I wrote my first proposal in 1967 for Booz, Allen, and Hamilton; that's 40 plus years of proposal writing. I have kept track, and I note the following:

1. Almost every win was a project that I pre-sold or was the incumbent contract responding to a rebid of an ongoing project.
2. I hated writing proposals.
3. Everyone in the organization assigned to writing with me hated writing proposals.
4. Everyone I know in the industry hates writing proposals.
5. Everyone I have met from the federal government assigned to evaluating proposals says that they hate reading proposals, particularly from companies they have never heard of.
6. In 1984, I won one blind bid in response to a public RFP, and that deluded me into writing about 20 losers in a row in response to blind bids; I am a slow learner.

From my experience, the experience of colleagues, and the feedback from Fedmarket proposal writing seminar attendees, I conclude that writing proposals is the ugly stepchild of the business and a necessary evil. It's a necessary evil because the federal government has to keep up the appearance of intense competition even though they hate proposals as much as the industry does.

The obvious premises that evolve from my experience are:

1. Know the customer before you decide to write.
2. Write only winners, and save yourself untold dollars and loser depression while, at the same, time sparing the feds from reading proposals from companies they have never heard of and don't want.
3. Write less; win more.

These basic premises are over simplifications, but keep them in mind as you make the bid/no bid decision and save a lot of money and grief.

Jay Herler said it all in an article about business development. A contracting officer told a loser in a debriefing, "I will tell you why you lost if you tell me why you bid."