Proposal Writing, Proposal Templates, Proposal Training, Proposal Tools

• Do You Know the Evaluation Committee?
  The committees which evaluate federal proposals are comprised of a cast of characters. The committees will most likely include the following: The manager of the end users group Staff members from the end user group Stakeholders of various types;... read more
• Proposal Writing: Sweet Spot Bidding
  Our previous newsletters have stressed that companies should not respond to public bids unless they have a relationship with the customer. While this is generally true, the following are exceptions. Proposals in response to multiple awards,... read more
• Proposal Writing: Simplicity Wins
  So the Request for Proposal (RFP) says "don't parrot back our requirements in your proposal". The requirement you are responding to is routine and you are struggling to come up with content that would be considered meaningful. You are now in the... read more
• View Your Competition as an Enemy to be Defeated
  In proposal bid/no bid meetings we often hear: "who is the competition and what are they going to do". Don't be obsessed with competition. You can't really know what they're going to do and if your customer relationship is strong you may have... read more
• Make Your Proposal Win Themes Real
  Win themes are the core of any government proposal. Make your executive summary about the win themes, write it early, and then write your proposal around the executive summary. Bring out one or more of the win themes in each chapter of the proposal... read more
• Proposal Writing: Sell First, Write Second
  Learning to prepare outstanding, first-rate proposals is a task that is difficult at best and often impossible. Many contractors fail to ever master the assignment. Corporate management must be fully committed to the task and must also devote... read more
• Write Defensive Proposals
  Most authorities on writing federal proposals define a defensive proposal as follows: One written with the goal of being the last proposal standing An offering that presents a practical solution from the customer's perspective One that gives... read more
• Proposal Writing: Why Reinvent the Wheel?
  At least 50% of the content for a proposal can be derived for content written for previous proposals. As examples: Cutting the grass and cleaning the General's swimming pool are virtually the same from one base maintenance proposal to the next. A... read more
• Proposal Writing: The Facts, Just the Facts
  Do evaluators of federal proposals love reading proposals? Generally not, would you? Assignment to a proposal evaluation team requires work in addition to evaluators' day-to-day responsibilities. They find reading and scoring many large proposals... read more
• Fill Up Your Response Documents to the RFP Page Limit?
  A customer of Fedmarket called recently and said: "You helped us write a compliant section of proposal content but the result is only 13 pages, less than the 20 page limit specified in the RFP for the section. We need to create 7 more pages,... read more
• Proposal Templates Work
  A typical multiple vendor contract (vehicle) usually has very little original content and lends itself to a template approach to proposal writing. Typically, a proposal for vehicle requires the following elements: ... read more
• Incentivize Your Proposal Manger and Key Solution Writers
  Proposal writing usually creates a lot of uncompensated night and weekend work. Invariably a few selected people can write creative solutions and the creative people are asked over and over to write their magical solution content. If it isn't... read more
• Losing Proposals Have an Insidious Impact Beyond Dollars
  The consequences losing a bid are insidious and exceed lost proposal-writing dollars. A loss can effect staff morale and have an impact on the quality of future proposals. Wins energize your organization. Everyone who worked on the proposal... read more
• Refined Legacy Content Versus Boilerplate
  Refined legacy content just seems like a better and more sophisticated term than boiler plate. Our definition of boilerplate is proposal content that you pulled off the server and slapped in the proposal. Our definition of refined legacy content is... read more
• Obama and Federal Proposals
  The Obama Administration is with us for 4 or 8 years. The impact of the new administration on proposal writing is probably going to be more proposals and more felled trees. Why More: More emphasis is being placed on openness and competition in... read more
• View Your First Proposal like the First House in a Development
  Houses in a new development usually have the following in common. A basic underlying architectural commonality or structure Some identical or near identical elements Standard features tailored to the customer Unique features developed to the... read more
• Use SharePoint for Your Proposal Legacy Information with Caution
  Most companies experienced in federal proposal writing have their resumes, corporate project experience, and legacy proposal content in a corporate database like SharePoint. This is a good thing and, used correctly, is essential to efficient, low... read more
• Proposal Writing: The Ugly Step Child of Your Business
  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: Almost every win was a project that I pre-sold or was the incumbent contract responding to a... read more
• Buy Your Staff Into the Proposal Writing Process
  As you probably realize our proposal writing mantra at Fedmarket.com is: "Write less, win more." Write proposals for the rebids of incumbent contracts and the opportunities you have presold. Writing fewer proposals will allow you to more readily... read more
• Proposal Writing, Find Out Why You Lost
  In a previous newsletter we discussed a Just Do It campaign for writing winning proposals. No one wins them all and successful companies find out the real reasons why the lost. Note I said real reasons. A debriefing with the customer is an... read more
• Proposal Writing, Just Do It
  The Nike "Just Do It" slogan applies to writing federal proposals. The best way to learn federal proposal writing is to do it. But, you have to be smart about it, or you will drown is a sea of losing paper. Find the creative writers in your... read more
• Proposal Writing, An Art and a Science
  Proposal writing is both an art and a science. The science is establishing a highly structured business process to assure a well organized proposal document that is completely compliant with all of the requirements stated the Request for Proposal... read more
• What Makes a Winning Proposal?
  A winning federal proposal has many facets. They include clarity, conciseness, customer concentric, connectors to evaluation criteria, and others. Two of the most critical elements are: A proposal from a company that the customer wants because the... read more
• Proposal Writing Mistakes
  The process of producing a quality proposal is inherently prone to problems. As discussed in the previous newsletter, it is difficult to manage the process and is costly. When a company does not win a bid opportunity, the morale of its staff often... read more
• Why is Proposal Writing So Difficult?
