on the right. To begin linking RFP requirements to proposal sections, select a proposal section from the proposal sections on the left sidebar. When it opens, you will see a landing zone box that you can drag RFP items to. To link an RFP requirement, choose one from the left sidebar and use your cursor to drag and drop it into the box. To cross-reference something from the RFP to this proposal section, just drag it and drop it on the landing zone. Onced dropped, the requirements will show up as colored banners. When you click them the full text of the RFP requirements will pop-up. Select the next proposal section and cross-reference all the RFP requirements that are relevant to it. It doesn't take long to make all the associations needed. You can sort your proposal sections by sequence, ones with notes, or ones that are unlinked. You also can sort the RFP requirements by type, ones with notes, ones that need a response, or ones that are unlinked. You can used the last option to make sure that all of the RFP requirements that should be written about have a place in the proposal where they should go. In addition to adding RFP requirements, you can also link win strategies by clicking the green "Matrix mode" box and selecting "Map win strategies". If you used the Win Strategy Development tool, your win strategies will now appear and you can link them to the proposal sections they are relevant to. This is how you drive your win strategies into the document, by connecting them to specific sections so that they show up as instructions in the relevant proposal sections where the proposal writers are working. Just like with the RFP requirements, drag and drop a win strategy into the landing zone box of a relevant proposal section. The win strategy now appears as an instruction to the proposal writers. You can edit or add more instructions by using the Proposal Content Planning tool. The link will bring you to a page where you can add new instructions, or edit/delete existing ones. By clicking the arrow to the left of the instruction, you can also add: An annotations, which are a blocks of text that can be used for lengthy explainers, examples, or text that you copy and paste for the proposal writers to tailor and reuse, A link to a resource that might be useful for writing the section A file the proposals will need Or strikethrough formatting, to mark an instruction that is complete You can move, copy the instruction to other proposal sections or delete it. To add notes, simply type them in the "notes" section. To add more proposal sections or edit them, click the "Switch to outline tool" button.

Before you can start working on the content plan for your proposal, you need an outline. If you are responding to an RFP, your outline should be based on the instructions in the RFP. If this applies to you, you should import the RFP first, before you create your proposal outline. However, the outline editor in MustWin Now does not force you to do this, and it can even be used to create a proposal outline when there is no RFP. Here is what the outline editor in MustWin Now looks like. From here you can see the RFP requirements if you have imported them. And you can see the headings in your outline as you build it. When you have imported the RFP requirements, you have a few options for creating your proposal outline. One easy way to do it is to directly convert RFP requirements into proposal headings. To create a proposal section from the RFP requirements on the left, scroll your cursor over it and click the arrow the says "Turn this into a proposal section". Fill out the tiny form to create a new proposal section for your outline. The title should already be filled out based on the RFP requirement that you chose. You decide how you want to number the headings in your proposal. You can copy the RFP paragraph number and use it. Or you can use your own numbering system. We strongly recommend that you use as much of the RFP numbers as possible so that the customer can easily find where you've responded to their requirements. But when you cross-reference different sections of the RFP, you'll have lots of different RFP numbers to incorporate and you'll have you use your judgment regarding how you number your proposal sections. When finished, click "save", or "save and add another" if you need to add more. The "Parent Section" field is optional. You can use it to edit the hierarchy of the headings. If you enter the text of an existing heading, this one will be made subordinate to it. But there are other ways to do the same thing that you might find easier. The heading you just saved has now been added to your outline and you can see it in the image below. If you need to make changes to your outline, there is a full set of tools for doing so. To change the order it appears in, you can simply drag and drop it using the handle bars to the left and place it where you want it to appear. You can change the heading number by clicking in the box and typing what you want to change it to. In the example above, the heading numbers are a bit random. You could replace them with proper sections numbers in sequence. If you have to do major edits to your outline, with a lot of resequencing, changes in hierarchy, etc., you can quick renumber them all. You can also use the toolbar to the right of each section to change the hierarchy, edit the heading text, or delete a section from your outline. If you have a lot of headings to enter, you can also do them in bulk, instead of one at a time. At the bottom of the outline is an entry field where you can enter a bunch of headings, one per line. When you click save, they will be added to the outline. The new headings will appear on the bottom, where you can enter in the heading numbers, drag/drop them where they belong, and indent/outdent them as needed.

