Federal Capture

Practitioner-grade capture strategy from 26 years of capture leadership.

Twenty-six years of federal capture leadership distilled into three books for capture managers, BD leaders, and contract executives. Frameworks that move a real pipeline, not theory from outside the room.

See the three books Get the 90-day calendar →
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The practice · Three books

A library that moves a real pipeline.

Capture, campaign, proposal. Read in any order. The Capture Compass is the structural argument; the others apply it.

The Capture Compass cover
Robert Tibbs

The Capture Compass

A four-direction method for federal capture. Customer, foundation, competition, path to win.

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The Capture Campaign cover
Robert Tibbs

The Capture Campaign

The pre-RFP playbook. What capture maturity looks like in the 90 days before the opportunity drops.

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Winning Federal Contracts cover
Robert Tibbs

Winning Federal Contracts

Proposal methodology and disciplined writing. The tighter end of the practice.

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Book navigator

Which book first?

Three short prompts. Each routes to one book.

01
I'm losing recompetes I should be winning.
routes toThe Capture Compass →
02
My capture work happens after the RFP drops.
routes toThe Capture Campaign →
03
My proposal team needs a tighter methodology.
routes toWinning Federal Contracts →
The Capture Compass framework

Four directions. One pursuit.

Every pursuit answers four questions. Stop answering only the easy ones.

North

The Customer

Stakeholders. Evaluation psychology. Decision dynamics. Relationship-building.

Federal contracts are awarded by people, not agencies, and winning starts with the priorities and pressures the solicitation never names.
West

The Path to Win

Win themes. Discriminators. The bid decision. B&P allocation. Proposal handoff.

Strategy that doesn't translate into action is just analysis, and this is where intelligence becomes the operating plan the proposal team executes.
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East

The Competition

Competitive intelligence. Ghosting. Incumbent vulnerabilities. Teaming math.

Knowing the competition is the difference between competing and reacting, and the work happens before the RFP drops.
South

Your Foundation

Capabilities honestly assessed. Past performance positioning. CPARS strategy.

Most pursuits die here, where teams overstate their fit and understate their gaps, and the evaluator sees it instantly.
The argument

Pipeline Theater is not Pipeline Operations.

One fills the dashboard. The other wins the contract.

Pipeline Theater

Activity that looks like work.

  • Pipeline dollar total
  • Conferences attended
  • Proposals submitted
  • B&P spend
  • Capability statements distributed
Pipeline Operations

The work that wins.

  • Probability-weighted pipeline
  • Named decision-maker access
  • Qualified pursuit conversion
  • Win rate per B&P dollar
  • Documented customer hot buttons
Lead magnet · Free download

The 90 days that decide the win.

The RFP is the finish line, not the starting gun. This template runs the 90 days before it drops. PDF plus working spreadsheet, pulled from The Capture Campaign.

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Robert Tibbs
About the practitioner

The practice comes from the room, not the lectern.

Ran a Large Business operating unit before moving to the small business side and incubating and scaling multiple primes. The constant across both was standardizing how federal contractors bid the work and execute the work. The three books are what came out of that.

Federal Capture insights

The newsletter for the practice.

Field notes from inside the work. No platitudes. No theater. Tighten one capture habit a week.