This training takes capture management to the next level, showcasing exactly what it takes to maximize win probability and mastermind the most effective win strategy. You’ll learn techniques for conducting various forms of competitive analysis, including Black Hat sessions; win strategy workshops, and solution development (Concept of Operations (CONOPS)) brainstorming sessions; creating advantageous teaming arrangements; and much more.
This training also focuses on advanced techniques of sales and customer engagement, ensuring that your Government customers eagerly anticipate your bid proposal and award the contract to your company. It provides a list of resources for researching the background of bid opportunity, so that you find information and connect the dots like professional researchers.
OST’s optimized capture process (as opposed to Shipley’s training) focuses on only six areas of capture that make a winning difference: customer engagement, intelligence gathering, win strategy development, competitive analysis, teaming, and solution development. This class shows the holistic view of how all these areas impact one another, versus a linear process, ensuring deeper understanding of capture planning that increases your Pwin.
During the training session, participants will brainstorm using a variety of case studies to learn the principles taught in the class.
This course is for those who have experience with capture management. It builds advanced skills by offering a deeper understanding of theory and practice of capture management, expanding abilities through best practices-based methodologies, and providing tool sets for immediate implementation.
The course also focuses on improving cost-efficiency and effectiveness of your capture team through better targeted activities.
It is an interactive 2-day workshop that is 50 percent lecture, 30 percent exercises and case studies, and 20 percent discussion.
The experts who teach our business development, capture, and proposal training courses are highly experienced currently practicing proposal professionals whose years of successful experience in Government acquisition and training allow them to offer valuable insights to our students. Our instructors can answer tough questions as they come up during the course. They can also tailor the material to their students’ specific challenges, and share their experience based on the most current realities. Check our instructor’s bios on our About page.
Upcoming Classes
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Course Details
Location: OST Global Solutions, Inc., 7361 Calhoun Place, Suite 560, Rockville, MD 20855 (check our Visitor Guide for location details, driving directions, nearby hotels and restaurants, and more).
Remote Attendance: This course is available via GoToMeeting with live video feed. The price per seat is the same as in-person participation. Many of our students save on travel costs and attend from other locations.
Professional Certification: This is either a major or elective class that provides 2 units (2 days) towards Bid & Proposal Academy Certification (depending on the certification type). By attending this class, you will receive 3 CEUs or more towards your APMP certification, or PDUs towards your PMP (check with the PMI on what they will honor). At the end of this course, you will get a Certificate of Completion.
Who should attend this course: Experienced capture managers, Government contracting business owners, proposal department directors, executive leadership, federal business developers, account managers, federal marketing and sales managers, program managers that interface with Government customers, proposal managers.
Course materials: Course workbook, handouts, templates, forms, and checklists.
Course Curriculum
Learning Objectives
Upon course completion, the participants will have learned and be able to put into practice:
- Understanding how advanced capture techniques offer an edge in a competition.
- Building strong and lasting relationships with Government customers.
- Shaping opportunities and requirements.
- Gathering intelligence like a professional analyst, and distilling it to drive capture strategy and proposal development.
- Facilitating win strategy development sessions.
- Developing a solid value proposition.
- Turning advanced win strategies into action.
- Unseating incumbents and defending one’s position as an incumbent.
- Using seven most useful competitive analysis techniques.
- Understanding Price to Win and competitive analysis for Multiple Award contracts.
- Facilitating Black Hat sessions that produce actionable intelligence.
- Applying strategic principles to teaming.
- Navigating the small business subcontracting rules to benefit from the socioeconomic programs and avoid hidden trouble.
- Negotiating binding teaming agreement to protect bidder s’ interests.
- Developing an executive summary, management, technical, risk, price strategy, past performance, resumes, staffing, and other approaches.
- Pre-staging of capture materials for proposal development.
- Focusing the capture effort and measuring its effectiveness.
Day 1 Highlights
Module 1: Introduction
- Introductions and learning objectives.
Recap: overview of the capture process for an advanced big-picture perspective.
Module 2: Creating Lasting Customer Relationships
- How to create strong and lasting relationships with Government customers.
- Advanced techniques for building an effective rapport with Government customers
- Techniques for finding connections and engaging the Government customer before and after the communication channels close.
- Mind set for achieving the most results with Government customers.