The win strategy development tool is intended to be used after you have used the Pre-Proposal Capture Q&A Forms and Proposal Input Forms before you start building your compliance matrix. It will let you do things out of sequence, including jumping straight into win strategy development without doing any preparation or working on your win strategies after you've started content planning. In the world of proposals we don't always get to do things the ideal way and we don't want our tools to break when reality throws us a curve ball. What does it do? MustWin Now encourages you to articulate your win strategies as instructions to future proposal writers. This is partly because if the RFP is not out yet, you can't determine what the final wording should be, partly because the goal is to shape the proposal but not write it (yet), and partly to give you the flexibility of directing them in ways that go beyond preparing a list of "themes.'" You can use the Win Strategy Development tool to tell your proposal writers what you want to do about your insights or tell them how you want to introduce and position things. You can tell them what to write about and how to present things. And you can use it to create a list of themes. But the real advantage is that when the RFP is released and you get to the outlining and cross-referencings stage, you'll be able to map everything to add to the Win Strategy Development tool to the outline. The instructions you add will show up in the content plans that the proposal writers use. So what the Win Strategy Development tool really does is enable you to drive your win strategies and themes into the proposal. To begin developing your win strategy, select any of the forms from the left. These are all forms that have been added and worked on by your team throughout the previous steps of MustWin Now. You will see the question, the answer (if it's already been answered), and who answered it. To add a win strategy, click the green "+Add win strategy" button. Putting it to work See also: Help using MustWin Now When you click the button, a small form will pop up. Then choose the instruction type: Instructions: Use this to tell future proposal writers what to write about or how to present it. Questions to Answer: If you have questions the proposal writers should address, you can use this one. Things to Consider: If there are options or ideas that may or may not work depending on what's in the RFP, you can give them your ideas to consider. Unnumbered Subheading: This is primarily for use after the RFP is released. It is used to add a heading to help organize or bring focus to a topic. Next, type the instructions that will drive your win strategy into the document. The use the "Explanation" field to give your instruction some context so that the writer understands what you are asking for. When you're ready, click "save." The win strategy will now appear to help guide the proposal writers. It will be remembered and displayed after RFP release when the outline is being prepared. Not all win strategies need to be attached to a previous form/question. If you think of something important that isn't related to a specific question or answer shown, you can create an ad hoc win strategy. Simply click the "+Add win strategy" button under the "Ad hoc win strategies" section on the left. Fill out the form the same way explained above and click "save." The win strategy will now appear on the left with the other ad hoc win strategies.

The Proposal Input Forms tool is similar in function to the Pre-Proposal Capture Q&A tool. The key difference is that the Pre-Proposal Capture Q&A tool is intended for gathering information and guiding the pursuit long before the RFP is released. Proposal Input Forms are intended to gather and assess what you know immediately at RFP release so that it can impact document construction. The functionality of the tool is similar, but the type and purpose of the information is different. See also: Help using MustWin Now To begin working, select one of the forms that has been assigned to you on the left. When you've finished answering the questions, click "save". You can view forms that are not assigned to you, but you cannot answer them so there won't be a text box.

Customers do wacky things when they format their RFPs. They are difficult for people to interpret. If we tried to automatically parse them, you'd spend as much time verifying the software did it correctly as it would have taken to do it yourself. So we use a hybrid approach. You mark the headings and MustWin does the rest. It's the fastest and easiest way we've ever seen to do this. And yet it's still the most complicated tool on the platform. See also: Help using MustWin Now Before we walk through importing the RFP, let's take a look at first page you see when you go to the Import RFP Requirements tool. Here the RFP requirements that have been imported are organized and you can click on them to see the full text of the requirements. You can add new requirements and see any issues related to them. Note that you don't have to import the entire RFP and you don't have to do it all at once. You can get by with only importing the requirements that will impact proposal writing. If you are preparing your proposal pricing offline, you may not need to important that part of the RFP. The same applies to other sections of the RFP. You decide how much to import. Most RFPs will need less than an hour to import. Importing RFP requirements one at a time You can add RFP requirements one at a time using a form, or in bulk. To add a new RFP requirement, click "Add new RFP requirement". Then choose whether to add a single requirement or import a whole section. If you click "add single requirement", you will ge a form to complete. When you click "save", the RFP requirement will show up under the requirement type that you chose. Importing RFP requirements in bulk To add a whole RFP section instead of just a single requirement, click on "Add New RFP Requirements" and then "Import RFP Section". Go to the RFP file, select the portion you'd like to import, and copy it. You can select a small portion or a large portion. Try starting off small. Then return to MustWin Now, paste the portion of the RFP you'd like to import into the text area, and click "save". To create the headings, highlight the text with the cursor. A small menu will pop up. Click "Make highlight a new heading". Continue for each heading, and once finished click "Import to RFP". You decide how granular you want to the RFP requirements to be in MustWin Now. If you mark ever single heading, as in the example above, users will see lots of RFP requirements and when they click on them the full text will only be a sentence. You could import a section like the one above as a single item. When you mark things at a high level, the import goes faster than if you try to mark every single heading. The best way to decide how granular to go is to scan the original RFP source and determine whether all of the requirements will be addressed in a single proposal section or if they need to be cross-referenced separately. The ideal import will give every proposal writer the pieces they need and will enable cross-referencing across the relevant sections of the RFP. You don't want someone having to read or ignore portions that aren't relevant to them. And you do want them to be able to read everything that is relevant quickly and easy. Some RFPs will make this obvious and easy, other RFPs are more complicated and challenging to import. After import, the RFP requirements will appear under the heading for the type of RFP requirement you selected: To change RFP requirements after import, click on "Fix RFP Input". Here you can: Resequence RFP items to change the order they appear in by dragging them and dropping them. If you import the RFP in pieces, you might get the RFP items out of sequence. You can use this to feature to fix out of sequence RFP requirements. Merge separate RFP items to make them into one item. This is an advanced feature that enables you to combine RFP requirements that were imported as separate items but you would rather have as a single item. Mark RFP items that don't require a written response to show which items should be focused on. Sometimes RFPs include background and reference information that isn't intended as requirements and may not impact what needs to be written. You can mark them accordingly. Edit or replace an RFP item. If after import you realize that an item didn't past properly, you can use this to replace the content of that item. Viewing RFP requirements RFP requirements can also be sorted by type, requirements with notes, or requirements that need a response. You can select any of the RFP requirements from the right to read them, select whether or not they need a response, make notes on them, edit them, delete them, or turn into its own section. Advanced feature for importing large RFP sections The paste area for the RFP will remain until you have imported or deleted everything in it. Importing can be done iteratively, as a process of elimination. When the paste area is empty, you've finished your import. But you may have things that you don't need to import. Or the RFP may paste with extra lines. You can edit the portions of the RFP remaining to delete problematical pieces or fix other problems. This can be very useful when there is a problem. It can also be very confusing if you lose your place. So be careful. To try it, click on "Edit Remaining RFP Text" button. Pro tips RFPs sometimes contain complex formatting. And it may not translate properly during the copy and paste. Tables are often problematical. Images won't copy at all. Simple formatting like bold, underline, and italics may or may not appear just fine, depending on how the customer formatted the RFP. If something doesn't paste properly consider: Using Ctrl-Shift-V to paste may strip out the source formatting and just paste the text. The RFP text will look better if in MustWin Now if you do this, but you'll probably lose any bold, underline, or italics. You can edit the text and most of the formatting in the paste area. For example, you can delete extra lines that appear. You could delete a table that did not paste properly and instead add text telling the user to "See page #X of the printed RFP to view a table with its original formatting." Copy and pasting from Adobe Acrobat is the most problematical. Page headings and footers often import as if they were part of the narrative, requiring manual deletion. If you have the full version of Adobe Acrobat, you might have better luck converting the file to Microsoft Word format first and doing the copy and paste from there. You can import a section in pieces to avoid something problematical. You may be able to paste images and sometimes tables (especially from Microsoft Word). Try it. You can always delete them from the paste area if they don't turn out. MustWin Now basically ignores RFP heading numbers. They are just part of the heading. You can format them how you choose. Customers often invent strange heading numbering systems and then don't follow them. MustWin Now will paste whatever they put in the RFP. If their numbering is broken, you can choose to fix the numbers, make them complete, or leave them as they were in the source RFP. Advanced users can click on the "Source" button in the paste area and edit the formatting codes behind the scenes. The complexity of those codes will depends on how the RFP source was formatted. Break the codes and you might break how things get displayed.

MustWin Now has a tool for gathering pre-proposal capture questions and answers. It's flexible enough to be used simply to gather information or to prompt activity. It can be used instead of creating a document called a "Capture Plan." It can even be used if you have no capture management process and not capture managers. What this tool does is gather the answers to key questions so that you can turn them into win strategies and proposal themes. You can do this long before the RFP is released. Or shortly before. Obviously it is better to start early when you can do more research and prepare better answers. Related tools See also: Help using MustWin Now If you are starting at RFP release, you might want to skip this tool and just start using the Proposal Input Forms. They are similar, but designed to be used at proposal startup, when there's no time for further research and they focus on what you need to know to prepare the document. You can use either tool, both, or neither depending on your circumstances and preferences. All the Pre-Proposal Capture Q&A and Proposal Input tools do is gather information. After you have the answers to the questions, you can use the Win Strategy Development tool to figure out what to do about the intelligence you've gathered. The Win Strategy Development tool is where you turn raw intelligence into themes and actions items in the form of instructions for proposal writers. When the RFP is released the RFP Requirements Cross-Referencing tool will see the themes and instructions and enable you to map them to the proposal outline, just like you do the RFP requirements. When you start using the Proposal Content Planning tool, you'll already have that part of the plan complete. Expectations There are far more questions than you can possibly answers. This is on purpose. We can never get answers to all of the pre-proposal questions we have, but we do a better job when we know what answers we should be seeking. It's okay to skip questions you don't have answers for. In fact, that's better than responding with something trivial. The goal isn't to have an answer to every question, the goal is to discover pieces of incredibly useful intelligence that will increase your win probability. Understanding the screens When you click on the Pre-Proposal Capture Q&A tool, the first page you see will show you: A list of topics. Questions are grouped into topics you can think of as Q&A forms. You can decide which forms to add and use. Some forms may not be relevant to this proposal. And that's okay. Your progress in completing them. While the goal is not to reach 100% completion for each form, at least you can see what's been started. Any issues related to them. If you are not working alone, you can do this collaboratively. You can involve others, ask them questions, get advice, hold reviews, etc., simply by using the collaboration panel on the right. Issues related to Q&A forms show up on the dashboard. You decide whether to focus on issue resolution or answering more questions. Some features are just to enable you to speed things up or see what you need to see. You don't have to use them, but they may come in handy. At the top, you will see which forms are completed, and which still need to be worked on: At the bottom you will see any tasks/issues associated with the Pursuit Capture Forms. You can view them all, only view the ones assigned to you, or sort them. On the left, you will see a list of forms. You can choose whether to look at all of them, or only ones that haven't been answered yet. Each section can be collapsed or expanded by clicking the arrow to the right Adding new topics and forms To add more forms to the pursuit, make sure the "More questions you can add to this pursuit" menu is expanded and click the "+" next to the one you want to add. Next, choose who you'd like to assign for answering and adding insights and click "continue". Now this form will appear on the left. You can click on it to begin working on it. To answer the questions in this form, simply type in your answer and click "save". You can also make changes to the form by clicking "Form Actions" in the top right corner.

This is the collaboration form that appears throughout MustWin Now tool. It looks simple, but it can do a lot. For proposal managers, it can be used to issue and track assignments. For proposal contributors, it can be used to show what you've been assigned. Sometimes issues can be resolved with a simple phone call or email. But sometimes a phone call doesn't work and email can become unmanageable. You don't have to use MustWin Now for all of your collaboration, but if you do each item will be tracked and it won't get forgotten or overlooked. MustWin Now is designed so that in just a few clicks you've asked or done something trackable, and can move forward. Then you can work on the proposal as a process of elimination, crossing each item off the list as they get resolved. There are many different ways to collaborate. You can use it to make and track assignments, ask each other questions, report problems with the proposal, get tech support, discuss things, and more. Whenever something comes up, you should use it. This will enable all of the assignments, issues, and requests to be tracked and the ones that involve you will show up on your dashboard. Each of these options has a different purpose. If you select: See also: Help using MustWin Now Assign a task. This will enable you to assign another MustWin Now user to this section or item. You can even assign it to multiple people. And people can be assigned different roles, like being responsible for resolution, providing support for resolution, and being kept notified. You can close issues, and invite others or transfer the issue. Ask a question. If you have a question that comes up, you can submit it and it will be tracked. You don't even have to know who can answer it. It can be assigned later. Or someone can see it and volunteer an answer. Get multiple people involved and you can discuss it. It's intended to make it very easy to ask a question so that people don't get stuck or have to work around things they don't know or need clarification on. Report a potential problem, gap, or risk. Uh oh. Sometimes you realize that a section missed an RFP requirement. Or that an approach may have problems. Or you find something else that needs to be addressed. Maybe it's a problem, maybe not. With MustWin Now, in a few seconds you can simply click the option and report it. We encourage you to report all potential issues. Actually, we encourage you to over-report all potential issues. It's easy enough to click the submit button. If something is not a problem, it will get marked resolved. If it is a problem it can be tracked to resolution. One little unreported issue can ruin a perfectly good proposal. Ask an RFP question. If you are reading the RFP or writing a section and see something in the RFP that is confusing or in conflict with something else, you can use this option to bring it to the team's attention. It may be possible to ask the customer for clarification. Or you may have to work around it. But your team should consider it and act accordingly. Request a review of this item. Do you need someone to take a quick look at something you did? You can use this item to ask. Did you finish something and now it's ready for a review? Whether you have a formal proposal review process or not, you can use this option to check your work. Request an approval. If you want to know whether it's okay to say something, offer something, or take some action, you can ask the appropriate person for an approval. They can respond with a simple thumbs up/thumbs down. Or you can discuss it inside MustWin Now. Get tech support. The last thing we want is for you to get stuck because of a technical glitch or because you don't understand how to do something. So we're just a few clicks away. Feel free to ask or share your challenges. Quick and easy You don't have to enter much to report something. MustWin Now is designed to make reporting easy and you or the proposal manager can figure out the details later. To report something you click the pull down, market the severity, and describe it. If you want to complete the details, that would be nice. But MustWin Now will let you submit it with the bare minimum so that reporting something can be done in mere seconds. When you report an issue, it will be associated with the item currently on screen. So if it's an issue about an RFP item, go the page where you view that item. If it's a question about what to write, go to the page where you are planning the content for that section of the proposal. To report an issue, you must add the severity of the issue. Simply click red, yellow, or green: Red. Use this if you can't complete your assignment until it's resolved or it will impact win/loss. Or anything equally severe. Yellow. Use this if you're not stuck and can work around it, but it still might impact the proposal score. Or anything equally severe. Green. Use this to report minor issues. The next step is to add a description. This could be a question or something that let's people know what the potential issue is. If you want, you can also add detail about the issue you're having. Once you're finished with this, you can either click "submit" if you're done, or click "more details" if you want to add more. When you click submit, the issue will appear at the bottom of the issue list on the page. You have successfully reported your issue! Here's an example of how your issue might show up. This is an assignment item entered during the pre-proposal phase asking someone to complete a Q&A form. It gets displayed whenever someone is in the Pre-Proposal Capture Q&A tool so that those working on that activity can see the issues people are having. It will also be displayed on the personal dashboards of anyone assigned so they see the assignment, go to the right tool with just a click, and complete the assignment. It will also be displayed on the top-level pursuit dashboard, so that the pursuit as a whole can be managed. Details, details Or, if you want to add more information, you can click on "more details". If you click "more details", you will be taken to another page where you can add even more information about the issue. Steps 1, 3, and 5 were already completed on the previous page. But you can also: Use step 2 to describe the parent issue. Use this if you are reporting a smaller issue that should be associated with a bigger issue. Use step 4 to better detail the impact of the issue. Sometimes it's not obvious what will happen if an issue is not addressed. Use step 6 to add a due date. When is it due? Is there a review date? What about a deadline set by the customer? When you click "submit", your collaboration item will appear at the bottom of the page that the item is related to. When a task is in progress or has been completed, you can change the status of the task simply by clicking on it. This will bring you to a page where you can change the status of the task. Once it is marked as "complete", it appears on the page with a strikethrough, a green check mark, and the name of the person that completed it to let everyone know that it has been resolved.

Description You don’t create a proposal function and implement a new process that impacts other departments in a single step. It’s better to start simple and increase the sophistication over time. But where do you start? What is the least amount of process you can get away with? To understand this, you have to change how you think about process. It’s not about steps. You don’t start with fewer steps and add more over time. Instead, it’s about starting out with the right goals and improving your ability to fulfill them over time. Here is a basic list of goals that can get you started: See also: Capture management Start the proposal with the information required to win it. This means developing an information advantage. Be able to articulate what it will take to win. This means having an information advantage and that requires relationship marketing that starts before the RFP is released. This is easy to say and hard to do. It is the core of Capture Management. Define proposal quality as one that reflects what it will take to win. This means articulating quality criteria for how to assess whether the proposal reflects what it will take to win. Turn what it will take to win into instructions for writers and criteria for reviewers before you start writing. The better you become at Proposal Content Planning, the smoother the proposal will go, the better you will mitigate your proposal risks, and the higher you win probability will go. Validate the content plan prior to writing the narrative. Without this critical step, the proposal outline and win strategies will drift all over the place and who knows what the proposal will end up being. To achieve this goal, you need to build around it instead of trying to fit it in. Review what was written to ensure that it reflects the content plan as well as what it will take to win. Don't just review the proposal to make sure it sounds good. Review it against a standard. Proposal Content Planning and with written quality criteria provides that standard. Achieving the goals matters more than the procedures you follow. You can evolve those procedures over time to more reliably achieve the goals. To simplify the process even further, simply remove items from the list. Take a look and see which items can be deleted. If you can find any. You might also prioritize according to where you currently feel the most pain. Is it pre-RFP pursuit? Figuring out what should go into the proposal and how to present it? Achieving consistently effective reviews? There is a stream of information that integrates them all. In many ways, managing the flow of information is what Capture Management is. But you can get started without having the entire process fully integrated. You can get started by just focusing on one goal. To implement the process, start by being clear about what the goals are. Then think through how to achieve each one. The more you document the process, the easier it will be to set expectations. However, simply having the goals is a huge step for getting everyone on the same page. Forget formal process language or telling people every little detail. Start with what goals to achieve and questions to answer. Give people checklists, examples, and suggestions for inspiration. Each time you successfully prepare a proposal using this approach, raise the bar. Improve your approach. If you run into problems or challenges, then consider adding goals to prevent them in the future.

Customers clearly think that price matters. They are also concerned about risk. If the price is too low, the risk goes up. What they want are the features, but what they need is compliance with the specifications and anything they are required to comply with. Your best clue as to which of these matter the most is the evaluation criteria in the RFP. Look at how they evaluate each item and how much weight they give it. Then make sure that your offering and the points of emphasis in your proposal reflect their priorities. Risk is about trust, your approach to risk mitigation, and your past performance. Trust is developed through relationship marketing, demonstrated understanding and expertise, and transparency. Trust is important because people buy from people they trust. See also: Customer perspective But trust is difficult to specify or quantify in an RFP. This is the main reason why relationship marketing is so effective. So a risk averse customer will look at your approach to mitigating the risks (how well you understand what the risks are, as well as what you will do about them). They will also look at your past performance, since that is the easiest way to assess trustworthiness in an RFP. Keep in mind, when writing about risk mitigation or past performance, that the real underlying concern is trust. What your offering is, will provide, or will do matters to the customer. They’ll study your list of features because that can be itemized, but what they really want is the performance, results and benefits that result from those features. They also need compliance, both with the specifications they have written into the RFP and with any other things (laws, regulations, internal directives, etc.) that they have to comply with. When the customer assesses value, they look at the results or benefits of accepting your proposal, compared against the price. They also consider the likelihood of getting it at the price you proposed and whether you can/will deliver the benefits as described. In short, they consider whether they can trust your proposal. And they do all of this in comparison to any alternatives they may have (which can include doing nothing).

