Proposal and Technical WritingProfessional

N Constance Whitney

Tel: 804 819 0888 – Email: constancewhitney2003@gmail.com

IT’S WHAT PROPOSAL PROFESSIONALS LOVE! In some circles, just the mention of a pending proposal triggers heart palpitations, sweaty palms and a greater than average number of emergency leave applications. To a proposal professionals like us, though, it’s more likely to create smiles, excitement and a glee unmatched since the landing of The Beatles, or the first drive-in Starbucks!

A well-organized, professionally designed and expertly written proposal is a beautiful creation. A beautiful creation that meets every criteria set out in the solicitation documentation, presents the company’s capabilities in a clear and concise method and exceeds the contracting officers’ expectations WINS CONTRACTS! The key to creating a winning proposal is an organized approach to the process and identification of win strategies, as well as a thorough extraction of all solicitation requirements and capturing of those requirements so that every team members knows exactly what is expected of him/her, knows exactly when the deadlines are, and knows where to turn for clarifications and assistance. Contracts are won and lost in the first days of proposal preparation.

When looking at a new solicitation and determining if the effort is in the best interest of the company, my first questions are always: What can we bring to the client that our competitors cannot? What is our Win Theme? What will it take to win?

Knowing what we do well, and what limitations our competitors have is vital to developing WINNING PROPOSALS!

Being able to clearly define the Win Theme eliminates wasted time of developing no-win proposals and establishes the direction of the proposal development. Are we targeting the company’s core competencies? Do we honestly have what the client needs? Are we leveraging our Past Performance and industry contacts to provide solid references? Are we including our key subcontractors to boost our capabilities? Why us? What makes us different than every other bidder? Are we capitalizing on those points?

POSITIONING TO WIN

Truly successful proposal development starts long before the official RFP hits the streets. If all we ever do is fling proposals at RFPs, we are limiting ourselves to low margin bids with low win rates.

Opportunity Discovered

Customer Needs and Competitor Capabilities Researched

Winning Strategies Identified

Company Positioned to Bid and Win

Proposals start with an understanding of what it will take to win: Intel and information about the customer’s goals and preferences Understand how they go about making decisions and what impacts them Realization of what matters to the customer

WINNING PROPOSALS START WITH WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO WIN!

The key to high win rates is found long before the solicitation is out. Building solid relationships with the clients, understanding what the client is really looking for and how the selection board will reach their decision is critical to success.

PLANNING AND PREPARING

Planning the proposal submission starts after we’ve positioned ourselves to win. We dissect the solicitation/RFP to capture exactly the client wants to see. By going through the RFP, word by word, we extract all of the “must have” information for our proposal. Capturing this information in a manageable format and assigning each section to the appropriate team member is imperative for managing the process. By developing the matrix, areas where more information is needed, where capabilities are lacking or where additional resources will be required are quickly identified.

Preparing the proposal starts with creating the story board to plot out how we are going to answer the key point: Here’s why we are the only logical, practical and cost efficient choice for the client. As old school as it sounds, one of the best ways of doing this is still writing on the whiteboard! Typically, we schedule an all-hands meeting (in person, on video conferencing, etc), get all the stakeholders together and hammer out the “why us” points specific to the opportunity. If the stakeholders can’t deliver solid discriminators between our solution and the competitors, a NO GO decision is best.

DESIGN, LAYOUT AND COLOR

The same is true for the proposal’s grammar. Rules of grammar constantly change as our language evolves; where commas were mandatory in the 20th century, they are not necessary in the 21st. Ask 10 people what the proper use of a semi colon is and you’ll get nine blank stares.

While grammar is important, flexibility is imperative. Contracting Officers need the facts quickly, not a bunch of hyperbole. In the immortal words of Sergeant Friday: “the facts, Ma’am, just the facts.” The text of a proposal should be plain, clear and to the point.

The incorporation of color is important to create the essence of the proposal and to leverage corporate branding identification. Colors such as blues and browns, for instance, are seen as strong, conservative and victorious. Reds are avoided as they suggest fiscal instability or danger.

No one will ever successfully argue that the design of a page, or the placement of a graphic, are the reason a contract was awarded. That being said, a professionally designed, well thought-out presentation can make all the difference. Think of how visual information helps us make decisions in our every day life (e.g., dirty vs clean restaurants, parking in a dark alley vs a well lit and guarded lot). The same holds true for the contracting officers. How do we stand out from the crowd so that the KO takes the time to read our solutions? Interesting page layouts help! A layout that is unique, captures the attention and graphically highlights the company’s capabilities gets the KOs attention and compels him/her to read further.

When designing a proposal, IT ALL matters!

RESUMES

Nearly every proposal requires submission of resumes or CVs, yet often the resumes are included in the page limitation. The question becomes how to comply with the requirement without wasting prime real estate in the proposal. The key is to highlight only the information that is relevant to the proposal and satisfies the requirements for the proposed position.

Maintaining a current library of resumes is also important. A consistent design for all corporate resumes creates an identifiable cohesion. It is important to remember that a corporate resume, one used for proposal submissions and other marketing material, is not an employment resume. In smaller businesses, where employees are likely to wear many hats, having a separate resume for each capability (e.g., project manager, QA/QC manager, SSHO, construction manager) ensures the ready availability of the document that will require only minimal editing.

We tailor each resume to mimic the exact wording from the solicitation, highlight experiences targeted to the task and always include a resume matrix to allow a quick visual confirmation that all required skills are covered. Using landscape layouts, which usually count as two pages, We are able to present the qualifications of a number of professionals quickly, concisely, and in a format which meets the solicitation criteria. It’s an easy, effective solution -- and it works!

SCHEDULES

While the responsibility to prepare the schedule is usually not the responsibility of the proposal team, the final formatting and presentation always falls on the proposal team’s shoulders. In an ideal situation, there is ample time and adequate proposal space for the contract team to formulate the schedule that can be simply dropped into the document. More often, however, clients impose impossible page restraints, forcing the proposal designer to creatively make the most of the available space. With careful planning and professional layouts, it is possible to show three pages of schedule on a single tabloid page and still have room for a callout box to highlight key success factors. We work closely with the scheduler so he/she understand the page limitations and then adjust our proposal plan to accommodate as needed.

COVERS, TABS AND LABELS

When creating the proposal for hard copy submission, site photos are our top choice for covers. If there was not a site visit, or there are no photos, using the RFP design drawings is an option. In a case where preliminary drawings are on hand but space limitation eliminate the opportunity to include them in the proposal, they can be used on the covers, or the tab pages, which do not ever count towards page limits. Though it likely true that ‘no proposal was ever won because of its cover’, we always go forward making sure that every proposal has a considerately thought-out cover, including spine and back covers. This design suite also includes CD labels and covers, full sheet adhesive box covers, as well as labels, tabs and cover sheets.

Relevant drawings and site visit photos can be attractively displayed while using colors carefully chosen to depict the company’s themes and branding essence. Consistent use of this methodology results in our proposal being recognized when next to our competitor’s, especially when we find ourselves submitting to the same contracting office.

SAMPLE PROPOSAL

The following sample proposal section is included for reference

only.

Volume 2: Technical Proposal

Tab 1: Technical Approach and Capability

Use or disclosure of data contained on this sheet is subject to the restriction on the title page of this proposal.

SOLICITATION NO. HSFE50-13-R-0010

GENERAL CONSTRUCTION AND DESIGN-

BUILD SERVICES IDIQ/MAC FOR

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY AND THE

FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY