The Capture Planning Lifecycle

Opportunity identification (36-24 months out): Discover potential opportunities through market research, customer engagement, and industry intelligence. Evaluate strategic fit and preliminary competitive position.
Qualification and initial positioning (24-18 months): Validate opportunity details, assess probability of win, and decide whether to pursue. Begin customer engagement and preliminary solution development.
Active capture (18-6 months): Intensive relationship building, solution refinement, and competitive intelligence gathering. Develop and execute influence strategy. Finalize teaming arrangements.
Pre-proposal preparation (6-3 months): Anticipate RFP content and begin proposal preparation. Complete price-to-win analysis. Lock team and solution architecture.
Proposal development (RFP release to submission): Execute proposal process building on capture investments. Maintain customer engagement within procurement integrity boundaries.

Qualifying Opportunities

1
Assess customer access and relationships
Evaluate your current relationship with the buying organization. Do you have established contacts? Do they know your capabilities? Have you delivered for them before? Strong relationships significantly improve Pwin.
2
Evaluate solution fit
Determine how well your capabilities match anticipated requirements. Identify gaps that require teaming partners or solution development. Better fit generally means higher Pwin.
3
Analyze competitive landscape
Identify likely competitors and their probable strategies. Assess incumbent advantage, if applicable. Understand competitor strengths and weaknesses relative to your own.
4
Consider strategic value
Evaluate how the opportunity fits your strategic plan. Does it build important capabilities or relationships? Does it provide entry to valuable markets? Strategic importance may justify pursuing lower Pwin opportunities.
5
Estimate resource requirements
Determine capture and proposal costs relative to contract value and Pwin. Ensure you can adequately resource the pursuit while maintaining other commitments.
6
Make go/no-go decision
Based on comprehensive qualification, decide whether to pursue. Document rationale for future reference and lessons learned.

Map the stakeholder landscape: Identify all individuals who influence the procurement, including end users, technical evaluators, contracting staff, and leadership. Understand each stakeholder's role, priorities, and decision-making influence.
Develop tailored engagement plans: Create specific approaches for engaging each important stakeholder based on their interests and preferences. Track all engagements to maintain relationship continuity.
Provide value in every interaction: Bring relevant insights, industry perspectives, or problem-solving approaches rather than generic capability briefings. Help customers think through their challenges.
Listen more than you talk: Customer engagement is primarily about learning, not selling. Ask thoughtful questions and pay careful attention to answers.
Maintain appropriate boundaries: Understand procurement integrity rules and avoid discussions that could compromise the procurement once formal acquisition begins.
Document customer intelligence: Capture insights from every engagement and share them with the capture team. Customer intelligence drives strategy development and proposal content.

Identify likely competitors: Research which companies have relevant capabilities, past performance, and customer relationships. Consider both traditional competitors and potential new entrants.
Analyze competitor strengths: Understand what competitors do well and how customers perceive their capabilities. Where are they strong relative to your offering?
Identify competitor vulnerabilities: Every competitor has weaknesses—performance problems, capability gaps, relationship issues, or strategic distractions. How can you exploit these vulnerabilities?
Anticipate competitor strategies: Based on their capabilities and past behavior, predict likely teaming arrangements, solution approaches, and pricing strategies.
Assess incumbent advantage: For recompete opportunities, understand the depth of incumbent relationships, switching costs, and performance history. Overcoming incumbency requires specific strategies.
Monitor throughout capture: Competitive dynamics evolve as companies enter or exit competitions, form teams, and refine strategies. Update your intelligence continuously.

Customer-focused: Expressed in terms of customer benefits and priorities, not contractor capabilities
Differentiating: Highlight advantages competitors cannot credibly claim
Specific: Name concrete capabilities, experiences, or approaches rather than generic attributes
Substantiated: Supported by evidence—past performance, technical data, customer testimonials
Memorable: Concise enough to communicate clearly and remember easily
Consistent: Reinforced throughout all customer engagement and proposal content