To build your proposal around what it will take to win, you must: Gather intelligence. Use the Readiness Reviews to gather intelligence about the opportunity, customer, and competitive environment. Assess what you learned. Based on the intelligence you gathered, articulate what it will take to win in the forms of lists so that you can base your win strategies and themes on it. Incorporate it into your Content Plan. To ensure that the proposal text reflects what it will take to win, you should include what it will take to win into the Content Plan. Validate that the finished proposal reflects what it will take to win. By using a Content Plan you can compare the narrative to the plan, which is in turn based on what it will take to win. The tricky part is the assessment, because that is where you turn it from a concept into the black ink on paper you need to win the proposal. To assess what it will take to win you must: See also: What it will take to win Be selective. If you end up with a list that has a dozen things on it, you won’t be able to take focused action. Some things are more important than others. Part of reason why you need to gather intelligence is to discover which they are. If you have a long list and you can’t prioritize it, you need to gather better intelligence until you can. Be articulate. If you can’t say what it will take to win in writing, then you don’t know what it will take to win. Even if you have limited information or must make assumptions, you should still build your proposal around what you think it will take to win, and you should keep working at it until you can articulate it. Be criteria driven. It will help if you articulate what it will take to win as criteria that can be used to review the proposal and guide the authors. Make it add up to something. When you add up the items you’ve said make up what it will take to win, does it add up to something compelling? Is there a relationship between them? Do they reinforce each other? Make it tell a story. Out of the relationship between the items you’ve said make up what it will take to win, common themes will likely emerge. Can they be woven into a story that will drive the proposal writing and be meaningful and memorable to the customer?

Transparency is the idea that the customer can see the status of all project components and all project data. When you operate transparently, the customer knows about problems as soon as you do, and knows everything you do about them. When you operate transparently, the customer can tell if you have kept all your promises. Transparency is about not giving yourself anywhere to hide, and making sure the customer knows it. Transparency requires that you actually do things the way you promised in the proposal. Approaches Transparency works best on transaction based projects. It works especially well in environments where you can track metrics. Transparency requires that you give customers access to your tracking systems. While you can give customers access to paper-based tracking systems, it’s easier when you have a web portal. It also works best when tracking is in real time. It is normal to submit monthly reports to the customer that track issues. It is exceptional when you provide real-time access to the system where issues are reported, tracked, and resolved. Being exceptional is how you win. Instead of preparing reports by hand-collating the data and selectively classifying and editing the data, a transparent solution enables the customer to see the data as it comes in with no room for someone in the middle to selectively choose what and how to report. The cheap and easy way to be able to claim transparency is to give your customers access to unfiltered data. But this is sometimes just a way of hiding in plain sight and can increase the burden on the customer to oversee your performance. With a little more effort, you can quantify, classify, and label things so that you can provide data summaries and roll-ups in a quick and easy to understand online dashboard format. Think about what the customer needs to see to verify your performance and make that the first thing they see, preferably with a graphic display. Then enable them to drill down to the underlying data if they want. If you have an online system like this for managing and reporting project data, consider adding analytics features to it, not only for your use but for the customer’s as well. With analytics you can discover interesting correlations, like the ratio of problems to successes, the amount of effort consumed by problems vs. successes, the ROI for prevention efforts, the impact of adding staff on turnaround time, etc. When done right, this will give you plenty of facts to cite in future recompetes, and may also help justify contract modifications or changes to future RFPs. Sample Transparency Themes When you operate transparently, you can make statements like these: You will be able to see issues as soon as we do and you will see what we are doing to resolve them as soon as we do it. It’s more difficult to operate this transparently, because it gives us no place to hide. But we think the results make it worth it. At any point that you have a question about the status, you will be able to get an immediate answer from the same source we would consult ourselves. Unlike our competitors, we will have to meet every specification and keep every promise because you will be able to see any deviations. Operating this transparently lowers the oversight burden, because you have any information you wish to look at, when you wish to look at it, and can pick and choose where to focus your attention.

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? ApproachesDifferent goals can drive the need for training on a project. Training may be necessary for the use and adoption of specific tools, techniques, or solutions, or for more general, ongoing skills enhancement. Audiences can vary as well — training may be required for client staff, project staff, or others. When training is addressed in the Technical Approach, it is usually in the context of the particular aspect of the solution being discussed. When training is addressed in the Management Plan, the emphasis is generally on scheduling and administration of training, and training roles and responsibilities StrategiesIf the RFP does not require training, providing it anyway can be a competitive advantage. Training is often included as an after-thought, without much detail. Even when training is required, you can add value by providing it to more audiences, in more ways, and at more locations.

See also: Creating a proposal content plan Content Plans are flexible. You can use them on simple, quick turnaround proposals or large complicated proposals. You can use them on proposals with strong centralized management and planning, and you can use them on decentralized highly collaborative proposals. In addition to figuring out what to say in your proposal, you can use Content Plans to provide training, guidance, communication, and even issue tracking. It helps to focus on the fundamentals. At its core, a Content Plan does two things: Sets expectations for writers so they know what they have to do to create the right proposal. Provides a set of specifications for reviewers to use to determine whether the authors achieved what they were supposed to achieve. The most important thing about implementing a Content Plan is not the appearance or the format, but the review. If you do not thoroughly review your Content Plan prior to writing, then your writers and reviewers may not be working from the same set of expectations. This is critically important.

