During the past 20 years, I have assisted in preparing over 200 proposals ranging in value from $1 million to $1 billion. If I were to boil down my experience into 10 rules that would help companies win more contracts, it would be the following:
The First Five Days
Author:
Rich Freeman
Proposal Management
The RFP lands on your desk and you must begin turning a mass of ill-fitted requirements into a custom-crafted and well-planned solution. The first five days are the most important—the time to make basic decisions and establish controls. Compare your method with this five-day approach.
Decomposing a Solicitation can be Fun
Author:
Dave Herndon
Proposal Management
The first step in the proposal writing process after receipt of the RFP is a detailed analysis of the RFP and "decomposition" of the RFP into a comprehensive proposal - solicitation compliance matrix.
Page 3 of 3
Categories
-
Editing (2)
-
Graphics (4)
-
Marketing (8)
- How To Take Advantage of Proposal Lessons Learned
- How to Increase your Win Ratio in One Easy Step
- Court wrestles with “commercial item” definition
- Market Intelligence as a Competitive Edge
- Relationships: The Core Concept in Building Government Business
- When Hunting for Contracts, Never use a Shotgun
- How Can a Small Business Win More Contracts?
- Marketing Positions Small Business to Win
-
Key Personnel (1)
-
Red Team (5)
-
Proposal Writing (15)
- Fog Index and Pace
- Strategy-Theme-Discriminator Tree Development
- Write a Winning Transition Plan
- Proposal Strategy Tree
- Effect of the Stimulus on Government Contracting and Proposal Activity
- Keep Your Sentences Short: Why Shorter Is Better
- Eliminating Background Noise
- Avoiding Death by Bullet Point
- Leading Non-Professional Proposal Writers
- How to Write a Better Proposal Introduction
- Writing Persuasive Reasons Why Customers Should Select You
- When to Start Writing Before the Final Solicitation
- Resumes - Hints on Preparing Winning Resumes
- Management Plans: What Makes a Quality Management Plan
- Tell 'em, and tell 'em, and tell 'em again
-
Resume Preparation (1)
-
Proposal Coordination (2)
-
Writing Past Performance (2)
-
Orals Coaching (11)
- Why Oral Presentations are Important: Part One
- How to Increase the Economic Impact of Your Presentations
- 7 Uncommon Power Point Techniques
- Business Developers: How to “Fix” Your Presentations
- Benefits of an Effective Orals Strategy
- Videotaped Oral Presentations
- Hey Coach! Help Me With Rehearsals!
- How to Select an Orals Coach
- Orals Coaching - "It's All in The Attitude!"
- Orals - Hey Coach! Help Me With My Body Language
- Orals - Knowing the Room Improves the Presentation
-
Proposal Protests (5)
-
Proposal Management (23)
- Getting Prepared to Win Large Proposals
- Difficulties in Determining Best Value
- The Proposal Manager's Tasks
- Maintaining Positive Contracting Officer Relationships...A List of Do and Don't Recommendations
- Unsolvable Problem: Your Proposal Team Argues over Proposal Quality
- Planning Your Solution vs. Planning Your Content
- The Proposal Plan: The Proposal Manager Prepares this Document to Guide the Proposal Creation Activity
- Five Popular Ways to Write A Losing Proposal
- Cost of Preparing Proposals
- The Challenge of Preparing Task Order Proposals
- Why Create Your Own Draft RFP?
- Asking Questions on Your Next RFP
- Five Easy Ways to Improve Your Proposals
- Proposal Departments: Whether to Use Permanent Staff or Consultants
- Volume Management: Getting the Best, Quickly, from Your Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
- The Proposal Plan: The Proposal Manager Prepares this Document to Guide the Proposal Creation Activity
- Tips on Winning Proposals
- Pre-Proposal Goals Help Build Winners
- Storyboards Why Bother?
