Carl Dickson

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Read the proposal and make it sound better. The end.p.s. If you are not precise and careful, making a proposal sound better can actually hurt your chances of winning. Changing the wording of proposal headings and requirements can get you thrown out for non-compliance without even being read. Even if you don't get thrown out, it can hurt your score when customers search for keywords or strings in the RFP and can't find them in your proposal. Their words may be archaic or awkward, but they need to be there. Especially in the headings. See also: Proposal quality validation When you mark up the draft proposal and change headings that were based on the RFP, people will see that you didn't even read the RFP. That could bring the credibility of your other changes into question as well. The same holds true when you make changes to keywords inserted from the evaluation criteria or other sections of the RFP. This not only confirms that you didn't read the RFP, it also shows you didn't attempt to read or score the proposal the same way the customer will. When you replace the wording of focused bid strategies with nice sounding pieces of fluff that you think have broader appeal or less risk, you may be watering down your proposal to the point of making it meaningless. Everything in a proposal should be based on what it will take to win. Everything should make a point related to RFP compliance and be worded to optimize the evaluation. If you can make it sound better while doing that, great! When you make recommendations to add things to a proposal that is already over the page limit without identifying something to take out, you're not thinking about how to win, you're just putting that burden on someone else. Backing into the proposal by editing it down is a bad strategy and a sign of a review failure. It is much better to build the proposal from the beginning with intentional trade-off decisions based on what it will take to win, scaling it to fit the page limit. Don't add things on the assumption that they can somehow survive the editing that will be required to bring it all back down to the page limit. And whatever you do, don't assume that if you start with a bunch of recycled narrative, the strategies and points that matter to this bid will somehow be discovered through editing. Here's what people really need from you when you review the proposal... The proposal team needs validation of specific things. They need to confirm decisions regarding strategies. They need to know whether what's being presented is the best offering the company is capable of. They need to know whether they've left anything out or overlooked anything. They need to know whether they've achieved RFP compliance and if what they wrote is optimized to get the highest evaluation score. They need to know if the proposal reflects all of the customer insight the company has and whether the competitive positioning can be improved. They need confirmation that the proposal is written from the customer's perspective instead of simply being descriptive. In short, they need to know whether the proposal reflects what it will take to win. Is there anything about what it will take to win that isn't adequately addressed? Text corrections, tweaks to the wording, and random improvements are secondary. Wordsmithing is best done by a professional editor and not a senior review team. But validation is a critical part of creating a proposal that reflects what it will take to win. They need your strategic double-checking and second-guessing of the bid strategies in order to produce a proposal that will beat all potential competitors. The proposal team doesn't need your opinion about the writing. They need you to show up prepared and having read the RFP. They need your due diligence and above all they need your proposal quality validation. And will greatly appreciate receiving it. Premium Content for PropLIBRARY Subscribers The MustWin Process includes a methodology for reviewing proposals called Proposal Quality Validation. It explains how to figure out how many reviews you should have as well as how many reviewers you need. And it can be implemented as a forms and checklist driven review process. It also provides sample criteria to use for proposal reviews.