Sometimes the customer needs you for ongoing services. Sometimes they need something created. And sometimes they need help solving a problem. When customers are procuring services, they face a lot of intangibles. When companies sell services, their capabilities may only be limited by their ability to hire people to do the work. This creates an environment in which the contractors tend to pursue anything they can and all look the same to the customer. It doesn’t help that most service contractors routinely claim to be “the most experienced” as their primary positioning. In this environment, positioning is even more important. To win, you need the customer to perceive your company as the best alternative for what they need when considered in the context of the competitive environment. And yet all the companies look the same and hire from the essentially the same labor pools. Sometimes the customer needs you for ongoing services. Sometimes they need something created. And sometimes they need help solving a problem. In each case, the way you should position your company to win is very different. Operations, Maintenance, Support, and Other Ongoing Services. The key issues for most customers who need ongoing services are coverage and efficiency. They need you there in the right places, at the right times, with the right qualifications. But they are almost always concerned with cost. And they need you to be responsive when issues come up and flexible as their needs change over time. They need to be confident that day in and day out you will be compliant with any rules, directives, policies, or procedures that are applicable to their environment. There will be a reason why they don’t just hire their own staff to do the ongoing work, and your positioning should demonstrate awareness of that, because it may represent a goal they are trying to fulfill. Since the customer lacks tangible specifications, they will usually focus on staff qualifications and experience in order to have something specific to evaluate. Experience needs to be related to customers concerns. For this customer, it might translate into efficiency or risk mitigation. Similarly, with quality, because there is no specific deliverable, it may really be about risk mitigation. Deliverables. When the customer needs something created, they are highly goal-driven. But their goals are more tangible than they are for customers with ongoing support needs. Whether they are asking for a vendor to create a building, a ship, or a report it’s still tangible. They want it delivered on schedule within budget and meeting all specifications. For this customer issues are more specific. For example quality and risk mitigation are usually about cost, schedule, or specifications. When the customer has a tangible deliverable in mind, the relevance of experience to what the customer wants delivered becomes more important. Since this is a goal driven customer, positioning against fulfilling the goal will be as important as (if not more important than) positioning against your ability to deliver. This customer usually has two key issues: what will you create and can they trust you to deliver it as promised? It is very important to make your offering a tangible vision they can trust. Solutions. Customers with problems to solve or challenges to overcome are curiously often the most risk averse. If they can’t solve it themselves, how can they know that you’ll be able to (let alone do it on schedule and within budget)? They have to trust you a lot in order to select you. Customers who are procuring solutions are highly goal driven and results focused. Their goal or the reason they need the problem solved may be as important to them as your approach. They want a solution that makes them better off and helps them achieve their goals. Customers who are procuring solutions tend to be less concerned about the components and more concerned with the results. They may need a wider variety of skills and expertise. They may or may not realize that. Solution vendors will often have far more expertise than the customer. This is important to remember, because the customer will be conducting the evaluation. Sometimes customers bring in consulting experts to help them perform the evaluation. The customer knows the result they are looking for, just not how to best achieve it. You may need to subtly help them understand how to make their decision. A customer’s service needs can often be framed as problems to solve. This works to the advantage of companies with strong expertise in many areas or when customers are results focused or lack subject matter expertise. It can also be a pricing strategy. Positioning In most services bids you can position as a provider of: Ongoing services or support; Deliverables; or Solutions Sometimes this will be obvious based on what the customer is asking for, but sometimes it won’t be. If you are careful and don’t present a mixed message, you may be able to position as more than one. For example, for a customer procuring training services you might position as a support services provider or as a performance solutions provider. It really depends on the nature of the customer’s needs and goals. However, the way you decide to position can have a major impact on whether the customer selects you. The different expectations, concerns, and motivations of customers in each of these areas creates an opportunity to present your offering in a way that will make it sound like a better match for their needs, even if it’s essentially the same as what the other vendors are offering.

Circumstance Sometimes the customer tells you exactly what to bid. Other times, they tell you what the problem or need is and ask you to propose a solution. When they tell you what to bid, everybody is bidding the same thing and it’s hard to stand out from the pack. Approaches When everybody is bidding the same thing, to establish a better value you must either: Offer more than what they asked for. If you focus on the deliverables, this can be challenging, because delivering more usually means incurring higher costs. And when everyone is bidding the same thing, cost gets a lot more attention. The trick is to identify things that you would either do anyway, or can do without adding cost. Provide a better way for them to get what they asked for. Better delivery terms, quality assurance, risk mitigation, faster delivery, training, and better maintenance are all examples of ways to add value. Don’t just meet the requirements, be the company that can deliver their goals. It’s not about you. If the customer can get what they want from anyone, then who cares about the company providing it? It won’t matter unless you make it matter, but it’s got to matter to them. Relate everything you will deliver to helping them fulfill their goals. Be more credible and trustworthy. You want the customer to believe they have a better chance of actually getting what they want from you. People buy from businesses they trust. A performance history, references, demonstrations, samples, insurance, back-up and risk mitigation plans, transparency, real-time reporting, availability, guarantees, and clear, un-evasive speech/writing are all things that can reinforce trust. Write a better proposal. When everybody is bidding the same thing, the way you describe and position yourself matters a whole lot more. Once you’ve established credibility and trust, it’s important to tell the right story. If they can get what they are asking for from anyone, why would they want to get it from you? If everybody is offering the same thing, then outside of the price all they have to impact their decision is your proposal. So what kind of story does it tell?

