winning new business in a difficult market

Presented by:Gary Fitch

andRebecca Kehoe

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Winning New Business in a Difficult Market

The New Reality in the Federal Space

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Agenda

• Marketing – Today’s Environment• Establishing a Marketing/BD Culture• Competition Management• Win Strategy• Price To Win• Proposal Management

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Marketing – Today’s EnvironmentDr. Gary S. Goodman

• Why Market in Difficult Times:– You may face less competition. – Fewer competitors, means the signal-to-noise ratio

improves.– You'll practice your client-getting skills. – It forces us to ask, "What is VALUE to our prospects?" This

disciplines us to deliver what they'll pay for, now.– The Law of Large Numbers. Do enough and you'll survive,

Do more, and prosper. Outdo that level of activity, and you'll become a legend!

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Marketing – Today’s EnvironmentDr. Gary S. Goodman

– A TRW Executive once said every businessperson should "Act as if someone, somewhere is inventing a product or service that will put you out of business.“

– Bill Gates warned: "Only the paranoid, survive."

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Establishing A Marketing/BD Culturehttp://www.paulablacklegalmarketing.com

• Firms that embrace a marketing/BD culture are the ones best positioned to succeed and profit in today's intensely competitive marketplace.

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Establishing A Marketing/BD Culture http://www.paulablacklegalmarketing.com

• If you don't market, you risk falling behind your competition...perhaps for good.

• First - be a passionate leader. – You need to enlist the firm's leaders...those

executives with the greatest clout and respect. – If you as a group aren't committed to marketing,

no one will be.

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• Second - Apply structure. – The Plan / Culture must involve concrete, tangible

benchmarks and requirements that demonstrate that the firm is serious.

– Identify your A, B, and C clients. – Investment for $5K vs $5M Contract may be the same.– Identify your A-list clients -- those you really want to

encourage - and emphasize winning more business from them.

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– Focus on industries, not an area of the expertise. • Competent technicians are a dime a dozen. • Companies that speak the language of a specific industry are

valued much more highly. • Try not to be all things to all people...focus, focus, focus..

– Get an identity. • Emphasize that you're not just another firm. • A well written brochure or effective website constitutes just a

small part of a total marketing effort.

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Marketing – Value Propositionhttp://www.price-to-win.com

• “Price is only an issue in the absence of value”. – Arriving at a competitive price is hard, but not as hard as developing a

value proposition. – Value propositions communicate to the buyer, in a way that they can

understand, the inherent value of your offering. – Don’t confuse value for features.

• Features are technical or functional descriptions of the product/service offered.

• They often articulate performance or quality characteristics and are product centric.

• Value propositions are customer-centric and articulate the benefits the customer will achieve if they use the product.

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• Developing value propositions require understanding the customers’:– values, – motivation, – requirements and – articulate the features of your offering in a way

that benefits the buyer.

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• Example of ¾” drill bits– can be advertised using as “high speed” and/or “carbon-tipped”

(Technical Features), – Is value based on metallurgy or is it in it’s ability to make ¾” holes

(Client Benefit). • Most value propositions do not fail because they are

developed by dumb people, rather the value of many products and services are much more complex.

• This complexity is driven by the richness of the feature set and the diversity of the stakeholder community they serve.

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• The value proposition for a $500M satellite-based communications system is harder to develop because:– The stakeholders include a broad range of actors such as

acquisition officials, end users, and program managers. – Not all stakeholders are equal and this has a tendency to

change over time.– Understanding the most important requirements of all the

stakeholders is very time consuming and resource intensive.

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Competition Managementhttp://www.smawins.com/price-to-win.htm

• Competition Management assessment examines your ability to bid on and win a specific procurement. This assessment focuses on four areas: – processes, – people, – facilities, and – tools.

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• Processes – Competition Management includes all activities

associated with: – identifying, – positioning, – proposing and – winning specific opportunities in your area of

business.

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• Processes (Cont)– You need to place emphasis on understanding your current

proposal development and production processes vs the leaders in your industry.

– You need to evaluate how you: • + Identify opportunities• + Establish customer requirements • + Evaluate the competition• + Develop win strategies and proposal baselines• + Select team members• + Influence the RFP

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• People – Assess your proposal and bid organization

structures related to specific business areas including:

• staffing requirements, • existence and identification of customer counterparts

and stakeholders, and • the capabilities of your production staff.

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• Facilities – A major key to successful proposal development is a

collocated team. – Evaluate your Proposal Development Center (PDC) facilities

and support structure, including• your ability to create high-quality artwork and • produce integrated proposal documents. • a capable and secure computer network, with access available to

off-site client personnel, subcontractors, suppliers and customers.

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• Tools – Assess procurement-specific modeling and

simulations; and general tools used for:• risk management, • requirement tracking, • configuration management and control, • earned value, and • material tracking.


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• The Assessment Focus - Provide significant improvements on all Competition Management areas, greatly improving your probability to win (Pwin).

