During the past 30 years, our company has helped customers prepare over 3,000 proposals. This includes service to the Top 100 down to small business. We know proposal consultant fees are serious costs for all contractors. Below is guidance to lower cost:
- Establish a relationship with a source that provides quality proposal talent at an affordable price. Some firms provide better talent at a lower price than the larger providers.
- Be careful, because some of the lowest price firms are high-risk.
- Get to know the consultant company as soon as possible – this gives time to assess culture match.
- Get the consultant firm to do an assignment to test their quality.
- If you have a limited budget, get consultants to do the most critical assignments.
- Select a company with a strong end-to-end process. No mistakes because of solid consultant vetting and reliable match of consultants to your assignments.
- Engage a proposal consultant firm with a deep talent bench. This provides the selectivity to get consultants with enough subject matter experience.
Excellent points. To further save money when using consultants, the following strategies will save businesses money and reduce non-compliance risk:
– Stick the the schedule even when painful (otherwise you pay the consultant to pick up the slack and also risk non-compliance or embarrassingly bad quality).
– Engage the consultant early so that the proposal project can be completed in an orderly way. Otherwise, you spend extra money on the consultant’s time having to sort everything out when they start.