Red Team Consultant Spotlight | Meet Bill Kaufmann

Consultant Spotlight: Bill Kaufmann

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What is the secret to managing a successful proposal?

The first priority is to manage expectations across the team, which requires the consultant to have a comprehensive understanding of requirements within each opportunity. The second priority is to develop a viable plan that includes resources, skill matching, and defined roles and responsibilities. The third priority is to overcome the initial inertia with excitement, frequent tag-ups, and keeping open communication across the team.

What is the number one thing to consider when doing capture on a contract?

The principle activity of the capture consultant is to understand the customer’s mission and the challenges they’re facing in delivering that mission.

How can the proposal team best support you when you’re managing a proposal?

The most effective support a proposal manager can receive is the timely communication of status, challenges, or breakthroughs in developing response content. When a team member actually accomplishes a task resulting from a prior commitment, or provides early notification that a commitment cannot be realized, then this gives the proposal team the best chance to meet the schedule.

Any tips for writing a winning proposal?

• Understand the customer
• Understand the problem(s) that the customer is wanting to solve through this procurement action
• Be realistic, acknowledge the customer’s challenges, provide the solution and describe how it is accomplished, provide solution features/benefits, and finally, provide a proof point that demonstrates where this has been done before

Where was your last vacation and what was the highlight of the trip?

Christmas cruise to the Eastern Caribbean with the family. A highlight was in the Dominican Republic on a beach excursion where I was able to meet soldiers in a nearby barracks that were positioned to guard the coastline. The highlight of this experience came through our excursion interpreter who was able to explain the challenges of these soldiers with making a living on the island. It cemented, for me, that people across the world all pursue the same aspirations for themselves and their families.

Do you have any hidden talents?

Applying my creativity to smoking meat on my Green Egg!

If you could meet anyone in the world (dead or alive) who would it be and why?

Abraham Lincoln. I would want to ask him what sustained him through his presidency and the Civil War. What lessons in leadership did he lean on or discover through this process?