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By B. Michael Berger,
Vice President, Advantage Consulting, Inc.
Speaking recently
with a corporate VP and the Director of Business Development, I asked a couple
of pretty standard questions, “how do you identify and track
opportunities,” and “how do you make your Bid/No Bid decisions?” I guess
I’ve heard every possible answer to these questions, but this time, I’m
afraid, I heard the two worst, “We get a lot of our opportunities by
reading FedBizOpps,” and, “we hold a meeting, discuss the opportunities,
see if it fits us, and decide to bid.” My next question was about their
win rate – their answer was embarrassing.
For about eight
years, Advantage Consulting, Inc. has stressed the importance of using a
robust and sophisticated opportunity tracking process and a
scientifically based methodology for making both pursue/no pursue and
bid/no bid decisions. Anything short of an organized procedure is
essentially the equivalent of scratching notes on the back of an
envelope, and playing “Russian roulette” with your corporate future.
"What’s wrong
with my present tracking system – I have lots of files and keep data
current."
Well, there’s really
nothing wrong with doing that, but is the information available
electronically to others who may need it, can you share it with others in
the firm, is the same information collected and maintained for every
opportunity, can all appropriate staff members add to or update the files,
and can you output reports or display this information at a capture or
bid decision meeting? If you answered YES to these questions, that’s
great, but if you said NO, then the odds are you should be considering a
change to your procedures.
"OK, I admit
it, I can’t do most of those things, but why do I need to do them?”
Well, if you are a
senior manager, you should be concerned about allocating your B&P
dollars effectively, being able to view all the opportunities your firm
or unit is pursuing, want to be able to see the documents that tell the
“history” of the opportunity, and, most importantly, you need to know why
you are bidding – or, should you unfortunately lose, “why did we bid?”
If you are a line
manager, you need to be able to see all opportunities pertinent to your
element, be able to sort and filter those opportunities by agency, line
of business, function, and so forth, see the history for each
opportunity, and be able to see how well you’ve done in capturing and
winning opportunities you bid.
If you are a capture
manager, you need to be able to manage and update your opportunities,
keep notes and record action items, be able to calculate the probability
of a successful pursuit or win, determine what you can do to improve your
win probability, determine the cost of and value of a win (or even a
loss), and have the information necessary to answer the question, “why do
you want to bid this opportunity?”
If you chair
corporate marketing meetings or bid boards, you need to be able to
present details of each opportunity in a complete and professional
manner, be able to display to the group the results of individual and
collective assessments of each opportunity under discussion, focus
attention of key points (such as the “evidence” that will tell you
whether you should pursue or bid), and eliminate time wasted by
assembling and copying paper files.
If you are a member
of a business development or capture team, a scientific process will keep
you organized, allow you to explore the probability of winning, and reach
consensus based on real evidence rather than “feelings” and “opinions.”
"This sounds
good, but how do I get my staff and out-of-town offices connected?”
It’s a lot easier
than you think. To make this process work, you will need to appoint and
train an administrator, install the application on your server, and then
give access to the “in-house” people via your local area network (LAN).
Those at remote locations may be given access via the Internet. Access
will be controlled by passwords, which will ensure security for this
vital corporate data.
"Well, I’m
not sure everyone needs to see everything – can I control that?”
You sure can. We
don’t recommend unlimited access – in fact, access to data should be on a
“need to know” with, obviously, greater access as you move “up” the
corporate ladder. It is logical for members of a team to see what they
are working on, capture managers to see their opportunities, and managers
and executives at higher levels to see information for their units or,
logically, the entire corporation if appropriate.
"Let’s say I
like this process, how many people will need to have access?”
The total number of
people who will have access is a corporate decision – we can assist you
in making this decision. The better question is how many people would you
like to be able to have access at the same time – we call them
“concurrent” users. The application we propose can be “sized” for you in
terms of concurrent users, and can be expanded later when you needs
change.
"Ok, I’m
interested, but I want to see what this process can do. How can I do
that?"
That’s an easy one.
We will be happy to set up a live demo for you at your location. It will take
about two hours to run through the process, but by the time we’re
finished, you will have seen just about every capability of the
application and, we’re sure, you will be impressed with what this
opportunity tracking and bid decision support software can do for you..
Advantage Consulting
is very proud of this product and our long-term relationship with the
firm and people who invented it. We have never found any other
application that even comes close to its capabilities. More than 250
firms, including CACI, ManTech, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, The
Wexford Group, Panacea Consulting, C-Cubed, Perot Systems, Pinkerton,
GTSI, and Titan are using the process. Are you ready to join that “team?”
For more information,
contact Mike at 703-642-5153 or e-mail: mailto:mberger@acibiz.com
About the author:
Mike Berger's specialties are business development,
training for corporate and government personnel, and collecting and
analyzing information. He also supports clients wishing to obtain or make
better use of their GSA Schedules and handles issues relating to
corporate security. Mr. Berger completed 27 years service with the
Federal government, and also retired as a Colonel from a parallel 31-year
career in the Active Army and the Reserve Components. He holds a BA from Syracuse University
did post-graduate study at the Syracuse
University School
of Social Work, and holds an MA in Management and Supervision from Central Michigan University.
He is a graduate of the US
Army War College,
and published author in field of Military History and Occupational
Analysis. He has edited and published numerous works including
biographies and historical texts
Advantage
Consulting, Inc. ™
7611 Little River Turnpike, Suite 204 West, Annandale, VA 22003-2407 USA
VOICE: 703-642-5153, FAX: 703-658-0159
dgiles@acibiz.com
© Copyright 2008
Advantage Consulting, Inc.™
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