Fixing Your Proposal Process Won’t Help If the Rest of Your Business Development Process is Broken

Ashley (Kayes) Floro, CPP APMP • March 18, 2026

In the current business environment, there is a lot of buzz out there promising how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can fix your proposal process. And maybe your proposal process is broken. But I’m willing to bet that if your proposal process is broken, the rest of your business development process is probably broken too. 


What do I mean?


I mean that in a lot of cases, the reason proposal teams are scrambling is because:

  • Bid decisions are delayed
  • There are too many proposals in the pipeline to manage using the existing resources
  • Teams are pursuing opportunities with low probabilities of win
  • Solution development is happening after the request for proposal (RFP) release
  • There’s a lack of opportunity, customer, and competitor information


When your proposal teams start from a competitive disadvantage, it doesn’t really matter how good or bad the proposal process is. You’re setting your teams up for failure. 


Business Development Lifecycle


Market Segmentation, Long-Term Positioning, and Opportunity Analysis

(typically, 3+ months)

 Successful business development should begin much earlier than the proposal development phase. Market segmentation and long-term positioning are ongoing activities that should occur months before an opportunity hits the streets. Once an opportunity has been identified, leadership should decide on whether it’s worth the business’s time and money to further assess and qualify that opportunity (i.e., move forward to further assess the opportunity). During this time, teams should gather preliminary intelligence on the program and the customer. They should be meeting with the customer. Understanding the opportunity drivers. Educating the customer on the value the team could bring to the program. Once sufficient information is gathered about the opportunity, then the team can make an informed pursuit decision and assign a capture manager. 

Long-term planning and positioning provide corporate awareness of upcoming opportunities aligned with strategic goals. By targeting opportunities that meet strategic goals of the company, and identifying those opportunities early, you’ll have time to implement effective opportunity pursuit strategies.


Capture Planning

(typically, 3 to 12 months)

During the capture phase, teams should build on the intelligence gathered during the long-term positioning phase. They continue to build customer relationships and gather additional opportunity and competitor information. The capture manager should develop the capture plan and win strategy, send out data calls, understand the competitive range, develop the pricing strategy, and develop the teaming strategy. The capture plan should be reviewed by leadership periodically to ensure sufficient capture progress is being made. Tough questions should be asked. Strong guidance on next steps should be issued, especially if the team is not on track. Also during this phase, we should see a Black Hat review, Blue Team review, and initial Executive Summary development. The capture phase culminates with a preliminary bid/no-bid decision and proposal managers are assigned. 


Building Meaningful Customer Relationships

These early business development phases enable key players from your organization to not only gather information about the customer, but to build a meaningful relationship with the customer and understand their underlying concerns. By meeting regularly with the customer well in advance of the RFP, you and your team will have the time to establish strong working relationships. As these relationships grow, the team will begin to understand the customers’ concerns directly related to the program and determine what keeps them up at night. Teams can also develop solutions to meet the customers’ needs and vet those solutions with the customers prior to the RFP release.


Gathering Customer and Competitive Information

These early business development stages also provide your team with time to gather customer, opportunity, and competitive intelligence. This includes identifying who the key decision makers are with the customer, the drivers behind the solicitation, any issues they may be having on the current contract or other similar contracts, and which other companies might be interested in pursuing the opportunity. These phases provide a critical understanding of the potential strategies of the competition, who they might be teaming with, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. Armed with this information, you’ll be able to develop strategies to ghost the weaknesses and downplay the strengths of the competition.


Responding to Requests for Information (RFIs) and Sources Sought

When opportunities are identified and qualified early in the business development process, teams can participate in the Government’s research process. RFIs and Sources Sought are critical elements in the customer’s acquisition process, so when the customer takes the time to release these for opportunities you’re interested in, it’s critical that you take the time to respond. RFIs and Sources Sought are formal resources that the customer uses to understand the available contractors and the available solutions relevant to their upcoming procurement. These documents help the customer understand that you are interested in bidding and are an opportunity to continue educating the customer about your organization and solution. When you don’t target an opportunity until after the RFP release, you miss out on these communication and shaping points with the customer.


Proposal Planning 

(typically, 1 to 6 months)

During the proposal planning phase, the proposal manager will extract relevant information from the capture plan to develop the proposal management plan. The proposal manager and capture manager should work together to define and assign the required proposal resources. The proposal manager will work with the team to get a proposal site established, develop a notional outline and compliance matrix based on draft or straw-man RFPs, establish storyboard and drafting templates. The capture manager will continue to refine the pricing strategy during this time. When ready, the team will begin storyboarding and writing activities. It’s common to conduct the initial Pink Team review during the planning phase. Once the final RFP is released, the proposal planning phase is complete once the bid decision is validated. All this research, planning, and preparation serve to support a smoother and more successful proposal process once the final RFP is released.


