What We Do
At Whitespace Innovations, we have perfected 7 best practices that guide your efforts to “seize the whitespace” and accomplish the “job left undone.” We are not hide-bound by repetitive processes, yet these proven best practices inform our approach to think outside the box and solve tough problems. Not every company needs all seven of our strategy and management consulting services, but every company needs at least one. Discover how our consulting services in business development can help your company towards profitable growth.
#1 Build Healthy Organizations
Organizational culture development
You get what you measure. Assess your employee engagement and your organization’s culture using quantitative metrics. Be honest about your shortcomings and develop leaders who tackle hard problems. Invest in your workforce through employee engagement tools and actions. Communicate! Manage by walking around.
Here are some Whitespace tools and processes that help you to build a healthy organization:
- Whitespace’s unique Vizeon tool for employee and culture assessments. Use it for pre-hire qualifications, to identify strong “change agents” in your company, and to target high potential leaders in your succession planning.
- Leadership development tools and mentoring resources to identify and grow leaders consistent with your company vision.
- Cognitive assessment tools to assess the resilience and engagement of your workforce. These are effective “return to work” resources for post-pandemic management.
- Insider threat prediction tools to identify the potential for physical, financial, espionage, and cyber security threats in your firm.
#2 Set a Vision
Growth goals for business
Alice in Wonderland once asked “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” The Cheshire Cat replied “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.” Whitespace is more straight forward than Mr. Cheshire Cat, yet his wisdom is sound. Every company needs a vision… a solid idea of where they want to go, and why. We help you establish a strong focus for your company by understanding your values, your purposes, the leadership’s perception of your future… and by establishing a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (BHAG).
Here are some Whitespace tools and processes that help you set a vision:
- Start with “why are we doing this?” Why are you in business? Why in this market? Why now?
- Next, evaluate “how?” How will you approach your business challenges?
- Last of all, target the “what?” Too many businesses start with “what we do” and eventually wind up frustrated, asking “why are we doing this?”
- Whitespace is a business mentor. Let us help with regular collaboration where we show you how, then help you do it, then watch and encourage. That’s how a mentor works.
- Use outside facilitators for your meetings. “Enhance your DNA” in critical leadership sessions using Whitespace resources.
#3 Research Your Market
Market intelligence tools
Once you have settled on a realistic vision, you must choose a viable market. Don’t trust the future of your company to a decision that “feels good.” Be informed. Leverage our research processes, proven tools, market databases, trusted collaborators, and our relationships in federal and commercial markets. Ensure the viability of your market.
Here are some Whitespace tools and processes that help you intelligently research your market:
- Who is buying, and why? Let us build a “Total Addressable Market” (TAM) analysis. How much of your market is accessible? What is your market share?
- Learn more about your customers and your competitors. Conduct market research to learn more about what your customers need and why your competitors win.
- Invest in competitive intelligence. This is not “dumpster diving” for insights. Know your competitors—and customers—better than anyone else using our proven and affordable approach to business intelligence.
- Follow the money. Use Whitespace to develop federal budget analytics, access industry spending, and research labor rates. Ask us about the sales “multiples” for acquisitions in your market.
#4 Live by a Strategy
Business growth strategy
Is your last strategic plan languishing in a notebook on a dusty shelf? Don’t spend valuable resources for an expensive offsite to build a plan you’ll never use. Use our established planning tools to create an actionable blueprint to grow new infrastructure and new markets. Remember, the most valuable word in business development is “no.” Only do what only you can do. Do what matters.
Here are some Whitespace tools and processes that help you live by a strategy:
- Use Whitespace processes to build an annual plan. From company values to corporate valuations, put it all on one sheet.
- You get what you measure. Build an annual projection of monthly revenue. Create a model for expenses and labor rates.
- Establish and implement corporate campaigns. Whitespace develops innovative strategies to pursue grand objectives.
- Strategies need roadmaps. Create actionable plans that lead to measurable accomplishments on realistic schedules.
- What are the threats and the opportunities? Balance dangers and rewards through mitigations and management of risk.
- Ask us about our eight-prong strategy for profitable growth.
#5 Find Opportunity
Pipeline development
Be pragmatic! Match your technical and business capabilities, financial objectives, people, resources, and schedule to the available bid prospects. A successful company is ruthlessly honest as it answers the questions “why would we win?” and “is the juice worth the squeeze?” Fill your pipeline with realistic opportunities. Focus on what matters… do not chase shiny objects.
Here are some Whitespace tools and processes that help you find opportunity:
- Use our proven research processes, multiple search engines, a broad base of industry intelligence, 8000+ contacts, and a network of 180+ companies to create a winnable pipeline.
- Document your capabilities before you chase new work. Cast a wide net to find all opportunities that match those capabilities, then eliminate every one that is not a perfect fit.
- Be honest with yourself and “factor” your pipeline. Track three probabilities: probability of capture, of intent to bid, and of win.
- Ask Whitespace about our gate review techniques to keep the business development process on track.
- Use our intuitive web-based dashboards to manage your pipeline, build teams, and track your growth metrics.
#6 Capture the Work
Capture management
Plan the work and work the plan. Whitespace wins 63% of our clients’ procurements when they follow a comprehensive capture plan. Our well-tested 25-point checklist documents every component of your preparation for the upcoming bid. With a solid plan in place, spend 80% of your time listening to your customers. Listen more to win more.
Here are some Whitespace tools and processes that help you capture the work:
- Every capture of an opportunity begins with a gate review and a pursue decision. Don’t short-circuit the process. Make every opportunity stand on its own merit in a critical staff review.
- Listen to customers to gain the insight you need to win.
- Shape the opportunity by engaging customers and responding to their needs.
- Build strategies, win themes, and discriminators. Test those in a thorough Black Hat review led by our Subject Matter Experts.
- Let Whitespace help build the winning team, grounded in capability, past performance, and customer relationship.
- Develop a Return on Investment (ROI) Analysis and a Price to Win (PTW). Use Whitespace to create metrics-based tools that inform your pricing process.
#7 Propose to Win
Proposal management
Every sales quote, bid, and marketing slick that you develop is a proposal—a presentation about your company and the work you do. Every written product must be compliant and compelling to succeed. It must answer the customer’s questions and it must tell a story in a way that compels the reader to buy. Write well and often to win.
Here are some Whitespace tools and processes that help you develop effective proposals:
- Turn to Whitespace as your proposal coordinator. Access volume leads, writers, pricers, proposal graphics, “color team” reviews, Subject Matter Experts (SME), schedulers, and document production. Connect with us about our proposal management services.
- Leverage our nationwide team of 300+ experts with technical and customer insights to build your proposal content.
- Give us a call about Price to Win, strategic pricing, and a preview of your subcontractors’ sealed bids. We have some time-tested tricks up our sleeve that will help you build a winning proposal.
- Remember this: every proposal is fundamentally a work of fiction—it’s a story about a job that has not yet happened. Good fiction requires that you “show, don’t tell.” Build a tale about your approach (“how”) that compels your reader to learn more and sell your story at an affordable price.
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