Don't Just Respond, Compete

Ashley (Kayes) Floro, CPP APMP • March 6, 2026

How to Use Competitive Analysis to Identify Strengths, Weaknesses, and Differentiators


Identifying your strengths, weaknesses, and differentiators before responding to a Request for Proposal (RFP) is critical because it enables your team to position strategically, respond persuasively, and compete effectively. A realistic view of your position relative to competitors helps your team determine whether to pursue an opportunity or walk away. And understanding where you’re strong and where you’re vulnerable supports smarter investments of time and resources.


When you understand your strengths, you can emphasize them throughout your proposal response. Highlighting relevant capabilities and past performance helps build trust and show that your team is low-risk and high-value. Beyond strengths, identifying your differentiators is key to standing out. Whether it’s a unique technical approach, proprietary tool, past success with similar customers, or unmatched talent, identifying these elements early ensures they are woven throughout the proposal in a meaningful and convincing way. When your proposal strategy is built around validated strengths and customer-relevant differentiators, it creates a consistent and compelling message across the entire response—technical, management, past performance, and pricing.


And acknowledging your weaknesses early gives you time to address them—either by strengthening your team (e.g., subcontractors or key hires), repositioning the narrative, or providing mitigations that reduce customer concerns. If you wait until the writing phase, you risk being reactive and less strategic.


In this article, we’ll walk through how to conduct a competitive analysis and then use that insight to identify strategic strengths, weaknesses, and differentiators (see Figure 1 for a sample competitive analysis chart). Identifying strengths, weaknesses, and differentiators early in the process helps your team build a more competitive, customer-focused, and credible proposal—and increases your chances of winning.



Figure 1. Sample Blank Competitive Analysis Chart


How to come up with hot buttons and issues


In an ideal world, your business development or capture team identifies opportunities well before anything ever hits SAM.gov (you can read that article here). Your team has proactively reached out to potential customers, built relationships, and shaped requirements well before the Request for Information (RFI) stage. During those early business development and capture efforts, your team had discussions that identified the customer pain points, the things that keep them up at night, and the true drivers of the upcoming opportunity. However, for a variety of reasons, sometimes our teams don’t find out about an opportunity until after the RFI has been released.


But don’t worry! You can still use the RFI documents to pull out customer issues and hot buttons and then use those identified issues and hot buttons to generate questions to address during follow-on customer discussions (check out last week’s article for more on this). During those discussions, you should validate the issues and hot buttons you have identified. Once you do that, you can use those validated issues and hot buttons to drive your competitive analysis.


Now you know the issues, but how do you identify the competition?


The competitor you’ll likely learn the most about from your customer is the incumbent—the things they are happy about and the things they are not happy about with their current contract should become clear during your customer discussions. But how do you know who the other competitors are? Often you have a pretty good sense of the major players in your specific contract space. If the opportunity is coming out under a specific Multiple Award Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) or similar contract vehicle, the awardees under that contract will be the potential competitors. You can also take note of who is showing up to talk to the customer (if you’re meeting in person), and who is showing up to any industry days or site visits.


How to complete the competitive analysis



Filling out the competitive analysis chart (Figure 1) is fairly straight forward. Fill out the far-left column with your validated customer issues and hot buttons. Complete the weight column to prioritize each of the identified customer issues/hot buttons. The total weight should add up to 100%. Then for each issue/hot button, rate your company on a scale of 0–10, with zero being a complete weakness (no past experience or capability, without the ability to fill the gap through subcontracting or teaming) and ten being a complete strength (same or similar past experience, strong capability, strong past performance). Use the rationale column to include notes as to why you rated yourself this way. Multiply the “Points” by the “Weight” to fill in the “Score” column for each issue/hot button. Repeat this process for each identified competitor (Figure 2).



Figure 2. Sample Completed Competitive Analysis Chart


How to use the competitive analysis to identify strengths, weaknesses, and differentiators


Once you complete the competitive analysis, you can use the scores and notes to identify strengths, weaknesses, and differentiators for you and your competition. The issues/hot buttons with the lowest scores are the weaknesses, the ones with the highest scores are the strengths. Those areas where your team scores a strength and the competition has a weakness becomes a potential differentiator if your solution includes something that your competitors cannot claim. Looking at the example above, we can note that the incumbent’s poor performance is driving much of the future solicitation. Our company is slightly better positioned to win than Competitor 2, but it would not take much for them to strengthen their score to be better positioned than us. Our team has a noted strength and potential discriminator in automation and orchestration across systems, performing better than our competition with strong proof points leveraging custom suite of AI tools to achieve efficiencies. We also have a noted weakness in security that we will need to mitigate through teaming and in our technical approach.


