Win strategy development using MustWin Now
Converting the intelligence you've gathered into insights and action items so you can drive them into the document
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
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.
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