Erika Dickson

People often obsess over the wrong details on a proposal We recommend an approach based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. If you put effort into a level you haven’t reach yet, you may be taking resources away from a level that has a bigger impact on whether you win or lose. First, make sure you are compliant with the RFP’s requirements. This gets you in the game. Then optimize your proposal against the evaluation criteria to maximize your score. This gives you a shot at winning. Next, make sure that your proposal reflects your win strategies. This tells your story and discriminates you from the competition. Companies struggle to reach and master this level. After this you can focus on visual communication to ensure that your message is communicated effectively. Most companies never make it to this level. The ones that do we call “winners.” Once you have an effective message you need to make sure that typographical errors do not detract from it. Some companies make it this far and have time left for thorough editing. Once your proposal is free of defects then you can focus on style. While you want it to sound like it was written with one voice, hardly any companies ever make it to this level. Doing so takes resources away from the foundation. What the evaluators are looking for in the proposal is how to score you and why to select you. If they find those, then they’ll examine what you are proposing to make sure you can deliver. It is always a good idea, in any type of writing, to imagine what it’s like to be the reader.

If you are like me, you learned the basic five-paragraph essay format (and about a dozen variations) in school. You remember: introductory paragraph, three supporting paragraphs, and concluding paragraph. Most variations follow the same concept: introduce, support, conclude. If you are writing a proposal, this is completely backwards. Consider: The goal of a proposal is to persuade — here is what I want you to conclude, and here’s why. Most proposal evaluators don’t want to be there — here is what I hope you’ll read and here is the obligatory detail that you’re not going to bother with. A winning proposal is easy to evaluate. Picture the evaluator with a checklist in hand going through your proposal — check, check, check. State conclusions that reflect the evaluation criteria, and then explain how or why. Never save the best for last, or build to the finish. Give them what they want right up front in firm, positive statements. You still need to provide the explanation and proof for due diligence, but if there is anything about your approach that you really want them to know or anything about it that is special, you should call it out first. Tell them what the approach will do for them, what the benefit of it is, and only then tell them the details of the approach. The goal is not to deprive them of necessary detail, but to give them what they want, in the order they want it. You’ve got to give them a reason to bother reading the detail. Think about why they are reading — they are evaluating what you are proposing in order to do two things: get through the formal evaluation process (completion of scoring forms) and to make a selection. What the evaluators are looking for in the proposal is how to score you and why to select you. If they find those, then they’ll examine what you are proposing to make sure you can deliver. It is always a good idea, in any type of writing, to imagine what it’s like to be the reader.

If you want to win, you should replace as much text with graphics as is possible The hardest part of enhancing your proposal with graphics is identifying them. Once identified, the actual illustration is straightforward. Conceptualizing graphics and rendering them are two different things. They are often handled by different people. Identifying graphics for proposals requires no creativity whatsoever. Rather than looking at a section and trying to picture it, instead simply look for bullets. Anything that can be written as bullets is a potential graphic. The reason is that most proposal graphics illustrate a relationship or a process. Bullets often contain a sequence, a list of ingredients, a set of choices, or a list of examples. Any text that describes a relationship or makes a comparison could also be a potential graphic. Once you’ve identified a potential graphic, it’s time to describe it. Simple hand-drawn images that show the major components should be sufficient. In fact, you can often identify a graphic using nothing but text. When identifying the graphic, you should describe: The primary objective of the graphic, or the conclusion you want the reader to reach. The audience for the graphic, including their needs and preferences. The questions that the graphic should answer. The subject matter being described. Finally, use the conclusion you want to reader to arrive at after viewing the graphic to write the caption. This will provide the information that the illustrator needs to render the graphic. It will also enable people to review your section prior to the completion of the graphic. Even if there is no graphics support available for your proposal and you must render your own graphics, identifying graphics using this approach will make it easier for you to render your graphic and ensure that it meets the needs of the proposal.

