Are we there yet?

Capture management is a lot like the Chicago to Mackinac island sailboat race, which challenges captains to race from the very Southwest end of Lake Michigan to the very Northeast end.  At 333 statute miles or 289.4 nautical miles, the Race to Mackinac is the oldest annual freshwater distance race in the world. As soon captains set sail, they constantly check their planned versus actual course, weather conditions, waves and make adjustments along the way to optimize their progress.

Capture management is similar with the goal of positioning the company to win, when the RFP is issued.  It starts when the first hint of an opportunity is discovered and, Like the Mackinac race, capture management requires course corrections along the way while the capture team continually asses the opportunity, win strategies, competitive positioning and readiness to bid (are we there yet?).

When an opportunity is identified, not much might be known and it may only be a rumor.  Some legwork needs to be done to qualify whether it is a real opportunity (or not).  Who is the customer? What do we know about them and their buying habits? What do we know about the requirements of the opportunity at-hand?  Does it align with our strengths?  What's the timing? Do we know anything about the competition?  What steps do we need to take to learn more and qualify this opportunity?  This is the Milestone Zero checkpoint and it's usually held for senior stakeholders shortly after opportunity identification.

As  the capture team learns more, they document it:  How are we going to meet the requirements?  What is our solution or approach? What are our value propositions that will resonate with the prospect?  Do we have an initial pricing strategy aligned with an independent Price to Win (PTW) analysis?  Have we engaged the prospect to the point that they 1) know who we are and 2) are willing to consider us for their needs?  This is the second checkpoint and optimally happens before the formal RFP is issued.  This is the Milestone One review and it's held with senior stakeholders, again.

In longer procurements, the capture team enhances and evolves the Milestone One information, making course corrections as they go.  The ultimate objective is to make sure that the capture team is well positioned before the formal RFP is issued.  In some cases, draft proposal materials may be being produced.  After some amount of time, the enhanced information is presented to senior management in a Milestone Two review.  Like a Milestone One review, this is still optimum if it's done before the RFP is issued and affords the capture team another sanity check with senior management and more course correction guidance, if needed.

When the RFP is released, the capture team assesses all the RFP documents and the positioning of the team against the real requirements.  Are there any surprises?  Any unexpected problem areas?  Can they be handled or mitigated?  Does this still look like something worth bidding?  The capture plan is updated and a Milestone Three is held with senior stakeholders to get final buy-in to pursue the opportunity and create and/or finish the proposal.

A forth review is usually held just before proposal submission, a Milestone Four review, to finalize the pricing.

Each milestone review is an opportunity to assess capture team progress, next steps and plot course corrections, if needed. Like the Mackinac race, sailboat captains check their progress against where they should be at the current point in time.  Milestone reviews are similar, where the level of detail improves over time.  In each review, the stakeholders assess whether the capture team has sufficiently matured the capture plan and preparation progress given the procurement timing.  Sometimes a no-bid decision is the best course of action and making such a decision early in a capture effort minimizes wasting precious resources.  It's for this reason that each review builds consensus for continuing the pursuit or disengaging and moving on to other opportunities.  Each review includes a "go, no-go" assessment.

Having the discipline to conduct milestone reviews requires being out in front of opportunities.  It's difficult to have this kind of discipline for "pop-up" opportunities where the RFP surprises you.  In such cases, the capture team must be able to get from Milestone Zero to Milestone Three level of detail very quickly to adequately assess their P-win and whether they should expend the resources to build and submit a proposal.  Not a very easy task, indeed. 

Do you need help adding discipline to your capture process?  We can provide templates, guide you through the process, and optimize your precious business development resources on disciplined bids with the highest P-win.

If you're not already doing it, consider improving your process and use milestone reviews to check progress, mature opportunities, and optimize resources.