00:00hello everyone and welcome to part two
00:02of how to make a bid no bid decision
00:04three-part webinar series my name is
00:07Chloe Norwood I'm the field marketing
00:09specialist at visible thread and I'm
00:11thrilled to welcome our part two speaker
00:12Fred vilek senior proposal manager at
00:15khaki yesterday we kicked off part one
00:18of the webinar series with ton Wilson
00:20president of intellect the slides and
00:22recording of that session are in the
00:24related free content box on your screen
00:26tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. eastern time Kyle
00:29Peterson vice president of customer
00:31success at visible thread will end the
00:33series before we begin I'd like to note
00:36that in the related content box on your
00:37screen there are a bunch of assets that
00:40you may find useful there will be a Q&A
00:42session at the end so feel free to
00:44submit your questions to the Q&A box the
00:47slides and recording of This webinar
00:49will be available after it ends and now
00:52I will pass it off to
00:54Fred good morning everyone or good
00:57afternoon depending on where you are in
00:58the world uh my name is Fred I am he C
01:01proposal manager for caci and
01:06um I was approached and asked to talk
01:09about this topic several times over the
01:13past year and I think it's probably one
01:15of the most challenging decisions any
01:18company has to make we're g to talk
01:20about that we're gonna lay some we're
01:22gonna lay out a a scenario and kind of
01:25hope to get uh some of the audience
01:27involved in some of the discussions
01:32um we're g to just went through the
01:35introductions I I'll give you a little
01:36bit more about my background in just a
01:38moment we're going to go through a
01:40little exercise on uh decision making
01:42insanity and how how could some of the
01:45outcomes help and get and then toward
01:48the end of our time or toward the middle
01:50of our time uh we're g to talk about
01:52some of the key factors that talk that
01:54center around a bid no bid decision
01:56irrespective of how large or small your
01:59organization may be and then what does
02:01it really truly take to implement the
02:03process so uh caci we're um a large and
02:08growing business um last year is 10 and
02:10a half billion dollars in the industry
02:13um and we cover a lot of our core
02:16competencies so C4 ISR cyberspace
02:19digital Solutions Enterprise and
02:21services uh and it uh service it let me
02:30uh the teams that we actually at a high
02:35level operate our our five different
02:38companies within a company um really do
02:42struggle on a day-to-day basis on how to
02:46continue to move forward and grow the
02:47company and what opportunities should
02:50you go after and what opportunities
02:51should you not go after and we'll talk
02:54about um we'll talk about you know how
02:58we make those decisions and what are the
03:00consequences of bad decisions and
03:03sometimes what are the successes of bad
03:05decisions um so as we go through please
03:09don't hesitate now uh Chloe I do not
03:12have the interface if anybody wants to
03:14raise their hand or even if there is one
03:17but um so please don't hesitate to reach
03:19out and ask questions along the way um
03:22that's a little bit about me it's a
03:23little bit about my company let's get
03:25into the meat and potatoes of our
03:31here's your Horror Story ABC
03:34company is has just lost a follow on
03:38contract that they were incom on in
03:40formal debrief Key Personnel or it was
03:43it was shown that key personnel didn't
03:45provideed PM that had a valid PMP
03:49technical approach didn't provide enough
03:51data migration in Secure
03:56um the uh VP BD asked the proposal
04:01manager and capture manag do an A and
04:04during that the non-compliance and deep
04:07Reef was validated determined that you
04:10know the extended scope of work uh you
04:14know was put in there and a late no bid
04:16decision bid no bid decision uh came um
04:20the impact was $15 million loss that had
04:23that had to be removed from the sales
04:24Pipeline and a loss of 150k on proposal
04:28development it's not an uncommon story
04:31if you've been with a company in this
04:33industry long enough you have
04:36seen um what can happen when
04:40certain steps in the process are missed
04:43overlooked or simply just not done
04:47um simply just not done because they
04:51have not followed a process not been
04:54strong enough to go through it so um
04:58so they lost a bit they lost a bit that
05:01they probably weren't qualified for and
05:06what what was the impact you know you
05:07got you gotta you lost incumbency which
05:11most of our companies really do rely on
05:15about 80% or greater of that incumbent
05:17growth and incumbent capture and then