What you should propose is different from what you should write. You should avoid doing them both at the same time. Figuring out what to you should offer is something that you should do, and validate, before you start trying to describe it in writing. You should be able to describe what you intend to offer regarding the following items before you start trying to figure out what to say about them. See also: Content Planning Best Practices So how do you figure out what to offer before you start writing about it? Here are some things to consider: What would you like to offer? Identify the components of your offering. Break it down. What's in? What's out? Decide so you know what to describe when the writing starts. If you are offering a tangible deliverable, then what is it composed of, what parts does it include, and what are its features? If it's an approach, then what are the major steps and what are its features? Itemize the details. Itemize the things you're going to need to price it and write about it. You don't need to explain (yet). You just need to account for it so that you can validate the offering and then explain it all when the writing starts. Price to win. Add up what you've got so you can decide what you have to change before you commit it to a written narrative. If you have designed an offering that will cost more than the customer can afford, then you have lost before you've started writing. If your offering is not cost competitive, you need to decide that before you invest in writing difficult to change narratives about it. What does the customer require? Comply with their specifications. Make sure your offering design complies with all specifications and fulfills all requirements. If your offering isn't compliant, you need to fix that before you start writing about it. Don't start by writing a response to every requirement. Instead perform a review to ensure that the offering is capable of complying with them all. Once you have fully validated your design, then you can write the narrative responses required. Make sure you can address everything in the RFP. What will you need to address about your offering? Does it require research or additional details? Does it require changing what you are offering before the writing starts, or is it just additional items you need to make sure you explain once the writing starts? Optimize against the customer's evaluation criteria. How will the proposed offering be scored during evaluation? Does it need to change in order to receive the top score? It's often balancing the goal of getting a top score with having a winning price that results in disastrous changes after the writing starts. Performing that balancing act before you start writing is crucial for successful proposal development. Does your offering reflect the customer's perspective? Address what matters to the customer. Whether it's in the RFP or not, the customer is part of the requirements. If your offering design does not matter to the customer, then it's not a good offering design. You need to be able to explain what matters about your offering design, and do it from the customer's perspective instead of your own. Identify your competitive differentiators. The customer will make their selection based on the differences between the alternatives. Winning requires having the best differences in order to be the best alternative. Design in your competitive differentiators and then validate the design before you start writing. Articulate your value proposition. Being the best alternative means offering the customer the best value. Even if the customer only considers price, it's because that is their highest value. Understand what the customer values and make your cost/benefit trade-offs decisions accordingly. You need to be able to articulate your value proposition in order to validate your design. But articulating your value proposition does not mean that you start writing the proposal. It is part of getting ready to write the proposal, so that the entire document can explain and support why your value proposal makes you the best alternative. Premium Content for PropLIBRARY Subscribers We have prepared training materials you can download to help you guide your staff through implementing these recommendations: 24-Slide PowerPoint presentation on How to make figuring out what to propose simple A simple checklist in Microsoft Word summarizing the action items

Just because you really want to win a proposal, does not mean that you need to go about it in a complicated way. There may be a lot to do and a lot to think about, but that doesn't necessarily mean you need to have a complicated proposal process. Unfortunately, figuring out how to best simplify preparing proposals may not be obvious. In an effort to simplify their proposal efforts, people often do things that hurt their chances of winning. It turns out that the complexity of a proposal effort is driven primarily by two factors: How many people do you need to contribute to the proposal? Developing a proposal with other people involved means you need planning, estimating, progress tracking, quality assurance, and all the other aspects of project management. Are you willing to invest in winning? Even though we want to believe that every proposal deserves a heroic effort to win, some have a higher priority than others. The effort you put into research, planning, and quality assurance depends on that priority. If you are doing the proposal on your own and managing your own priorities, you can greatly simplify things and balance the desire to win with the effort it will take. If you are forced into doing a proposal without the resources you need, you might also be forced into simplifying things. Mythbusting: Templates are probably not the best way to simplify a proposal effort See also: Making proposals simple We've brought all the information we've written about recycling proposal content and using templates together into this Topic Hub. The bottom line is that in almost all cases they reduce your probability of winning. Only you can decide whether reducing the effort is worth sacrificing your win probability. Most of the content on PropLIBRARY is written to maximize your chances of winning, even if it takes more effort, because we've found mathematically that's usually the best investment. The purpose of this topic hub is to help people with simple approaches that still maximize your chances of winning in cases where the MustWin Process is overkill. Checklists and recipes can simplify without killing your chances of winning Checklists can help you quickly figure out what to write, without reducing your chances of winning the way recycling proposal narrative or using templates will. They remind you, help ensure that you don't leave anything out, and prompt you with things to consider. The right checklist can make winning in writing checklist simple. Instead of copying an outline or following a template, here is a simple approach to a proposal outline that is based on the customer's point of view. If you want to get just a little more sophisticated, here are 16 ways to organize your outline. And when it comes to writing, instead of templates or recycling proposal text from a previous proposal, try a Proposal Recipe to accelerate the writing in a way that maximizes your chances of winning. Simplifying proposal writing The difference between ordinary proposal writing and great proposal writing doesn't require more effort if you understand how to write from the customer's perspective. Here are 8 simple things you can do to transform ordinary proposal writing into great proposal writing. People often struggle with just getting their proposal started. Once you do that everything can fall into place. So here is a two-part strategy for writing great proposal introductions. If you are stuck because you're not sure how your proposal should look, then here is an article that should greatly simplify things for you so you don't have to worry. Telling your story, crafting your message, and articulating your proposal themes, can also be made simpler. Sometimes it's not really the writing that's the problem, it's figuring out what your win strategies should be. So here are three simple steps for formulating your win strategies. There's really only one thing that you need to do in order to win all of your proposals. And if these tips aren't simple enough for you, you can transform your proposal writing with just a single word. If it takes too much effort to write a great proposal, then aim for simply not being awful Sometimes you can make a big improvement without rebuilding your entire approach to proposal writing. Here are 6 ways to simply avoid writing an awful proposal. In addition, here are 8 simple indicators that you’re going down the wrong path before you lose your proposal. Simplifying the proposal process Thinking about the proposal process as a series of some huge number of steps is counter-productive. An effective proposal process is based on achieving a few goals. That's it. There are elaborate ways to achieve those goals, and there are simple ways. Which is best for you depends on your circumstances and preferences. But it's the goals of the process that matter and not the steps. When you think in those terms, then it's possible to consider what the simplest, easiest proposal process to get started with might be. Another aspect to consider is your role, because your role impacts your perspective, and where you should start to improve your proposals. If you are doing the proposal on your own, you might be tempted to go without a formal process. This is generally a bad idea, because you still need to achieve the same goals as described above. But even without a process, having clear and simple criteria to assess your proposal quality can make it possible to achieve a quality proposal, without having formal reviews. And if you do have a review process, here is one simple thing you can do to greatly improve your proposal reviews.

