The key to increasing the win rate of your company is qualifying federal business opportunities at the beginning of the development process. To participate strongly in competitive procurements is important that certain activities are performed appropriately and in the right order. This is critical to establishing the basis of an efficient capture management process.
Each company has different policies and adjusts their capture management process according to their company management structure. The very first step should be defining your process and determine the activities that you’re going to implement. Some of the fundamental procedures that must be followed to impressively result in better win rates are:
- Qualifying the right lead
Your capture management team should only fill your pipeline with opportunities that fit your company. They should assess the federal procurement and make a decision to pursue it. You should only qualify the lead that is consistent with your strategic plan for company growth and long-term business goals.
- Creating a Capture Plan and Find Resources
Capture manager must create a Compliance Matrix to develop a realistic and accomplishable plan which can be achieved within the scheduled timeframe in order to meet program objectives. They should also find the right resources to support the proposal writing team advance proposal competitiveness.
- Understanding the Customer’s Objectives
Before even thinking about responding to a government RFP, the capture team must analyze every section of the solicitation and fully understand the requirements and objectives of the funding agency. How else can you prepare a proposal if you don’t understand what the customer is asking for and what are their expectations?
By fully understanding their scope of work, your capturing team will be able to present your solution to the problem in the best way possible.
- Assessing Competition and Risk
Competitive assessment is the best way to obtain good intelligence on competitors, the value of similar contracts in order to develop a plan that can drive up your P-Win. Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors can allow your capture management exploit their discriminators and compete in opportunities where you are more positioned to obtain the contract award. Based on the result of the research you can define your win strategy and establish the price to win.
- Planning and executing a teaming strategy
A well-organized work where every team is assigned to a particular activity heavily impacts the outcome of the project. Everyone has specific roles, responsibilities, and duties which must be well-rounded especially when processes are integrated from one team to another (e.g. capture management team à proposal development team). The capture team must also be able to select teaming partners to discuss agreements.
- Establishing a price to win
Most of the contract awards are made based on best quality, but pricing is very important as well. After the market assessment, you’ll be able to establish a price based on expected competitor pricing. Make sure to have a realistic approach when estimating the value of the contract. Overestimating can result in losing the opportunity, whereas underestimating can result in underperforming the job after winning the award.
