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February 22, 2023
Capture Planning, An Overview
February 22, 2023
Capture planning can progress an organization from an “unknown” to a “favored” position with a customer. This positioning is achieved by influencing the customer throughout the sales cycle to prefer your company and your solution. The most successful capture planning includes using an adaptable, repeatable process.
Capture planning originated in the 1980s as a phrase describing a recognized discipline. Capture planning became more recognized in the 1990s inside organizations primarily focused on large U.S. Department of Defense opportunities. However, the concept of influencing a customer prior to a procurement is as old as selling.
As the terminology of capture planning spread to organizations of various sizes serving a variety of markets in multiple countries, business development professionals noted that it was synonymous with complex sales cycles. Concurrently, commercial organizations pursuing large, complex opportunities were developing and practicing similar disciplines they called account or sales planning. Both are different ways of referring to the practice of engaging with a customer early in the business development process to improve win probability.
What Is Capture Planning?
To understand capture planning, consider the aim, potential outcomes, origin, context, and relationship with established selling methodologies.
The aim of capture planning is to progress from an initial unknown position to a favored position as viewed by the customer. Initially, the customer is unknown by the seller and the seller is unknown by the customer. Your initial unknown seller’s position is ignorance about customer needs, the customer’s view of your organization, and your relative competitive position.
Because the customer’s view is the only relevant view, the aim of the seller is to progress from unknown, to known, to an improved position, and eventually to a favored position, as shown in figure 1. Of course, relatively few initial positions are completely unknown, and achieving a favored position might not be possible.
Capture Planning Progression. The fundamental capture planning process is an iterative progression from an unknown to a favored position. The capture planning template is simply an orderly method to prompt research, analysis, strategy development, and tactical execution to achieve a favored position.
To move from an unknown to a known position, research the market, interact with the customer, and analyze your findings. To move to an improved position, develop your strategy and tactics, implement, and validate them with the customer. Attain a favored position by building and strengthening customer relationships to understand their objectives.
Capture planning consists of iterative activities designed to attain a favored position with the customer.