05:20you lost the initial investment that
05:25um for BMP um so what could have help
05:30what could have helped here first an
05:32initial qualification we're going to
05:33talk about where these fall in the
05:35process of proposal development and
05:38management but um an initial
05:42qualification knowing early on
05:45uh how you were best partnered and
05:48aligned for uh the incumbent you know
05:52specifically with the uh non-compliance
05:55into the cloud migration
05:56Services your compliance uh being able
06:00to take your solution and gone into that
06:04high level and said oh well we don't
06:06really do that I know that the customer
06:08is kind of growing and want to do that
06:10um but knowing upfront that you do not
06:13have the skills to go on the incumbency
06:15and you can do a couple different things
06:16that point you can go get the skills or
06:19you can go hire the skills and in in the
06:22case of many small businesses you have
06:24to go hire it and uh partnering with a
06:26company that is able to do cloud
06:28services in this hypothe IAL situation
06:30would have probably been a good thing to
06:32do uh Personnel you know how many times
06:36have we wanted to groom up a PM and
06:40realize that they don't have a PMP and
06:42said ah well we can talk about you know
06:45we're they're working on their PMP and
06:47it winds up being non compliant so an
06:49understanding of what you what the
06:52people and what the customer needed um
06:57truly is capital when you're dealing
07:00with any types of uh compliance issues
07:03and Personnel issues for keep for KPS
07:06getting resumés out there and those CTS
07:11a become a a point of uh you can lose on
07:16compliance and this and this happened
07:18here short and development time frame
07:20and I'm I'm going quickly because I want
07:22to get into the next set of slides um
07:24and I know we only have a uh short
07:27window and I do want to have an open uh
07:30open Q&A but the shorten proposal
07:33development time frame as they scrunch
07:36that schedule and they made it even
07:39shorter you know you have to do more
07:42quickly and a lot of things get
07:50so so along the lines in that um in that
07:56scenario we see several different
07:58failures of where a bid no bid decision
08:01should have been identified discussed
08:05analyzed um and for those who are in the
08:08new business development Arena you'll
08:10see that the three highlighted phases
08:12here really align with the shiple model
08:15so this is our phase two phase three and
08:18phase four it is the quality and win
08:20strategy so that's a capture management
08:22you know going in shaping talking to the
08:24customer pressing some flesh um
08:27understanding the opportunity perhaps
08:29the pipe line from a customer or what's
08:31coming down the pipe phase three is that
08:33pre-proposal is setting in the work of
08:36all of the um all of the things that
08:40we're going to have to put together in
08:42order to find a winning solution that we
08:47can excuse me that we can effectively
08:51communicate out to the customer to
08:53produce a win and face for that actual
08:56uh proposal development that actual
08:58production of that winning highly
09:01compliant highly compelling proposal uh
09:04that ultimately will you help hopefully
09:07put a couple more dollars in your
09:09company's pocket so these three phases
09:13specifically along the big long Shipley
09:16or your proposal development process or
09:19you know Bob over in um you know
09:22engineering he's real good at putting
09:25proposals regardless of how your company
09:30chooses to move forward it's these three
09:33phases that no bid no bid decisions
09:35should be looked at not once but several
09:38times along the process specifically I
09:41mean es especially right at the
09:43beginning so when you're doing a
09:45qualification you're doing a look at
09:47whatever whatever is out there you're
09:50Gathering all that information and
09:51you're sitting down and you know you're
09:54thinking ah can we go after this maybe
09:56we can um that's your first time you
10:00look and say you know that person can we
10:02do this is it gonna is it are we going
10:06to be able to pull this off in the
10:08pre-proposal phase this is where that we
10:11take that next step we take a look at
10:14well now we know a little bit more now
10:16we take a look at the company assets and
10:18starting to incorporate all that and can
10:19we still do this and then absolutely
10:23once uh you get into those into the
10:26proposal development and actually move
10:28through the m stones of um you know
10:32capture and then pre-proposal and then
10:34you know permission to deliver or
10:37whatever you want to call it um your
10:41four uh really has to look at everything
10:45overall do we have the right people are
