Knowing your competitors is as important as knowing your client. Capturing as much information as possible on your known competitors is key to understanding your actual position and the likelihood of winning. In addition, mapping and knowing what your competitors can offer and their perceived weaknesses can help determine your differentiators.
During the capture planning stage, you identify the drivers relevant to the client and the opportunity. Then, by analysing your strengths and weaknesses for each client driver, your differentiators – what you do different from your competitors – are identified.
Doing this for every proposal will help you gain insights into the strengths and weaknesses of your company and help you identify opportunities and threats. In addition, having this type of information available in the long term improves your bidding capabilities and strategic decision-making.
TIP: Develop a SWOT analysis for every proposal and keep it in your knowledge library for future submissions. Also, gather and maintain information on competitors.