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Win Strategyhttp://www.smawins.com/price-to-win.htm

• A Win Strategy provides a systematic process that helps you clearly identify the actions necessary to win competitive procurements. – A structured approach depends on early strategy development and

planning to provide a detailed roadmap for producing proposals that meet customer requirements for:

• cost, • schedule, • approach and • risk.

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– A successful win strategy process will help you to:• Identify a customer's critical issues• Determine the conditions necessary to win• Analyze your strengths and weaknesses • Assess the competitive landscape• Determine the price-to-win• Define and implement the actions to achieve the

desired winning outcome

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– A Win Strategy defines a set of conditions implemented by actions that are critical to winning. It guides:

• The organization & structure of the project team• The model for customer contact and interaction• The creation of all proposal products

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– You can significantly increase your win rate with Win Strategies focusing on five key elements.

– These key elements are: • Institution - The overarching infrastructure that links the prime contractor,

the team members, and the customer. • Organization - The way in which the proposal team is structured, the

capabilities of the team personnel, the commonality of tools and processes, the distribution of authority and incentives and the team-wide communications.

• Systems Engineering - The processes, people and tools used by the team to make fundamental decisions, balancing evolving program objectives and risks – mission, technical, cost, schedule.

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• Program Plan - The cost-driven Plan/Schedule that meets program objectives, provides program flexibility, mitigated schedule risk, and applies lessons-learned from consulting previous and current programs.

• The Deal - The total financial relationship with the customer, over the program life cycle, that meets the customer’s fiscal objectives, and minimizes the customer’s fiscal risk.

– A Win Strategy drives the entire proposal process. It unites the proposal team behind a common strategy, and guides their team structure, communication, and proposal creation.

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Price To Winhttp://www.smawins.com/price-to-win.htm

• In any proposal competition, price is a key variable. – Determining that "winning" price and making sure it's

competitive and profitable is one of the most difficult challenges businesses face.

– You must develop Price-to-Win solutions that help you define that right balance of capability versus price and to deliver the value your customer wants.

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– A Price-to-Win approach may use any of the following techniques:

• Algorithmic models (Parametric)• Expert judgment (SMEs)• Analogy (Other tasks & complexity)• Top-down/bottom-up analysis• Competitor pricing estimation

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– You need to tailor your approach for price to win based on several factors starting with whether or not there is a design baseline.

• If the design baseline has not been completed, – the proposal development process can develop preliminary proposal

products and the price to win efforts when you start developing the win strategy.

– You should use a Cost as an Independent Variable (CAIV) approach to arrive at a design baseline and price to win target.

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– If the design baseline has been completed:• You should start by creating a funding profile based on the nature

of the contract. • In addition, databases of similar contracts and competitive straw-

man analysis should be utilized to determine market norms. • The next step is to develop an initial 'should cost' using design

baseline and parametric tools. • Finally, you need to help your design team zero in on a pricing

structure that satisfies the financial goals of both you and your customer.

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Price To Win

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Proposal Managementhttp://www.smawins.com/price-to-win.htm

• Early Commitment Drives the Win – A structured approach to proposal management

emphasizes early strategy development and planning, to reduce proposal risk and maximize the use of limited resources and time.

• Typical Approach– Typical proposal activity and staffing profiles are marked by periods

of pandemonium and high stress, as teams work to meet aggressive deadlines.

– These teams proceed in an unstructured "draft-review-draft" process that compromises quality and impedes the proactive, strategy-driven process necessary for success.

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• Structured Approach– In comparison, carefully led teams have developed and decomposed

key elements of the win strategy early in the proposal process. – The teams deploy the strategy leveraging the strength of the

organization, communications, and structured processes to develop a unified and consistent proposal by final RFP release.

– This approach produces a customer-ready proposal for red team review that can be polished by a core team to submittal.

– With the same or less resources, your proposal management approach will dramatically increase your probability of winning.

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• Keys to Winning – Establish The Win Strategy Early - Early development of the win

strategy allows ample time to implement the proper marketing/communications plan and business development strategies to shape the RFP.

– Design First, Then Build - When the solution is defined early, proposal development is a straight-forward process. You need to drive early development of technical, management, and program baselines.

– Deliver A Proposal, Not A Technical Report - Proposals are selling documents 100% compliant with the customers' instructions. You need to provide supported 'why us' data while offering what they want, not what is available.

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– Use Facts As The Foundation - Claims made in a proposal are believed only when supported by quantitative data. Numbers and graphics are used to substantiate the features and benefits proposed.

– Drive To Be Compliant, Consistent and Compelling - Proposals are scored, not read. We mandate full compliance while building a consistent and compelling proposal.

Contact Information

Gary E. Fitch VP Business Operations

3110 Fairview Park Drive Ste 1250Falls Church, VA 22042

301.404.1852 (c) 703.991.8875 (f)

[email protected]

Rebecca L. Kehoe Manager

8000 Towers Crescent Drive Suite 950 Vienna, VA 22182

Direct: 301.580.2578

www.WatkinsMeegan.com

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mailto:[email protected]