Welcome to our series called "Proposal Writing." This newsletter is the latest installment in a series of rotating weekly e-mail newsletters about GSA Schedules, proposal writing, and federal sales.

Installment 73 - Peripheral RFP Requirements

Requests for Proposals are invariably laden with non-critical requirements that are included for "appearance" reasons and nothing else. Examples include the submission of Safety Plans, Phase-in/Phase-out Plans, Recruiting and Human Resource Plans, and Quality Assurance Plans. Such documentation may be necessary to varying degrees for actual contract performance but to require them is probably unnecessary and it will probably only get worse before it gets better. Most evaluators don't read the superfluous information and most companies use off-the-shelf content to meet the requirements. If you were a government proposal evaluator, would you do any more than scan them quickly to make sure that the company submitting the proposal presented something?

Our recommendation is to pare down the fluff and simplify them as much as possible. You obviously have to submit them, if required, or risk being penalized by stringent evaluators. Focus on what an evaluator will most likely want to see -- a proposed solution that minimizes the procurement officer's risk. .

Regards,
Richard White
President
Fedmarket.com
rwhite@thefederalmarketplace.com
301 908 0546 (cell)

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