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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.
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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
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Inspiration for this presentation
Most Bid/No Bid decisions are only 40% Science and 60% Art
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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
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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
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BID OR NO BID?
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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!
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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
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BID OR NO BID? (What additional questions would you ask?)
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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)
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BID OR NO BID?
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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)
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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
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BID OR NO BID?
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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!
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BID OR NO BID?
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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!
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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
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BID OR NO BID?
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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
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BID OR NO BID?
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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!
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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+
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BID OR NO BID?
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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….
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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
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#APMP2016
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Marina Goren President/CEO Smart BD Consulting, Inc
Marina Goren President/CEO Smart BD Consulting, Inc. (410) #APMP2016
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#APMP2016
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