The race to capture the deal

In the high-stakes world of large and complex sales opportunities, winning the deal demands precision, strategy, and an unwavering commitment to excellence. Time is of the essence when it comes to winning. Imagine you're a runner in a relay race, but you slip as you push out of the blocks. The race has started, and your team is already behind. To catch up, you need to accelerate quickly. Being behind your competitors is not an unusual place to be. The skill is recognising this, quickly deciding if you want to play, then working out how you catch up and overtake them. The last bit is where teams tend to stumble, so we thought we'd look at how we could help.

Fast-tracking the capture process:

When you're late to the capture game, it's essential to fast-track your process without sacrificing any of the key elements – but what are these? Here's three ideas:

1

Firstly you can accelerate your information gathering process by turning this in to a sprint activity using people who know what they're looking for.

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Then you can inject specialists with experience into your team for a short period of time to analyse that information and pinpoint the most crucial actions that will improve your chances of winning. People with experience here, will help you cut through the noise that can come out analysing the information gathered and get you focused on what's most important.

3

Then you need do-ers – people who can make things happen, including creating content, that you can take to your customer's stakeholders. quality or strategic focus.

We wrap this up into an accelerated process that looks something like this…

Define

Clearly outline your objectives and identify the key information gaps you need to fill. This sets the direction for your accelerated capture efforts.

Discover

Analyse the information at hand and respond with experience-based insights. Develop a unique bid brand identity and customer stakeholder profiles to tailor your approach.

Develop

Create initial versions of key deliverables like the capture plan, engagement plan, and value proposition. Present branding ideas designed to resonate with your customer and stand out from the competition.

Deliver

Finalise and deliver the campaign script, initial executive summary, and social media posts to engage both internal stakeholders and the customer, ensuring everyone is aligned and telling the same story.

By following these stages – define, discover, develop, and deliver – you can quickly get laser-focused on positioning yourself to win your opportunity, even when time is not on your side.

For more detailed guidance and to explore the full range of our capture services, visit the capture pages of our website and check out our Capture Accelerator Service Guide here for more on the process. Remember, in the race to win bids, being strategic is just as important as being fancy. It's not just about catching up; it's about overtaking the competition with a well-executed plan and crossing the finish line first. So don't sit back - accelerate your capture process and secure that win

To find out more about the key skills and tools necessary to develop powerful, compelling proposals contact our experts on 0800 009 6800 or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.