Chapter 6
Building and Organizing the Capture Team
Acquiring new business is a team activity. A frequently used approach is to establish a “capture team” and give it responsibility for securing a piece of new business. A capture team consists of a leader and a core group of managers who oversee proposal and program development.
Ultimately, the effectiveness of the capture team is a key determinant of whether you win or lose. The team members develop and implement your bid strategy and lead the proposal development effort. Here is an all-too-typical scenario that illustrates this point.
An organization has properly positioned itself with the customer. It has good past performance, a superior technical solution, and an affordable price. Yet, at the end of the day, it loses the contract. The culprit? A poorly prepared proposal—one that fails to clearly articulate the technical solution, fails to show its benefits to the customer, and generally fails to effectively communicate the right message. This mistake happens every day. Its genesis is a failure to recognize the key ingredients of team effectiveness and the unique skills required of capture team members.
A host of factors contribute to team effectiveness. Clearly, the skill and relevant experience of individual capture team leaders is a significant factor. So is the way such teams are organized and managed. Yet an often-overlooked ingredient of team success is team members knowing and executing their team assignments.
A basketball play known as the “pick and roll” provides an example. The team that has the ball executes this play near the defender’s goal. One player sets a “pick” by placing himself between the defender and his teammate, who is dribbling the ball toward the basket. When the defender goes around the pick to cover the ball handler, the player setting the pick “rolls” away from the defender and heads toward the basket. As the defender approaches the ball handler, the ball handler lobs the ball over the defender’s head to the other player, who is now temporarily unguarded. With a clear path to the basket, the player who had set the pick completes a lay-up and scores two points.
As this play unfolds, the other team members draw their defenders away from the action to clear the path to the goal. The pick and roll works when all the team members know the play and faithfully execute their assigned roles and responsibilities.
Answering the question “who gets involved and when?” is an important part of your new business planning activities. Having the role, responsibility, and authority of each participant defined is a vital part of team success. The absence of defined roles for business and proposal development personnel during the new business development process can undermine the effectiveness of your bid pursuit efforts. This is especially true as a bid opportunity transitions from a pure marketing activity to one that requires the participation of other capture team members.
Organizations that have a well-defined plan to direct new business activities, and assigned roles and responsibilities for each development phase, gain competitive advantage. Those that do not implement such plans often suffer the consequences of disjointed and uncoordinated new business development efforts. Key long-range positioning and pre-proposal activities under these circumstances fail to adequately support downstream proposal development efforts—with regrettable consequences.
Select, organize, and manage your capture team to maximize the effectiveness of new business development activities. Implementing a well-structured and well-defined capture team environment will prove to be a worthwhile effort that will enable you to capture competitive advantage at the same time.
CAPTURE TEAM MEMBERS
Plan to appoint a capture manager as soon as an opportunity appears legitimate, but no later than once a preliminary bid decision is made (see Chapter 8). The capture manager remains in place from the time the opportunity is recognized until a contract is awarded or the opportunity is abandoned. Other key members of the capture team should include the following:
Proposal manager
Program manager
Technical volume manager
Cost volume manager
Contracts manager
Marketing manager.
Regardless of proposal size, each position must be filled. Except for marketing, these positions typically require only part-time participation during the early stages of the new business life cycle. Depending on the size and scope of the proposal, some positions may remain staffed at the part-time level throughout the proposal development phase. For example, few business opportunities require a full-time contracts manager.
Apart from the largest proposals, the role of capture manager can be filled by the proposal manager or the program manager. The choice depends on the qualifications of available personnel. Usually the best results occur when the same person fills the roles of capture manager and proposal manager. This enhances the integration of bid strategies into the proposal. In some cases, however, the program manager is the better choice.
CAPTURE TEAM ORGANIZATION
Organizationally, the capture manager is responsible for the entire bid effort. Figure 6-1 shows a typical capture team organization. The program and proposal managers report directly to the capture manager. They work closely together, yet each has a different set of roles and responsibilities.