10:48compelling um and you know will it will
10:52it ultimately bring us a win so couple
10:55things so along the process into phas
10:59two phase three and phase four are where
11:01these bid no bid decisions really come
11:06so here we go what are the key factors
11:09that drive our bid no bid decision I
11:12boil it down to about five so first
11:15off you got to make sure it's
11:18profitable I mean has anybody
11:21online ever bid a losing proposal not
11:27that you're going to lose the proposal
11:28but you know as you go through and you
11:31put all of this together that when the
11:35operations piece comes into it you
11:38actually truly are not going to make
11:40money and you're are now obligated to
11:43perform to the level that you
11:50been Chloe I'm not hearing
11:54anybody so there is an attendee chat
11:57where they can chat in there um but you
12:00won't hear an audio response oh gocha
12:07okay all right so I will continue making
12:11this one so um instead of interactive
12:14we've we've all been there we all know
12:19been putting together a proposal and
12:23whether you're a proposal manager you're
12:24a capture manager whether you're a a you
12:26know Business Development lead whether
12:28you're a SME whether you're just
12:30somebody that's good at writing came in
12:32to do this you know profitability needs
12:35to be one of the first things that needs
12:38to be looked at why because that is your
12:40livelihood in a business can you make
12:42money on this project can you actually
12:45operate to be able to be
12:48profitable um if you if you can't then
12:52there's a good reason why you shouldn't
12:54been now it doesn't mean it's the only
12:56reason and we're going to talk about a
12:57couple a couple things
12:59on the back end where you may not be
13:01profitable at a program however uh you
13:04may want to um you may want to be you
13:08may want to be coming in trying to BR
13:10bring your feet into a new a new
13:13business line a new set of capabilities
13:16hey you just bought a new company you
13:17want to get that out there and P a part
13:19of your portfolio whatever so ultimately
13:22what you looking at is can you make
13:24money on the B on the project and you
13:26need to make sure that you're accurately
13:28calculating everything that goes into it
13:30that means being able to operate looking
13:33at your Manpower all your labor costs
13:35that includes taxes your insurance um
13:38you know Vehicles whatever uh needs to
13:41be brought into a full spectrum bid
13:48uh full spectrum vid and
13:51proposal next you want to look at your
13:53capability can you really actually
13:55perform on this um I know many many
13:59companies larges mediums and Smalls that
14:03will sit here and say oh yeah we can do
14:06that I just got to go out and find a
14:08company that can that can do that for us
14:11you know or you know you're missing a
14:14key piece of the proposal or a key piece
14:18of the capabilities that you just have
14:20to sit so oh well we got to go find you
14:23know somebody that does security well
14:26finding something somebody that does
14:28security these days without having those
14:34those in those relationships and
14:37agreements in place before you do that
14:39really becomes a challenge as you go
14:41through and putting together the
14:43proposal and your capabilities and
14:46you're being able to perform on them
14:48once you're contractually obligated
14:50really should be a key factor in
14:53determining a bid no bid decision and
14:56there um Plus you have to look at are
15:00you capable of providing the capability
15:03can your company you know are you
15:05already underwater because you've got
15:08many other obligations um do you have
15:11the cash flow to keep things afloat as
15:14you put together financial terms and I
15:15put something in italis here says there
15:18is such a thing as having too much work
15:20there really really is especially if
15:22you're a small firm and you may be an
15:25SBA you might be an a you might be um
15:29you know have a a bidding preference
15:32preferential on the everything you're
15:34doing you may just have too much work
15:38and then you have to go um you have to
15:40go find a way to do it is that good for
15:43a company most of the time it's not most
15:46of the time it's you know oh great we've
15:49got all this work coming in but
15:51everything else suffers your quality
15:53your reputation um yes you're you got
15:56all this great stuff coming in but
15:59you know with all that you've got the
16:02opportunity to be a little more
16:03selective something a little bit um
16:07something a little bit more meat on your
16:10company's bones if that's the case so
16:13look at your capabilities realize that
16:15it's it's more than just delivering it's
16:18what can your company do it's do you
