Postscript

The material you just finished reading provides guidance, tools, tips, templates, and forms to improve your overall business capture process. Properly applied, this information will enable you to reduce B&P costs and improve the win probability of your proposals. Needless to say, this information will be of value only if it is applied.

Figure P-1 gives a list of the ten characteristics of winning proposals. Use the chart to score your organization in each of these characteristics according to the five-point scale. Better still, have several of your colleagues, or members of senior management, participate in this exercise.

Figure P-1. Proposal Preparation Scoring Chart

Once all of you arrive at consensus, pick the two or three areas that received the lowest score. Use the information contained in this book to develop an action plan to implement new processes, or change existing processes, to bring about a meaningful improvement in your business capture process. Set milestone dates and assign responsibility to those required to develop or implement the new processes. Meet regularly and assess progress.

Once you have effectively implemented the new processes, consider coming back to the original assessment and picking the next area for improvement. Continue until your business capture process achieves the ten characteristics of wining proposals. Few undertakings will yield as rich a return on investment.