Top 10 Government Proposal Management Challenges and How to Overcome Them Webinar Preview

OST Global Solutions, Inc. Copyright © 2013
www.ostglobalsolutions.com ● Tel. 301-384-3350 ● service@ostglobalsolutions.com
Page 1
Top 10 Proposal
Management Challenges
(And How to Overcome Them)
Webinar (Preview)
OST Global Solutions, Inc.
…Because There is No Second
Place in Proposals™

Page 2
About the Presenter
 Won $19 billion for 4 out of the
top 5 largest government
contractors, dozens of 8(a)
businesses, and other
companies
 President of the Association of
Proposal Management
Professionals’ (APMP) National
Capital Area chapter
 Prior to starting OST, won
business for Lockheed Martin
and Raytheon and wrote for the
Financial Times of London
 Founder, Bid & Proposal
Academy
 Author, How to Get Government
Contracts: Have a Slice of a $1
Trillion Pie
Olessia Smotrova-
Taylor, AF.APMP
President & CEO
OST Global Solutions, Inc.
Get your copy on
Amazon

Page 3
OST Global Solutions, Inc. Profile
Metro Washington DC proposal house
government contractors with end-to-end BD
support and training
Thought leader in the BD
field, with Bid & Proposal
Academy courses attended
by the top Federal
contractors
900+ fully vetted capture and proposal
managers, technical writers, graphic
artists, orals coaches, editors, subject
matter experts, and other proposal support
Track record supporting
18 out of the top 20
Federal Contractors,
winning $19 Billion
since 2005

Page 4
Challenges
 Tracking proposal management
challenges for the past 8 years
- Reviewing global survey results
- Keeping logs
- Reading literature
- Attending APMP events
 Launched LinkedIn discussions
on top 3 proposal management
challenges
 Results: Challenges largely remain the same, although the order
may have changed
 Similar in commercial and government markets, across the world
 How we resolve them is most important; some of them are
harder to resolve than others
With the challenges remaining largely the same for years, the question is how to fix
them once and for all
Download the Full Slides
Presentation of this Free Webinar at
www.ostglobalsolutions.com/training/webinars

Page 5
Challenge 10, Repeating the Mistakes
Lessons observed are not lessons learned; learning the lessons takes a concerted
effort
 Wrong type of recycling
 Demoralizing for the team
 Process is consistently ad-hoc
 Solution:
- Document your lessons learned twice:
after the proposal and after the debrief
- Use structured approach to collect
feedback
- Upload your lessons learned document to
a common access area
- Review the file prior to the next proposal

Page 6
Challenge 9: Indiscriminant Use of Boilerplate,
Without Being Responsive or Customer-Focused
 Using boilerplate is as OK as using
someone else’s toothbrush (Jay Herther)
 Read every proposal section to check
if the content is rotten
 Don’t get stuck on writing quality –
look for substance above all
 Spot the usual offenders:
- Cut-and-paste
- Off-topic writing
- Bland fillers and lack of substance
- Missing “how”
- Lack of benefits language, etc.
 ID specific gaps: 8Ws, checklist questions, compliance items
 Devise a recovery strategy

Page 7
 Finding an elusive person
in no time is hard
- 20 years of experience, low
salary
- Ph.D., PMP, TS/SCI with
Poly
- “If he or she had all of that,
then he or she should not
be looking for work”
Challenge 8: Difficulties with Personnel Staffing in
Services and Solutions Proposals
 Use a staffing expert, with a candidate “factory” in place
 Start early, use key personnel matrices
 Count on unexpected curveballs to result in all-nighters
 Shoot for Plan B, C, and D

Page 8
Challenge 7: Operating in the Dark While Pricing or
Not Joining the New Realities
 Some companies still blind to LPTA world realities
 Few proposal managers:
- Believe cost proposal is their job…
- Are trained on cost and know what goes into the cost
proposal
- Know how they can help develop better cost volumes
- Are familiar with intricacies of various cost strategies
 Have hard time pricing while there is no information
on headcount, labor categories, etc.
 No competitive information
 Cost volume disagrees with technical volume
 Cost proposal is not treated as a sales document
Those who win focus on the whole offer; one cannot ignore the ultimate deciding
factor between winning or losing
$$
$ $
Resource: Developing a
Winning Cost Volume
www.ostglobalsolutions.com/training/
webinars

Page 9
Challenge 6: Poor Management Support and Buy-
in
 Non-supportive management leads to:
- Marginalized understanding of proposal professionals’ role
- Wrong or insufficient resources assigned to proposals
- Poor reviews
- “Machine gun” approach with low win rates
- 11th hour corrections to proposal
- Most of the other proposal challenges
 Gain management support through education:
- Bid & Proposal Academy courses
- How to Get Government Contracts book
- APMP
 Develop formal presentations citing facts and metrics
 Run kickoffs to obtain management buy-in; control the process better

Page 10
Presentation and the Video of this Webinar at
www.ostglobalsolutions.com/training/webinars/

Page 11
Contact OST for Your Proposal and Training Needs in
Federal Business Development
Julia Pochekueva, MBA, AM.APMP
Marketing, Operations, and Training Services Manager
Main 301.384.3350
Direct 301.769.6603
jpochekueva@ostglobalsolutions.com
Alex Brown, AM.APMP
Director of Services
Main 301.384.3350
Direct 301.769.6601
Cell 301.356.2909
abrown@ostglobalsolutions.com
Olessia Smotrova-Taylor, AF.APMP
President & CEO
Office 301.384.3350
Cell 240.246.5305
otaylor@ostglobalsolutions.com
Get Additional Resources at Our Website:
www.ostglobalsolutions.com

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