The Value of Debriefings – for Winning Teams
So you’ve just won that $500M Single Award Task Order Contract. Your team is celebrating, and rightly so, and you’re preparing for the kick-off meeting.
The furthest thing from your mind is asking for a debriefing. Why bother … you won! Debriefings are for the losers.
Or are they?
In truth – you need a debriefing when you win just as much as when you don’t.
Debriefings help winning teams keep winning – because they reinforce what they did right (strengths) and highlight what they can improve upon (weaknesses).
We recently helped a Client win a major, strategic contract with the Government. After a bit of champagne, we helped them draft a series of questions about our proposal and requested a debriefing. The Government complied (they are required to do so).
Here’s what the evaluators said about our proposal:
- How did our presentation / proposal appearance stack up against the competition?
“The proposal provided was very detailed, well organized, and provided good structure and imagery (pictures) that helped relay to the evaluators (your) understanding of the question and their processes, procedures, equipment, etc. that support that understanding.”
- What differentiated us from the other bids?
“Overall, the level of detail, reiteration of those details as they pertained and tied in to each solicitation question, and the supporting artifacts gave the evaluators confidence in what (you) provided within (your) responses.”
- Was our proposal easy to navigate and score?
“Yes, the format of the proposal followed the question outline provided in the solicitation. Each specific solicitation question could be matched to a specific header/subheader paragraph within the proposal and the responses directly followed the question format.”
- Did it contain any fluff or content that should have been substantiated better?
“Multiple points were reiterated in the beginning of the proposal and within the body of the proposal. Because these points were consistent in their information and highlighted (your) strengths, the reiteration simply make the points stand out.”
These answers reinforce ClientView’s proposal development strategy and style. We’ll continue to use the same good practices in the future to help more of our Clients keep winning.
If you need help developing a winning proposal, reach out to me at Luanne@clientviewconsulting.com.