- How to influence the RFP and shape customer requirements.
- Organizing key information about the customer and measuring customer relationship.
- Engaging decision-makers with a high level of influence.
- Legal aspects of customer relationship building or how to keep yourself and your company out of trouble.
Case Study: Determine correct and incorrect courses of action as applicable to a real-life scenario.
Module 3: Gathering Intelligence Like a Pro, Focusing Time and Effort on Information
- Needed to Win
- Differences between data, information, knowledge, and actionable intelligence.
- Sources of information and degrees of their reliability.
- Where to find the right information on the web, and how to search for data like a professional analyst.
- How to harvest valuable intelligence from customer artifacts.
- How to distill information from open sources.
- How to analyze the data to make the right capture-related conclusions.
- Validating and testing data.
- A system for documenting intelligence that’s most useful for the proposal team.
Exercise: Research and analyze an opportunity based on the information provided.
Module 4: Developing a Win Strategy that Packs a Punch
- Mastery in facilitating win strategy development sessions.
- Finer points of the win strategy development process.
- Key components of a strategy.
- Developing a value proposition.
- How to test quality of the win strategy.
- Types of successful win strategies.
- Effective use of ghosting.
- Strategy for unseating incumbents and defending one’s position as an incumbent.
- Taking your win strategies to the next level.
- Win strategy white paper and its mapping to the action items and solution development.
- Developing and tracking strategic action plans.
Exercise: Conduct a win strategy development session simulation.
Day 2 Highlights
Module 5: Advanced Competitive Analysis to Exploit Competition’s Shortfalls and Neutralize their Strengths
- Seven most used competitive analysis techniques and their practical application.
- Applying intelligence gathering techniques to competitive analysis.
- Competitive analysis for IDIQs with multiple bidders.
- Introduction to Price to Win analysis.
- A practical approach to conducting a Black Hat session that produces actionable intelligence.
- Turning competitive intelligence into strategic decisions and actions.
Case Study: Application of competitive analysis tools.
Module 6: Teaming Strategies
- Strategic considerations that go into forming a team.
- When it is best to move forward with a teaming arrangement and when to wait.
- How to avoid diluting the scope and dealing with the risk of having too many teammates.
- How to choose between exclusive and non-exclusive teaming.
- Effective teaming techniques and precautions for teaming with competitors.
- Small business subcontracting.
- Understanding size rules and potential disqualifiers from bidding.
- Elements of a binding teaming agreement to protect bidder’s interests.
- How to negotiate for success and follow the Government contracting and subcontracting negotiating template.
- Negotiation tactics and appropriate responses.
Exercise: Compare strategic teaming scenarios and determine the most appropriate paths of action.
Module 7: Solution Development
- Executive summary.
- Management solution.
- Risk management approach development.
- Technical approach development.
- Developing a price strategy.
- Advance preparation of past performance, resumes, staffing, and other solutions.
- Pre-staging of proposal materials.
- Exercise: Prepare risk matrix. Walk through the solution development checklists.
- Module 8: Capture Process Management
- Conducting gate reviews focused on results and measurements.
- Metrics for capture effectiveness.
Discussion: Technique applicability to participants’ organizations.
Module 9: Summary
- Additional resources and bibliography.
- Summary.
- Recap.
Seating is limited!
Cancellations & Rescheduling Policy
Cancellation notification must be received 10 business days prior to the training date. Upon notification, your registration fee will be refunded less a $100 non-refundable processing fee. Any cancellations beyond the 10 business days are non-refundable, but the course fee can be applied towards another training course, webinar, or an OST Global Solutions training product. No refunds will be made for the cancellation of a rescheduled course. Courses need to be rescheduled at least 24 hours in advance because we have to print the materials. As we constantly update the materials, they cannot be reused for another class. If a registrant didn’t request to reschedule and simply doesn’t show up on the day of the class, they forfeit the ability to reschedule. Attendee substitutions may be made at any time. Payment must be received prior to the course date. No-shows are liable for the full class fee.
Additional Information
If you would like to discuss whether this class is right for you or have any other questions, please call (301) 384-3350 during normal business hours.
Other Types of Payment
If you’d like to receive an invoice and pay by check, please send an email to service@ostglobalsolutions.com*.
*All payments must be received prior to the course start date.