Win more government and competitive contracts by using project management principles. Schedule proposal efforts and staff proposal teams for on-time delivery of compliant and high-scoring bids. Avoid version control problems and staff burnout.
It’s an old truism of supervision that you can’t do something and supervise it at the same time: The doing pulls time and focus from the supervising. Yet folks keep trying to combine doing and supervising functions on proposals, with dire results.
Having a good price — often, the lowest price — is the fourth-most important thing in winning bids. “What?!?” you (or your sales manager) cry. “Price can’t be fourth.”
Proposal managers can learn from the difficulties software developers have in estimating schedule to improve their own ability to manage schedule by managing work standards.
Conforming to the technical requirement and responding well to the questions is the third-most important thing in RFP responses. To meet both targets, take deliberate action in training, supervising, and reviewing.
Complying with every submission mandatory is the second-most important thing in RFP responses. “What!?!” you (or some well-intentioned technical/domain expert on your team) cry. “Compliance is the most important thing!”