The purpose of the recipes in this area is not to teach you the best way to do proposals, but rather to show you how to overcome obstacles, cope, or even cheat when you have to do proposals the wrong way. Sure, if you want to win you need to do everything you can to achieve the best practices. But what about when you’re starting late on a bid where you don't know the customer, aren't sure what to bid, can't get the information you need to write a winning proposal, have to bid because someone in authority says you have to, and it's all you can do just to survive the experience let alone win it? We're not talking about lying, breaking laws, failing to comply with regulations, or ignoring ethical standards. We’re talking about leaving the best practices that don’t apply in your circumstances behind, in order to get something submitted. If by some quirk of circumstances you cheat and win, that’s just luck. You can’t cheat on every proposal and be competitive. At least not against companies that are employing the best practices. Doing proposals the wrong way can help you make a submission on time. The techniques in this area turn the best practices on their head. But if you cheat on a good proposal, you will probably ruin it. On the other hand, when all the best practices in the world won’t help you, maybe these will. And when you learn to recognize these techniques, it will also help you improve the proposals you are trying to do the right way.

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The MustWin Process ensures that everyone knows what is expected, based on what role they play in the pursuit Roles are defined functionally. If a person performs more than one role, that person is responsible for all of the responsibilities of each role. Managing expectations is critical for people to work together to win a business opportunity. If the expectations need to change, it is your job to communicate that and stay in the discussion until everyone agrees on a new set of expectations. Leaving flawed or unrealistic expectations unaddressed is no way to pursue a MustWin opportunity. See also: Roles The MustWin Process defines roles functionally. You may have one person performing more than one role. If you do, that person is responsible for all of the responsibilities of each role. There are no economies of scale here. If one person does not have the capacity to fulfill both roles, you need to add staff. On the following pages, we provide a description of the responsibilities for each of the following roles: Executive Sponsor Business Development Manager Capture Manager Proposal Manager Process Administrator Production Manager Writers Subject Matter Experts Graphics/Illustrators Reviewers Production Staff The role and responsibility descriptions are followed by a form where you can identify who will be fulfilling each role. Business Development Manager Capture Manager Executive Sponsor Corporate Support Graphics Specialist Process Administrator Production Manager Proposal Manager Proposal Writers and Subject Matter Experts

Ingredients What steps will you take to get ready to start the project? Will you take steps to prepare before the contract is even awarded? What is the schedule for implementing the plan and its duration? What hardware, software, equipment, purchases, procedures, and staffing that you will put into place during the Transition Period? What staff that you will use to implement the Transition Plan? What will you require from the outgoing contractor (if any) or from the client? What transition risks do you anticipate? What certifications, sign-offs, or acknowledgements will be required to recognize when the transition period is over and performance at full specifications begins? Approaches An important goal for most Transition Plans is to minimize the disruption for the customer. Another important goal is to minimize the length of the Transition Period. The customer, after all, wants the proposed offering, and typically wants it right away. When you are taking over from another contractor, you may need to make assumptions regarding the transition of documents, equipment, etc. It can be difficult to account for knowledge transfer and getting up to speed, especially if you are counting on an outgoing contractor. Nonetheless, this is what you have to do if you want to beat the current contractor. If your project involves a large number of staff, you may need time to recruit and hire them. If there is an outgoing contractor, you may be able to hire some or all of their project staff. Sometimes the customer will want to retain the existing staff and sometimes they won’t. You should work closely with your customer to determine which staff you will try to retain and which you will replace. You may or may not be able to achieve the outgoing contractor’s cooperation when hiring project staff. Strategies The best way to minimize disruption and the length of the transition period is to do as much of it as possible before the office contract start. Some of the things you may be able to do before the contract start: Speak with the customer regarding transfer of documents and other information. Create draft written procedures. Identify all staff by name. Hire staff (at risk) or at least execute contingency hire letters or letters of understanding with prospective employees. Purchase equipment (at risk) or at least source equipment providers. If you really want to win, it is a good idea to do as many of these things as possible before the proposal is even submitted. This way your proposal shows that you are ready to start with little or no disruption. If you are the incumbent contractor, then you should point out that you will not need a Transition Period. If the RFP provides for one anyway, point out that you will be able to take advantage of it to make improvements, while ensuring no disruption or break in continuity of service.

Ingredients Describe your organization, staffing, tools, and resources for: Human Resources Accounting/Finance Payroll Contracts Legal Information Technology Call center Shipping/Receiving How will the customer benefit from the support each can provide to the project? Approaches Corporate infrastructures are assets that may be worth pointing out to your clients, especially when they differentiate your proposal from the competition. When a particular project will rely on your infrastructures, you can describe them to make the case that you have thought through the needs of the project and offer an integrated solution. If you are a large business, it may not be newsworthy that you have dedicated human resources staff. However, if you are a small business, it may reinforce the credibility of your claims regarding being able to staff a large project. When describing your infrastructures, it is important to do more than simply identify them. You should describe how the client will benefit from your having them in place. A Human Resources department may enable you to do a better job of recruiting and retaining staff. Your accounting system may enable you to ensure accurate invoicing. In-house legal counsel may enable you to streamline union negotiations. Infrastructures also lend themselves to illustration. You can use a simple organization chart, you can show a pyramid with the project supported by the infrastructures, or you can use a pie chart to show that the combination of infrastructures plus the project team are required to deliver a total solution.

Ingredients What resources and supplies you will need or provide? What is their manufacture, delivery, and/or storage method? What resources uniquely qualify you for this project? How will the customer benefit from your resources? Are any of your resources exclusive to you and not available from other bidders? What resources and supplies will the customer need to provide? How will resources and supplies be procured? How will resources be allocated across the project’s timeline and locations? What is the supply chain required for you to make deliveries? How you will manage the supply chain logistics? How will you manage the supply chain finances? What supplier supplier relationships are necessary? What will you keep in inventory and how you will stock it? How and where you will warehouse the inventory? What software, tools, or tracking systems you will use to manage the supply chain? Approaches The supply chain can be illustrated with a flow chart. A table can also be used to itemize the resources and show quantities, source, inventory, client benefits, etc. Strategies This section can be written to demonstrate a key theme that you think is important to the client, for example: Immediate availability Low cost Reliability Low risk Any illustrations, tables, or narrative should enhance the credibility of the theme. If you have capabilities and resources beyond those required, you may wish to point them out for added value.