  Most people do not like to write and this is particularly true for writing complex federal proposals. Those who do tend to postpone their writing tasks because writing is hard work. Federal proposal writing is also a very costly process. To do so... read more
• Process versus Content in Federal Proposal Writing
  Proposal writing involves both process and content. Effective writing processes are important but proposal content rules over process. Your company can develop a proposal smoothly and on time, with minimal hassle and without last-minute crises, and... read more
• Why Federal Proposals Exist
  Why do proposals even exist? Contrary to popular belief, proposals are not written so federal evaluators can select the best, high-value solution to their problem. Instead, proposals are prepared by contractors and submitted because federal... read more
• Crafting the Questions You Ask of the Subject Matter Writers
  In a previous newsletter, we discussed the development of questions for the subject matter writers as part of the overall proposal outlining process. The objective of this technique is to make the subject matter people think they are not writing... read more
• Data Calls Can Make or Break You
  When you are leading a proposal effort where additional companies have joined you in a team, it is crucial to receive the team members' contributions to the proposal in a manner that will help instead of hinder your race to complete the proposal.... read more
• New and Clueless About Proposal Writing
  Scenario 1Your business is an experienced federal contractor with one or more full time proposal managers. And your firm engages an outside proposal-writing firm to fill in when the number of proposals being written exceeds the firm's resources.... read more
• Phrases to Delete
  A large majority of federal business requires proposals, and federal proposal evaluators are sophisticated professionals who have read every self-serving statement known to man. The themes we hear from federal proposal evaluators are: "keep it... read more
• Use a Question Format to Assist Solution Writers
  Most solution writers (subject matter specialists, engineers, technical specialists) have two things in common. They are expected to stay billable and don't have the time to write. They don't like to write, period. It is too time consuming and... read more
• The Three Rs of Proposal Writing
  Government end users hate risks and love risk avoidance. So think risks, risks, and risks when preparing the outline of your approach to the customer solution. End users have the following types of questions in mind when evaluating proposals:... read more
• Templates Rule in Efficient Proposal Writing
  Almost everything in a federal proposal can be viewed as a template except the proposed solution itself: resumes, corporate experience descriptions, and management plan sections. In some cases the proposed solution can be partially written using a... read more
• Proposal Managers Can Have a No Win Job
  Many proposal managers have a no win job and others are more fortunate. The fortunate ones are blessed with company management that is experienced in the federal sales game. They know when to bid and no bid, understand the proposal writing process... read more
• Write in the Customer's Voice
  Proposals written in the customer's voice win. Federal customers know their requirements, and some know the solution to their problems. Others do not know they have a problem, and you must help them define the problem and the solution. But in all... read more
• The Facts, Just the Facts
  Do evaluators of federal proposals love reading proposals? Generally not; would you? Assignment to a proposal evaluation team requires work in addition to evaluators' day-to-day responsibilities. They find reading and scoring many large proposals... read more
• You mean I have to read the RFP?
  I am always befuddled when I go to a kickoff meeting and it becomes apparent really quickly that half the people in the room have read only the first three pages of the solicitation document. Aargh! This is a recipe for wasted time that detracts... read more
• Do Templates Work for Task Order Proposals?
  Use of templates for proposals in response to Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Task Orders works well and can reduce proposal writing costs significantly. Separate templates are usually needed for different IDIQ contracts because the... read more
• Technical Writers Crave Structure
  Technical (Solutions) writers crave structured outlines for the following reasons: 1. Most don't like to write, and structure increases their confidence. 2. They are usually fully billable, and structure allows them to satisfy the writing... read more
• One or Two Pages May Do It
  Proposal writing is both an art and a science. The art part is the solution that the customer believes will solve their problem with minimal risk. Often several pages of creative solution content will swing a win. It doesn't matter if the solution... read more
• Make Your Proposal File Structure Useful
  When writing proposals you generate vast numbers of files, documents, artifacts, and other items that you want store for reuse. Easy retrieval becomes paramount in achieving this objective. So, how can you best organize your file structure so that... read more
• Don't Put Them to Sleep
  Federal proposals, in response to Requests for Proposals, tend to be dry, dry, dry- including the last proposal standing (the winner). Even authors of books on how to write creatively frequently write dry prose. This happens for a number of reasons... read more
• Model Your Federal Proposals and Refine, Refine, and Refine (II)
  For many companies proposal writing is reinventing the wheel over and over, at great costs within tight deadlines. Creative and concise documents emanate from original thoughts and repeated rewrites; each rewrite sparking more creativity and... read more
• A Renewed Emphasis on Proposals
  There is a widespread perception that the preparation of an extensive and exhaustive proposal is a necessary evil inherent to doing work with the federal government. The foregoing has been true when one is talking about responding to published... read more
• Don't Get Stuck as a Subcontractor
  Small businesses need to get their first federal contract to become part of the club of insiders - those companies with contracts - that the federal government favors when it buys products and services. Vendors who don't have approved federal price... read more
• What is in a Capture Plan?
  Before you start writing a proposal, be sure to insist on having your business development team prepare a capture plan. This will support a Bid/No-Bid decision, a bid validation check once the RFP is released, and will help you start producing a... read more
• Addressing Questions to the Government
  Part of the responsibility of the proposal manager is to elicit questions from team members to be addressed to the government. Associated with many RFPs, is the possibility of submitting questions to clarify aspects about the work to be done, the... read more
• How to Write Losing or Unsuccessful Proposals
  How to write losing proposals is not a particularly positive topic to discuss. However, many federal contractors seem quite adept at preparing such proposals so the discussion is most likely a worthwhile one. A small book could be written on... read more
• It's the Outline, Stupid
  Effective written material is always the result of a process which began with an outline. Proposal evaluators want concise, easy-to-read information free of fluff and sales pitches. In order to be brief and concise, one must start with a detailed... read more