Allawos & Company

Business Development and Capture Program

The business development and capture process is a fluid and dynamic process with no real one solution or method for winning. There are many personalities, needs, wants and desires playing into this process on both sides of the equation. Somewhere between 40-80 percent of all proposals let, already have a desired winner or outcome, which increases the challenge as well as the forward planning process.

Allawos & Company, LLC illustrates below the many services that can be contracted for. All or part of our services may complement your ongoing in-house efforts. Our services are listed below. They are flexible to suit your need. We have 5 main categories for managing a successful capture program:

  • Competitive Intelligence Gathering
  • Creating the Technical Proposal
  • Developing the Executive Summary
  • The Proposal Red Team
  • Managing the Follow-up, Marketing of the proposal

Contract Capture Planning

We create a business plan to capture the desired area of business, focusing our energies on long term as well as short term objectives. Thus, verifying we are on track and our customer has confidence that we are attentive to their needs. Customer satisfaction is of prime importance. Their satisfaction demonstrates that our company knows their needs, simplifies their work process, and gives advice that is sound.

Our capture planning is the process of identifying opportunities, assessing the environment and implementing team strategies oriented toward capturing a specific business opportunity. We will prepare a strategic plan with strategies and tactics that will be followed and modified throughout the process.

We can assist with the entire capture process, working in close collaboration with your company’s business development lead, account, capture manager or take on the complete process.

  • Our capture plan consists on the following services and process for a positive capture outcome:
  • Competitive intelligence gathering as outline above
  • Customer identification and market analysis
  • Customer analysis including key buyer and buying influences identification
  • Customer needs, wants and desires
  • Capture Plan preparation
  • Customer Contact Plan development
  • Verifying the opportunities
  • Developing possible solution
  • Technical Paper preparation
  • Market positioning and opportunity assessment
  • Competitive analysis
  • Assistance in partnerships/subcontractor identification and  teaming plan
  • Strategy development to obtain a high score on the evaluationfactors
  • Program/system implementation
  • Theme / Branding development
  • Management plan preparation
  • Executive summary
  • Red team
  • Presentation prior to final submission
  • Submission
  • Marketing
  • De-briefing

Competitive Intelligence Gathering

Know your customer; know your competition; know yourself and your abilities. Competitive intelligence is a process. The process is a systematic means of acquiring, analyzing, and evaluation. Consequently, the next stages of process will be successful.

  • Identifying and owning the core competency of your organization
  • Identifying the best technique for gathering intelligence
  • Identifying the best fit of human capital for the process
  • Detecting and preventing information distortion
  • Identifying the current environment
  • Develop an intuition for the future environment
  • Debate the economic, political, technological, or market-related factors
  • Identify and compensate for exposed weaknesses
  • Contiguously improve the existing strategy to the changing environment
  • Determine when a strategy is no longer sustainable
  • The intelligence process
  • Review the geo-political landscape
  • Decide what questions need to be answered any by who
  • Gather and process relevant information
  • Analyze the information relative to the questions to be answered
  • Disseminate the results to the team (together everyone achieves more)
  • Analytical techniques
  • Strength & weakness: Do we have what it takes to get into this line of business?
  • Financial analysis: Are our current ratios in line with the industry?
  • Industry segmentation: Are we focused in the right area, customers & personnel?
  • Technology assessment: Are we in our core competencies with this technology?
  • Benchmarking: How do we rank on the issues (tech., spending) vs. competition?
  • Critical success factors: Are currency rates key to our success?
  • Management profiles: Can management work with the customer
  • Are there any past issues to deal with?
  • Industry scenarios: Are there future issues that will affect customer relationship?
  • Synergy analysis: Should we approach competitors for possible joint ventures?
  • Portfolio analysis: What are the expected capital outlays?
  • The product: How does our product / service compare with the competition?

RFP Analysis

It’s been said an RFP is “A riddle wrapped in an enigma”
Uncover the real requirements; uncover the not so-obvious clues. Discover the customer’s discriminators. What is the hidden agenda?

  • How the customers develop the RFPs
  • Finding and dealing with hidden RFP elements
  • Multi-Level, evaluation systems and their impacts
  • Simulating your customer’s proposal evaluation guide

Benchmarking

  • Use the above customer research criteria to outline the benchmarking selection
  • Benchmark all relevant business functions
  • Measure the performance in functions for the best-in-class companies

Creating the Technical Proposal

The customer wants to know will it work. Will the program / product work to the contract specifications. The customer wants to know if your idea is superior to your competition. Do you have the best solution?

  • Developing and implementing a successful technical strategy
  • Displaying and proving the superiority of your product or service
  • The technical proposal is an effective “selling” document
  • Optimal technical proposal layouts
  • Creating an effective team within the organizations departments
  • Determining complete organizational buy in and successful implementation

Developing the Executive Summary

The executive summary is the most important section and must be addressed at the very end of the proposal process.

  • Enhancing the executive summaries to positively influence the proposal evaluation
  • Highlighting the organization’s claim to fame
  • Making the first positive impression overshadow the entire proposal
  • Organizing the content to be intuitive and completely answer the questions in their entirety
  • Making the Executive summary “pop” with enthusiasm

he Proposal Red Team

An objective reality check from a fresh, unbiased, customer based viewpoint. Successfully done, a Red Team can turn a loser into a successful capture. A Red Team needs a committee with a Chairman driving the process.

  • Creating rules for an effective Red Team
  • Emulating Your Customer’s Techniques
  • Maximizing Red Team Feedback
  • Properly Controlling the Changes
  • Implementation in a timely manner

Managing the Follow-up

It is essential with using the above mentioned intelligence gathering, to perform the appropriate amount of proposal follow-up, helping guide the process both internally as well as externally. Preparing your valuable intelligence for other ongoing proposals that might be in a parallel course and can be modified for success through this process.

Being prepared for customer changes or signs of down selection possibilities as well as best and final scenarios, can give your organization an advantage.