Proposals Don’t Win Contracts. With Krystn Macomber, Summit Strategy

GovCon has a proposal problem; not because teams are not working hard, but because too many firms still believe the proposal is where the win happens. It is not. By the time you are writing, most of the outcome has already been decided.

In this episode, David Blackburn sits down with Krystn Macomber, Founder and CEO of Summit Strategy, a win studio built for growth-obsessed teams who want results. Summit Strategy focuses on helping organizations connect business development, capture, proposals, marketing, and training into one integrated system that actually drives wins, not just submissions.

With more than 20 years of experience, Krystn has built a reputation for challenging how GovCon companies approach growth. She gets inside organizations, exposes the gaps leaders do not see, and forces alignment across teams that are often operating in silos. The result is not just better proposals; it is better positioning, stronger capture, and a system that performs long before the RFP drops.

This conversation takes on one of the biggest misconceptions in the market, where firms are getting growth wrong, what surprises leaders most when they bring in outside perspective, and what they should actually be doing right now to grow smarter.

If you are still betting on proposals to carry the load, this one will reset how you think about winning.

Most GovCon firms think they have a growth strategy but what they actually have is activity: Pipeline dashboards; Proposal volume; A lot of motion with very little alignment behind it.