The proposal is a critical part of selling! Here are ideas and best practices for making your proposal win strategy solid.

1. Bulletproof Your Win Strategy
Develop a strong win strategy that increases your Pwin
Good business planning is nine parts implementation for every one part strategy.
- Tim Berry
Entrepreneur, Business Planner
“Winning is as much about execution as
strategy. Most companies can establish
a strategy. Few have the leadership or
discipline to execute.”
- Steven P. Shipley, Chairman

2. Strategy
Strategy is all about—what distinguishes it
from all other plans—competitive advantage.
Without competitors there would be no need for strategy. The sole
purpose of strategy development is to enable the company to gain,
as efficiently as possible, a sustainable edge over its competitors.
Kenichi Ohmae
Developer of the 3C’s Model
2

3. 3
Win-ning, adj.
Something that wins; successful or victorious, as in a
contest: the winning team.
charming; engaging; pleasing: a winning child; a winning
smile.
Definitions

4. Definitions
strat·e·gy
noun
a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or
overall aim.
bul·let·proof
adjective
designed to resist compromise.
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5. Your Pre-Webinar Questions
5
How to improve Pwin in LPTA acquisitions
when your product or service is known to be
at a higher price than one's competitor(s)?
What is best strategy for LPTA solicitations?
What are the 3-4 major strategy categories?
Some win strategies seem too high level, and
some seem too in the weeds (almost more of
a win theme). How do I find the right level?
What are the key elements for a Win
Strategy? How do graphics enhance the
Win Strategy discussion?
What are the hard questions that
should be answered when qualifying an
opportunity for bid/no bid?
What are some of the questions to ask your
technical SMEs to reach our win themes and
differentiators?
What is a potential win strategy if
you have limited capture?
Strategies = action and they cost something to
implement (money, time, people). Is there a way to
quantify this? How to define true unique selling points
in the win strategy?
What positioning strategy can mid-tier
companies ($15-50M) use as differentiators
to join teams led by large primes?
How our win strategy varies depending on the
opportunity and our position (incumbent vs.
unseating incumbent vs. new opportunity (no
incumbent))

6. Win Strategy Myths and Examples
 A win strategy is static – set in stone.
 A win strategy is different than capture strategy, proposal
strategy, competitive strategy, and pricing strategy.
 Developing a win strategy is simple.
 Low price is the only true win strategy.
 Hope is not a strategy.
Valid examples:
 We will compete to keep our competitor out.
 We will compete to improve our reputation and long-term
position with the customer.
 We will compete to retain our revenue stream.
 We will compete to win, but expect a protest.
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7. What is the Ripple Effect?
Leidos makes $5B deal for
Lockheed IT business
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8. Let’s Discuss Win Strategy
Win strategy: The over-arching actions required to win
an opportunity.
The first ingredient is the capture strategy, the second is the
proposal strategy. Next is pricing strategy.
In capture planning, you plan/take actions to persuade
the customer to prefer your organization and solution.
In a proposal, you convey identical, aligned
information in words, text, and graphics.
The proposal strategy evolves from the
capture strategy.
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9. Do We Have All the Pieces?
 The Opportunity
 The Customer
 The Competition/Teaming
 The Cost/Price
 Our Capabilities
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10. Have We Properly Assessed the Opportunity?
 Is it real?
 What is the contract type?
 Can we provide it?
 Will the customer buy from us?
 What is the budget?
 How will it be funded?
 What is the schedule?
 Where will it take us?
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11. Does Our Strategy Address the Opportunity?
 Are the major deliverables clearly defined?
 Are all technical, management, and financial
requirements addressed and linked to
customer issues?
 Are contractor roles/responsibilities clearly
defined?
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12. Category Questions
Contract Schedule  Do we have a clear understanding of the deliverables and schedule?
Evaluation Process  Are we sure of the evaluation process to be used?
Competition
 Do we know the customer’s perception of competitors?
 Has an objective bidder comparison been completed?
Subcontracting  Do we have firm commitments from needed teammates?
Past Performance  Do we have strong, relevant past performance?
Management  Does our management approach provide added value?
Technical  Does our technical solution provide added value or discriminators?
Discriminators,
Themes
 Are our discriminators unique and important to the customer?
 Can the customer justify selecting us based on our discriminators and
cost?
Pricing to Win
 Has a price to win been determined, and is it acceptable to
management?
Opportunity Status
 Is the customer adhering to the expected schedule?
 If not, why not, and what does that tell us about the opportunity?
Opportunity Assessment Checklist

