In a recent installment "Solving the Proposal Dilemma," we recommended that you use an incentive system to compensate your best technical writers when your company is the successful bidder on a federal opportunity. We can already feel your management cringing. Think about this - why do most of us come to work? Yeah, we know it's the creative challenge but money helps.

First, management should use staff meetings to stress and reinforce the importance of proposal writing to the revenue growth of the company and, indirectly, to the salary structure of the company. Technical staff should be informed that the willingness to improve one's writing skills is a major factor used to determine which employees move into higher salary grades.

Consider establishing a performance pool to be shared at the end of the year by individuals contributing to proposals. Although it could be, the pool does not have to be based on set percentages of award dollars. Management can subjectively determine the amount that is added to the pool after each win and then keep the contributing staff informed of how much was added and the current size of the pool.

A point-scoring system should be used to determine and track (i) the contribution of each writer to a winning proposal, (ii) the points accumulated throughout the year, and (iii) the eventual distribution of pool dollars. The point-scoring system and an individual's point scores do not necessarily have to be made known to the writing staff.

The performance pool should be established for technical staff only. It should not include the sales staff, proposal managers, vice presidents, and/or any other individuals whose job responsibilities include proposal writing. Compensate such individuals through other plans.

Don't skimp on the dollars if you elect to establish a performance pool. Use the dollars to compensate technical staff for work done after hours and on weekends. It may not solve all of the problems associated with technical staff working on proposals but it will go a long way towards helping.