The proposal manager is responsible for the proposal. The program manager is responsible for efforts related to defining the program and building a program plan. Everyone else works for and reports to the proposal manager.
People assigned to prepare the technical proposal work for and are supervised by the technical volume manager. Likewise, additional cost personnel assigned to the proposal work for the cost manager. These roles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships apply only to the proposal. They are different from those normally in effect outside the proposal.
For small proposals, or for small organizations, one person may play multiple proposal roles. However, I strongly advise against having the same person serve as both proposal and program manager. A common tendency is to pick people with excellent technical experience but little proposal experience to manage proposals. With few exceptions, this is a mistake. Managing proposals requires unique skills and knowledge that cannot be acquired from the normal work environment. Your proposal win probability will be higher if you use a proposal manager with demonstrated expertise and extensive experience in proposal development.
Figure 6-1. Capture Team Organization
CAPTURE TEAM ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
To avoid confusion among individual proposal members, develop a matrix of roles, responsibilities, and authority for key members of the capture team. Get management to approve this matrix and implement it on individual proposals. Make sure you communicate this information to relevant managers in your organization and members of the capture team.
Capture Manager
The role of the capture manager is to organize and coordinate all the activities required to pursue the opportunity and prepare a proposal. The capture manager calls the plays. He or she is responsible for developing the bid strategy, briefing senior management about the opportunity and keeping them apprised of bid progress, and overseeing proposal planning and development. The capture manager coordinates pre-proposal and proposal activities with other elements of the organization, plus any major subcontractor or consultant efforts.
The capture manager should lead meetings with the customer and approve any customer communications, such as those prepared in response to a draft RFP. Marketing still plays a full role in the business development process, but it now falls under the authority of the capture manager. The capture manager bridges the gap between marketing and proposal development and provides a focal point totally responsible for capturing a piece of new business.
Capture managers must have the authority to carry out their assigned duties. Otherwise, the effectiveness of their role is eroded to the point of destroying the value of the position. Under normal circumstances, this means that the capture manager should control the B&P budget and report to senior management. Most likely this will be the head of new business development (marketing) or program management.
Proposal Manager
The proposal manager works for the capture manager or holds both positions. He or she is completely responsible for planning and preparing the entire proposal. The simplest proposals require a technical volume and separate volumes or sections for past performance, cost, and contracts. Many proposals require additional material. Typical examples include an executive summary, a statement of work, an integrated master schedule, an integrated master plan, etc.
The proposal manager builds the proposal schedule, prepares proposal outlines and writing guides for authors, verifies proposal assignments, prepares the proposal directive, conducts the proposal kickoff meeting, and manages day-to-day proposal activities. He or she ensures that the proposal complies with all RFP requirements, integrates bid strategies into the proposal, works with authors and technical personnel to identify features and benefits to include in the proposal, plans and coordinates proposal reviews, and makes the final decisions concerning every aspect of the proposal. The proposal manager also manages the preparation of responses to government questions after the proposal is submitted and leads the preparation of any required oral presentations or site surveys.
Program Manager
The program manager also works for the capture manager or holds both positions. The program manager is responsible for executing the program at contract award. He or she should be assigned as soon as a favorable bid decision is made. His or her role is to participate in the development of bid strategies and to approve decisions that will impact subsequent program planning and execution. Typical areas include the selection of subcontractors, technical solutions proposed, program schedules, staffing levels, and pricing inputs.
Important decisions that affect the potential success of the program are made during the pre-proposal and proposal development stages. It only makes good sense that the person ultimately responsible for the outcome of those decisions be involved. Being responsible for executing the plan contained in the proposal forces some accountability into this part of the bid process. It also helps to ensure continuity between proposal development and program execution. Trying to manage a program when you did not participate in the technical solution, staffing, cost, and contractual commitments contained in the proposal truly defines the term “pig in a poke.”
