Key Solutions Blog

Lately I have come across a myriad of blog posts, articles, conferences and stories detailing a mysterious and ominous Federal Government Category Management initiative.  I decided to do more research on the subject. I noticed two things immediately:

According to many contracting officers, there is no such thing as over communicating when it comes to bidding on a contract. The most successful government contractors will ask the contracting officer intelligent and thoughtful questions to gain the most information possible about the Request for Proposal (RFP).

This strategy will help you create a well scored proposal.

Remember 5^th grade English Class? Learning to write essays meant being handed a topic you didn't like, trying to abide by a difficult deadline, feeling forced to write and revise multiple versions, and finally receiving useless comments from the teacher you are convinced hates you.

Since it's St. Patrick’s Day, I got to thinking about some of the Irish legends, and the first one that came to mind was the legend of the Blarney Stone.

The most vulnerable point in the business development continuum is the handoff from capture manager to proposal management. This transfer to the proposal team seems to fail often. But why is that?

We see this time after time- the capture team creates a strong, defensible win strategy that by all measures should give the company an excellent chance of prevailing over the competition, but it never gets fully implemented by the proposal team management despite best intentions by all parties.  

If you are an incumbent contractor, doing a respectable job, but have a nagging fear of customer “incumbent-itis” as the contract recompete date draws closer and closer, here’s a strategy and best practice that can help solidify your chances for winning:

People in our industry are wondering to what extent today’s government contracting market conditions represent a “new normal.” And, if not, they wonder how soon can we expect a return to the “good old days?”

The government's use of oral presentations as part of the proposal process rises and falls like waves in the ocean depending on the prevailing philosophy at the moment. 

We are often asked, sometimes too late, if the incumbent program manager should be assigned as the Capture and/or Proposal Manager for the recompete.

Like it or not, as a Proposal Manager your attitude is infectious. For better or worse, you set the tone that others see and internalize.