No one person or corporation is an island. If you are like most successful contractors, you team with other organizations to write winning proposals. Successful teaming arrangements can result in spectacular wins for an organization that would otherwise not stand a chance with a federal customer. Even those companies with established relationships with the customer may not be able to deliver because of staffing, experience or organizational limitations. So teaming is a key to success in federal contracting.

Teaming arrangements present particular challenges for prime contractors when it comes to writing a proposal. In addition to the regular stumbling blocks, the prime's proposal team must integrate outsiders and make their strengths shine. The following discussion is aimed at presenting some insight on how to handle some of the key challenges to writing proposals with contributing teaming partners.

Communication - When multiple team members are involved, communication is critical to the success of the effort. Make your partners feel they are part of the information flow and they will provide your team with invaluable insight into the customer, the solution and winning strategies. Four simple steps can enhance the information flow. They are as follows:

• Build an e-mail distribution list that includes everyone involved in the effort (both internal and external). Use this distribution list every time you communicate non-restricted information (e.g., cost buildup % and the like).
  
  
• Invite your partners to planning, kickoff, and review meetings. It's often difficult to remember that they too want to contribute. Don't be afraid to show your warts during these meetings; we all have them!
  
  
• Make all deadlines explicit, including the date and time for submittal of content to the proposal manager. For example: "Please e-mail draft section to the proposal manager by Thursday, 8/28/2008 at 5:00PM EST."
  
  
• Make sure the proposal manager has at least two people to contact in the partner organization who can "make it happen." The proposal manager needs to be speaking with decision makers and management who can execute on requests.

Administration - This is a corollary to the discussion above regarding the need for communication. Have a ready listing of all the teaming partners, their full legal names, points of contact and alternate points of contact. Put this somewhere where the proposal and business development managers can access it. This is your proposal Rolodex that you need to have at your finger tips at all times. There's no time for fumbling around for phone numbers or e-mail addresses when it comes to crunch time.

Legal - Make sure that you take care of cementing your legal relationship before the writing starts. Imagine the headaches associated with starting to build the proposal without the input of an intended partner because the delegation of work has not been carved up in a teaming agreement. This is one area that can be addressed well before the RFP hits the street.

Request for Information - In most instances, the proposal includes a great deal of information concerning your partners. The trick to assembling the needed information and data is to request it all at once. Doing so requires a little preparation but it will pay significant dividends because you will not be sending out multiple requests that will confuse your partners.

The preferred way to go about this is to have a template Request for Information (RFI) document in place that you can quickly adapt to cover all the items that you'll need from your partners. The RFI document should include instructions on whom to call with questions concerning the document and requests for the following information:

• The partner's full legal name
• An electronic copy of the firm's logo
• A 500-word corporate description
• The names and resumes for those individuals who will be performing key aspects of the resultant contract
• Technical and business SMEs for those that the partner foresees participating in the proposal-writing effort
• Primary and alternate points of contact through whom communications covering the proposal-writing process should be channeled
• A description of how the partner can contribute to the performance

The RFI should also contain the following:

• A template for organizational and individual commitment letters (if necessary)
• A template for resumes to be provided
• A template for past performance write-ups (see recent installment "Cornerstones to Proposal Success: Past Performance Library")
• A subcontractor pricing model that will be used to derive overall proposed cost (which should include all the positions the teaming partner will be expected to fill, if awarded)
• Any other proposal-specific information requested in the solicitation