16:19have the money to float and do you have
16:22the manpower to actually do it third and
16:26this is where Sometimes some of the
16:28smaller business businesses uh really
16:30don't have uh a pretty firm grip on what
16:34should be going look at do you have a
16:38good enough understanding of
16:40historically what you've done in the
16:42past to help with your decisions going
16:49um do you have an idea of what your win
16:52rate is in this specific area do you
16:54have uh an idea of how you've been
16:57performing what are your C bars you
16:59looking across the board do you have
17:00more than one program that shows you
17:02have a diverse uh skill set within the
17:06capabilities um do you have an idea of
17:09how much you've won how much you haven't
17:12won and why you haven't won to be able
17:14to take all of this historical
17:16information in your analysis of what
17:19you've done in the past and bring it
17:20forward to U make better make better bid
17:25no bid decisions for items going forward
17:29it's it's challenge it really is because
17:32if you're like most companies you want
17:35to be moving forward as quickly as you
17:37can and gaining as much market share as
17:39you can in whatever specific field and
17:41you don't want to be looking back and
17:44you know you brush off the losses oh
17:45well you know there's 10 grand out the
17:48door for whatever you but you know I've
17:50got the next thing and it's important to
17:54at least take a minute try to collect
17:56those metrics and bring them forward to
17:57you so when you go to the next set of
18:01capability bids you can bring that
18:03knowledge and say oh you know this was
18:05the customer that you know asked for a
18:08Cadillac and a for escort budget and we
18:10actually lost money because they wanted
18:12high dollar people and wer weren't
18:14willing to pay for them but we were
18:15already on but on contract for or we
18:18didn't win because you know we brought
18:20in a PM that didn't have a PMP so take a
18:25look historic now the last two are
18:30really the from a company internal
18:33aspect are really the two big things
18:35that you want to look for yes
18:36profitability capability historical
18:38analyses kind of give you the outward
18:40looking and now you want to look back
18:43into your company's long-term strategy
18:47uh do you have a strong enough pipeline
18:51that you can really no bid things that
18:55are really outside of your wheelhouse
18:57this is the Crux for a lot lot of
19:00fast-moving companies that are really
19:02trying to make a corner in the market
19:07um I'm sure that everybody on the phone
19:10has heard well I bid everything and you
19:12know I I win what I win and I lose what
19:13I lose well it's not a great sustainable
19:16strategy it's a strategy no no doubt but
19:19um instead of you know going out and
19:22building and trying to bid on everything
19:24do you have a strategy or does your
19:26company have a strategy that is going
19:28going to take you and develop into a
19:31solid foothold in a certain set of
19:33skills or a certain set of capabilities
19:36um and that's important as companies
19:39grow you're not going to see it when
19:41you're small when you're you know a
19:43oneman chop um but as you as you and
19:47your company develop the long-term
19:49strategy needs to be clear because then
19:52you'll be able to make decisions for bid
19:55no bid based on the capabilities and
19:57what you can deliver versus is what you
19:59want to go after which is following the
20:01almighty dollar and then finally um your
20:10before uh before you decide on a bid
20:14take a look at all of the potential
20:17risks that could arise on the project
20:19you know try to capture as many of those
20:23can oh sorry I tried to get rid
20:30I'm in the middle of a red team review
20:32so um so take a look at the risk
20:34assessment have an idea of
20:37what um where you fall short I mean open
20:41your eyes wide and make sure that you're
20:43not looking through proposal color
20:45glasses and just say h before you decide
20:49to bid on this on this project what are
20:51the risks to your company oh we don't
20:53have a PM that has a PMP okay so the
20:56risk is we're going to spend 150,000 on
20:59a proposal that we already are going in
21:00non compliant would have a very low
21:04um are we you know did we have a lawsuit
21:08last year because one of our products
21:10that we manufacture failed by was
21:13misused and by no fault of our own you
21:15know hurt somebody um looking at those
21:18risks and I realize those are kind of
21:22um being able to put those into your
21:26pocket and have an idea of what you need
21:29to put together for a bid no bid
21:34um put it it all comes in there what
21:38else goes into the risk assessment how
