rsmith

About Russell Smith

Russell founded OCI in 1985, and has been serving as President ever since. He has overseen its growth into one of the largest and most recognized proposal service companies in the nation. For him, every part of the work is exciting: Serving the customers, educating the prospects, engaging the consultants. Prior to founding OCI, he worked as a proposal manager for several federal contractors including ManTech. Originally from West Texas, Russell completed two degrees at the University of Texas before moving to Virginia. Following service in the Army, he completed his Doctorate at the College of William and Mary. He is a past president of the National Capital Area Chapter of the APMP.

Will the Impeachment Wreck the Federal Procurement Process?

After several months of fast RFP releases, federal government contractors are wondering if the impeachment will throw a wrench into the procurement works? We all know that fall federal RFP activity is slower than spring and summer.  But will the effect of the impeachment on the federal procurement market be relatively large, [...]

By |2019-10-10T07:55:04+00:00October 10, 2019|Government Proposal Consultants|0 Comments

A Landmine in the Federal Proposal Road: the Impeachment and the 2020 Appropriations

Industry lobbyists with deep insight say that calendar year 2020 may be the first year to see 2 shutdowns.  The recently passed Continuing Resolution (CR) takes us only to November 27. The Current Status of the Appropriations At this time, the House of representatives has passed 10 of the 12 major appropriations [...]

By |2019-09-29T13:31:56+00:00September 29, 2019|Government Proposal Consultants|0 Comments

7 Ways to Win More Federal Contracts This September

All of us are hunting for the secret sauce that will help us win more Federal proposals in this – the most hectic month -- of the fiscal year.  Let me offer some suggestions based on experience helping customers prepare 4,000 proposals during the past 33 years:   1. Get executive commitment [...]

By |2019-09-10T07:51:58+00:00September 10, 2019|Government Proposal Consultants|0 Comments

The Federal Proposal “Feeding Frenzy” begins . . . Task Order Checklist

Every year about this time, we see a repeated ritual:  DoD commands rush to spend remaining budget dollars as fast as possible.  (DoD spends 1/3 of its annual budget in fourth fiscal quarter.) The result is a frenzy of procurement activity, mostly through simple contracts such as Task Orders (TO) and Invitation [...]

By |2019-08-15T06:13:21+00:00August 15, 2019|Government Proposal Consultants|0 Comments

Winning NASA RAPID IV Government Contract Draft Released

After what has seemed like an eon, the draft RFP for the $6B RAPID IV program finally came out yesterday – July 18, 2019.  And the final RFP is expected in late September.   It comes as a relief to contractors that the RFP doesn’t even genuflect to the new NASA paradigm that [...]

By |2019-07-19T15:03:37+00:00July 19, 2019|Government Proposal Consultants|0 Comments

Federal Proposal Resumes – Hints on Preparing Winning Resumes


During my career, I have evaluated, reviewed, edited, or written over 20,000 resumes, mostly for technical personnel. This experience was obtained in preparing staffing and personnel sections for Government proposals.

By |2022-01-28T11:34:47+00:00June 27, 2019|Resume Preparation|0 Comments

How to Prepare Winning Management Plans

During the days when I had time to actively assist in proposal writing, I was often elected to prepare the management plan. During the past 30 years, I have probably prepared at least 150. I will never forget the first management plans I wrote. I was a Vice President at Computer Dynamics, a rapidly growing small business in Virginia Beach. The year was 1983; and this was my first experience writing a management plan. If I had had an MBA degree, the work would have been fairly straightforward. However, my degrees were in English, History, and Education.

By |2022-01-27T11:10:15+00:00June 20, 2019|Proposal Group Management|0 Comments

APMP CEO Predicts Software/AI is the ‘Next Big Wave’ in the Proposal Industry

An Interview of Rick Harris, APMP CEO Question 1: What are the greatest challenges facing the industry? Answer: On the Federal side I see three challenges: 1. First are the government shutdowns that wreak havoc on the industry. They are not good for business. They are not good for our industry and [...]

By |2019-05-20T18:00:38+00:00May 20, 2019|Government Proposal Consultants|0 Comments

19 Questions to Ask Before Federal Proposal Bidding

During my career, I have seen a huge number of companies that prepared federal proposals without doing the business development work needed to win.  This includes both small and large business. Following below is a list of 19 questions every bidder should ask before investing in a federal proposal. 1. How early [...]

By |2019-04-30T12:53:51+00:00April 30, 2019|Government Proposal Consultants|0 Comments

The Truth About Federal Proposal Costs

During the past 30 years, I have frequently been asked the question, how much does it cost to prepare a proposal?

Or "What should it cost to prepare a proposal?" The desire is to have a valid standard a bidder can use to estimate the cost to prepare a proposal based on a key variable such as the dollar value of the contract being bid.

This question is a little like the question, what does it cost to build a house? The answer is that it depends on the size, style, materials, etc.

Back in the day, the generalization was often made that preparing a proposal cost 2% of the value of the contract being bid. However, solicitation requirements vary so much that this answer is dated and does not fit all situations. When we grant that it is almost impossible to quantify what proposals should cost, useful guidelines still can be offered.

Four Primary Types of Proposals

In order to address the question, let’s break proposals down into four different types that collectively account for a large portion of solicitations:

1. Low end base O&M services such as grounds, buildings, streets, uniformed guard service, utilities, trash, etc.

2. High end technical engineering services staff augmentation where the customer is buying a team of contractor personnel to provide technical support.

3. High end hardware / software driven solutions where the contractor is developing a system to perform a complex management function or to operate specialized equipment.

4. Product sales where the customer is buying a commercial off the shelf product.

By |2019-04-16T09:00:07+00:00April 16, 2019|Industry News|0 Comments
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