Ingredients Where, when, and how will they need to participate in the project? What will be the customer’s role and responsibilities on the project? What decisions will the customer have to make? Will the customer be required to participate in any reviews? What resources or commitments will be required from the customer for the project? Will you need access to any customer information, systems, facilities, or people? How will you manage customer expectations? What you will do to encourage a sense of partnership with your customer? Approaches Customer involvement is usually not a separate section. You may choose to call it out under its own subheading if your approach is an advantage. Or you might simply address it within the narrative everywhere that it is relevant. Strategies Some customers want to be involved in every aspect of a project; some want no involvement. Some want to outsource an entire function, others want to outsource only certain activities. This makes addressing customer involvement tricky. You can maximize their involvement, or minimize it, but the only way to know the best approach is to know you customer. If you don’t, it may be best to take a flexible approach that balances the two.

Ingredients What tools/methodologies will you use for: development, design, workflow, configuration management, process automation/management, program management, collaboration, budgeting, record keeping, time keeping, tracking systems, customer relationship management, and document/knowledge management, etc. How does what you plan to use align with what the customer is already using? How the customer will benefit from the tools, methodologies, and techniques that you will use? Approaches Sometimes a methodology can be the focus of your approach. For example, a company might feature its ISO Quality Assurance program, its Capability Maturity Model recognition, or its use of a technique such as Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Some methodologies also incorporate the use of software or tools. You can highlight your use of a methodology or tool in the section of your Technical Approach where it is relevant. You can also include a separate section on Methodologies, Tools, and Techniques in your Management Plan to reinforce your company’s adherence to standards. Strategies It is important to remember to describe the benefit to the client of any methodology or tool you feature. If the tool will enhance productivity or quality, then detail how that will happen. If the result is that you are lower in cost, more reliable, or better than your competition in some other way, you should explain how your customer will realize those benefits. If your methodology can be illustrated, be sure to include the graphic and organize your narrative around it. The narrative description should focus on the benefits that will result from the methodology and not on the details of implementing the methodology. Another way to use methodologies and techniques is to provide a list of standards that you comply with. This list can be provided as an exhibit and provides a place for terminology, sound bites, and the latest buzzwords. Caution: Unless you provide a statement to describing how it is used and how the customer will benefit, the list may have little real meaning. But it does provide a quick-and-easy approach to compliance and name-dropping.

Ingredients What performance metrics will you use? What is the baseline you’ll use to measure performance against? Will you use any industry benchmarks for comparison? What are your minimum performance standards? How will you collect and track metrics data? How will you record or document the collection of metrics data? How you will analyze metrics, report, and present any findings? How will the project benefit from your use of metrics? What level of effort will be required to collect, assess, and present the measures, and how can it be streamlined? How you will measure productivity, efficiency, and utility? How will you know if you’ve met your customer’s requirements? How do the performance metrics of what you are bidding compare to those of your competitors? Recommended Approaches Performance metrics are the units that you use to measure service delivery. They can require a lot of thought, because it can be difficult to measure outcomes that are not tangible. For example, consider: How do you measure the progress of software development? How do you measure the quality of software? Performance metrics can be used to measure productivity and quality. They can also be used to establish performance standards and enable you to measure success. Performance metrics are typically addressed in the quality plan. They can also be cited in the relevant sections of the proposal as the criteria you will use to measure output, outcomes, and ultimately success. Strategies Measuring progress, quality, and success can be a competitive advantage over those who don’t. But when everyone uses metrics, it’s no longer enough have have measurements, you need the best measurements. If the RFP specifies performance metrics and standards to be achieved, then meeting them makes you merely compliant and not exceptional. To be exceptional, you have to raise the bar. Look for metrics that either already meet or will be able to meet that exceed the requirement. Then raise the requirement and draw attention to it. If there are performance incentives and penalties, then raise the penalties on the ones you know you can meet. If there aren’t any, then add them. People have an instinctive reaction to avoid penalties. Embracing them (especially when you’re confident you won’t trigger them) can be a competitive advantage. Remember, the customer has to trust you to buy from you. Measurements, especially when backed by incentives and penalties, make your claims more tangible and believable.

