High-Quality Proposals: Strategies for Guaranteed Success

Bid and proposal professionals often face the daunting challenge of delivering high-quality proposals on schedule. Incomplete capture documents, resource shortages, and tight schedules can easily undermine the best efforts. So, how can you ensure your proposal maintains the highest level of quality under these challenging conditions? Here are strategies to help you overcome these common obstacles and always deliver winning proposals.

Set Yourself Up to Produce a High-Quality Proposal

Producing a high-quality proposal starts well before the request for proposal (RFP) is released and continues through the activities leading up to the proposal kickoff meeting. Several key factors can make or break your proposal’s success:

• Incomplete or Incorrect Capture Materials: To avoid this pitfall, have the capture manager verify the accuracy of the pre-RFP capture materials. Detailed and actionable capture documents can prevent miscommunications.
• Limited Resources: If your proposal team is stretched thin, consider training additional corporate staff members to assist or bringing in external resources, like Lohfeld Consulting, to manage overflow or highly specialized sections.
• Untimely Executive Commitment: From the outset, set clear expectations with executives. Their timely feedback is key to keeping the proposal on track.
• Last-Minute Pricing: Develop pricing models in parallel with the proposal and set deadlines for pricing finalization to avoid last-minute rushes.
• Lack of Key Personnel: Identify and secure key personnel as early as possible in the capture process. Keep an updated repository of resumes for frequently used personnel and ensure that their availability aligns with the project schedule.
• Time Constraints: Create a detailed work breakdown structure (WBS) of activities. Identify dependencies and risks that could impact the schedule. Identify the critical path and build a cushion to account for unforeseen risks.
• Writer’s Block: Help writers by providing an outline with RFP instructions, evaluation criteria, and requirements. Supplement this with a list of strengths, risks, risk mitigations, boilerplate text, proof points, and draft graphics to get them started.

Conduct Interim Proposal Quality Inspections

Interim proposal reviews offer an excellent opportunity to verify quality and accuracy. Implementing regular quality checks during proposal reviews will help you identify issues early. Focus on the following key areas:

• Compliance: Confirm compliance with instructions, requirements, and evaluation criteria.
• Responsiveness: Ensure the proposal text fully addresses all RFP requirements.
• Customer Focus: Verify that the proposal focuses on the customer, not the offeror.
• Accuracy: Confirm all data and statements are 100% accurate.
• Ease of Evaluation: Confirm that the proposal is effortless to evaluate.
• Strengths: Verify the proposal is packed with strengths across all evaluated criteria.
• Weaknesses and Risks: Identify and resolve any weaknesses or risks.
• Visual Appeal: Check that there’s enough white space and that visuals are consistent, clear, and easily understood.
• Good Writing: Ensure the writing is logical, clear, concise, and error-free.

Conduct a Thorough Proposal Quality Review Before Submission

A final proposal review is essential to ensure your submission is error-free, compliant, and top-quality. Many proposal managers skip this step or rush through it due to time constraints, but this review can mean the difference between winning and losing. To conduct an effective final review:

• Ensure Compliance: Verify every section meets the RFP’s instructions. Attach all necessary attachments, forms, and certifications.
• Assess the Narrative: Confirm that the proposal is cohesive and compelling and maintains customer focus throughout.
• Proofread: Have a fresh set of eyes review the proposal for grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors. While automated tools are helpful, manual reviews can catch nuances that tools may miss.
• Verify Pricing and Key Figures: Double-check all numbers, calculations, and pricing sections to avoid costly mistakes.
• Review Formatting: Verify that formatting, graphics, and layout are polished and consistent.
• Handoff to the Contracts Manager: Before submission, present your Contracts Manager with a final checklist to verify that all documents are present and ready for submission, as summarized in this Lohfeld blog.

Use Lessons Learned to Improve Proposal Quality

Continuous proposal quality improvement is crucial for consistently delivering successful proposals. By regularly assessing and refining your processes, you can identify weaknesses, eliminate inefficiencies, and adapt to evolving customer requirements. A continuous improvement culture increases your team’s ability to deliver high-quality proposals efficiently over time.

Conclusion

Improving proposal quality requires proactive planning and attention to detail throughout the process. By addressing common challenges early and conducting thorough interim reviews, you can consistently deliver high-quality, compliant proposals that stand out to evaluators. These strategies will help you increase your chances of winning contracts, even under tight deadlines.

Related Content

• The Importance of a Proposal Submission Checklist
• Use AI to Power 7 Quality Measures for Proposal Reviews
• Video: Seven Quality Measures: Boost Your Proposal Success!

By Brenda Crist, Vice President at Lohfeld Consulting Group, MPA, CPP APMP Fellow

Lohfeld Consulting Group has proven results specializing in helping companies create winning captures and proposals. As the premier capture and proposal services consulting firm focused exclusively on government markets, we provide expert assistance to government contractors in Capture Planning and Strategy, Proposal Management and Writing, Capture and Proposal Process and Infrastructure, and Training. In the last 3 years, we’ve supported over 550 proposals winning more than $170B for our clients—including the Top 10 government contractors. Lohfeld Consulting Group is your “go-to” capture and proposal source! Start winning by contacting us at www.lohfeldconsulting.com and join us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube^(TM).

Brenda Crist

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