About this Blog

This blog is about winning contracts
in a humanly sustainable way.

Win competitive contracts from both government and private-sector clients by understanding the basics of Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and RFP responses, and by implementing best practices, tips, and tools.

On-site Resources

Use the resources here for three things:

Winning more contracts by writing better RFP responses and by enhancing your corporate RFP-response capability.
Winning more contracts, sustainably, by using project management tools tailored to RFP responses.

Understanding RFPs

Where it all starts
Why organizations issue RFPs
How needs relate to requirements
Six basic parts of every RFP – whether 5 or 500 pages

Understanding RFP Responses (aka Proposals)

Six questions to ask before bidding
Five-step RFP response process
Four kinds of RFP response content
Five rules of proposal teamwork

Tips & Tools

Practical tips for managing and developing bids, and for writing better RFPs
Comprehensive checklists and tools
Term of the Week: RFP and RFP response jargon demystified

Get more help

Buy Isabel’s e-book from Amazon Canada and learn more:

Planning for RFP responses
Managing proposal processes
Staffing and managing proposal teams
Training technical writers and editors
Leading internal reviews and Red Teams

Management (80)
Proposals (84)
RFPs (25)
Terminology (89)

"I know I’m flogging a dead horse here but I’m still trying to figure out why Canadians are shocked to discover that the country they live in, which couldn’t replace two naval supply ships in decades, is not going to be first out of the gate on new vaccine production."

Source: Tweet by Matt Gurney, National Post columnist, 2020 Nov 25

I have it on good authority that every contract for a ship of any size now contains this phrase: "The ship shall be delivered afloat, upright, and at the dock." You can thank a nameless contractor for each of those specifications: A contractor who failed one or more of those should-go-without-saying tests and who held the client to the letter of the contract to excuse this ridiculousness.

“You cannot increase the quality of an argument by simply increasing the quantity of your argument.”

Source: How to Make Your Arguments Stronger

Substitute "proposal" for "argument" and it's still true. But, boy, we keep trying.

Check out the event calendar for free webinars on how to sell to the Government of Canada.

Buyandsell.ca event calendar

Check out these procurement opportunities and related organizations:

First Nations Information Governance Centre - LinkedIn

First Nations Information Governance Centre - website

Explore the world's wonders - large and small - through Isabel's words, photos and videos.

Traditional Iconoclast

I invite you to help me make a difference by buying my latest book. All my royalties are going to Food Banks Canada to help with the problem of food insecurity, made even worse by this pandemic.

This site focuses on RFP responses, but in 25 years in Proposal Land, I've learned some things about RFPs. If you're responsible for issuing an RFP, there's help here for you, too.

For more help -- on either side of the contracting divide -- check out my manual.

"... a brilliant articulation of everything you ever needed to know about proposals." Carla Dawes, Founder: Rising into Resilience; former Business Development Manager & Proposal Consultant

"There are only two things:
contracts and conversations.
If you don't have the one,
all you have is the other."
- Unnamed American Colonel

If you don't get the terminology -- terms and abbreviations specific to RFPs, proposals, contracting, marketing, and government -- you'll spend too much time wondering what's going on, and too little time kicking ass. There's no end to the jargon, of course, but at least there is a place to start . . .