Summit Strategy

Home
Summit Strategy

Deeply ingrained in everything we do is a dedication to redefining the possibilities for professional service firms. Someone to think beyond the ordinary.

We are an integrated marketing and proposal consulting firm focused on helping you win more business through strategic planning, proposal development, branding, and training. At Summit Strategy, we empower B2B + B2G professional services firms through integrated marketing + proposal consulting services, positioning them as industry leaders and igniting growth. With a powerful combination of strategic planning, proposal support, branding + marketing with purpose, and best practices training, we help firms win more business — telling their stories, fueling potential, and achieving sustainable competitive advantage. We have a vested interest in helping our clients’ overcome obstacles and scale intentionally, fueling success with an approach grounded in collaboration, challenging the status quo, and delivering on our promises. If you’re looking for better, smarter ways to stand out and win more, you need a partner who can help turn big ideas into game-changing results. You need an expert guide by your side to get you to the top. Ready to learn how we can maximize your growth potential? We can’t wait to hear from you — reach out whenever ([email protected]), and let’s elevate to the extraordinary.

29/09/2026

Boilerplate is not a content library.

Ask a proposal manager where the reusable content lives and you'll get pointed to a folder named "Boilerplate" holding 14 versions of the same QA/QC narrative. None dated. None owned.

A real library has one approved version of each core narrative, with a review date and an owner's name on it. Tagged by customer type, vehicle, and scope. Proof points and metrics broken out separately so you can swap a number without rewriting a page.

That's a few weeks of work. It gives back 20 hours per proposal, forever.

Proposal teams don't burn out from writing. They burn out from hunting.

28/09/2026

Quick question for the BD + capture leads reading this ...

When was the last time market intel actually changed how you positioned a pursuit?

Not "we read the forecast." Not "we have a subscription." I mean intel that shifted your strategy, your teaming, your win themes... before the RFP dropped.

Here's my theory on why that's rare. There are two kinds of intel and most firms only buy one.

Market intel is what's being bought. Vehicles, awards, forecasts, recompete dates.

Account intel is what your buyer is actually deciding — and what's worrying them while they decide it.

One of those you can buy. The other you have to go get.

Govly is joining our next Basecamp Briefings on Oct 19 for a live conversation: Turning Intel into Wins: How Top GovCons Translate Market Signals into Won Work.

We're getting into:
→ The two kinds of intel + why firms over-buy one
→ What account intel actually sounds like
→ How to read signals when you can't get the meeting
→ The intel-to-capture handoff inside the Summit Win System™

📅 October 19 | 12pm ET | LinkedIn Live

https://dub.sh/EnFWr4R

25/09/2026

"Let me get everyone caught up."

If your proposal kickoff opens with that sentence, the handoff never happened. Somebody spent months on that account. Learning what the customer is actually worried about. Figuring out where the incumbent is soft. Building the relationship that got you invited in the first place.

And now all of it is being reconstructed out loud, from memory, in a conference room, four weeks before submission.

Whatever doesn't survive that download doesn't make it into the proposal. So you write to the SOW instead of to the customer. And you lose to a firm that knew one thing you didn't.

Nobody dropped the ball here. It was never actually passed.

That's a roles document problem, and almost every firm has the same one.

👉 https://dub.sh/FaR957l

Serious question... how does your proposal team find out a bid is happening?

24/09/2026

"Can you review this by Monday?"

Sent Friday at 4:47pm. Attached: 38 pages of a technical volume someone else wrote about work you actually ran.

That's what business development looks like to most technical experts. No context. No early conversation. No idea how your input gets used... just a document to fix on your weekend.

Then leadership wonders why technical staff "don't support growth."

Change the entry point and the whole dynamic changes.

On October 22, we’re running a Summit Climb Session™ built for SMEs who keep getting pulled into pursuits at the worst possible moment: Turning SMEs Into Growth Partners.

You'll leave with: · A version of your growth role that doesn't feel forced on you · Language for when to engage and when to push back · A way to share insight that actually moves the win, in minutes instead of weekends

11a ET. Live on Teams. $98/seat. Recording + tools/templates go to everyone registered.

Register at the link in first comment. 👇

23/09/2026

Lessons learned meeting: scheduled six weeks after award.

Cancelled twice. Held for 20 minutes. Notes saved to a folder nobody opens again.

That's how a firm loses the same recompete twice.

22/09/2026

"Highly experienced." "Deep bench." "Best-in-class."

Adjectives are what you write when you don't have proof.

Proof looks like this: "Our PM held this exact role on the incumbent contract for four years and retained 94% of staff through the transition."

That sentence does more work than a page of superlatives, and an evaluator can defend a score with it. Adjectives give them nothing to defend.

Run this test on your next draft. Highlight every claim about your team. If you can't follow it with a number, a name, or a customer quote, cut it or prove it.

Most drafts lose 30% of their word count and gain 15 points.

21/09/2026

Pink Team: "This needs a strategy."

Red Team: "This needs a strategy."

Gold Team: "Ship it."

18/09/2026

Evaluators don't read your proposal.

They score it.

Write for the scoresheet.

17/09/2026

That proposal didn't take three weeks.

It took three days of writing and 18 days of waiting on one resume.

16/09/2026

Your past performance isn't weak. Your storytelling is.

We've read hundreds of past performance write-ups. Most of them read like a scope of work with the verbs changed to past tense.

"Provided program management support to the Office of..."

The evaluator has read 40 of those before lunch. Nothing in that sentence tells them what happens when your team hits a problem.

Rewrite it around the moment things went sideways.

What broke. What you caught. What it saved the customer in dollars, days, or political heat. Who said so.

Same contract. Same facts. Completely different score.

Small firms think they lose to big primes on volume of past performance. Usually they lose on specificity... and specificity is free.

Address

Website

http://www.summitstrategywins.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Summit Strategy posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Want your business to be the top-listed advertising & marketing company?

Country:

City: