Foundations of Capture Management training will arm you with real knowledge and tools you will apply immediately to capturing Government contracts and dramatically improving your win probability (Pwin).
Government capture planning process starts after opportunity qualification, and continues past proposal submission. Its goal is to position you to win before the Government releases a Request for Proposal (RFP).
Your chances of winning Government proposals without capture planning are the same as cutting classes during the semester in college and hoping to get an A on the final exam. It can possibly happen but hope to win is not a good business strategy for a Government contracting company (or any business).
In order to raise your win rate, take this capture training to master techniques for customer engagement, intelligence gathering, win strategy development, competitive analysis, teaming, solution development, and more.
The course uses a real bid opportunity to practice all the capture steps in hands-on exercises using typical tools available to business developers and capture managers. Participants practice developing key elements of a capture plan using a capture plan template provided with the course, and brainstorm on win strategy using a case study.
This is an interactive 2-day workshop that is 50 percent lecture, 40 percent exercises, and 10 percent discussion. It will teach you real skills to raise win probability of the Government contracts you pursue.
The experts who teach our business development, capture and proposal training 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.
This class is also offered as a self study self paced on demand learning class. To learn more click here.
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 a Core Curriculum class that provides 2 units (2 days) towards Bid & Proposal Academy Certification. 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: Capture managers, Government business owners, federal business developers, proposal writers, proposal coordinators, proposal department directors, company executives and senior managers, proposal managers, account managers, federal sales and marketing managers, project managers and personnel that interface with federal Government customers.
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 where capture fits in the business development lifecycle.
- Identifying six types of decision makers and developing relationships with the customer.
- Preparing customer profile and contact plan.
- Collecting the opportunity intelligence in ethical ways and analyzing it for applicability to the capture effort.
- Developing a capture plan.
- Developing a win strategy and compelling win themes.
- Identifying top competitors and performing competitive analysis.
- Identifying and vetting potential teammates.
- Postulating the requirements before RFP issuance.
- Developing Concept of Operations (CONOPS) and solution sets for proposal sections.
- Staging capture materials for proposal.
- Preparing a proposal plan and capture schedule.
- Organizing the capture team.
Day 1 Highlights
Module 1: Introduction
- Introductions and learning objectives.
- Introduction to capture and overview of the capture process to offer you a big-picture perspective.
- Overview of the class project.
Module 2: Customer Engagement
- How to create relationships and customer contact plans with your Government customers.
- Four key tasks for interfacing and building relationships with Government customers.
- Understanding how your customer buys and using information to gain an edge.
- How to identify six key types of Government buyers and buying influences and what they want.
- Customer contact plan for marketing, information gathering, and influencing.
- Rules of interfacing with Government personnel that you don’t want to break.
- 20 questions for gathering information from the customer during a visit.
Exercise: Identify customers and their key goals from business development inputs. Create a customer profile and draft contact plan.
Module 3: How to gather actionable intelligence – since the best-informed wins
- Ethics of intelligence gathering and how to avoid legal repercussions that may cost you your business.
- How to collect intelligence during Government site visits, proposal conferences, and industry days.
- The most useful capture research databases and other online resources.
- How to analyze opportunity history.
- Purposes and key components of a capture plan.
- How to develop a capture plan.
Exercise: Development of a draft capture plan.
Module 4: How to develop a great win strategy and win themes to prepare you to finish on top
- Definition of a win strategy.
- How to develop a viable win strategy.
- How to devise top-level actions that create a winning offer.
- How win strategy is related to win themes.
- Three types of win themes.
- How to develop powerful proposal-level and section-level win themes that drive strategy.
Exercise: Identify win strategies and action items.
Day 2 Highlights
Module 5: How to analyze your competition
- Techniques for identifying competitors and their likely strategies.
- What information to collect on your competitors.
- Where to find information on your competitors ethically.
- Relationship between competitive analysis, teaming, and other aspects of capture.
Exercise: Identify top competitors and perform competitive analysis. Update capture plan.
Module 6: Teaming
- How to choose and engage the right companies to create a team that compels the customer to select you
- How to decide when it is beneficial to team and when it is not.
- Teaming strategies pros and cons.
- How to decide between priming, subcontracting, joint venture, or a contractor teaming agreement (CTA).
- How to allocate scope between teammates.
- Where to find teammates.
- How to select and vet teammates that will contribute to your win.
Exercise: Identify potential teammates and update capture plan.
Module 7: How to develop the solution pre- and post– draft RFP that will wow your customer
- Overview of solution development.
- Typical problems with solution development.
- How to postulate the requirements.
- Concept of Operations (CONOPS) development techniques.
- Developing solution sets for proposal sections.
- Staging capture materials for proposal use.
- Preparing a proposal plan.
Exercise: Develop a solution for a proposal segment and document in a capture plan.
Module 8: How to manage your capture effort effectively while conserving your resources
- Sequence of capture steps and decision gates, and how they line up to the Government acquisition process.
- How to develop an effective capture schedule that conserves your resources but enables you to prepare well.
- How to organize your capture team.
Exercise: Develop a capture schedule.
Module 9: Summary and 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.