One of the biggest confusions in the market place seems to be the real difference between Capture and Proposal Management. When most people talk about proposal management they will talk about the need to create a "compelling" and "compliant" proposal in response to the RFP.  Although the rationale is sound, the issues is that the compelling part of the equation is the responsibility of the Capture Manager.  The reality is that in many cases organizations have transitioned to a process where such responsibilities have been shifted to the Proposal Manager, minimizing the overall probability of a win.

Development of a compelling and competitive offer is the key foundation of any strategic business process.  Minimizing the time and effort spent on the required capture activities is a recipe that ensures the somewhere during the proposal process that the 11th hour call for hero's will be issued.  With what amounts to less than useful effort to rescue a non-compliant and non-competitive bid.  Avoiding such mistakes requires that even when one individual is serving in the role of both Capture and Proposal Manager, a clear distinction is maintained between the process.

The approach to strategic capture needs to change with the market place. The common element for prime contractors that are able to consistently win is their ability to focus on the offer, and not the technology used to deliver it. Their response to a request for proposal clearly and succinctly shows how the customers business objectives are achieved through tangible impact on operational outcomes by applying people, process, and technology. Winning in a commoditiazed market s not about having the best technical solution; it is about having the best economic solution.

The biggest misunderstanding in responding to a request for proposal is the equating of “best-value” to lowest price. This misconception is due in part to the traditional focus of capture organizations on proposal management rather than offer management. Although the difference is simple, it has profound effects on both Win Rates, and the Cost of Sales for the organization. Both are important to the process, but a quality proposal can only be built from a credible offer that takes into account the Customer, Competition, and Market dynamics.

Offer Management provides the basis for create a consistent and complete model that can be used to model the solutions, and create many of the proposal artifacts required to begin creation of narrative responses. Proposal Management focuses on creating and managing the “document model” for the response while Offer Management focuses on creating the “data model” that is used to feed the document model. This simple distinction allows the capture team to identify and focus early in the process on win themes that can be readily monetized by evaluators.

The result for the offeror is maximizing their probability of winning by providing a framework that demonstrates tangible monetary value to evaluators in a manner that is easy to score, eliminates typical discrepancies (risk) that reduce evaluator confidence in the offeror’s ability to execute in a timely and consistent manner. Remember, customers buy value at the end of the day.