2. CEO, Smart BD Consulting, Inc.
Introductions
Proposal industry thought leader, active APMP member
Presenter at numerous APMP Conferences
Teaches Capture/Proposal Courses
President & CEO of Smart BD Consulting, Inc. – BD/Capture/Proposal Development firm in MD/DC/VA area
Extensive BD, Capture and Proposal experience with a background at IBM, Raytheon, ASRC, SRA International and numerous other companies
Directly responsible for capture of over $4.5B in new business over the course of last eight years
Was instrumental in growing a company (ASRC Primus) from 2 FTEs to over 1,500 FTEs over the course of 5 years
Marina Goren,
CEO, Smart BD Consulting, Inc.

3. Agenda Inspiration for this Presentation
Case Study #1: An Impossible Incumbent Recompete
Case Study #2: An Elusive Task Order
Case Study #3: Backed by Customer Encouragement
Case Study #4: Is 9th Time the Charm?
Case Study #5: Unseating a Long Term Incumbent
Summary/Take-Aways
Questions

4. Inspiration for this presentation
Most Bid/No Bid decisions are only 40% Science and 60% Art

5. Case Study # 1: An Impossible Incumbent Recompete
Opportunity Background:
Large incumbent recompete opportunity
Very specialized work
Held by a subsidiary organization – no longer eligible to re-bid it
Capabilities/Qualifications: perfect match
Competition: SBs with almost no quals backed by LBs with good quals
Customer Knowledge: good customer intimacy
Proposal Timeframe: Draft, RFP, Orals – total 12 months
Win Value: $80-$100M
Investment Required: $300K-500K

6. Additional Information
As we were doing capture we uncovered:
PM not liked by the customer
Team poorly performing
Consistently low CPARs with problems identified and not fixed
Technical team does have expertise and tenure doing the work, however, lots of personnel issues

7. BID OR NO BID?

8. Resolution & Outcome
Implemented the following corrective actions (before the final RFP dropped):
Replaced the PM (with someone who knows the customer very well and is well-respected by the customer)
Addressed personnel issues (made some hard HR decisions)
Put a Plan of Action in place to achieve a higher level of performance (i.e. ISO certification)
Invested corporate $$$ to correct performance issues
Outcome: WON!

9. Case Study # 2: An Elusive Task Order
Opportunity Background:
A Task Order bid on CIOSP 3 – SB
TO first released in one Task Area and immediately pulled and re-released in a different Task Area
Included very specific requirements: Certified corporate partner status for a specific COTS product (only in the world), developers (employed by the Offeror) with development experience and knowledge of this very specific COTS product, mgmt. techniques tied to an implementation of this particular COTS product
Capabilities/Qualifications: decent qual match for the prime, certified partner for the COTS product (via a sub), developers and experience implementing COTS (via a sub)
Competition: Unclear
Customer Knowledge: adjacent work – via another sub
Proposal Timeframe: 3-4 weeks
Win Value: $10-15M
Investment Required: $30-50K

10. BID OR NO BID? (What additional questions would you ask?)

11. Additional Information
Pulled a report of all Task Area prime holders that have Task Area Y but not X: a short list of 3-4 potential primes
One of the potential primes had direct experience with this customer and had experience with the COTS product and developers on staff
We were not sure about their partnership status (for the COTS product)

12. BID OR NO BID?

13. Resolution & Outcome Worked on the proposal for almost 2 weeks
During that time, continued information gathering
Talked the prime out of bidding this opportunity as a result of uncovered information
Outcome: No bid decision was made (after spending B&P)

14. Case Study # 3: Backed by Customer Encouragement
Opportunity Background:
Commodity IT Services
Incumbent is not performing well at all
My client was late in the game and had no customer intimacy
Capabilities/Qualifications: OK match
Competition: Full & Open, somewhat limited by the customer’s Bid/No Bid Criteria, but open to large businesses
Customer Knowledge: no customer intimacy, a sub is one of the incumbents, BUT: started building a great customer relationship during one-on-one
Proposal Timeframe: Draft, RFP, Orals – ~ 3.5 – 6 months + Discussions
Win Value: $ M
Investment Required: $ K

15. BID OR NO BID?

16. Additional Information
In the middle of the proposal process Intel Analysis uncovered:
Another company that had adjacent work and customer intimacy was working Capture for a long time
They had a similarly successful One-on-One meeting and customer reassurances
However, got blind-sighted by the customer and were disqualified for moving forward!

