The goal of every business is to remain in business. In order to do that, the business has to make a profit. True, that may be a long term goal. It’s entirely possible that a business may make money one year and lose money the next — but at the end of the day, profit [...]

Let me start by acknowledging that when people say the federal contracting arena is complicated, it’s because of concepts like Total Evaluated Price (TEP).  After 30 years in the telecommunications and Federal industries, I’ve figured it out—and our team’s understanding of this and other federal-specific words and phrases has helped our clients win more than [...]

Time was when incumbents nearly always won the day in the federal marketplace. Typically, service contracts repeat themselves at the end of a 3–5 year contract period, and, despite the incumbent’s inherent advantage, federal agencies allow these contractors to bid on the repeat contract.

One of the most important and valuable elements of an effective competitive assessment—as well as a solid capture strategy—is assessing who is the “team to beat,”  the competitor in the strongest position to win. This process highlights the areas where you need to strengthen your capture and proposal efforts so that you can outmaneuver the [...]

In a perfect world, the government customer would always know exactly what they want, would always publish clear and thorough solicitation documents in a timely manner, and would explicitly and clearly explain how they plan to evaluate you and your competitors to make an award decision. Unfortunately, we do not live in a perfect world. [...]

It may seem rather obvious that the first step in competing for a federal contract would be to try to understand what the customer is actually asking for. Isn’t that just common sense? And yet a surprising number of companies make the mistake—consciously or subconsciously—of underemphasizing this fundamental principle. Consequently, the resultant proposals are either [...]

In today’s federal marketplace, anyone can compete for business. And anyone can win—at least some of the time. It’s the possible losses, however, that can provide more than experience to learn from—they can, at times, be ruinous. Therein lies the rub. Because opportunity incurs costs—in resources, bid and proposal feeds, and your staff’s time, smart [...]

Can you afford NOT to know what your customer can afford? Your company has products and services to offer, and you have identified a customer who needs them (or something like them) and plans to procure them (competitively, of course).  But the question is-- what can they afford?  This is a simple question, but one that is all too often neglected by capture teams too focused on the features and [...]

We all know federal contracting can be a bit disorganized. Between delays, duplicate contracts, and a tedious process, at times, we are all left scratching our heads, thinking, “There has to be a better way to do this!” That is where category management comes in. The Federal Government has made a push for agencies to [...]

“It is wiser to find out than to suppose”. – Mark Twain Many organizations and capture leaders understand and appreciate the value of Price to Win analysis in enhancing Pwin. Unfortunately, some view Price to Win as a standalone activity that does not require Competitive Analysis to support it. For those who are not familiar [...]