Business Capture: Understanding the Challenges

Business capture and proposal writing:  Anyone who has done it knows how hard it is and how demanding of time. Training courses don’t teach the detailed “how to”  – at least not until now…

I started off my career as a system engineer thinking it was normal to work to the wire every time - including throughout the night, the night before a deadline. Typically it was teams of short tempered, bleary eyed people rushing about with not much time to spare for pleasantries. Working on a bid, answering a RFQ or ITT where no, or little, preparation has been completed ahead of receiving the paperwork is merciless.

Having to understand the requirement, develop and cost a solution and write a proposal in a very short time period is hard and frequently involves working overnight in the vinegar strokes of the proposal, in addition to keeping on top of day jobs! Often there was nothing of substance written with only a week to go.  To the novice it always seemed doomed to failure. However, our company had some extremely capable people who always came through with the goods needed.

They work among us...

There were 4, at that time, very gifted, big-hitting superheroes in the company with boundless energy who, it seemed, in addition to their day jobs could design, develop, prototype, test and – most importantly – write in support of bids and proposals. Very well and in spades.  They were also very commercially aware and understood engineering and engineering production. Costing was straightforward, if a little bit skin-of-the-teeth when preliminary designs were late arriving; and risk was catered for almost intuitively. Pretty much every RFP or ITT for which a proposal was submitted was won. They were very highly regarded in the company – by management and colleagues alike.   Smaller bids would be written by an individual. For medium sized opportuities a bid team seemed to need 2 of them.  Larger opportunities demanded all of them to ensure innovation and brilliance was applied to all aspects of the proposal.  Much was achieved by these few because they were driven, multi-skilled and each understood the company proposal “process” – it was in their heads – but they had worked at the company for long enough that they – and those who worked with them – understood what was required at all times.

This worked well while the company was still relatively small. But the work won caused the company to grow – complete with growing pains and the superheroes were also the people the company relied on to fix wayward programmes. They began to be spread too thinly and couldn’t support everything. The wins became less frequent.

As organisations grow and people join (and leave), there has to be less reliance on a small tight knit group of people who act as one mind and process is needed to ensure that everybody understands what is to be done, how and by whom.  This is true across the board but particularly true for busines capture activities, which are characterised by an intense short period of work (1-6 months) which encompasses all of the skill sets usually found in full development programmes. Old hands, new starters alike – including extra superheroes - need to be able to work cohesively within a commonly understood framework. Knowing what and how to do something, and by when.

For me, reviewing it many years later, the anecdote epitomises the challenge which faces managers budgeting to win new business in support of their strategic plan:

You need superheroes to win - but need process too, so everyone knows what to do!

• Gaining early understanding of the requirement and customer
• Apply the superheroes’ minds (and energy) early
• Complete everything possible outside of the proposal period - define process; obtain Teaming Partners; produce prototypes/demonstrators; identify major risks and establish mitigation; education of team members(requirement and process); etc .
• Leave the bid period for writing the proposal and generating the final costs

These are a little tongue-in-cheek. In practice, few companies can achieve 100% of each of these. But there is no harm in setting ideal goals!

Learn business capture skills and proposal writing at www.businesscapturemastery.com.  Business Capture Mastery has been established to engage with practitioners; provide an online course and blog and podcast about successful business capture.

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