Ingredients What is your approach to risk analysis? What risks do you anticipate? For example: human resources, legal, financial, economic, technological, facilities, safety, strategic, organizational, process, and completion risks. How do you identify, categorize, and prioritize sources of risk? How you will mitigate the risks? Do you have any relevant historical data regarding risks? Will any risks be shared between you and the customer? How you will monitor your risk management performance? What are your contingency plans for risk-related problems? Approaches Risk mitigation can be incorporated into every section, be a separate section, or be a combination of the two. When risk is addressed in each section of the proposal, the focus is on risks related to that particular topic. When risk is addressed in a separate section, the focus is more on the nature of risk itself, and how you approach risks in general. Within each proposal section, you can provide a table identifying potential risks. If risk mitigation is a separate section, you can provide a table that identifies the risks for the elements described in each section of the proposal or each phase of project activity. Every time you identify a risk, you should provide an approach to mitigate that risk. When describing your risk mitigation approach, you should describe how you will identify risks. While you may already know some of the risks, there may be others that you won’t know about until you start. If overall or unknown risks are a concern, then you should describe how you will identify these risks over the life of the project. Once risks are identified, then you can describe what you will do to mitigate them. Since risk mitigation often requires trade-offs, you should describe how you will balance the trade-offs and what your priorities will be in managing the risks. You may also wish to present a table showing response escalations based on various contingencies. You should pay particular attention to risks affecting the schedule, risks that can lead to cost escalation, and risks that might result in failing to meet the specifications or requirements. Sometimes the client can be a source of risk, such as if they fail to decide on requirements in time or change the specifications after development has started. In these cases, it may be appropriate to share risks with the client. Strategies Risk mitigation can be extremely important to clients. They know that things go wrong. They may even expect this, and be more concerned with your plans to address that, than they are with your ability to perform simply according to plan. Often the incumbent knows more about the risks on a project than other bidders. One strategy incumbents follow is to make sure the customer is aware of all the risks and imply that if their competitors don’t they may not be able to deliver on their promises.

Ingredients What is the schedule for the major milestones or events that will occur? What deadlines or other key dates are mentioned in the RFP? What activities do you need to schedule in order to meet those deadlines? How soon after award you will start and how long it will take to complete? What is the critical path for the project? Are there any schedule constraints or limits that need to be shown? What is the schedule for any meetings? What is the schedule for project deliverables? Are there any compliance issues that must be factored into the schedule? Are there any contingencies or scenarios that you anticipate might impact scheduling? Are you using any planning models or methodologies you should cite? How and when you will communicate with the customer and any third parties? What reports will be produced and will be their frequency? How is your schedule compatible with the customer’s? Approaches In the Technical Approach, you describe what you will do for the client. This may involve providing a schedule. In the Management Plan you describe how you will ensure that it gets done – on time, within budget, and according to the specifications required. This also may require a schedule. But each one emphasizes different things. Project schedules often include Gantt Charts to show the schedule, milestones, and allocation of resources. A narrative description of the Gantt Chart should address trade-offs and other issues. Some projects will have surge resource requirements, often at the front-end, back-end, and around key milestones. A Gantt Chart illustrates whether resources are consumed evenly or in peaks and valleys. The narrative should describe the implications for this project, demonstrate your understanding of the project environment and any problems or issues that the client is facing. For projects where the completion schedule is important, it can be a good idea to show that you understand the critical path and how to mitigate any possible risks of delays to tasks on the critical path. The critical path is the longest sequence of events that must be performed on a project to complete it. Any delay in a task on the critical path will delay the project. Other tasks may happen in parallel with the critical path. Critical path analysis is one methodology for project management. There are many other methodologies that may be relevant to your project. You should describe any that you plan to use and show how the customer will benefit from your application of it.

