Blog · Tag
proposal-process.
8 posts in this archive.
Win-loss, Part 5 of 5: the eighteen-month view
Eighteen months of running a win-loss program for ourselves. What we'd change if we started over today, what we wouldn't, and the one investment that compounded more than we expected.
Win themes, one year after we published the field guide
The field guide held up on most counts and was wrong on two. What I'd rewrite today, what I wouldn't, and the one test that keeps earning its place.
Win-loss, Part 4 of 5: closing the KB feedback loop
How a debrief finding becomes a block edit that ships into the next bid. The review cadence that makes it stick. The specific anti-patterns that break the loop.
Team KPIs we stopped tracking
Two proposal-team metrics we killed this year. Why each one misread the work, and what we replaced them with. Short, opinionated, written from my own dashboard.
Win-loss, Part 3 of 5: the five anti-patterns
Lessons logged and never applied. Themes that don't match answered questions. Five failure modes I see when a win-loss program looks healthy from the outside but isn't moving the win rate.
The proposal week bracketing July 4th
Federal buyers don't move. Commercial buyers don't move. Reviewers do. A short field note on the bid weeks bracketing the July 4th holiday and the four things to triage now.
The RFP kickoff meeting that saves two weeks
A 60-minute kickoff that decides ownership, win themes, the compliance scaffold, and the review calendar. Run badly, it costs you two weeks. Run right, it pays for itself by Friday.
The 8-stage RFP response pipeline, explained
A canonical long-read on how a mature proposal shop actually moves an RFP from the hand-off email through submission and the post-mortem that feeds the next bid. Eight stages, what each one owns, and where each one fails.
See the proposal workflow
Take the 5-minute tour, then start a trial workspace when you're ready to run a real pursuit against your own source material.