by B. David Krigelman
President
Krigelman & Associates, Inc.
321.242.7598
www.krigelmanandassociates.com
The process for preparing a proposal for a Government contract is comprised of three discrete phases. These are:
- Pre-proposal phase
- Proposal preparation phase
- Post-proposal phase as shown in the figure below.
Many people think that the major part of the activity occurs during the proposal preparation phase. This may or may not be true in order to bid a winning proposal in response to a Government solicitation.
It has been demonstrated on many occasions that the best proposals and the highest win rate is achieved when a large part of the effort is devoted up front during the pre-proposal phase. In other words, proper planning, scheduling and cost estimating is paramount towards successfully winning Government contracts.
In fact, many contracts can be won even before the final solicitation is released. Often, a draft version of the solicitation is released for Industry review and comment. A good thing to do is help the Procuring Agency by providing inputs at the Industry Day or Pre-Solicitation Conference and at face-to-face meetings with the Buyer. When you ask questions, they should provide the answers that you need to understand the solicitation requirements and therefore, you’ll be in a better position to prepare a winning response. Another good thing is to know your competition including their strengths and weaknesses in order to maximize your competitive advantage.
A good win strategy is to prepare a draft proposal in response to the draft solicitation. Then, when the final solicitation is released it’s merely a matter of incorporating any changes that may have occurred since release of the draft, which greatly simplifies the proposal development activity (and also reduces cost of proposal preparation).
The key to the proposal development phase is to prepare a proposal management plan. This plan should include the resources that will be applied to tasks and the schedule for task performance. Resources include personnel, equipment, and facilities along with other direct proposal costs such as travel and living, consultants, and subject matter experts.
I strongly recommend the preparation of storyboards to assist in establishing the format and content of the entire proposal. The storyboards should include the theme or thesis for each topic, including:
- Features and benefits
- Advantages over the competition
- Demonstrated past performance, which is defended by the author in the write-up.
The storyboards also include the rough graphics that will be used along with the text in outline form that will augment the graphics. I am a firm believer in graphics-oriented proposals. Prepare the graphics first, and then write the text around the graphics. I am also a firm believer that in-process and final peer reviews should be performed to influence the proposal content and to ensure schedule and page-count adherence.
However, the task doesn’t end when the proposal is submitted. You must support all requests for pre-award surveys and audits by the Procuring Agency. These may include reviews of your cost accounting system, purchasing system, material control system, and QA system, among others. Often times, there are questions asked by the Buyer for which answers must be provided. Contracts have been won and lost based on the responses to questions submitted regarding clarifications, weaknesses, and deficiencies and their impact on the Best and Final Offer (BAFO).
