MANAGING

A
WINNING
PROPOSAL
DEVELOPMENT
PROCESS
What Project Manager needs to win a Competitive Bid ?

abhijit@optimizory.com
Director – Business Solutions
Optimizory Technologies P. Ltd.
 I had the Most Costliest Schooling
I learnt from my Failures
• 22 Years in IT (Developer to Director)
• 10 Years in Pre-Sales Roles (Solution Architect, Bid Manager, Capture
Specialist…) with HCL Tech, Mastek Ltd.
• Worked on multi-million bids in Government, BFSI and Manufacturing
verticals
• Worked with global partners Lockheed Martin, Bearing Point, Unisys…
• Competed and Won bids in India, US, UK, Japan, ME, Far East and
Australia
• Worked and Won Bids ranging from 500K to 50 Million USD
• Track Record of 90 % of submitted bids getting shortlisted and BFO
• Track Record of 60 % of submitted bids getting converted to Signed
Contracts
 Genesis
• Industry average of winning bids is about 33%.
(Source : Global Outsourcing Institute) How can we move that up?

• Top 5 IT Services companies win 60% of the bids.

How can we increase our probability of winning?

• 60-70 % of the projects companies win become

Yellow or Red. How can we bring more predictability?

• Increasing SGA costs and Diluted Margins.

How can we manage costs and margins more
effectively?
 3
P Persuasive Proposal Process
A pragmatic approach to develop winning proposals
for competitive opportunities.

Lead
Lead Proposal
Proposal Team
Team Solution
Solution Knowledge
Knowledge
Identification Winning Defense
Defense Transfer
Identification Winning Theme
Theme Transfer
Assessment Proposal Objection
Objection Creating
Development

Assessment Proposal Creating

ProposalDevelopment

Development Handling
Handling
Development Reusable

Transition Management
Business
Business Contract
Reusable
Review
Review Contract Assets
Assets
Intelligence
Intelligence
Planning

Negotiations
CapturePlanning

Production Submittal
Post Submittal Negotiations
Opportunity Production Contract Lessons
Lessons
Opportunity Contract Signoff
Signoff
Validation Learned
Learned
Validation Win
Win Loss
Loss
Bid Analysis Knowledge
Knowledge
Bid /No-Bid
/No-Bid Analysis
Proposal

Management
Management
Capture

Proposal
Proposal De-
De-
Pre-Proposal
Pre-Proposal Briefing
Briefing
Post

Activities
Activities

abhijit@optimizory.com
Challenges for the PM in a Proposal Process

• Not a Full Time job

.

• Late Involvement
• Limited Information
• Resource Scarcity
• Non-Compromising Deadline
• High Visibility and Expectations
• Lack of Standard Process
 The Dirty Dozen
Top 12 reasons Why Proposals Fail to Win
1. The Barbed Wire – Targeting a wired RFP;
2. The Proposal Fluff – Proposals meant for “Shock and Awe”;
3. We don’t walk by the rules – Responsiveness and compliance;
4. The Writer’s Block – Challenging the evaluator’s patience;
5. Tech Hooeys – Using lingo that customers do not understand;
6. The One Size-Fit All – Using boiler plate content without context;
7. Skeleton-in-the closet – No Risks, No Assumptions;
8. Missing the Sparkling Inspiration – What is the Soul-of-the-Goal?
9. Solution Disconnects – Floating Requirements, Functions and Features;
10. Rush Hour – The Customer needed it yesterday, lets ship it today!
11. Skill-Will-Endurance Gap - Having the right team of specialists;
12. The missing sword of Damocles – Checkpoints and review cycle;