While many Federal Capture efforts follow the highly effective Shipley Method or a modified version of it, many more suffer from what is known throughout the US watching world as a unique US phenomenon - “Super-Sizing”.
That is, many organizations impose additional requirements on the de facto industry standard that actually complicate, but don’t necessarily enhance, a successful, cost-effective Federal Capture effort. One such trigger event occurs after a big loss.
Today, many Federal Contractor organizations are facing increased competition for their base, as well as a shrinking list of new opportunities. They lose base because they lose their re-competes.
When they lose their bids, many organizations think they need additional process and review. So, many organizations institute a more cumbersome capture management process as a permanent “improvement” to reverse what they suspect may be a downward trend in win rates.
Expected Reviews vs Extra Reviews
While the additional process may help for a few new large competitive captures, they often don’t make sense for the majority of smaller efforts which may constitute a surprisingly large portion of the organizations’ orders. Worse still, organizations often never revisit or question the continued need for the extra process - 3 months or 6 months later for example.
The result is that capture management teams can quickly get overloaded. Instead of empowering captures to be more efficient so they can increase Pwin, the additional process and review creates an environment of oversight that requires more time from the capture management team to report to management, and less time to go through the BD process and conduct critical activities to increase Pwin.
Reviews of new business efforts are the responsibility of leadership. Additional reviews beyond established BD process defined reviews are tempting. It is important to scrutinize the workload of capture teams to ascertain if the additional reviews are necessary and persistent. In the end, if the additional process is not given a “shelf-life”, your Pwin may actually get worse before it improves.
Resist the “Super-sized” solution.
Contested Spaces Associates, LLC
The consultants at Contested Spaces Associates, LLC (CSAL) organize like a cooperative guild. We know how to win and grow business. We are constantly learning from one another. We are experienced in strategy, capture management, and winning proposals. Shipley trained, we all possess clearances and decades of experience in adapting the capture process to each specific situation. Contact us today –