Expectation management: You should make sure that what is expected of you and what you are expecting are both clearly communicated. If you are not sure, then ask for clarification. When receiving an assignment, communicate your acceptance. This should include acknowledging both the deadlines and the scope of the assignment. After you have had a chance to review the Content Plan in detail, you should communicate any issues that may arise. This may include things like changes to your availability, questions regarding topics to be addressed, topics beyond your expertise, interpretation of the RFP, conflicts in the RFP, ambiguity regarding the scope, trade-offs, etc. Do not wait until your assignment is due to communicate issues. The earlier they are identified, the more likely it is that they can be addressed with minimal impact to the proposal schedule or quality. Frequent check-ins and early reviews are highly recommended. The sooner you receive feedback, the easier it will be to address. If you get off track, the sooner it is discovered, the better. Here are some ways to track your progress: Time. In addition to how much time remains, you should communicate whether you are at, ahead, or behind where you should be. Content Plan. A better measure of your progress is the percentage of items in the Content Plan that you have addressed. Validation. Another measure of progress is how much of the proposal has been validated, based on what was said in the validation plan. This is also a measurement of how far you are towards fulfilling your quality goals and completing what the team decided is necessary in order to win. In the absence of other direction, using a red/yellow/green scale works well for communicating your status. As frequently as possible you set expectations with statements like these: I have completed some/about half/most/nearly all of the items in the Content Plan. I have a few yellow issues to address, but nothing that I would label red. I am ahead/on/behind schedule (and I think that I will/won’t catch up). Here is a list of issues I have identified as I’ve gone through my section and a list of assumptions I’ve made in order to work through them. I have discovered an issue that will slow me down and I could use help resolving it. While I’ve finished a draft of everything in the Content Plan, I’m still waiting for some items to be validated. Something has come up and I don’t think I will complete on time, but will complete by [date/time]. I need to speak with someone who is knowledgeable about [topic] so that I can address an item in my Content Plan. I have identified potential graphics. Do you want them now or with my section? At the end of any meeting or review, make sure that you clearly understand what action items you are responsible for. A follow-up conversation or email stating what you understand those items to be is a good idea. The more feedback you provide to the people trying to manage the chaotic environment of a proposal, the better things will be for everyone involved.

Since all of your competitors have the same RFP, you can expect them to at least be compliant. If you want to win, you must be more than merely compliant. People who are new to proposal writing, especially technical staff, often don’t know how to word their responses to RFP requirements. Even if they get advice like “make sure your response goes beyond mere compliance” they may not know how to proceed. Figuring out what words to use can seem really hard. Here is an example of how to respond to a simple RFP requirement and go beyond mere compliance. The RFP says: Software must be virus scanned before installing updates on the servers. It would be really easy to respond to this by saying: We will scan software for viruses before installing updates on the servers. This would be compliant. Just barely. But it’s certainly not going to impress your potential customer. It’s doesn’t tell them anything more than what they told you. Besides, everyone who has the RFP is going to respond with something that is at least compliant. Being merely compliant does nothing to discriminate you from your competition. And yet, some requirements are stated so simply that it’s hard not to respond with something like “We’ll do what you asked for.” When you don’t know what to say to go beyond mere compliance, try this formula: Who, what, where, how, when, and why. Using the example above, the response could become: Who will do it? Software will be virus scanned by our qualified technicians before installing updates on the servers. What will they do? Our qualified technicians will scan software for viruses using Norton Anti-Virus before installing updates on the servers. Where will they do it? Our qualified technicians will scan software for viruses using Norton Anti-Virus before installing updates on any servers at your facility. How will they do it? Our qualified technicians will scan software for viruses on a test system that is not connected to the network before installing any updates on servers at your facility. When will they do it? Any time new software must be installed, our qualified technicians will scan the software for viruses on a test system that is not connected to the network before installing any updates on servers at your facility. And the most important… Why will they do it? In order to ensure the reliability of your systems, and to make sure that they remain virus free, any time new software must be installed, our qualified technicians will scan the software for viruses on a test system that is not connected to the network before installing any updates on servers at your facility. Now compare this statement to the original, merely compliant version: We will scan software for viruses before installing updates on the servers. What a huge difference! If you were the customer, and had to pick between the two, which would you pick? Without doing anything else differently, you can discriminate yourself from your competition, simply by going beyond mere compliance. Here is another example: Requirement: Documentation shall be kept up-to-date. Response: Our software developers will use [insert name], a configuration management tool, to keep documentation updated and synchronized with new versions. [insert name] will provide a web-based repository where you will be able to view the documentation at any time. In addition, [insert name] will also ensure that documentation is updated with every new software update released. By keeping documentation up-to-date, we lower long-term maintenance costs and increase the quality of the software that we deliver to you. Remember that “why” is the most important question. It should make clear how to the customer will be impacted and show them the benefit of your approach. Writing benefit statements is usually the hardest thing for new proposal writers to get accustomed to. It may help to think in terms of results. Always make sure that you address the result of what you are proposing to do. If you think that the result is obvious or will simply provide what they are asking for, then dig deeper and show how what you will do will either deliver what they want or help them achieve their goals. In the example above, you have to ask yourself, “Why do they want the documentation kept up-to-date?” In software development, the reason is usually related to making sure that the code can be maintained. But it could also be related to user-friendliness and the training of new users.