Final Thoughts


Identifying and validating customer hot buttons and issues is a critical part of building a winning strategy—regardless of whether you’re months ahead of an opportunity or jumping in after an RFI drops. When used effectively, these insights can shape more meaningful customer conversations, guide your competitive positioning, and uncover true differentiators that matter to the customer.


By taking the time to understand the customer, track competitor behavior, and complete a thoughtful competitive analysis, you not only sharpen your understanding of the opportunity but also equip your team with the tools to respond with confidence and clarity. The result? Smarter bid decisions, more compelling proposals, and a stronger chance of winning.

From Submission to Success: How Lessons Learned Drive Better Proposals

By Ashley (Kayes) Floro, CPP APMP • March 30, 2026
When was the last time your team truly examined why you won—or lost—a proposal? Every submission your team makes, win or lose, contains a roadmap for doing better next time. Yet many organizations treat each proposal as a standalone event, moving quickly from one bid to the next without pausing to reflect on what worked, what didn't, and why. This is a costly mistake. A structured lessons learned program, built into every stage of the business development lifecycle, is one of the most powerful tools a company can use to sharpen its competitive edge. Conducting Lessons Learned Conducting lessons learned after each proposal submission is a critical part of the business development lifecycle. It helps companies understand where they are excelling and where they need to improve. To ensure the experience is fresh in everyone's mind, each member of the proposal team should document their impressions — both positive and negative — within the first week after submission. Sample questions to consider include: Was the proposal development schedule reasonable and realistic? Why or why not? Were there any bottlenecks or major issues? If so, what were they, and how could they be mitigated in the future? Did the team work well together? If not, how could team dynamics have been improved? How effective was communication among the team? What went well? What could have been improved? Did any unexpected problems occur during proposal development? If so, how could they be mitigated going forward? Did the team stay within its B&P budget? If not, what could have been done differently? What worked best during the capture and proposal effort? What areas require improvement? A practical way to gather and analyze this feedback is to send a survey to each team member using an automated tool, which makes it easier to collate and compare responses. After Action Report Once the results are in, the Proposal Manager should review the feedback and prepare an After Action Report that details lessons learned and recommended next steps. This report should be shared with the full proposal team to ensure that insights are carried forward into future efforts. Lessons Learned Session Additionally, after contract award is announced, the team should conduct a formal Lessons Learned Session to document and discuss observations, findings, and conclusions — win or lose. By understanding where the team encountered roadblocks, and where the customer found gaps in the response, the team can address those issues and strengthen both the process and the final product on future efforts. Equally important: identify what the team is doing well and make sure those practices are preserved and repeated. Analyzing Trends and Updating Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) Conducting lessons learned after each proposal is valuable, but the benefit compounds when you step back and look at the bigger picture. On an annual basis, review your After Action Reports and lessons learned debriefs as a body of work, and analyze them for recurring themes and patterns. As the year wraps up, whether you follow a corporate fiscal year or the calendar year, ask yourself: What challenges keep surfacing? Where does the team consistently perform well? Sharing these trends with your team creates a culture of transparency and accountability, and helps focus improvement efforts where they matter most. More importantly, translate those findings into action by updating your business development and proposal SOPs. If internal feedback shows the team is consistently scrambling during production, adjust your SOPs to launch the production process earlier. If customer debriefs repeatedly cite a lack of customer understanding, take a hard look at your capture process and strengthen your call plan execution. Continuously refining your processes in response to real data is one of the clearest paths to improved performance—and more wins. Final Thoughts Every organization in this industry wants to win more, and win rates are often cited as the headline measure of a business development organization's health. While they are a useful starting point, win rates alone don't tell the whole story. Too many variables influence any single outcome. What matters more is building the discipline to learn from every effort, regardless of the result. A consistent lessons learned program, paired with annual trend analysis and a willingness to update your processes, creates a feedback loop that makes your team sharper over time. The companies that win consistently aren't just the ones with the best writers or the biggest budgets, they're the ones that treat every proposal, win or lose, as an opportunity to get better.

