Capture Support and Proposal Development

The Business Development Challenge

Today’s procurement environment is more competitive than ever. Winning requires proven leadership, a dedicated team, an effective process, allocation of the proper resources, and an early start on a manageable schedule. Since 1982, SMA has delivered leadership on more than 3,000 proposals worth more than $400 billion. This consistent success makes SMA the partner our clients turn to when they must win.

Our Greatest Strength is Our People

We provide the right combination of knowledge, leadership, and abilities to help our clients Pursue and Win new business. Our Capture Support and Proposal Development Associates have a diverse set of skills, including strategy development, competitive assessment, government evaluations, capture execution, price-to-win, and proposal leadership. Working closely with our Management Consulting Practice for Competitive Assessment and Price to Win (CA/PTW) and Win Strategy development, they help you get to the most competitive position prior to release of the Request for Proposals (RFP) and then help you develop a winning proposal. Our Capture Support and Proposal Development Practice focuses on the activities after your decision to pursue an opportunity:

The Nine Principles of Winning

SMA’s CEO, Ajay Patel says “there is a tendency to get lost in the intricate processes for writing winning proposals.” He outlined the Nine Principles of Winning that have helped us become the global leader in capture and proposal consulting for over forty years:

Principle 1

Adjust your process to the competition, better remembered as “Don’t use a sledgehammer to crack a nut”

Principle 2

Proposals are developed, not just written: “Plan the proposal, design each page, plan what you are going to write on that page and only then, finally write”

Principle 3

Quality is the result of following the process, not from inspections: “You can’t edit your way to a winning proposal”

Principle 4

The burden of reasoning is on the writer, not the reader: “Don’t make the reader guess, they have a day job and more things to do than time”

Principle 5

Use the process to anchor competing advocacies between growing sales, minimizing execution risk and achieving financial results: “The winning proposal offers the best value to the customer, and can be performed at the offered price”

Principle 6

Your win strategy must have a clear burden of proof and be tested: “If you can’t test it, how do you know it is good?”

Principle 7

Know what it takes to go from being offerable to contesting for the win: “Take the actions to create a clear choice for the customer”

Principle 8

Out-think your rivals: “Find new, creative ways to be competitive”

Principle 9

Winning is about your leadership: “Before you can win, you need to develop a team that can win”

Keep these principles in mind every time and you will win more consistently!