- The Top 10 Ways to Lose a Proposal
- The Top 10 Ways to Ensure Proposal Success
- The First Five Days
- Decomposing a Solicitation can be Fun
-
Miscellaneous (8)
- OCI Sets New Standard for Speed
- An Open Letter from OCI to Our Customers
- Defense Appropriations Act Prohibits Mandatory Arbitration
- House Passes Defense Bill That Would Reduce Use of Contractors
- OCI Seminar Presented in Kampala
- President Obama's Affect on Proposal Work
- Ten Practical Rules For Protecting Rights In Technical Data And Computer Software
- Elements of a Good Product Demonstration
-
Earned Value Management (1)
-
Competition Analysis (8)
- Win Strategy General Guidelines — Strategy Definition and Planning
- Win Strategy General Guidelines — The Self Analysis
- Win Strategy General Guidelines - The Competitor Analysis
- The Proposal Manager's Four Uses of Competition Analysis
- Win Strategy General Guidelines - The Customer Analysis
- Competitive Analysis Considerations
- Win Strategy General Guidelines - Competition Data Base Requirements and Approach and the Opportunity Analysis
- Developing Competitive Intelligence on Service Contracts
-
Risk Management (1)
-
Capture Management (13)
- How to Capture the Win
- Proposal Writing Myths and Realities
- Proposal Espionage, a Cautionary Tale
- Why Should the Customer Select You?
- The Art of not being eliminated
- What Makes a Must Win Opportunity Any Different?
- 47 Things to Know Before The RFP is Released
- Alternate Proposals Why You Should (Almost!) Never Submit One
- Program Manager: To Win, You MUST Offer a PM with Customer Recognition
- Ten Things You Probably Did Wrong on Your Last (Losing) Proposal
- Capture Plans: To Win the Proposal Manager Must Bring These Elements into the Proposal
- The Different Customer Roles in Vendor Selection
- What's the Most Important Thing to Know about Winning Proposals?
-
Proposal Evaluation (1)
-
Government Procurement (9)
- OMB Memorandum 10-26 Immediate Review of Financial Systems IT Projects
- PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM ON GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING - RESERVING WORK FOR FEDERAL EMPLOYEES
- Predictions for the Proposal Market in 2010
- Looking for the "Perfect RFP"
- The Four Quarters of Federal Selling
- Early Stages of the Procurement Process Part 1
- Early Stages of the Procurement Process Part 2
- Seven Stages of the Procurement Process
- Five Tips for Better Business Cases
-
Proposal Group Management (9)
- Proposal Departments: Whether to Use Permanent Staff or Consultants
- Do You Have a Proposal Process, or Just Think You Do?
- Who Should Write The Proposal
- How To Get A Proposal Software Purchase Approved
- Building a Proposal Development Capability
- 7 Principals That Should Guide Your Proposal Process
- Creating and Managing Boilerplate
- How Do Your Proposal Processes Compare with "Best Practices"?
- Developing a Proposal Library
-
Contract Management (9)
- "Incumbent-itis”: How Incumbents can Lose the Proposal Competition
- Defending Incumbent Contracts - The "Vulnerability Assessment"
- Why Your Company Should Consider the Blanket Purchase Agreement
- Pricing Adjustments
- Wired RFPs
- Inexperienced Negotiators
- Sole Source - The Voice of Experience
- Post Award Debriefs
- Do Contractors Have to Police the Government?
-
Business Development (6)
- Business Development Goals Creating Winning Teams
- The Goal of Good Business Development
- The Role of the Pipeline in Managing Business Development
- 101 Things Your Business Development Process Should Address
- Managing the Transition from Business Development to Proposal
- Simple Guidelines Small Business can Use to Measure Business Development
-
Virtual Proposal Preparation (1)
-
Unsolicited Proposals (1)
-
Performance Based Service Contracts (PBSC) (3)
-
Grants (1)
-
Executive Summary (1)
-
First Time Proposals (2)
-
Training/Education (2)
-
OCI News (1)
- Expand All
- Collapse All
If you enjoyed these articles and would like to receive our monthly newsletter.
| About OCI | Contact Us | In House Proposal Facility | OCI Newsletter | User Agreement | Public Workshops | Site Map |
Copyright© 2010 by Organizational Communications, Inc.