Proposal Development

(typically, 1 to 3 months—and sometimes less)

When we talk about “fixing” our proposal process, this is the phase that we are generally referring to: the time from RFP release through submission. Where we kickoff the proposal effort, have drafting and review cycles, finalize the document, and submit. We might even try to squeeze in some planning and solutioning activities into the mix, if those have not happened already. Reflecting on the recommended capture, positioning, solution development, and pre-RFP draft development activities that should take place for the most successful outcome, it’s no wonder that proposals that begin at the RFP drop—or worse—well after the RFP drop—are frequently unsuccessful. There simply isn’t enough time to develop a winning strategy and proposal in that short amount of time. 


Final Thoughts

All this is to say, maybe your proposal process really is broken. But to truly fix it, I would be willing to bet you need to fix a lot of the process upstream. Building a relationship with your customer and understanding their underlying concerns takes time and discipline. Without solid customer relationships, you won’t have the opportunity to understand their programmatic concerns or determine what really keeps them up at night. Further, you won’t be able to develop solutions to meet their needs and vet those solutions prior to the RFP release. Once the RFP is released, it’s too late for effective opportunity shaping and solution vetting. It’s no wonder that pop-up or short-notice efforts typically have a much lower win rate than targeted and well-positioned opportunities. Proposals are won during the capture phase—and to build the necessary relationships, understand the competitive landscape, and mitigate potential issues—you need time, and you need a disciplined business development process. Fixing your proposal process won’t be enough.


Shows requests for information (RFIs) becoming more important

RFIs Have Changed. Has Your Strategy?

By Ashley (Kayes) Floro, CPP APMP • May 5, 2026
In government contracting, the pre-solicitation phase is where requirements are shaped, vendor relationships get established, and acquisition strategies get set. Experienced teams know this, which is why they invest heavily in customer engagement, competitive intelligence, and capture planning long before a Request for Proposal (RFP) is released. But one pre-solicitation activity has historically been undervalued: the Request for Information (RFI). That's changing fast, and contractors who haven't noticed are already behind. RFIs: No Longer Just Market Research The traditional view of RFIs is simple: agencies issue them to gather information about industry capabilities before drafting a solicitation. That definition no longer captures what's happening in the current procurement landscape. Today, agencies use RFIs to define and refine requirements, test the feasibility of solutions, identify capable vendors early, and reduce the risk of poorly structured procurements. RFIs aren't just gathering information anymore, they're shaping the acquisition itself. Why Agencies Are Leaning into RFIs Several forces are pushing agencies toward deeper pre-solicitation engagement with industry, with a noticeable emphasis on RFIs. Increasing complexity. Emerging technologies and evolving mission needs mean agencies often don't know what the right solution looks like. The Government needs industry input to understand what's possible. Budget pressure. With tighter budgets and greater oversight, agencies must justify acquisition strategies earlier. RFIs let the Government validate assumptions before committing funds. Risk reduction. Poorly defined requirements lead to protests, delays, and costly rework. Getting it right before the RFP saves the Government time, money, and credibility. The result: more consequential work is happening before the RFP is ever released, and RFIs are holding more weight. The Strategic Opportunity Contractors Are Missing For contractors, this shift changes when and how opportunities are won. Responding to an RFI is no longer a courtesy or a branding exercise. It's a chance to shape how the problem is framed, introduce alternative approaches, position your capabilities as the benchmark, and influence evaluation criteria before they're finalized. Organizations that engage early often help define the playing field. By the time the RFP drops, those who sat out may find themselves reacting to requirements that already favor someone else. The Bar Is Rising RFIs are also becoming more structured. Agencies increasingly use standardized response templates, form-based submissions, and structured data collection—making it easier to compare vendors side by side. This raises the stakes for how you respond. Vague answers and marketing language don't land in structured formats. Clear, specific, well-supported responses stand out and are far more likely to influence the outcome. What To Do About It Organizations serious about win rates need to rethink how they treat RFIs: not as optional, but as strategic. This means being selective but intentional about which RFIs to pursue, aligning RFI responses with your broader capture strategy, and focusing on insight rather than just information. The goal isn't simply to answer the questions being asked: it's to shape the questions that will appear in the RFP. Final Thoughts RFIs are not new, but their role in government contracting is changing in meaningful ways. RFIs have become a critical touchpoint where agencies and industry collaborate to define problems, explore solutions, and reduce acquisition risk. For contractors, they represent one of the earliest, and most valuable, opportunities to influence an outcome. The organizations that recognize this, and act on it, are the ones best positioned to win.

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.