Circumstance The RFP will be awarded to the lowest priced, technically acceptable offer. This means that if an offer is compliant and meets the specifications, it will win if it has the lowest price. Better quality offers will lose if their price is not the lowest. Best value is not considered. Approaches See also: Pricing When the standard is LPTA, you have no incentive to exceed the requirements if it is going to cost more. In fact, the incentive is to keep your costs as low as possible, even if it means barely scraping by when it comes to meeting the specifications. LPTA also changes your bid strategies in other ways. You won’t get extra points by going beyond the requirements. You get the most points by being credible. Strategy #1: Focus on credibility When everyone is lowballing the price, the customer has to really believe that you are going to deliver. So everything you do during the bid pursuit, from your relationship with the customer, to how you describe what you do in writing, should be done to maximize credibility. When is a price too low to believe? Because different people will answer that question differently, it’s not just a question of “what” to believe, but also one of “who” to believe. Your credibility determines whether you are believable. Strategy #2: Define price realism You can also try to influence how they define price realism. If the winning price is not realistic, then the winner will not deliver as promised. The customer should be on guard for this. But you can help them. For example, you can identify what items must be accounted for in the pricing so that the project does not fail. If anything on the list is not present or accounted for, then the pricing is questionable. You may also be able to cite examples of minimum costs for some items. You should try to identify things that you would like to include and that your competitors would not like to include. You should also try to identify things will raise the bar for lower priced competitors. Defining price realism works best when you can make your suggestions to the customer early enough to get them written into the RFP. Strategy #3: Influence what technically acceptable means You can also try to influence what is technically acceptable. If your approach exceeds the requirements, then you want that to become the requirement so that you can get the points, make life more difficult for your competitors, and keep them from undercutting your pricing with a lesser solution. Strategy #4: Focus on scope and not on rates Companies that lose on price often do it because they scoped the job too large. It wasn’t that their rates were too high or that they charged too much. It was because they offered to do more work that was minimally acceptable. People have a tendency to take into consideration everything that might be done, or try to offer quality by making sure all of the bases are covered. They include too much. They overbid. While you should be concerned about under bidding and not being able to perform (because negative past performance will kill your future), you need to get comfortable with minimal bidding in an LPTA evaluation. Conclusion: LPTA means you have to challenge whether a low price is really low, and whether a solution is really technically acceptable. It does no good to complain about losing on price with a superior solution. You have to anticipate the issues early and change the definition of LPTA to match your superior solution. If you have not influenced the solicitation, then all you can do is provide your rationale with your pricing and technical proposal and hope they consider it. Or you can get lean and mean and compete on price. Which brings us back to the issue of credibility. Contractors will be bidding lower prices and their performance will be impacted. Expect customers to pay more attention to past performance and references. Taking care of your performance track record will be an important part of establishing your credibility when it comes to having a LPTA solution. As the pendulum swings, don't be surprised if LPTA brings back super LONG RFPs that try to specify every little thing. Remember, the incentive for the bidder is to be minimally and literally compliant. People will be sticking more closely to the letter of the contract and not doing any extras. So the RFPs will have to specify it all. It’s just a matter of time before people realize that this isn’t actually saving any money, that rational people don’t buy things for themselves this way, and then the pendulum will swing the other way and bring back “best value.”

Circumstance Sometimes the customer tells you exactly what to bid. Other times, they tell you what the problem or need is and ask you to propose a solution. When they ask for a solution it can be hard to decide what to offer. Approaches Teach them what matters. They have to figure out how to compare apples and oranges. Instead of leaving it to them to figure out, you can help them by pointing out what matters. And if in your proposal they see the company with the best understanding of what matters, that’s a definite plus. The customer will first compare you against what they want. Before they consider how your proposal compares to the competition, and before they consider how well your proposal is presented, they ask whether what you are offering will meet their needs. If you are proposing a solution, the company with the best understanding of what the customer wants has a significant advantage. It is critical to resolve issues and tradeoffs like long-term vs. short-term, quality/speed/price, centralized vs. decentralized, etc., the same way the customer would. So how well do you know their preferences? Risk mitigation rules. They are placing a lot of trust in you when they don’t specify what to bid. How do they know that what you are proposing will work, meet their needs, and get delivered on time and on budget? Trust is a lot more important as well. But they really need to know that you’ve thought it through, have anticipated the challenges, and are going to be able to overcome them. What are they actually going to get? They’ve asked you to figure it out. Now they have to pick between proposals that are all different. So they want to look past the intangibles and focus on what they are actually going to get so they have something to compare. When they look at your proposal, how long does it take them to figure out what they are going to get? It’s all about the results. They’ve asked for a solution, so where does yours get them? This is where your ability to tell your story really matters. If they pick you, where will they end up? What will that future look like? Will it get them excited? The company that understands them will tell the right story. The company that says they understand but doesn’t paint the right picture for the future really doesn’t understand them at all.