17. BID OR NO BID?

18. Resolution & Outcome Made a Bid Decision: Outcome: Lost!
Worked very hard on putting together a GREAT proposal
Interviewed vendors to bring forward the best possible solution – engaged several architects
Hand-selected the right Key Team for the Orals
Hired consultants to help with proposal and Oral preparation
No stone left unturned, no corporate investment spared
Went through 2 rounds of downselect…
Outcome: Lost!

19. Case Study # 4: Is 9th Time the Charm?
Opportunity Background:
A TO on CIOSP 3 vehicle/ on another subordinate IDIQ vehicle (only 6 primes) – for a specific customer/agency
My client bid on 8 TOs released previously on this sub-vehicle and lost all of them – they were all won by incumbents
This TO was a brand new development effort – no incumbent
Capabilities/Qualifications: adjacent, but not direct quals
Competition: approximately 6 IDIQ holders, if everyone bid and complete level playing field – ~17% PWIN, if only half bid - ~30% PWIN
Customer Knowledge: no customer intimacy or knowledge
Proposal Timeframe: 2 Weeks + Discussions
Win Value: $1-5M
Investment Required: $20-30K

20. BID OR NO BID?

21. Additional Information
RFP analysis uncovered:
There was another company who did a study with recommendations that preceded the RFP and some of their nice-looking artifacts were included in the RFP (i.e. study results)
They were not OCI’d from bidding
They were not eligible to bid as a prime but had job postings (on their website) indicating they were bidding this as a sub

22. BID OR NO BID?

23. Resolution & Outcome Made a Bid Decision: Outcome: Won!
Tried to get the Predecessor company disqualified/OCI’d via Q&A – failed
Signed up a sub with strong quals in the implementation of the specific COTS product
Put together a stellar proposal in a short time
Priced it right
Outcome: Won!

24. Case Study # 5: Unseating a Long Term Incumbent
Opportunity Background:
A large specialized expertise contract
Same incumbent for the past 25 years
Risk averse customer who just wants “business as usual”
Capabilities/Qualifications: direct similar and better quals, lots of adjacent work with this customer(s)
My client boasted a similar win of a very critical contract with the same Gov’t Agency ($1.2B) also where the incumbent was not unseated for over 20 years
Competition: 3 bidders – my client, the incumbent and another large company
Customer Knowledge: great customer intimacy, retired Feds on staff, over 30 customer interviews completed during Capture Phases
Proposal Timeframe: 7 months (prep., Draft RFP, Final RFP)
Win Value: $450M
Investment Required: $1M+

25. BID OR NO BID?

26. Resolution & Outcome Made a Bid Decision: Outcome: TBD….
Conducted thorough customer interviews through Capture Phase
Were able to shape the RFP via Q&As
Put together a team consisting of 80% of incumbent subs (all with specialized expertise)
Started working on the proposal – before the Draft even dropped
Were at Red Team 2 by the time Final RFP dropped (strong proposal)
Priced it right and included corporate investments
Presented at the conferences customers went to
Advertised in the paper, started a website to collect resumes
Identified a stellar contract leadership team
Outcome: TBD….

27. Summary/Take-Aways Typical Decision Makers:
Small Business Owners
Capture Managers
VPs/SVPs/EVPs of Large/Mid-size Corporations
They all have a vested interest in bidding the job!
A key to a neutral, well-balanced Bid/No Bid Decision:
Develop a list of questions to ask
Apply judgement and experience
Do not shut out your intuition
Make sure you engage a neutral third party to validate the decision

28. #APMP2016

29. Marina Goren President/CEO Smart BD Consulting, Inc
Marina Goren President/CEO Smart BD Consulting, Inc. (410)
#APMP2016

30. #APMP2016