The success of the General Services Administration (GSA) schedule program and the increased reliance by federal agencies on other Indefinite Quantity Indefinite Duration (IDIQ) contracts have reduced the number of public Requests for Proposals (RFPs) published by federal agencies. Nonetheless, RFPs continue to be the procurement method of choice for a large percentage of federal buyers.

Is this a familiar scenario? In searching FedBizOpps, you discover a published proposal that appears to be tailor-made for your company. Your business development person says to you and your colleagues, "Let's bid on this job and write a proposal. We can hit this one out of the park." You and your most valuable employees work nights and weekends to prepare your proposal. Months later, you learn that a competitor was the successful bidder. Members of your staff ponder why they gave up their personal time to write the 150-page tome required by the RFP. Company morale is low. You lose sleep wondering how the successful contractor managed to win the award.

The foregoing is an experience shared by all federal contractors. While you and your staff work feverishly to crank out proposals, the successful, seasoned federal contractors are writing fewer proposals and winning more business. How does your business ascend to the rank of the elite? It is a well-established fact that aggressive contractors pre-sell the business opportunity in advance of the issuance of a public procurement. As part of the pre-selling process, the successful contractors use their GSA schedules to close the deal and the opportunity never becomes a published procurement. In other cases, pre-sold projects often become public bids if the projects (i) are highly visible, (ii) were public bids at the project's inception, or (iii) don't lend themselves to a GSA schedule or IDIQ format.

In instances in which your company has decided to prepare a response to a RFP, recognize that you will be competing against companies holding a distinct advantage. Those companies that have pre-sold to the project decision makers prepare proposals using the knowledge gained during the pre-sale process. These businesses have identified, in advance, the project's requirements, the needs of the customer, the possible pratfalls, the solutions to the problem areas and the end user's hot buttons. They then use this knowledge to create a first-rate proposal. Perhaps more importantly, these contractors know the end user and have established a relationship with them. In short, the agency decision makers know what they will receive from these contractors.

Our seminar attendees constantly lament their lack of success in the public procurement arena. In response, we tell them to utilize the following techniques to increase their likelihood of success:

• Improve your success rate by pre-selling the business opportunity. A federal customer is more likely to buy from you if they know and trust your company.
  
• Base your bid/no bid decisions on information gained for the customer. If you decide to prepare a proposal, the document will be more responsive to the federal buyer's needs because you will have identified the customer's problems and can therefore propose possible solutions. Your proposal will, in essence, "speak" to the reader. If you haven't done your homework, consider moving on the next bid because your likelihood of success is slim.