Oh the mistakes that are made leading to some very expensive losses are ever so avoidable. Bear these in mind so you can avoid spending bid and proposal funds on losing proposals and then more on legal fees for a losing protest. Sin #5: You don’t understand the evaluation tendencies of the agency This sin…
We continue our journey into the land of deadly sins in proposals with two sins involving the bidder’s failure to connect content and concepts in their proposal to ensure credibility of their proposal. Sin #3: You cut staffing levels without an effective rationalization Although reducing staffing levels is a short cut to significantly lower your…
We’ve covered traps of Black Hat reviews and capture team follies. Now it’s time to reveal some of the most common and deadliest sins in proposals. This blog leverages research and analysis we’ve done on mistakes made by some major U.S. Government contractors. In order to conduct this analysis, we used GAO protest docket data…
Businesses can encounter many barriers to entry when pursuing a contract. Whether it’s a lack of relevant past performance, technical capabilities, personnel with expertise, or experience with the customer…any business (including GOVCON!) seek solutions to such gaps. This challenge comes up in any number of situations, from Black Hat reviews, to market intelligence engagements and…
Intelligence collection is a cornerstone of the intelligence analysis process. This is as important in market and competitive intelligence as it is in the Intelligence Community. This blog will expand upon fundamentals of the collection aspect of intelligence analysis. Collection can be very time consuming in order to gather relevant information on a competitor. However,…
Participants make a Black Hat work Over time, we have shared approaches to executing a good Black Hat review as a facilitator. Now it’s time to focus on one of the most critical ingredients – the participants! As the saying goes, “teamwork makes the dream work!” The merits of participants can make a Black Hat…
This blog is specifically written by Brian Lindholm, Managing Principal and Founder of FedSavvy Strategies. He is a nerd. Competitive Intelligence (CI) is my passion. In this blog, I am going to provide a non-boring and very practical definition of CI. Better yet, this blog will also share with you some steps to go from…
Introduction to mind mapping Have you ever been thrown into a capture for a complex opportunity that seems to invite a crowded competitor field? It can be challenging to understand the core requirements of a contract in a short period of time and to narrow down a group of competitors to focus on. Consider mind…
Competitive Intelligence. Everyone wants it. We all hustle to understand our competition. We obsess over databases accessed and rumors shared. Information is shared informally and through haphazardly crafted documents. Doing competitive intelligence (CI) effectively is difficult. We all recognize that as a fact. Whether CI is done by a corporate team or an outsourced resource,…
You’ve done your research on your competitors. You checked your biases. You conducted an analysis of your competitor’s capabilities. Now what? Do an objective evaluation of yourself. Why? Competitive intelligence is a two-way street. Expect your competitors to be looking into your capabilities with the same intensity that you are analyzing theirs. It is important…
