This article is the first article of our “Opportunity Development” series.

Proposal basics are often overlooked, one of our proposal consultants with over 25+ years of experience retells a simple but powerful solution to win more bids.

The Most Powerful Words In Bidding Government Jobs

I do not remember who I stole this from but if I am lucky, neither of us will remember.

About a million years ago, I was attending yet another “this is my secret sauce for winning government bids” lectures when something struck me about this one. That something was a tidbit from Business School that said – sometimes the best solutions are the simplest ones. And that day’s Secret Sauce went like this… THE 13 MOST POWERFUL WORDS IN BIDDING GOVERNMENT JOBS ARE:

To win, you must beat the competition in the minds of the evaluators.

At the time I felt the overwhelming need to add the 14th  and 15th words. They were “Well DUHHHHH.” Nothing groundbreaking here, for sure. But then it dawned on me that this incredibly simple and obvious statement really said it all.

What was our job? TO WIN (while staying on budget and schedule of course).

How would we beat the competition? BY ACCURATELY PREDICTING THEIR BID/WIN STRATEGY (and then develop or modify our strategy to beat theirs).

How would I know what the evaluators want? BY ACCURATELY PREDICTING THEIR AWARD DECISION AND CRITERIA (and delivering their most important requirements, within our proposal).

Getting Back to the Proposal Basics

If you are finding yourself “surprised” by recent losses. Or you are watching your Capture/B&P dollars turn to vapor with inadequate results, OCI can help you get back to the basics of winning while avoiding LPTA decisions. We offer best practices training and guidance for: Customer and Environmental analyses; Competitor analyses; and Self Analyses followed by Price to Win strategies/approaches that result in improved Pwin.

Back to the proposal basics. Start early – do your homework – define the win before you commit to the bid.

Proposal Basic