13. Does Our Strategy Address the Customer?
Have we identified the buyers (economic, technical)
users and influencers?
Have the customer’s issues been addressed from the
customer’s perspective - free of our bias?
Is our offer customer-focused or seller-
focused?
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14. Clarifying Issues, Motivators, and Hot Buttons
 Issues are the customer’s concerns. Issues are the worry
items that keep the customer awake at night.
 Motivators are the objectives that the customer is trying to
achieve.
• Improve profits
• Increase sales
• Reduce costs and redundancy
• Improve safety
• Achieve mission – support end user
• Demonstrate value to taxpayers
 Hot Buttons are a consolidated set of issues and motivators.
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15. • Technical
Requirements
• Management
Requirements
• Past Performance
• Hot Buttons
• Biases
• Problems/Pain
• Trends
• Price to Win/LPTA
• Politics
RFP
Relationships
Capture
Above and Below the Surface
What Sank the Titanic?
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16. Does Our Strategy Address the Competition?
Have we identified all potential competitors?
Do we know how the customer perceives our
company and our competitors?
Have we identified the discriminators
that separate us from the competition?
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17. Consider All Types of Competitor Information
More Tangible
 Products or services
 Technology
 Operations
 Organizational structure
 Marketing approaches
 Strategy
 Financial
 Past Performance
Less Tangible
 Management profiles
 Political
 Human resources
 Past performance
 Competitive intelligence capacity
 Customer value analysis
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18. Competitive Position: Finding Your Discriminators
Neutral Position
Customer Needs It
Competitor Has It
We Have It
Irrelevant Position
Customer Doesn’t Need It
Competitor Has It
We Have It
Our Weakness
Customer Needs It
Competitor Has It
We Don’t Have It
Our Discriminators
Customer Needs It
Competitor Doesn’t Have It
We Have It
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19. 20
Use a Bidder Comparison Analysis
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
Total Score 100
# HOT BUTTONS
Customer’s
Weight
Us
Company
A
Company
B
DISCRIMINATOR
1- List hot buttons
2- List
customer’s
weightings
3- List customer’s perceived
weightings for yourself and
each competitor
5- Total each column
6- Note the specific positive
or negative discriminator
primarily responsible for the
ratings
4- Add a column for each
competitor

20. 21
8
7
6
5
Everyone can meet standards. No
obvious discriminator right now
4
Our existing solution is designed for
in-country support
3
Our project manager does not have
civil ATC experience
2
Solution from ‘B’ is cheaper than
our military spec. kit
1
Meeting regulatory safety
standards
Up-skilling Elbonians to
support high technology
Project Manager
with civil ATC track record
Rapid payback period of
less than 18 months
Confidence in making in-
service date of 31/12/16
5
10
20
25
40
5
8
8
15
35
5
6
14
18
25
5
4
16
25
30
Solution from ‘A’ is unproven – high
integration risk
Total Score 100 71 68 80
# HOT BUTTONS
Customer’s
Weight
Us
Company
A
Company
B
DISCRIMINATOR
Identify Strengths and Weaknesses

21. Predict Competitors’ Approaches
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22. Competitive Analysis Drives Our Win Strategy
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23. How Does Our Strategy Address Teaming?
Did we use a Bidder Comparison analysis to
analyze potential teaming combinations?
Have we established a management
structure with clear lines of authority?
Have we defined each teaming
partner’s work share?
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24. Capabilities Must Consider Teaming
Factor Considerations
Team strength
Offset weaknesses, add capabilities or
discriminators
Roles and responsibilities
Avoid duplication, define work shares for
proposal and program
Marketing/capture Agree on lead, sell integrated team
Intellectual property
Guidelines for information and
technology transfer
Logistics
Travel, collocation, technology standards,
archives
Mutual protection
Binding legal agreements, termination
provisions
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25. Articulating the Win Strategy
 Emphasize our strengths
 Mitigate our weaknesses
 Highlight our competitors’ weaknesses
 Downplay competitors’ strengths
26

26. 27
Move Strategy into Theme Statements
Provide the evaluator your key message
Why You
Why not Them
Begin with the client’s name
Link benefits to
discriminating features
Quantify benefits, if possible
Be concise
[Client name] will [improve
what] by [when, how much,
what %?] as a result of
[discriminating feature].

27. How Does Our Strategy Rate Overall?
Are our actions traceable to a customer issue/requirement?
Can the customer leverage our discriminators to justify an award?
Are the benefits of our solutions tangible and quantifiable?
Have we embedded costs and price-to-win considerations throughout the process, on par with
solution development?
Have we addressed risk and approaches for mitigation?
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28. How Does Our Strategy Rate Overall?
Are our capabilities on the battlefield lined up with the strategy developed at the headquarters?
Do our “doers” know what has been promised?
Are the benefits of our solutions tangible and quantifiable?
Have we embedded costs and price-to-win considerations throughout the process, on par with
solution development?
Have we addressed risk and approaches for mitigation?
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29. How Does Our Strategy Rate Overall?
Is our message clear?
Do our “doers” know what has been promised?
Do our “doers” have the necessary resources to deliver as promised?
Have we protest-proofed our offer by complying with the RFP?
Have we provided proofs and cost realism?
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30. Win Strategy Contingencies
 Have we considered incumbent influence?
 What about a protest?
 Mergers, acquisitions, consolidations – always in play!
 LPTA influence
 Small business
 Contract type – MAC, IDIQ
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31. Bulletproof Your Strategy
Every day, your company competes
with other companies to succeed
and even survive. Your competitors
share the same goal as your
company: to win and keep winning.
Strategy is thinking about how you
will get ahead in that race.
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32. Bulletproof Your Win Strategy
Develop a strong win strategy that increases your Pwin
Contact Info:
Eric Gregory
egregory@shipleywins.com
Todd Barnett
tbarnett@shipleywins.com
Brad Douglas
bjdouglas@shipleywins.com