Six Strategies to Tackle Tight Page Limitations

By Ashley (Kayes) Floro, CPP APMP • March 25, 2026
Tight page limitations are continuing to be a challenge as contracting officers streamline their acquisition processes. When faced with tight page restrictions, we often find ourselves struggling with trimming five pages of material into two pages of allocated space. However, sometimes the content we are working with is so long because it is simply overly wordy. In this article, I present six tricks for eliminating waste. 1. Use Active Voice With active voice, the subject of the sentence comes first and performs the action in the sentence. Active voice is more straightforward and concise than passive voice. It typically results in shorter, sharper sentences. So not only does it take up less real estate, it flows better and is easier to understand. Passive: It was decided by the Program Manager to streamline the program. Active, Strong Verb: The Program Manager streamlined the program. 2. Eliminate Redundancies Remove redundancies that take up extra space and don’t add value. I present some examples below.
icons demonstrating how to write clearly

Write Clearly: Why “More” Isn’t Always Better

By Ashley (Kayes) Floro, CPP APMP • March 23, 2026
In the world of proposal development, there’s a persistent misconception that longer writing signals deeper thinking. Teams sometimes feel pressure to fill pages, add more qualifiers, or expand explanations in hopes that additional words will make their message more persuasive. However, the opposite is often true. Clear writing is powerful because it makes it easy for the reader to understand, evaluate, and remember your message. The goal should be clarity, not volume. The most effective writers know that concise, direct language carries more impact than dense paragraphs and complicated phrasing. In this article, we present seven practical tips to help you write more clearly and effectively. 1. Break Up Long Sentences and Paragraphs Long sentences are one of the most common causes of unclear writing. When a sentence stretches beyond 25–30 words, it is easy for readers to lose track of the main point. Instead of packing multiple ideas into a single sentence, break them into shorter, focused statements. Each sentence should communicate one main idea. Example Less clear: Our team will implement a comprehensive data management framework designed to enhance reporting capabilities while also improving accessibility for users across multiple departments. Clearer: Our team will implement a comprehensive data management framework. This approach improves reporting and makes data more accessible across departments. Shorter sentences reduce cognitive load and help readers absorb information quickly. Similarly, large blocks of text can overwhelm readers. Each paragraph should focus on a single idea or topic. If a paragraph begins to cover multiple points, consider splitting it. Shorter paragraphs make it easier for readers to scan and process information. 2. Avoid Nominalizations Nominalizations occur when verbs are turned into nouns, often ending in -tion, -ment, or -ance. While they are sometimes necessary, they can make writing more abstract and wordier. Whenever possible, convert nominalizations back into strong verbs. Example Wordy: The implementation of the solution will result in the improvement of operational efficiency. Clearer: Implementing the solution will improve operational efficiency. Strong verbs make writing more direct and easier to understand. 3. Choose Strong, Specific Verbs Weak verbs like make, do, provide, conduct, or perform typically require additional words to explain what is happening. Strong verbs communicate action more clearly and concisely. Example Weak: Our team will conduct an analysis of system performance. Stronger: Our team will analyze system performance. Replacing weak verb phrases with precise verbs makes writing sharper and more confident. 4. Remove Unnecessary Words Many phrases in proposal writing add length without adding meaning. Words like very, really, quite, and in order to clutter your sentences. Look for opportunities to tighten phrasing. Examples In order to → To Due to the fact that → Because At this point in time → Now The goal isn’t to eliminate detail, it’s to eliminate filler. 5. Use Active Voice When Possible Active voice makes it clear who is responsible for an action and typically produces shorter sentences. Passive voice can be useful in certain situations, but overuse can make writing vague and indirect. Example Passive: The report will be completed by the team next week. Active: The team will complete the report next week. Active voice improves clarity and accountability. 6. Use Lists When Appropriate When presenting multiple related items—steps, benefits, features, or requirements—lists can improve readability. Lists allow readers to quickly understand key points without digging through dense paragraphs. They also highlight structure and make complex information easier to follow. Final Thoughts When readers can quickly understand your message, they are far more likely to absorb your ideas and act on them. Remember: strong writing isn’t measured by how many words you use. It’s measured by how clearly those words communicate your message.