The Federal Proposal Process from a
Proposal Management View
Compliance First Proposals
Agenda
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Compliance First Proposals
The Proposal Process
Proposal Management
Compliance Matrix
Why Reviews are Ineffective
Amendments
Proposal Failures
What it Takes to Win
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Compliance First Proposals
• Shipley trained
• Assist in proposal development and proposal management for
defense contracting
• Worked with various 8(a), SDB, SDVOSB, ANC, and MBE
companies
• Experience in many areas to include: Air Force, Army, Navy, VA,
SPAWAR, MDA, DHS, DISA, DOI, DOT, FDA, FAA, and more.
• Proposal management – kick offs, outlines, compliance matrices,
color reviews, compliance reviews, formatting/desktop publishing,
grammar/proofing, subcontractor management, writing
assignments, and more
Mark Dudley – mark@compliancefirstproposals.com
303-520-4382
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The Proposal Process
• By no means do I claim to know it all
• This is not an all-inclusive list, just some
highlights:
– Pre Proposal Kick Off
– Proposal Kick Off
– Proposal Development (technical writing)
– Storyboards, Drafts, & Reviews
– Post Proposal Activities
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The Proposal Process
(Prior to Proposal Kick Off)
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2-3 days for kick of preparation
Final bid/no bid decision
Compliance matrices
Proposal outline
Writing assignments
Handoff from capture/BD to proposal manager
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The Proposal Process
(Proposal Kick Off)
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Get the team in one place
Points of contact
Writing assignments
Share win themes and discriminators
with team
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The Proposal Process
(Storyboards, Drafts, & Reviews)
• Are you developing storyboards?
• Storyboard Review – compliance
check
• Pink Team Pens Down 85%
• Red Team Pens Down 95%
• Gold Team Review
• White Glove Review
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The Proposal Process
(Post Proposal Activities)
• Lessons learned
• Archiving
• Proposal library
–Past performance
–Management volumes
–Technical volumes
–Graphics
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Proposal Management
• In one way or another, proposal management
covers all of the previously discussed proposal
activities
• The decision to include all or some of those items
depends on RFP size
• A proposal manager keeps all these items in line
– Makes sure authors are united
– Writing to the requirements
– Meeting deadlines
– Checking for compliance
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Proposal Management –
How to Read and RFP
Do I have to read the entire thing? Depending on your role, you
do, but the main focus should be on the following.
• Most RFPs follow an outline as required by the FAR requiring
sections A-M. The sections that are key to most participants
are Section L, M, C, and B.
– Section L - Instructions for formatting, organizing, and submitting your
proposal
– Section M - Criteria that will be used to evaluate your proposal
– Section C - What it is they want you to propose (SOW or PWS)
– Section B – Pricing format (not covered in this discussion)
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How to Read and RFP
(Where to Start?)
You should not read an RFP from front to back, instead, consider
the following:
• Start with Section A (usually the cover page)
– Due date. This is obviously important in your decision to move
forward, do you have the resources to produce the required
documentation?
• Second, Section L - focuses on how your customer wants the
proposal organized (this is where compliance becomes
important)
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How to Read and RFP
(Section L)
• Section L items might include:
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General information
Points of contact (contracting officer)
Source selection methodology
Page limits (and any exceptions)
Page format (margins, font restrictions, graphics requirements, page
size, numbering, page layout….)
– Organization and structure (outline development)
– Submission requirements (when, where, how many)
• Any additional information that may be available or
referenced
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How to Read and RFP
(Section M)
• Next, review Section M
• Section M items might include:
– Basis for contract award
– Evaluation factors and subfactors
– Relative importance (what sections are considered most
important and how they are weighted in reference to the
remaining sections)
• Example – Factor 1 (Past Performance) is more important
than Factor 2 (Technical)
– Risk ratings
– Evaluation by volume
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How to Read and RFP
(Section C)
• Section C
–PWS, SOW, SOO ….
• While you read this section, keep in mind
all the evaluation criteria you just
reviewed in Section M.
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Compliance Matrix
• A proposal compliance matrix is the key to clarifying
the requirements in a complex RFP
• Creating a compliance matrix should be your first
step for creating a proposal outline
• When an RFP is heavy in requirements across
multiple sections, a compliance matrix can help you
make sure that you don't leave any of the
requirements out of your proposal
• It is a checklist for the entire proposal
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Why Reviews are Ineffective
If you were to ask 10 people to define what a color review is,
you would most likely receive 10 different responses. Here
are some of the common errors or issues I think should be
taken into consideration:
• The goals for the review are not shared
• Reviewers are not given specific directions
• The review does not have any checklists (compliance matrices) or
written guidance to remind them of what to look for
• The review is scheduled too early and the document is not ready
• The review (red team) is scheduled too late and there is not enough
time to act on any suggestions
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Why Reviews are Ineffective
• The review gives you the guidance you should have had at proposal
kick off
• The reviewers show up without having read the RFP
• The same people who wrote the proposal are on the review
• The review time is not long enough
• Participants are not fully committed to the review
• The reviewers identify problems and don’t offer solutions/suggestions
• The reviewers do little more than what amounts to proof reading
• There is no guidance regarding how comments should be made
• The review wants to change the outline of the proposal
• The reviewers look at the proposal from their own perspective,
instead of the customer's perspective
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Why Reviews are Ineffective
• Review suggestions are expected to be taken as orders (the proposal
team is not free to ignore a review recommendation)
– The reviewers makes comments that contradict the RFP
• If there are holes, the team doesn't recommend any resources capable
of filling the holes
• Participants make comments that are not actionable (generalized
statements that don't specify a correction or action to take)
• The review does not result in specific action items
• Some people are on the review team just to see the document and
offer no value
• The review doesn't rate the proposal according to the evaluation
criteria
The review doesn't do anything to
help the proposal WIN!
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Amendments
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Changes to the RFP
Don’t plan on an extension
Be prepared for an extension
Don’t ship too soon!
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Common Proposal Failures
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Starting too late
Start writing with the intent on improving later
Present things in an order you consider to make better sense
Running out of time
Failing to incorporate your plans
Competing against a better positioned competitor
Failing to address things in the terms of the evaluation criteria
Not knowing the customer well enough to give them more than
they ask for
• Being non-compliant
• Failing to provide proof of your statements
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What it Takes to Win
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Have the capability to bid the work
Don’t try to improve the RFP
Meet assignment deadlines
Know the competition and the customer
Don’t compromise on review standards
Staff the proposal appropriately
Plan before writing/write to that plan
Address the evaluation criteria in all sections/subsections
Don’t wait till the final RFP drops
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Questions and
Open Discussion
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