21:39about your competition your FL ad your
21:41competi competition analysis um do you
21:44like the customer does the customer like
21:47you do you have any intimacy with the
21:50customer um you know we talked about
21:54product failure and the big ones but all
21:57of those things go centered around that
21:59risk and actually if you if you D if you
22:02drill it enough you should be able to
22:04come up with a a number metric to be
22:06able to put against that
22:08so although not all of the factors these
22:10are my these are the five biggest
22:12factors in my mind that go into your bid
22:19so CH we still clear on the clean on the
22:24questions we did have one question come
22:26in if you'd like to answer it now or
22:30end yeah um so the question is from
22:32kuram um how can we make sure that bid
22:35no bid decisions are aligned with
22:37business short and long-term goals that
22:40is a great question it really is um and
22:44there's not an easy answer for
22:47it uh and Karam if you'll give me a give
22:50me the opportunity I think that uh I'll
22:54be able to answer that on the next slide
22:58because we actually talk about the we
23:00talk about corporate culture and what it
23:01takes to implement a an environment to
23:06really get into good bid no bid
23:08decisions um and I'll I'll go through
23:10the slide and then I'll Circle back with
23:13you Chloe to see if see if I answer K's
23:16me or if I answered his question all
23:20right so all right so if that's the only
23:22one that's we'll move on so here are the
23:24five factors to consider so now what
23:28does it take to implement the process
23:30now I kept this light because I'm just
23:33GNA kind of freest stream some thoughts
23:35so first off it's discipline all right
23:40um bid no bid decisions
23:43along short long-term company goals
23:48really is about are you disciplined to
23:52do the same things to get to the same
23:55pieces and points along your process to
23:58have have these types of conversations
24:00larger companies do this very very well
24:03why because they've they've gotten
24:04beaten up over all of this
24:08um one and I'm going to go back to
24:10Shipley and I'm probably not going to
24:11talk about it again but um the shiply
24:14process if you look at it it's 147 big
24:18long processes that you tailor for the
24:20size and scope of what you're doing but
24:23it really talks about the rigidity of
24:26having a process in place do you have
24:30that you know that first qualification
24:33of a potential customer when you see
24:35something coming through first little
24:37bid no bid decision there can you get
24:40the you know that first PWS and put grab
24:44a Solutions architect or somebody who
24:46can do it and have them you know analyze
24:49the problem and have another little no
24:52bit bit no bit decision there um and you
24:55get into your capture phases you know
24:58does capture manager and your your bid
25:01PMS uh really are they able to talk and
25:04can we help mold and shape and get in
25:06front of the customer um and have
25:09another little bid no bit decision there
25:11and then you truly get into oh my
25:13goodness we've got a qualified customer
25:15with a solution that's viable and we
25:17have intimacy with the customer let's
25:19take that first little sit down that
25:21Milestone one that or that Milestone two
25:25and uh go through what's our competition
25:29and and then have that you know have
25:32part of that process be is this a bid or
25:35a no bid do we continue forward do we
25:37not continue forward are there
25:39parameters around what we need at this
25:42point of the game capture uh capture
25:46qualification um do we have that written
25:49down and have we checked all the boxes
25:50to say yes we can move on to the next
25:53phase if if not then we don't and if we
25:57don't and if we do move on then we go to
25:58the next phase and then there's another
26:00set check boxes that are expanded so
26:04irrespective of shortterm long-term
26:06goals the process should be the same
26:10albe it scaled down for smaller bids
26:13scaled up for larger bids um the process
26:16should be the same for you doing your
26:19new business development um for any
26:22company that is ISO certified cmmi
26:25certified those those business process
26:28are really what drive those
26:30certifications to make sure that uh from
26:33a comp from an industry standard across
26:36the board then we are um we're really
26:40doing what we need to be doing as a
26:42company to provide the service to our
26:45customers so that's first discipline in
26:47the process making sure that those um
26:51those pieces are built into whatever
26:54you're doing during the day second is
26:57courage now I say courage
27:00because sometimes we don't have the
27:04no um I'm going to give you a good
