We have found the approach of the construction sector to winning work is traditionally less advanced than other sectors such as professional services. Other sectors have had to hone their influencing skills and demonstrate their ability to add value to get ahead in competitive markets whereas in construction there has been an abundance of work with no real pressure to change. Firms that bid reasonably sensibly and targeted clients and consultant teams they know generally win one out of two three bids which is enough to keep going.

The combination of a looming recession, a shift towards public sector work, consolidating markets, constrained resources, the drive towards modern methods of construction and the upcoming government’s construction playbook sound the starting pistol of a new dawn. 

An arms race to win work has begun with successful firms actively shaping opportunities with clients for themselves at the exclusion of others far before tender. In the last couple of years, we have begun to see leading organisations operate with robust governance and insightful methodical approaches to influencing, shaping and positioning for key deals - leading to higher win rates, reduced overall cost of sale and eased burden on the business. 

Those who don’t engage early and methodically are now beginning to find that they have lower win rates or are muscled out of deals. Sometimes they simply don’t even know a deal took place as their competitors land their propositions and negotiate with clients in isolation.

Many struggle to understand and deal with the connection between sales and bidding. Their sales professionals – if they have them - generally don’t have the methodical rigour to run decent campaigns at scale and their bid team don’t have the gravitas, the capability or the capacity to lead a pursuit in advance of tender. 

What is capture management?

The answer is capture management, a technique that is coming into its own in 2021. Put simply, capture management is the process of gathering insight, building connections, developing competitive intelligence and developing a strategy to improve the probability of winning a bid. 

Capture is more than just the glue that binds the hard work of marketing and sales efforts with the proposal phase. A properly run capture campaign empowers the client-facing effort with insight, arms it with bespoke valuable solutions and delivers unbeatable propositions.

Capture has been around for decades. It is far more prevalent as an approach and discipline in the US, while still fairly immature in Europe and the UK. There hasn’t been much fanfare here to date, as nobody good at it wants to share their best practice. Most bidding consultancies play at it and large companies treat it as their intellectual property. 

Why is it important?

There is nothing worse than a cold bidders’ conference, where you’re asked to attend a briefing meeting alongside your competition for an opportunity that you haven’t positioned for. There are exceptions, but largely you sit there wishing they had asked you what the solution should be, because you could have done it better, faster, and cheaper – delivering greater value – if you had just got in front of the client a year earlier.

Worse still, if you haven’t influenced the client, someone else has. It is a well-known statistic that more than 60% of procurement decisions are made before the request for proposal (RFP) or invitation to tender (ITT) has been released. Someone in that room has influenced the procurement to suit them and it isn’t you. But now it’s too late. The firing pistol has gone off and you are in a competitive race, behind the curve, and trying to catch up as best you can.

Across all markets and sectors we find successful, sustainable organisations with high work win rates avoid cold competitive scenarios at all costs. The Association of Proposal Management Professionals defines how high performers develop long range, realistic, detailed plans and focus teams on driving action to move them to a favoured position with clients. I go further and suggest all senior staff should be coached to leverage account planning and capture to land proactive propositions with clients, collaboratively engineered to solve their problems and deliver unquestionable value. The goal is to negotiate a deal, with a fallback plan of winning a tender - with ease.

The ability of the proposals teams to win opportunities only once they are formally released is very limited. Well managed and written bid submissions safeguard organisations from losing all the time and may steal the odd mark with thoughtful storyboarding and writing – but there is so much that is out of their control. The great multiplier effect on the ability to win happened weeks, months and years before the RFP is issued. Capture eats good bids for breakfast.

Our advice on some areas of focus:

Sponsorship

The biggest determining factor in win rate and growth trajectory is leadership that enables the business to differentiate from its competitors and proactively position well, only pursuing opportunities that it should win. These leaders sponsor a measured approach to targeting the right business, growing accounts and securing deals far before the RFP or ITT is issued.

Data

Without data a business is flying blind. It is critical that pipeline data is centralised and reviewed regularly, at least monthly. Importantly, key opportunities should be called out for capture far in advance of bidding, giving the business the opportunity to formulate and execute campaigns to influence the client. 

Value

Proposals are love letters to the greater differentiated value a business will create for the client. Capture is about finding ways to figure out what value means to the client with more insight than others, and ideally figuring out the winning solution alongside them. It should be a no-brainer to select your business. How do you build it quicker, better and cheaper while crucially delivering a more valuable business outcome for the client and users?

Trust

People buy people and what they can do for them. Their personal performance and bonuses depend on the performance of the people they are buying. Trust in your people is paramount in the client’s emotional and calculated decision. They need to believe your people are not just the best for the job with the right commitment and competence, but that they are people they can work with. Getting your team in front of the client in advance of the bid process is becoming a deal make or break. 

Enable your pre-construction and proposals people

Capture presents a fantastic avenue for career development and recognition for pre-con and proposals professionals. Sales staff aren’t generally equipped for methodically running capture initiatives. Your pre-con and bid people are. It’s an open door for them in improving the quality of opportunities they face at bid stage while growing their sphere of influence in the business, generating greater value for the business and being recognised and rewarded for it.

Jeremy Brim

Jeremy has a portfolio career as a Non-Exec, Growth Consultant, Capture Specialist and a Global APMP Accredited Proposals Trainer.

He brings 20 years of experience as a work winning and bid management professional across both the public and private sectors. He’s led successful bid functions spanning professional services, outsourcing and construction, where he was Head of Construction Bids at Mace. He has secured an enviable collection of high-profile projects, programmes and frameworks with blue chip clients around the globe.

He now leads Growth Ignition – a consulting, training and enabling tech firm. They’re on a mission to help clients maximise sustainable growth and focus their spend by joining the dots from marketing, through to initiatives in account management, capture and pursuit.

In October 2018 he also picked up the leadership of the bid toolkit – a unique APMP accredited simple step by step online bid process and guide, with integrated learning content and tools to download.

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