Meeting schedule is the most important thing in RFP responses.
“What?!?” you (or your executive boss) cries incredulously, disbelievingly. “What about compliance? What about the technical solution? What about (a pause here for emphasis) . . . low price?”
To which I reply, “All in good time. But if you’re late, they won’t even look at your compliant, responsive, and low-priced proposal. And you will not win the contract.”
All project management in Proposal Land, therefore, must be focused first on meeting schedule. What does that mean?
It means designing the overall schedule around the hard deadline. It means allowing some management reserve, for things to go wrong. Which they will.
It means setting up milestone checkpoints to monitor your progress against schedule: Are you where you need to be at this point?
It means communicating to all proposal team members that they must be on time with their deliverables. Heck, they even have to be on time for meetings, whether in-person, online, or on the phone.
It means being clear–in your own mind and in your communications with the team–that performance standards must reflect and respect the constraints of the schedule.
It means understanding that time is the most important commodity you have, and investing it wisely. Every day.
Meeting schedule is the most important thing in RFP responses.