Don't write losing proposals. Some would say this is a trite and simplistic statement and others would say this is one of the secrets to success in the federal market. A corollary statement about sales in general would be "only pursue someone who is ready to buy what you are selling." How many sales people chase dead-end leads while others seem to have a sixth sense about which leads are ready to buy.

The two statements above correlate to a simple concept concerning how to decide whether to pursue a bid opportunity or not.  If the federal customer doesn't know your firm and hasn't expressed a willingness to buy your solution, your company should not submit a proposal. Stated differently, don't write blind bids for an opportunity that you only uncovered upon the publication of the Request for Proposal (RFP) or Request for Quote (RFQ).

There are exceptions to this rule of thumb, of course. In general, if your firm follows this principle, your proposal win rate will skyrocket, your staff morale will increase and your proposal writing costs will go down.

Regards,
Richard White
President
Fedmarket
rjwhite@fedmarket.com
301-908-0546 (cell)