Ingredients How important is staffing to the overall success of the project? What depth and breadth of staffing is available from your company? What skills are required for the project and how you will allocate your firm’s skills sets across the project scope of work? What qualifications are required for each position or role on the project? What are the responsibilities and level of effort anticipated for each role? Who will the key personnel will be? What are the backgrounds, qualifications, and experience of the key personnel? How do the staff you have selected distinguish your firm and will benefit the customer? How will replacement of staff be handled if necessary? How do you recruit new personnel? How are new project staff trained and oriented to your firm, the project, customer, and work site? What is your plan for retaining staff and achieving low turnover? How will staff performance be evaluated? Do you plan to hire staff from the client or incumbent contractor? Approaches If personnel will play a key role in the project, you should consider addressing staffing, whether or not it is required by the RFP. If you already know what staff you will provide, consider: Providing a table that lists them by name, describes their roles/responsibilities, and shows how the customer will benefit from each. Providing a matrix that shows how their skills/qualifications map to those required for the project. Providing an organization chart to show reporting relationships. Providing a timeline that shows when they will be involved with the project. If any of the staff you plan to use are not current employees, then consider providing signed commitment letters from them regarding their commitment to you to work on the project. If you do not already know which staff will be involved, then describe your recruiting process, selection criteria, and schedule. If you do not name the staff and provide resumes, it is important to establish that you have a credible capability to deliver the required number of staff on schedule. One approach to doing this is to provide figures or examples that demonstrate the productivity of your recruiting efforts, for example: the number of resumes your firm reviewed, interviews you conducted, and staff you hired over the past year. If you can, you might also provide examples of projects that were quickly staffed. It may also be a good idea for your recruiting plan to demonstrate your familiarity with the market for the required type of staff at the required locations. If you plan to draw from other projects, you can provide a table showing the number of personnel and their relevant skills. If your turnover rate is lower than the industry average or your benefits package better than industry average, you should provide the details and show how better staff retention lowers risks and costs while simultaneously reinforcing skills retention and the growth of project knowledge assets. On Government proposals, a distinction is usually made between key personnel and non-key personnel. The RFP will generally contain language saying that you must name (and usually provide resumes for) all key personnel. Then if you win the award, they expect you to actually deliver them! There is usually a period in which they do not allow substitutions. Non-key personnel are usually identified in proposals by position and not by name. For non-key personnel, it may be a good idea to provide resumes of the type of people you would supply, as a representative sample. Strategies It is almost always better to name names when you can. Name the staff you will provide. If you can’t name them, then describe what their qualifications will be. When the customer doesn’t require you to name the staff, that is an opportunity to outperform the competition and name them anyway.

Ingredients Who are the subcontractors you plan to use? Do you have any plans for outsourcing? What selection process did/will you use to choose those particular subcontractors and the factors involved: the quality of their work, their reliability, strength of resources, and any established working relationships you may already have in place – joint, successful past performance is a strong factor you’ll want to emphasize? What are the roles and responsibilities each subcontractor will have on the project and the level of effort each subcontractor will contribute? What contractual terms will subcontractors work under? Provide the points of contact for each subcontractor. Describe how you will work with other contractors. Explain how you will manage work performed by other companies. Explain how your quality, risk management, and other plans extend to the portions of the project worked on by any subcontractors. Approaches Sometimes subcontracting is addressed as a routine topic that is part of the Management Plan narrative in the proposal, and sometimes it is a specific requirement of the RFP. In government proposals, a subcontracting plan might be required to show the percentage of work going to different types of companies. This kind of subcontracting plan is often a part of the business proposal and not part of the proposal narrative. When this is the case, the RFP will usually contain a sample so that you understand the customer’s expectations. Strategies If you already know your subcontractors and/or key vendors and what to demonstrate your access to resources and readiness to start, you might provide a table that lists them by name, describes their roles/responsibilities, and shows how the customer will benefit from each. It can also be a good idea to summarize or provide a copy of any teaming agreements, or signed commitment letters to demonstrate readiness. If you do not already know your subcontractors and/or vendors you might describe your process, criteria, and schedule for selection. If you do not plan to use subcontractors, then you might wish to firmly state that you will not require support from outside firms, that any staff providing services will be under your direct control, that there is no risk of delay or disruption due to subcontractors not be ready to perform, etc.

Ingredients What aspects of the project will be performed on-site and which will be performed off-site? Which existing locations (if any) will be involved in the project? What (if any) new locations will be established for the project? Include an explanation of their selection and resource allocation. If the customer has multiple locations, how will you support them? Will you need to conduct any client site surveys? What travel will be required to other locations? Include any related management and accounting processes required. What technology you use for geographically dispersed collaboration? How much shipping/transport you anticipate and how will any deliveries be made? Recommended Approaches If the customer has more than one location, you may have to address how you will provide coverage. If you have more than one location that is involved in the project, you may want to describe the roles of that location’s staff, and how the customer will benefit from that additional support. Strategies If your locations are already established, then you may want to emphasize that you are ready to start immediately and draw attention to your locations. In this case, you may wish to include a sub-heading for location, even if it is not required. If location is important to the client, then focus on selling it by providing: A map that shows how close you are to the client A matrix that shows how your locations map to the clients A chart that shows the role your locations will play in each phase of the project The locations of key vendors or subcontractors A chart that shows what work will be performed at the customer’s site, what work will be performed elsewhere, and how the customer will benefit If you will need to open new locations, then demonstrate familiarity with the real estate market, criteria for selecting a location, and timeline for acquisition. If any of your competitors may need to open new locations, then describe the risks associated with uncertainty in the real estate market and timeline to open a new location. Show how you have mitigated these risks. Samples Customer Location 1 Customer Location 2 Company Locations List your closest locations List your closest locations Resources Describe the resources that you have at those locations Describe the resources that you have at those locations Staffing Quantify the staffing you have available near those locations Quantify the staffing you have available near those locations Capabilities Describe your capabilities at those locations Describe your capabilities at those locations The items you identify in the left column, and details in the other two, should be directly relevant to the customer. Location Benefit to the customer Company Site 1 Company Site 2 Company Site 3 This format is good when you have more locations than your competition and you want to drive home the benefits to the client

Ingredients The following list of ingredients is intended to inspire. Select the ingredients that are most relevant to your needs in this particular proposal, or add your own: How is your company or project organized? Is it organized functionally, by client, or some other way? Do you wish to show all the parts or just the relevant ones? What do you want to emphasize, titles or names? Do you know the names or will you just be listing titles? Should you include photographs? What are your reporting structures and lines of communication? What benefits will your organizational structure provide? What are the points of contact in your organization? Does it reflect the evaluation criteria or demonstrate anything of significance to the customer: Responsiveness Accountability Clarity Comprehensiveness Etc. Does it show sufficient oversight? Does it show roles and responsibilities? Does it show how resources will be allocated? Is there an escalation path for unresolved issues? Recommended Approaches Sometimes you may want to provide two organization charts, one to show how the project fits into the organization of your company, and another to show how the project itself will be organized. This will depend on whether the client cares about your company’s management structure and where the project fits into it. If the customer cares only about the project staff, then a corporate organization chart likely won’t add much value to your proposal. If you know the names of all the participants, include them on the chart. Naming staff can help show your readiness to start quickly and draw attention to particularly well-qualified participants. If you don’t (yet) know the project staff, identify positions by title or role. Either way, it may also be a good idea to include a table defining project staff positions, roles, and responsibilities. You may wish to include corporate functions that will provide indirect support to the project , such as Accounting and Human Resources, on the organization chart if you think that may add value in the eyes of the customer. If the customer will interface primarily with certain people, then you might want to illustrate those communication lines by including the customer’s name. Strategies Your org chart should convey a message, such as we: Have the resources needed Are accessible to the client Are ready to start Will respond quickly Are organized the same way you are Have capabilities that exceed the requirement Have quality and accountability built into our structure Etc.