27:06example recently I've been we submitted
27:11a proposal and we lost and we wasn't
27:14incumbent but we submitted a proposal
27:16and lost because the customer had um as
27:21they went and did their next set
27:24of their next set of proposals for the
27:27following stock really widened out the
27:29scope they've had they had a bunch of
27:31Acquisitions and went into an area uh
27:35and kind of move their business into an
27:38area that we were not well positioned
27:41to um we're not well positioned to
27:48to we had some Executives that were
27:51saying this we're incumbent you have to
27:53go in this you have to go in this when
27:55we had people saying we can't the
27:57customer has changed a lot of the
27:59direction on which they want to go
28:00doesn't matter they've been in there and
28:02they didn't have the courage to just
28:04listen to those words and uh understand
28:07after a requirements analysis and saying
28:10and looking at your capabilities we
28:11really don't have this and instead of
28:14finding another way to maybe partner
28:15with some uh organization that may have
28:18taken the lead and will be uh you know
28:20we can certainly with that's numbers are
28:2410 years of experience be able to in
28:27increase inre the percentage of win on
28:29that for that company we just went it
28:32alone and instead of finding a a seat at
28:34the table I'll be it maybe not as Prime
28:38um we got nothing so you've got to have
28:41the courage to be able to do this and
28:44that that sometimes turns more into
28:47personality management as opposed to
28:49actual business management because we've
28:52all got people in our company oh yeah I
28:54can go out and win anything no problem
28:56it doesn't matter I that's an operation
28:58problem well it really isn't or we have
29:01the people who just say we've been here
29:02for 25 years this is the way we do it
29:04this is way we've always done it this
29:06way a customer likes it they love us and
29:08you know we don't have that Eyes Wide
29:11Open look and are we courage do we have
29:14the courage to actually walk away from
29:18something um third you need
29:21Champions really really really you've
29:24got to have people who are in your
29:27management chain or in the management
29:29chain that truly are proponents for the
29:33process and what it takes bid to bid day
29:38to day week to week year to year um to
29:43be able to sit there and hold the
29:44discipline and say yes we will go
29:48through this we'll go through this
29:49process I know it sucks but it's what
29:52our it's what has grown our business and
29:55you're not going to be able to
29:56circumvent it even though I know you
29:57want to and even though it would be easy
29:59to do it just this one time you need
30:01those Champions to um encourage people
30:04to follow the process and you know
30:08deliver proper open honest data points
30:13into it so you we can make be making the
30:17best business decisions long term for us
30:20um and finally little blip here I S I
30:22found a um how to help and as you grow
30:28or if you've already grown what tools
30:30can you bring into this uh first off
30:33data mining tools metrics tools always
30:36always helpful in making uh you know
30:40money and time time based decisions I
30:43did find on visible thread or host this
30:47afternoon or this morning um they really
30:50do have a nice uh blog I put the link
30:54here Chloe could send that out to you
30:57but um goes through three to five
30:59minutes of what we kind of just talked
31:01about and how visible thread which I
31:03think you know it I don't know if Kyle's
31:05going to be um talking about
31:08capabilities tomorrow but
31:12uh that this tool can help you do that
31:22um that's you know we've got a Q&A
31:26session um I wanted to first ask if I
31:31answered the question so
31:35Chloe yeah so I will Monitor and see if
31:38Karam comes back to us um with any
31:41follow-ups or another question to his
31:43original um but we do have another
31:46question if you'd like to answer it from
31:48trip um tripy says one of the hardest
31:51parts of capture is actually getting
31:53client intimacy what are strategies to
31:55do that just having a call plan in
31:58putting together wi themes features and
32:00benefits does not always lead to clients
32:02wanting to learn more teaming can help
32:05but any advice on sustaining client
32:12okay you have just hit on the Crux of
32:15sales how do you get close to people
32:18especially if they're in a industry if
32:21they're in a position that you desire to
32:23be in um so how do you gain customer
32:28intimacy it's sometimes challenging
32:31uh one of if you're going after new
32:35business and you're not
32:37known you know sending an email making a
32:40phone call you know sending in your
