Capture Planning

Capture planning is the pre-proposal strategic process of identifying, qualifying, and positioning for specific contract opportunities. It begins months or even years before an RFP is released and includes activities such as opportunity identification, competitive intelligence, customer engagement, team building, and solution development.

Effective capture planning dramatically increases win probability. Industry data shows that companies with mature capture processes win at rates of 50-70%, compared to 10-20% for companies that wait until the RFP is released to begin their pursuit.

Key capture planning activities include analyzing the customer's mission and pain points, assessing the competitive landscape, developing win strategies and themes, building teaming arrangements, influencing the RFP through legitimate channels (industry days, white papers, RFI responses), and developing a preliminary technical solution and pricing strategy.