Production Manager/Proposal Administrator
Reporting to the proposal manager, the proposal production manager (sometimes called the proposal administrator) is responsible for formatting and producing the final proposal and packaging it for delivery to the customer. This person ensures that the proposal follows all RFP format requirements, conforms to all proposal directives, and conforms to any company publication standards. He or she handles all the administrative tasks required to produce both review and final copies of the proposal. These tasks include making tabs and dividers, ordering binders, preparing the proposal cover, building spines for binders, coordinating and integrating proposal graphics, building tables of contents for each proposal volume, making copies to meet proposal delivery requirements, and producing electronic copies of the proposal if required. The proposal administrator also coordinates proposal editing, creates regular backups of proposal material, and manages proposal configuration to maintain the most current version of draft and final proposal material.
Technical Volume Manager
The technical volume manager is responsible for preparing the technical volume of the proposal, plus any attachments that address technical content. For smaller proposals, the program manager may fulfill this responsibility. Otherwise, the lead or chief engineer for the program or a senior functional manager will fill this role. For major proposals, individual section managers may be assigned to oversee separate portions or volumes of the technical proposal. The technical volume manager is often a participating author as well as manager. He or she also reads draft proposal sections to ensure that they comply with the proposal outline and checks content for technical accuracy and compliance with program decisions.
Cost Volume Manager
The cost volume manager is responsible for preparing the cost volume of the proposal. This involves more than just “plugging in numbers.” Many proposals require cost volume narratives that describe your basis of estimate—how you arrived at your cost—plus information about your company’s indirect rates, escalation factors, forward-pricing rates, cost of money, and myriad other factors that contribute to your overall proposed price.
Based on RFP instructions, the cost manager must determine how the effort will be priced and presented in the cost volume. Some factors include whether pricing is in calendar or fiscal year; whether labor will be reflected in person-hours, -months, or -years; and whether costs will be shown by month, quarter, or year. The cost manager also must work with the technical team to get costing input and with the persons in your company responsible for obtaining material and any other costs besides labor.
Working with the program manager, the cost manager also develops a list of labor categories to be used in the bid and obtains direct labor rates for each. The cost manager develops (or helps the program manager develop) the work breakdown structure (WBS) to gather cost information. In some cases, customers require cost information in special forms or formats. If so, the cost manager must prepare them and include them in the cost volume.
Some RFPs require that cost information be entered only for CLINs listed in Section B. In these cases, you are not required to submit any additional cost information with your proposal. This may appear to simplify the costing exercise. However, cost build-ups, bases of estimates, and time-phased costs for each element of the WBS (separated by labor category and material) are still required to support subsequent program management.
Contracts Manager
The role of the contracts manager is to read the draft and final RFPs to determine whether the applicable terms and conditions are acceptable to the company, and to identify any special RFP clauses that require management attention. The contracts manager completes the representations and certifications required by the RFP and prepares any additional information that needs to be included in the contracts section of the proposal.
Occasionally, the RFP includes a model contract or list of attachments that must be completed and returned with the proposal. Typical attachments include statements of work, product or system specifications, small business subcontracting plans, and other information that will become part of the final contract. The contracts manager normally does not prepare these documents but is responsible for including them in the final proposal.
The contracts manager also is the primary interface between your company and the government contracting officer. Once a final RFP is released, all correspondence between your company and the customer should flow through the contracts manager.
Marketing Manager
The role of the marketing manager is to position the company strategically with the customer for the forthcoming bid. The marketing manager collects information about the customer, program requirements, and competitors to support bid decisions and the development of bid strategies. He or she also coordinates information exchange between the capture team and the customer and coordinates customer visits.
Generally, marketing is most heavily involved and assumes a lead role during long-range positioning and the pre-proposal phases. For activities related to the bid being pursued, the marketing manager reports directly to the capture manager once a capture team is established.
Marketing has a tendency to disappear once an RFP is received. However, you lose a valuable resource if the marketing manager is not available or fails to participate during proposal development. Marketing does not need to write the proposal, but its customer insight and knowledge of competitors should be readily available to the capture team. If practical, have the marketing manager participate in proposal reviews as well as any other key proposal decision-making meetings.