32:44company Slicker is really just not going
32:46to be enough for most people um one of
32:50the things that I have always
32:54um is always found beneficial maybe even
32:58helpful is look across most most
33:02companies have a website that will tell
33:06you who their customers are especially
33:08if they're big and you're trying to you
33:10know get a foot in the door with
33:11somebody they'll find who their
33:12customers are and what programs um they
33:16are looking to bid or already in this
33:19usually is where people in your
33:21situation Trixie uh that they they come
33:25into their own oh you know ABC company
33:30just just want a bid
33:34uh deliver shoes to the Army well I'm a
33:37Shoemaker and I really want to get into
33:39you um so you're a so if you're a little
33:43after the ball on that then you know I
33:47would go to I would go to some of their
33:50industry partners and you know find out
33:53you know if ABC isn't selling shoes but
33:56XYZ is selling to them say go over to
34:00say do you need anything how can how can
34:03I get in how can I get how can I serve
34:06your customer better now you might take
34:08a a little bit of a a money hit um doing
34:12that partnership but I found pretty
34:15decent success in going to the alliance
34:18partners for any of the larger bids and
34:21finding a niche in there and then
34:24getting your name out there um I've
34:28always I've also seen you
34:30know skillfully targeted attendance at
34:34trade shows and I say that because
34:37larger companies really have a trade
34:39show budget that puts them everywhere
34:41all the big ones FIA
34:43USAA um you know all but if you have a
34:48unique special product I would really
34:52encourage uh taking a look at your
34:56sales um capabilities and get out into
34:59the right the appropriate trade shows
35:02instead of just going oh well I want to
35:05go here now understand that's an
35:06expensive route so uh targeted focused
35:10hey this this is the type of targeted
35:13Rich environment that I want to be in
35:14there and then um don't just pass on
35:18business cards be able to talk to your
35:20company get that 30 second elevator
35:23speech solid um have a
35:28have a either a blink if you know what
35:31if you know what a blink is BL NQ um
35:34have your contact there with blink or
35:38tapable um tapable business card type
35:42things get it over to them
35:44electronically find a way to follow up
35:47um attach your core capabilities to it
35:50and you know that that may you may hit a
35:53hundred times and only get uh a a small
35:57response but it'll be okay
36:08finally I would consider partnering with
36:12two different types of companies one
36:15American um Native American certified
36:19companies they tend to have um they tend
36:24to have business pipelines that really
36:28diverse and um a bit simpler to actually
36:32win against that doesn't mean that they
36:34won't you know milk you for um a margin
36:38but that vehicle would be a way to get
36:41into the industry get some word in there
36:43second would be go the 8A route find a
36:468A to partner up with bring a specific
36:48skill set to them and see what they can
36:51do now problem with AA is they can't
36:53grow too fast so if you're bringing
36:55something big to them they may you know
36:58push away um couple of the ad or Native
37:03Americans that I like are
37:10River those are the two big ones that I
37:21so other questions yes okay so um we
37:26have one last question in this is from
37:29Adam what arguments have you found
37:31helpful in convincing upper management
37:34to see that the proper decision is to no
37:47so it's hard um and I can appreciate
37:54management listen there's going to be
37:57people that we cross paths with in our
37:59careers that are just not going to
38:01listen to the voice of Rees they have
38:03something in their head they have
38:05something inside them that just says
38:08we're GNA do this I'm in a position to
38:10say that we're going to do this and
38:12regardless of what you bring to me
38:14regardless of what you say we're g to do
38:17and then they just do it and the sad
38:21thing is if they're well thought of
38:24thought of if they're marketed if
38:26they've marketed themselves well enough
38:28to have a very strong foothold in the
38:32um then even with the loss there's going
38:36punitive that they're going to do
38:38they're not gonna change a whole lot um
38:42but if you if you truly have those
38:45Champions that we were talking about
38:47people that are long that are in the
38:49process that have shown that going
38:51through the process yields a percentage
38:53of growth that we would not have if we
38:56weren't running through a structured set
38:58of business processes you have those
39:00Champions along the way the easiest way
39:03is to engage them and say listen you
