PRACTICE / 01 Pre-solicitation positioning
Pre-solicitation positioning
before it gets late.
Shape your position during the 18–36 month window when program offices form their working picture of the market.
01 / POSITION
Get into the conversation before SAM.gov. Make the
Make the
next move legible.
Defense growth work is useful when it clarifies who matters, what changed, and which action earns the next conversation.
If you first learn about the opportunity on SAM.gov, your small team is already behind. Program offices shape requirements, circulate draft language, run industry days, and form a working picture of credible companies long before the formal solicitation.
INFLUENCE WINDOW / THE REQUIREMENT HARDENS FROM LEFT TO RIGHT
01
SIGNAL Market signal
SIGNAL Market signal
02
PROBLEM Problem definition
PROBLEM Problem definition
03
SHAPE Requirement shaping
SHAPE Requirement shaping
04
PATH Acquisition path
PATH Acquisition path
05
RFP Solicitation
RFP Solicitation
DIA operates before the requirement hardens. This is positioning, not a promise of access or improper influence.
Opportunity landscape brief
Pre-solicitation positioning plan
Placed capability white paper
Industry-day talking points
OTA / CSO pathway analysis
02 / METHOD
SENIOR-ONLY DELIVERY Every claim
Every claim
carries a source.
The person in the discovery call is the person producing the deliverable and briefing the outcome. No analyst pyramid. No junior handoffs.
01 Start from the decision
02 Map evaluator logic
03 Build the artifact
04 Cite source chain
05 Red-team the output