Other Proposal Functions
These proposal roles represent the minimum. Additional assignments may be necessary to prepare other documents required by the RFP. If the RFP requires a past performance volume, for example, you might need to assign another manager to oversee its preparation. Requirements for additional technical documents should be organized under the technical volume manager.
The term manager in this context is not meant to convey someone who only oversees the work of others. Instead, it refers to the person responsible for ensuring that the work gets done.
Most B&P budgets will not stand the burden of pure managers. So, everyone should have a proposal assignment in addition to his or her role as manager. The role of cost manager, for example, is clearly a working-level assignment. To the maximum extent practical, have people serve multiple proposal roles. B&P resources are precious and need to be preserved. At the same time, do not scrimp and do not overburden people with too many proposal assignments. The key here is balance.
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS FOR CAPTURE TEAM LEADERS
Theoretically, organizations assign their most talented and experienced personnel to work on proposals. After all, proposals are the lifeblood of future business and the prerequisite for survival in the world of competitive contracts. In reality, the more likely scenario is that the best available people will be assigned to the proposal. Hence, in most cases, you will have a mix of talent and experience.
People assigned to the proposal effort usually have other jobs. They may be unwilling participants in a process they do not fully understand, and they may be unaccustomed to the hectic work requirements dictated by proposals. These shortcomings can be overcome with a seasoned proposal manager and a core team of experienced capture team leaders. A short training course on proposal basics is always a good idea and can be used to familiarize the proposal team with essential skills (as highlighted in Chapter 7).
The output of your capture team will be no better than the quality and experience of the people assigned to it. People who hold leadership positions on the capture team, therefore, must have significant proposal experience. This is especially true for the capture team manager and proposal manager—and doubly true whenever the proposal team includes inexperienced members. As a benchmark, expect key capture and proposal managers to receive pay and status comparable to or better than senior engineers and technical personnel in your organization. Otherwise, you may surrender competitive advantage to companies willing to adequately compensate people with skills crucial to their future business success.
The following are some recommended requirements for capture team managers.
Capture Manager
Specific knowledge required for capture managers includes (1) a broad understanding of your company’s organization, strategic plan, products, services, personnel, technical capability, and costing policies; (2) familiarity with the customer and its technical requirements, acquisition policies, and methods for evaluating proposals; (3) keen awareness of potential competitors; (4) experience in developing and implementing bid strategies; and (5) solid knowledge and experience in proposal development.
Proposal Manager
Ideally, the proposal manager will have fundamental knowledge similar to that of the capture manager. Additional knowledge areas required of proposal managers include (1) a thorough and detailed understanding of the acquisition and source selection process; (2) the ability to translate bid strategies into proposal narrative; (3) complete knowledge of all facets of proposal development—RFP analysis, development of proposal outlines, storyboards, themes, features/benefits, author guides, proposal reviews, etc.; (4) an understanding of desktop publishing concepts; (5) the ability to develop a detailed plan and manage all proposal activities to achieve that plan; (6) knowledge of the proposal review process; and (7) the ability to manage and effectively interact with a wide diversity of people and technical disciplines in a high-pressure work environment. Although not a critical prerequisite, a good general technical background is a real asset for proposal managers, as are good writing and editing skills.
On the personal side, proposal managers must be able to lead and motivate the proposal team. This often requires both the grace of a saint and the heartless perseverance of Attila the Hun. At times, proposals require a tough taskmaster to maintain a rigorous development schedule. At other times, they require a sympathetic ear. An effective proposal manager knows when and how to exhibit either behavior.
Production Manager/Proposal Administrator
The proposal production manager, or proposal administrator, must have experience formatting and preparing proposals for federal procurement agencies. Additional skills and knowledge include (1) expertise in desktop publishing and whatever software products—word processing, graphics development, etc.—your company uses to prepare proposals; (2) a talent for extracting proposal format and packaging instructions from an RFP and turning them into proposal production instructions; (3) the ability to coordinate and integrate graphics into the proposal; (4) the ability to manage the configuration of proposal sections to ensure that proposal personnel are using the most current version; and (5) the ability to coordinate all the production activities necessary to produce, package, and deliver the proposal to the customer.