39:05know Bob wants to go after this Susie
39:08said you know she used to work for this
39:11company and they were terrible at doing
39:15all of this and they never paid but you
39:20there's Bob's looking at an increase in
39:23Roi an increase in R&D there
39:28great Roi on it but if Susie has this
39:31Insider information and somebody is just
39:34not listening to her there's not going
39:36to be a whole lot to do unless you truly
39:39have those pieces in there saying boom
39:43bid no bit at this point in our process
39:45for capture qualification we need to
39:47have this we need to have this we need
39:48to have this we need to have this we get
39:51into that next piece that pre- proposal
39:53okay we need to have this we need to
39:54have this we oh we don't have this oh we
39:57are not we cannot move forward without
39:59doing that and whether it's a
40:01competition analysis whether it's a um
40:05you know do we have the capital funds to
40:08be able to do the bid um are
40:14well um following that process makes bid
40:18no bid decisions easier
40:21because where Bob was talking oh yeah we
40:24can do this we can do this if you put it
40:26in structure it into the process then
40:30Bob's voice is only a part of the
40:32decision instead of all of it so Bob's
40:35voice is hey I just want to do this
40:37because it'll increase sales okay so
40:39sales increase can check the box but
40:41then you take a look at your
40:43capabilities your uh your ability to uh
40:47do that do those funds up front have you
40:49done a competition analysis are you I
40:51mean what's your probability of whenn um
40:54have you done it in the past is do you
40:56increase your um you can be done that
41:02uh excuse me top down type analysis
41:07so if you have people who are not
41:11you not that are not listening to you
41:15above that's one that then that's one
41:18problem to solve and that's a that's a
41:20hey let's Implement a proc process so
41:22everybody has the voice here if you're
41:26upset because they're not
41:28making the decision that you feel you
41:29need to make then that's a different
41:31problem to saying so help me understand
41:34why we want to continue forward when
41:37this is here it may be because they're
41:39trying to break into a new industry and
41:41they're willing to take the loss or
41:43they're willing to take you know they're
41:45willing to underbid everything at 10%
41:48loss just so they can get their company
41:50name out in the industry and then look
41:52for you know 24 36 month growth down
42:00truly that's not even being looked at
42:04then implement it say I need to I need
42:07to bring this to you we need to have
42:09this as part of our analysis on whether
42:11we should move forward but if they're
42:15listening there's not going to be a
42:17whole lot you can do unless you are the
42:19decision maker you can lay it all out
42:22and I've seen companies in the past
42:24really not have the not have the courage
42:27the discipline to actually go through
42:29that and um it's not it it may be
42:33sustainable a little bit but it's really
42:35not sustainable long term for any of the
42:38any company that is worth its way and
42:45so um okay so Fred I those are all the
42:49questions that we do have I don't see
42:52any more coming in do you have any final
42:56thoughts or for parting
42:58words um no just thank you for allowing
43:02me to spend a little bit of time with
43:03you today um please and Chloe I'm sure
43:07you'll disseminate my information if you
43:10have any other questions don't hesitate
43:12to um don't hesitate to give me a call
43:16and I look forward to talking talking to
43:21time absolutely well um thank you Fred
43:24for sharing your expertise with us it's
43:26always a en joy to have um you on a
43:28webinar and to be able to work together
43:34serious but um thank you all for joining
43:37us I know that there were a little bit
43:39of technical difficulties in the
43:41beginning but both the slides and
43:42recording of This webinar um they will
43:45be available tomorrow morning once the
43:47three-part webinar series is completed I
43:50will be sending out a post event email
43:52with all the recordings and slides and I
43:54will make sure to mention the blog that
43:57Fred had in his presentation on to bid
44:00or not to bid if you'd like to read that
44:02now um it is on our website under the
44:07Tab and the third and final part of this
44:11three-part webinar series continues
44:13tomorrow at 11:00 a. with Kyle Peterson
44:16vice president of customer success at
44:18fical thread once I conclude this
44:20webinar there is a survey on the screen
44:22please fill out the survey I do read the
44:24responses and I do take them into
44:25account um but thank you everybody and I
44:28hope everyone has a wonderful rest of
