Suggestions for Proposals to Federal Agencies

Jim Kendrick & the P2C2 Group

The kiss of a princess may transform a frog into Prince Charming,
but few ugly and poorly prepared proposals are ever transformed into awards.

If you think the government is just waiting to give you a truckload of money, please send your proposal to the North Pole. I cannot help you. However, if you are committed to approaching proposals like a competitive sport, with the discipline to succeed, you could become a winner.

Large proposals to the government can be major undertakings, and it is important that your organization plan ahead. After all, you want to protect your investment by maximizing your possibilities for winning the contract or grant. Here are some suggestions. Of course, you should adapt these ideas to your own situation.

Do not spend money on a proposal unless you know your organization has a reasonable chance of winning. This involves gathering intelligence and background information, which will also be useful when writing the proposal.

Develop a preliminary cost proposal or model before writing the technical proposal. This will give you a chance to evaluate pricing strategies--which you should know before selecting resumes or developing the technical approach.

Review the evaluation criteria and your intelligence about the award preferences of the funding agency. Then develop a sales theme for winning--which will be reflected in the technical approach, resumes, and project summaries. You must clearly present yourself as a viable option that is distinct from the competition. You must also provide the explicit information needed to gain the maximum points delineated in the evaluation criteria.

Read the entire RFP--especially the instructions for preparing the proposal.

The quality of your key personnel will often be a major factor in determining whether the proposal is successful. Recruit and assign personnel who are best matches ... better than those offered by the competition ... for the project.

Develop an outline for the proposal. Make sure you do not omit any important information.

Develop, customize, and produce the "boiler plate" material: resumes, project summaries, and business information--several weeks in advance of the due date of the RFP. This will enable you to concentrate on writing and refining the technical approach, management section (scheduling, project organization, etc.) and cost proposal.

Write an original technical and management solution, even if you add extensive "boiler plate." Most statements of work have unique features that will not be addressed by "canned" material. Assign a talented editor to refine drafts. This person should be separate from the writer(s). Schedule a "red team" to read the draft proposal and criticize it (brutally). Better that your team pick the proposal to pieces ... rather than the agency with the contract or grant to award.

Reserve time for revising the proposal.

Always plan to have the final manuscripts and documents available two days in advance. Reserve the last day before delivery for double-checking, photocopying, and binding.

Jim Kendrick, CMC
P2C2 Group, Inc.
(301) 942-7985
kendrick@p2c2group.com