In 1961 I was involved in an RFP for a mainframe computer which was a best value RFP, and our agency did not award to IBM. How many readers can make such a claim? Not many, because the agencies then were usually not very experienced in buying IT and were very mesmerized by IBM's marketing prowess. As a result, major agencies such as Justice and the Army found ways to award to IBM, even when the performance did not justify the higher price.
During my 25 years in the proposal business, I am always amazed to see how many bidders lose the competition because they haven't adequately prepared for the bid. "Not being prepared" may take many forms.One of the most common forms of inadequate preparation is to assign personnel who don't have proposal experience. This is especially true for companies who try to keep valued personnel by assigning them to work on proposals until a more permanent position can be found. For these companies, it doesn't matter if the employee can't spell "proposal." It is also quite common for small businesses to refuse to begin work on their proposal until the RFP is released. They believe they can reduce expenses by waiting until the last minute. It's as if they are saying to themselves, "We cannot afford to develop the proposal correctly, but we'll find the money to do it over if we have to."
A Government Proposal Manager Is…
One who must direct 30 to 50 authors, who don’t want to be there, in responding to several thousand requirements that he disagrees with, scattered throughout a several hundred page RFP that screws up the way he wants to write his proposal, and include several dozen win strategies that are of no interest to the customer, from two of more companies who are in violent disagreement, in a painfully page-restricted proposal with an impossible but inviolable due date, so that in only three days 30 to 50 government evaluators, who don’t want to be there, can find the answers to questions someone has hidden somewhere in the RFP, so that the Source Selection Authority can make a decision that is the least risky to his own career, and that he can justify to the losing bidders’ Congressmen!
As our customers already understand, OCI is a different kind of proposal support service provider. Given the constant evolution of the Government acquisition environment, we realize the importance of performing as "Proposal Knowledge Shop" that shares insight into our industry's important Government relationships as well as providing expert proposal support services.
This article is the first in a series offering solutions to the "unsolvable" problems of proposal development.
The nature of the problem. Everyone has an opinion. And the more that is at stake, the more they stick to their opinion.
Depending on the type of work and how the RFP defines the requirements, you may need to conceptualize your approach as well as your content. This is typically true of proposals to provide solutions or to perform research.
Companies engaged in selling business to the Government frequently ask the question, how much do proposals cost? What are the standards for what proposal preparation should cost?
During recent years, the need to prepare quick turnaround task order proposals has become a challenge for companies providing service to the Federal Government. The days when nearly all proposals had a minimum 30-day bid period have gone for good.
I’ve never seen a perfect RFP. No one else has, either. The Government uses its bidders to do a lot of the de-bugging of its solicitations, functioning as an unpaid quality assurance staff.
There are many ways to improve you proposal process, and improve your proposals. Most of these ways involve spending money, from "not much“ to "a lot“. Here are five ways to improve your proposals at low cost: