Here’s a question I get asked often:
“How do I figure out what to say in my sections when there is so much I could say? Where do I begin?”
The technical folks usually ask it. They are faced with an RFP requirement that is pretty vague, like “Describe your approach to Mission Control Software” or, even …
Doing business with the federal government? If you’re willing to dig, you can find a wealth of “insider” information through the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) process.
Simply put, FOIA lets individuals or companies obtain records from Federal agencies. You can use these documents to both assess upcoming opportunities and evaluate potential competitors.
Here are some samples …
A couple of years ago, a client of mine asked for a checklist for a good proposal section. Because a lot of people have asked me for one since, I figured I might as well publish it. So, here it is.
Note: This is a pretty generic list. It cannot address whether the content of the …
Many firms claim they keep proposal costs down by preparing proposals during off hours — after work and during weekends. After all, you need to have your staff be as billable as possible, don’t you?
On the other hand, are you really saving money by doing this? How productive is your staff going to be on …
The single most important element of a winning proposal is a clear set of direct benefits the customer will receive by selecting you. Nothing is more important than that. Your proposal will win or lose on that alone.
You must remember this crucial fact: From the customer’s perspective, most firms in a given competitive procurement are …
I realize you have heard this before. I know my clients have (I say it all the time, like a broken record), but I’ll say it again:
Your client buys what you’re selling because she perceives it as having some benefit to her!
That may be obvious. But here’s something that isn’t so obvious:
You need to point …
Here’s something we can all agree on: There’s almost always a time-crunch when it comes to writing proposals. Maybe the client doesn’t give us much lead time (two weeks; a week; three days). Or maybe the RFP sits on someone’s desk for too long before a decision is made to go for it. Whatever the …
In a recent article we talked about how changes in the federal procurement process under the new Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (FASA) can affect your proposal efforts, even if you don’t write proposals to the feds. We pointed out that agencies will place more emphasis on performance-based Statements of Work, and basing awards on whether the …
Getting the technical people to write what I call “proposalese”-the language of proposals-is the Holy Grail that all marketing people seek. Unfortunately, there is no magic bullet here. However, I’ve found that there are some ways to help them along.
But first, we need to think about the technical person-the “subject matter expert”-and what drives her. …
Consider these facts: A few hundred years back, in a town in Europe two families didn’t get along well. Then a boy from one family fell in love with a girl from the other family. There were a few fights between members of the family, and eventually one of the boy’s friends was killed. The …