One type of growth challenge that business developers and owners face stems from not having enough time, personnel, or expertise to prepare and respond to the solicitations that otherwise would be a perfect fit for the company. You may be completely new to hiring consultants. You may be worn thin from all the heavy hoursRead… Read more »
How hard can it be to do federal business development? All you need is to be good with people and a willingness to talk to decision makers, right? If it were so easy, why for years has BD been given a bad name, and why have many companies struggled to hire business developers who produceRead… Read more »
We caught up with Captain Eric Jacksonat the recent Cleared Job Fair in Springfield, VA. Eric is an Information Systems Manager for the Army and he’s seeking a position in the network defense and security area in the Northern VA to DC part of the metro area. Eric met with SAIC, ManTech, URS, HP andRead… Read more »
“Responsibility” was the operative word at the Association for Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (APTAC) Spring Membership and Training Conference. The 300 PTAC counselors, staff and managers gathered to attend the conference attended numerous presentations emphasizing responsibility– responsibility to their clients, to the federal procurement process, and to the public’s dollar. Although a variety of topicsRead… Read more »
Cities, counties, and states should adopt a Restaurant Impossible model to transform their small businesses. Restaurant Impossible is a popular show on the Food Network where Chef Robert Irvine renovates failing restaurants in two days on a budget of $10,000. These restaurants are deep into debt, have lost most of their customers, and are oftenRead… Read more »
Unless you are incredibly lucky and everyone assigned to the proposal is a great writer, you will need to do some just-in-time training to get everyone on the same page. The same goes for conceptualizing graphics. Here is how you go about quickly getting everyone on board to create a winning proposal. Step 1. AssessRead… Read more »
By the time, we’ve gotten to the Fifth Gate in the Leadership Pipeline, we should have spent some quality time mastering the previous four. This gate is punctuated by enormous complexity and significant (perhaps the most significant of all the gates) changes in thinking. The Business Manager needs to come to terms with being highlyRead… Read more »
With capture, many companies focus on the obvious: what are the company’s internal capabilities and the offering – and what can the company do in response to the customer needs. However, there are multiple other factors to take into account when capturing a contract that are all too often overlooked. There is no one rightRead… Read more »
When my phone rings for proposal consulting work, about 90% of the time the story is the same: we’ve got a Request for Proposal in and we need you to help us immediately. I say – great, would be happy to help you. By the way, have you done any capture? I hear either “yes,”Read… Read more »
So you may have heard about that new Hunger Games movie or know a little something a boy named Harry, but honestly, why should you be reading young adult literature (YA Lit)? Isn’t it just for kids? Actually, no, YA Lit is awesome because it can teach some great lessons that you will actually enjoyRead… Read more »