2014.10.30 Lohfeld Consulting Capture & Proposal Tips & News

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October 2014

Should we have procurement reform or just improvement?

It seems like everyone has been jumping on the procurement reform bandwagon this year and has been saying that the government’s procurement system is broken. While reforming government procurement is a lofty goal and resonates well in the halls of Congress, the practicality is that it is more of a pre-election battle cry than a reality.

One organization, the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP), has taken a different approach, stating that the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR)—the rules that control government procurement—are fine and do not need to be overhauled. What is broken is the way the FAR is applied and interpreted in many government procurements.

According to APMP in their just-released survey report, Closing the Procurement Execution Gap, most government and industry professionals strongly agree about what improvements need to be made and how they can be done without reforming the FAR. I hope that business development and capture managers will share APMP’s findings with government procurement officials and help spread their recommendations about how to conduct better procurements. Here are some of the more interesting findings.

Download and read Bob’s latest article and download APMP’s Closing the Procurement Execution Gap survey report.

Lohfeld Business Winning Webinar Series

Led by our capture and proposal experts, our webinars present advancements in business development, capture management, and proposal management.

The End of the Incumbent Empire: 10 Ways to Unseat the Incumbent

Dec. 11, 2014 12:00 p.m. EST
Free Lohfeld Business Winning Webinar

In the past several years, incumbents have lost their advantage in the Federal Government market. Industry studies show that incumbent contractors now have approximately the same win rate on rebids as non-incumbents. Rapid technological change, as well as fiscal constraints, mean that customers are more willing to consider alternatives. Still, winning a bid against an incumbent contractor is a challenge because best informed wins, and the incumbent is still the best informed.

In this webinar, Lisa Pafe, CPP APMP, PMI-certified PMP, LinkedIn Publisher, and trained ISO Internal Auditor will provide 10 proven best practices to create a competitive edge over the incumbent in today’s changing environment.

View our webinar replays!

7 secrets from inside government source evaluations and how you can use them to create winning proposals

How integrated capture/proposal software can help you win before RFP release

7 proposal review secrets that will increase your win rate

Top 10 'Go-to-Market' mistakes made by federal contractors and how to avoid them

Doing more with less and winning more! Automating business winning with WinCenter™

Maryann Lesnick joins Lohfeld Consulting team as Principal Consultant

Maryann Lesnick brings more than 25 years of experience in business development; proposal management, writing, and editing; capture management; project management; and quality management for both federal and commercial sectors. She is a Project Management Institute (PMI) certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and holds APMP Practitioner-level certification (CP APMP). She is also a Certified Scrum Master (CSM) and certified Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS).

As Vice President of Proposals for Base Technologies (later CA Technologies), Maryann supported the entire business development lifecycle and led all public sector services bids. Maryann has served on the Board of Directors of APMP's National Capital Area (NCA) chapter for the past 5 years, and currently serves as the 2014 Chapter President.

Julia Quigley joins Lohfeld Consulting team as Operations Coordinator

Julia Quigley’s operations support is backed by proposal management experience for federal contracts and a background in writing instruction. She has worked on a variety of Federal Health IT task orders and large proposals. With a Master’s in Rhetoric and Composition, she has conducted proposal writing strategies and training to help technical subject matter experts (SMEs) understand how to respond clearly and compellingly to solicitation requirements.

Prior to joining Lohfeld Consulting Group, she worked at small and mid-sized federal contractors and at Texas State University. The federal contracting environments provided insight into the gamut of proposal activities—from capture, to bid development, to contracts—that allows her to better understand Lohfeld clients’ needs.

Join us at these upcoming industry conferences

APMP Nor'easters 2014 Proposal Expo - Nov. 6, 2014 in Worcester, MA

Join Beth Wingate, APMP Past CEO, and a team of APMP Fellows in the Situation Room to get answers to your burning capture and proposal questions.

APMP-NCA Mid-Atlantic Conference and Expo - Nov. 20-21, 2014 in Tysons, VA

Capture Management Training Class - Nov. 20, 2014
AppMaven's MS Word Tips & Tricks for Non-desktop Publishers Presentation, Beth Wingate, Nov. 21, 2014
Win Lab Presentation, Brenda Crist, Nov. 21, 2014
Don't let your next capture be a turkey: a practical approach to successful capture Presentation, Tom Gorman, Nov. 21, 2014
Proposal Yoga Presentation, Lisa Pafe, Nov. 21, 2014

Ask Proposal Doctor – How to bring proposal solutioning to closure?

Wendy Frieman prescribes a focus on solutioning at two levels: process and content. For the process, you need someone who can facilitate the discussion with the goal of arriving at decisions. For the content, start with a clear definition.