The proposal administrator works closely with the proposal manager. Effective proposal administrators have good attention to detail and the ability to maintain control of production activities.
Technical Volume Manager
The technical volume manager must have previous experience preparing and overseeing technical proposals. This person should have sufficient technical expertise to verify the accuracy of technical information contained in the proposal. He or she also must be able to determine whether the proposal narrative complies with RFP requirements. This is a more difficult task than it first appears to be.
RFP compliance covers two areas. One is the technical requirements defined by the RFP. The second is compliance with RFP requirements for narrative content: Does each proposal section clearly and completely provide all the information requested by the RFP?
If practical, the program manager can serve as the technical volume manager as well. However, the program manager must have sufficient proposal experience and skills to meet the qualifications of a technical volume manager. Otherwise, it is better to have two separate people fill these proposal positions.
Cost Volume Manager
The cost volume manager must be thoroughly familiar with your company’s pricing policies and systems. This familiarity includes all the factors required to prepare a cost proposal for the government. The cost manager must be capable of extracting costing requirements from the RFP and must have an understanding of how the customer will evaluate the submitted cost proposal. This person also should be able to contribute to the development and integration of pricing strategies. The ability to develop a program WBS, help other proposal team members prepare a basis of estimate to support the cost proposal, and prepare any required cost proposal narrative are additional requirements for the cost volume manager.
Contracts Manager
The contracts manager must be well-versed in the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), plus any supplemental regulations your customer uses. He or she must be able to identify any RFP terms, conditions, or special contract clauses that involve risk or require special attention by the proposal team or management. Likewise, this person should be capable of spotting terms or conditions that might give you an advantage in developing a bid strategy.
USING CONSULTANTS
Properly employed, consultants can provide an excellent, cost-effective way to supplement your capture team. They can also help fill voids whenever qualified people from your organization are not available to support proposal activities. Consultants can contribute in three general areas: capture/proposal management, technical expertise, and subject matter expertise.
Proposal consultants potentially provide a level of experience and expertise that may not be readily available in your organization. They can be especially valuable in developing and implementing bid strategies and in performing the myriad tasks required to prepare a winning proposal. Many consultants will manage the entire proposal effort and help write the proposal. Alternatively, you might want to use a consultant only to perform selected proposal tasks, such as helping to develop the bid strategy or conducting a review of your proposal before it is delivered to the customer.
Technical consultants provide assistance in cases where you need specialized expertise that is not available within your organization, or when you want to use the credentials of the technical expert in your proposal. Many years ago I bid a program in which we were required to purchase two wide-body aircraft. No one in our organization had ever done that before. Therefore, we hired a person who had 25 years’ experience purchasing commercial aircraft. He helped us write our proposal and then worked with us after we won the contract.
Technical consultants can also be used to supplement your proposal team whenever you have a staffing shortfall. In busy organizations, it is often difficult to get the level of technical expertise you would like to have assigned to the proposal. If so, a consultant may provide a cost-effective solution.
The third group of consultants is generally referred to as subject matter experts (SMEs). SMEs are people who have specialized knowledge that can be applied to improve the quality of your proposal. They may possess information necessary to demonstrate that you understand the problem being addressed by your proposal.
SMEs may be representatives of the people who will use your proposed product or service. For example, a company bidding to provide aircrew-training services to F-15 pilots might want to hire a retired F-15 pilot. In this case, the company could draw upon the SME’s knowledge to gain insight into current training operations or to better understand the operational environment where training will be conducted.
SMEs can be used in any area in which you need knowledge or insight that is not available from your own organization. Often, these are people who previously worked for the government or for one of your competitors.
