Understanding the nuances of federal proposals is analogous to understanding a new language and culture. The world of writing federal proposals can only be fathomed by living in that world for a number of years. Even experienced federal contractors underestimate the amount of time and skill required to produce a compliant and competitive federal proposal. Inexperienced federal contractors or companies outside the market don't even have a clue.

What are some of the factors that make the realm of writing federal proposals so strange? To start, federal Requests for Proposals (RFPs) are poorly drafted, fraught with errors and omissions, confusing and maddening. The key to success is understanding the two most critical components or concepts:  content and price. 

Once you have landed in this strange new world, how do you learn to write proposals? By writing proposals - sometimes failing - writing some more and by processing and learning from federal customer's feedback. It is also critical to have the support of your corporate management which must put an emphasis on getting the job done rather than putting such tasks on the back burner.