There Are Three Types of Capture Managers

There Are Three Types of Capture Managers

My college roommate and friend, a Navy Operations Master Chief (i.e., Navy SEAL), is soon to retire with over 26 years’ experience in the SEAL Community.?He recently said to me, “There are three types of Navy SEALS: Owners, Renters, and Squatters. Owners do what they are supposed to do without being told regardless of the situation and do it with excellence. Renters have to be told what to do because they do not have the same initiative as Owners and only like to do the things that they like to do (e.g., high-altitude military parachuting from a C-17 at 30,000 feet versus sitting camouflaged for long hours all wet in a cold forest). Squatters are those who earn their SEAL pin to make the prestigious claim and then leave the Navy at the end of their first obligation to try to parlay the achievement in the private sector for their own advantage.” ??

His comments made me draw a connection from my own professional experience working with capture managers to help companies win competitive pursuits in the government contracting (GovCon) space.” Capture managers who are Owners:

• Do their homework (i.e., do the necessary analyses to win).
• Are transparent and have no hidden agenda.
• Communicate early and often so C-Suite and other stakeholders have proper situational awareness to make best decisions possible in interest of pursuit.
• Ensure everything they communicate is traceable, irrefutable, defensible, and explainable.
• Are leaders and take necessary actions to set other members of pursuit team up for success (e.g., treat solution architect and proposal manager as internal customers).
• Follow through and take ownership―their word is their commitment.
• Have realistic, detailed, and actionable plan.
• Are quick to adjust to unforeseen changes to pursuit.
• Look at customer delays with solicitation release as valuable time to work pursuit to increase P-Win―they do not take foot off gas pedal.
• Increase probability-of-winning or P-Win.

Capture managers who are Owners understand that winning proposals are engineered, not just written. Capture managers who are Renters:

• Are capable but must be pulled along to get things done.
• Like to meet with the customer and potential teaming partners but do little else.
• Only lead when it is in their personal interest.
• Are not vigilant and agile to changes to pursuit.
• Have a plan but it is not detailed enough to be actionable.
• Look at customer delays with solicitation release as break versus time to work and take advantage of extra time.
• Provide empty answers because they did not do their homework.
• Act showy and overconfident to C-Suite at review meetings.
• Lower P-Win.

Capture managers who are Renters often do not make hay or good use of the pursuit. Capture managers who are Squatters:

• Do everything but what they should be doing.
• Always say, “I am trying to meet with the customer and/or build a team” but not doing other essential things to win.
• Do not lead.
• Lack a plan and often unable to formulate one.
• Do not set rest of pursuit team up for success.
• Are not transparent with anyone―are generally evasive.
• Push off their responsibilities to others.
• Tend to place blame for their own shortcomings.
• Often passive aggressive and have hidden agenda.
• Never follow through.
• Keep repeating same information to C-Suite at every review meeting with no meaningful update.
• Really Lower P-Win.

Capture managers who are Squatters sometimes are really nice individuals and a lot of fun but are the biggest risk to your business.

?The Problem

In the world of capture management, how does the C-Suite ensure that capture managers who are:

• Owners are able to be more high-performing?
• Renters are enabled to perform more like Owners?
• Squatters are flushed out and quickly removed so as not to do damage to the business?

?The Need

There is a need for a capability to help companies enable the success of their capture managers who are both Owners and Renters. In particular, one that can quickly expose those (i.e., Squatters) who are not doing the essential efforts well (if at all) to win a competitive pursuit. In fact, there is a need for a capture-as-a-service (CaaS) capability where such things as aforementioned are possible.

?The Benefits

The benefits of such a CaaS capability are that it would be able to:

• Help do the necessary “strategic thinking before writing” in the opportunity assessment, capture, and proposal planning phases of competitive pursuits.
• Enable better decision-making, particularly at the C-Suite level.
• Assist with answering the most important question when pursuing a competitive pursuit ― “Why your company?”
• Support the design and development of the solution for your company’s competitive response.
• Store the rich context of how and why a deal was bid to increase overall company value over time.
• Capture the company’s intellectual capital to enable future growth.
• Quantify the growth status of your enterprise.
• Lower the cost of capturing new business.
• Protect the customer business that your company already has.

Enable Your Company’s Capture Managers to Own the Capture?

We believe that if such a CaaS offering existed in the GovCon marketspace that companies using it would win more competitions and increase their overall enterprise value. For this reason, we have developed a capture-as-a-service offering for the GovCon marketspace for its use, which provides the aforementioned benefits and more. ?

Author: Copyright 15 March 2022, Peter Lierni, Founder, Solutioneering, LLC?www.solutioneering.company / www.solutionengineeringtool.company