Companies that use proposal consultants effectively gain competitive advantage over those that do everything themselves. Test this logic. Some proposal consultants have a demonstrated win record of 90 percent. If they work for you, you have statistically a 9 in 10 chance of winning, everything else being even. If they work against you, and you do not have someone of equal capability, you have statistically a 9 in 10 chance of losing. You be the judge of where the competitive advantage lies.
Assessing Your Need for Consultants
There is a general misperception that small companies have a greater need for consultants than their larger counterparts. Indeed, small companies may have limited personnel available to work on proposals. Yet, my experience suggests that this is a misperception. Proposal consultants can be used cost-effectively regardless of company size.
Of greater concern than organization size is the value of the bid opportunity, the complexity of the proposal required, the level of competition, and expected profit margins for the type of business being pursued. The proper comparison factors are the cost of preparing a proposal with and without the consultant, the corresponding win probability, and the amount of profit to be realized if you win the program. An effective proposal management consultant should be able to reduce your bid costs, increase your win probability, or both. Otherwise, you are better off using in-house talent.
For companies that bid many small procurements, it may be more efficient to use a consultant for selected portions of the bid cycle. Alternatively, you might consider having the consultant review your proposal process and make recommendations for improvements, or work with you on several proposals in a mentoring role to train your own staff.
Selecting Consultants
Properly selected and used, consultants can significantly improve your proposal win probability and help reduce your B&P costs. The key is selecting people who can positively contribute to the success of your organization. Picking technical consultants or SMEs is usually fairly straightforward. You simply select someone who has the required technical credentials or experience. However, if you expect the person to write a proposal section, look for someone with at least three to five years of significant proposal experience.
Picking effective proposal management consultants is more difficult, perhaps because good proposal skills are hard to define and identify. Here are some recommendations for selecting and using a proposal consultant to serve as capture team leader or proposal manager:
Pick a consultant with at least ten years of proposal management experience and someone who has been working as a proposal consultant for at least three years. Do not use someone who just got started, regardless of their past experience.
Obtain a list of the consultant’s proposal activity for the past five years, including a list of winning proposals.
Look for someone who has worked for multiple clients and across multiple procuring agencies. Avoid a consultant who has gained experience at only one company. He or she might be an excellent consultant, but there is no way to tell given such a narrow track record.
Finally, select a consultant with a demonstrated record of winning proposals. At a minimum, choose a consultant with a consistent win record above 70 percent. Over the past 25 years, I have maintained a win rate over 90 percent. Other proposal consultants have comparable or better records. However, be fair in your assessment. Sometimes companies lose for reasons well beyond the proposal consultant’s control.
Once you have identified a consultant who meets these criteria, ask for a statement of work that clearly identifies the scope of work to be performed by the consultant and the period of performance. Some consultants provide only advice and assistance. Others provide hands-on management. A few will even write selected proposal sections or edit the proposal for you in addition to managing the proposal. Make certain you know what you are paying for.
The consultant’s statement of work should identify how the consultant will charge his or her time (daily or hourly) and how and when the consultant will submit invoices and any other direct expenses, such as travel. Some proposal management consultants will prepare your proposal for a fixed price, and others will discount their billing rate contingent upon a bonus if you win. Tailor the payment structure to what you need. Also make sure you have the consultant sign a nondisclosure statement that legally prevents the consultant from disclosing proprietary or company-confidential material.
How you staff, organize, and manage the capture team offers a rich opportunity to either gain or surrender competitive advantage. Select highly qualified and experienced capture team managers, especially the capture team leader and proposal manager. The quality and capability of the capture team are among the greatest contributors to preparing a winning proposal.
Recruit and retain seasoned proposal managers. Supplement your proposal team with qualified consultants to fill personnel shortfalls, or use them to enhance the expertise applied to your proposals. Prequalify consultants so that they are available when you need them.
Develop and implement well-defined roles, responsibilities, and levels of authority for capture team managers. Team members equipped with the knowledge of what to do and when to do it, along with the necessary authority, will significantly enhance team effectiveness and lead you down the road to success.