01. A capture manager is coaching a first-time bid lead using four concession behaviors seen in past negotiations and the effect each one produced.
Behaviors:
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A. Reducing the price before the customer has asked for anything
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B. Granting each successive request in the same size of step
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C. Trading an added service for an earlier decision date
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D. Giving way on the feature the win themes are built on
Effects:
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1. The offer loses the ground the value proposition was standing on
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2. The pattern signals that one more request of the same size will also succeed
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3. The customer's expectation resets downward and nothing is received in return
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4. Both sides gain, and the movement stays tied to something the pursuit needs
Which mapping pairs each behavior with the effect it produced?
a) A - 2, B - 3, C - 4, D - 1
b) A - 3, B - 2, C - 4, D - 1
c) A - 3, B - 2, C - 1, D - 4
d) A - 2, B - 3, C - 1, D - 4
02. Nine months before the RFP is expected, the capture team proposes two investments: a commissioned study of how the customer's stakeholders see the company, at moderate cost with results in six weeks, and a working demonstrator of the proposed solution, which is the largest single line in the pursuit budget and takes four months to build. The opportunity has passed qualification, and the bid decision gate is three months away.
What is the best way to plan the spend?
a) Commission the study now, since it informs the bid decision, and hold the demonstrator until the gate confirms the pursuit
b) Start both now, since the demonstrator needs four months to build
c) Hold both until the bid decision, so that nothing is committed to an unconfirmed pursuit
d) Fund the demonstrator now, defer the study, and rely on a working demonstration moving the customer further than an opinion survey does
03. A pursuit has been lost. Three support functions gave significant time across eight months, and the customer's debrief has been completed. The same functions will be asked for time on two pursuits with the same customer next year.
What is the most valuable thing the capture manager can do for those contributors now?
a) Send the win-loss report to each function head with a note thanking their teams
b) Hold the lessons learned session when the recompete is scoped and the findings can be acted on
c) Tell the contributors what the customer said about their part of the offer
d) Record the lessons in the capture plan archive for whoever runs the recompete
04. A managed services opportunity covers the customer's operations in France, Poland and Brazil. Each country's general manager will score the part of the service that affects their operation, and the award is decided centrally. Your capture team sits in one office in Germany.
What is the best action?
a) Ask the customer's central procurement team to represent the countries' requirements.
b) Translate the capture plan and the win themes into each country's language so every stakeholder can read the same material.
c) Hold the customer meetings in Germany, and invite the three general managers to travel to them.
d) Give each country's stakeholders an owner who works in that country, all reporting into one call plan.
05. The pricing lead's price-to-win position was approved at the last gate, and nothing further is needed from him until the RFP arrives, which the team expects in about ten weeks. Two other pursuits have now asked for him by name. The capture manager has kept every member assigned to this team since kick-off.
What is the best action?
a) Release him against a recorded recall date, once his outputs are in the capture plan
b) Keep him assigned, so that the team's continuity is not broken
c) Hold him at reduced hours, so that he can keep watching the competitors' pricing moves until the RFP arrives
d) Let his line manager choose between the three pursuits, since the sponsors of the other two outrank this opportunity's sponsor
06. A national transport authority has been planning a fleet telematics replacement that fits our target market well, and our early positioning with the program team is strong. At the review, the capture manager reports that the authority has moved the funding decision into the next budget year. The RFP is now at least nine months away, and nobody inside the authority will commit to a date before then.
What is the best decision for this review to take?
a) No-bid the opportunity and record the funding slip as the reason it was declined.
b) Keep the pursuit running at its current investment level, with the same call plan, so the relationship stays warm.
c) Ask the program sponsor to confirm the revised funding timetable in writing, and hold the review open until that confirmation arrives.
d) Defer it to a stated re-entry point, with the funding approval as the trigger, and drop to a watching brief until then.
07. Consider the following pair of statements about customer contact before the RFP.
Assertion: What the capture team says to the customer before the RFP should be limited to positions the company is already prepared to put in its proposal.
Reason: A customer can treat anything said during capture as a commitment the company will be held to.
Which evaluation of the Assertion, the Reason and the link between them is correct?
a) Both the Assertion and the Reason are true, and the Reason correctly explains the Assertion.
b) The Assertion is false, but the Reason is true.
c) The Assertion is true, but the Reason is false.
d) Both the Assertion and the Reason are true, but the Reason does not explain the Assertion.
08. The RFP has been issued. Its evaluation criteria put 40 percent of the score on a capability the company will not hold until well after the delivery start date. Two mitigations have been tried and both are closed: no partner will carry it on acceptable terms, and the solution lead has ruled out a phased approach. The entry has sat on the risk register at high likelihood and high impact for six weeks, reviewed each week and unchanged.
What is the best action for the capture manager?
a) Escalate to the gate as a bid/no-bid decision, with the mitigations that were tried
b) Keep it on the register at high impact and review it again once the proposal is submitted
c) Ask the customer whether the weighting on that criterion could be reconsidered before proposals are due
d) Reduce the recorded impact to reflect the partial coverage the phased approach would have given, and carry on with the bid
09. A capture team is holding two or three customer meetings a week. Each attendee writes their own notes, and the capture manager carries the customer's stated priorities in his head and repeats them at the weekly review. Two months in, the team cannot agree on what one influencer actually said about the incumbent's support performance.
What is the capture manager's best action?
a) Ask everyone who attends a customer meeting to send their notes to the capture manager within a day, so that nothing said in the room is lost.
b) Cut the number of people who attend customer meetings, so that the account hears one consistent voice and the record is simpler to keep.
c) Record every contact in the capture plan against the call plan objective it was meant to test.
d) Summarize the customer's priorities in the monthly report to the executive sponsor, so that the reporting chain holds the record.
10. Four contributors each own a section of the capture plan and update their own sections directly. The version sent to the gate board describes one set of win themes in the solution section and a different set in the plan's own summary, and the schedule works to a customer milestone that the stakeholder section records as having moved.
What is the best way to stop this recurring?
a) Freeze the plan a week before each gate, so that the sections can be reconciled during the window that this creates
b) Circulate the plan to the whole team for review before each gate
c) Ask each contributor to read the other three sections and flag any contradiction before the plan is submitted
d) Have the capture manager issue every version, with contributors drafting directly into the live plan