Resumes and the descriptions of a company's corporate experience are the core elements of a proposal that demonstrate a company's capabilities. If a business has actually taken the time to draft them, the documents are often outdated. The company's Proposal Manager often has to scramble at the last minute to get what he or she needs for a proposal going out the door tomorrow only to find that the resumes and corporate experience descriptions are not tailored to the customer's requirements. As a result, proposal quality suffers and nerves are frayed.

Companies that prepare more than 4 or 5 proposals a year should have a full-time Proposal Manager. The Proposal Manager can use the time between proposals to refine the proposal process and keep the resume and corporate experience database current. An up-to-date database will:

• Eliminate the panic that occurs at crunch time when you don't have resumes.
• Allow time to tailor resumes and corporate experience to the customer's requirements.
• Improve the quality of the overall proposal because it will be responsive to the RFP.

Technical staff members must understand the critical parts that resumes and corporate experience descriptions play. Keeping both current should be made a component of the technical staff's job descriptions and annual reviews should include a critique of each staff member's performance in meeting these responsibilities.