Here is a simple approach that can not only help you achieve compliance, but can help you exceed compliance by answering all of the customer’s questions (including the ones they forgot to ask). Here is a simple approach to help you cover all the bases in your proposal. For each section/requirement that you must address, make sure you answer: who, what, where, how, when, and why. Repeat it until it rolls off your tongue and you have it memorized. Who: who will do the work, who will manage the work, who does the customer call if there is a problem, who is responsible for what What: what needs to be done/delivered, what will be required to do it, what can the customer expect, what it will cost Where: where will the work be done, where will it be delivered How: how will be work be done, how will it be deployed, how will it be managed, how will you achieve quality assurance and customer satisfaction, how will risks be mitigated, how long will it take, how will the work benefit the customer When: when will you start, when will key milestones be scheduled, when will the project be complete, when is payment due Why: why have you chosen the approaches and alternatives you have selected, why should the customer select you This simple little phrase (who, what, where, how, when, and why) can help you ensure that your proposal says everything needed to “answer the mail.” For each of the customer’s requirements, go through the list and you will probably have everything covered. You can use it for inspiration when writing, and you can use it like a checklist for reviewing a draft proposal. And you thought proposal writing was supposed to be hard!

Validating the review plan ensures that the approach to proposal quality is sufficient The Executive Sponsor determines the level of quality required for the proposal by reviewing the Validation Plan. The Executive Sponsor should consider whether the items in the Proposal Quality Validation Plan are sufficient to achieve the level of quality required. The Executive Sponsor may wish to increase (or decrease) the level of formality in reviews, the number of participants, or the number of items to be validated. Here is a checklist to help you ensure a thorough review of your Proposal Quality Validation Plan: ❏ List of validation items contains everything it should and has been customized to reflect the evaluation criteria and what you know about the customer, the opportunity, and the competitive environment ❏ Defined scope and outcome for each validation item is correct ❏ Method specified is sufficient ❏ Level of formality is sufficient ❏ Output is correct ❏ Schedule is correct ❏ List of participants is sufficient ❏ Leader of each item is identified ❏ Requirements for participation are defined and sufficient ❏ Whether any other notes or procedures should be specified

Creating a Proposal Quality Validation plan Once you have created your proposal quality criteria, you need to allocate them to reviews. Then the plan itself should be reviewed to ensure it meets standards and expectations In order to complete the plan, you need to: Collect and group items that can be assessed at the same time Allocate criteria to the milestones on your schedule Determine the best method for reviewing each item (individual, team, in-person, distributed, etc.) Assign and schedule reviews To make this as easy as possible, we have grouped our sample list of quality criteria according to milestones and have provided a Proposal Quality Validation Form. With your proposal schedule in hand, you can determine when to review each of the criteria. Simply complete a copy of the form for each review. The Proposal Quality Validation forms will tell your reviewers what they need to accomplish. They can use the same form to document the results of their review. The collection of forms constitutes your proposal review plan. This makes it easy to quickly prepare a written Proposal Quality Validation plan. You should validate the Proposal Quality Validation plan itself before implementing it. What is an acceptable level of quality assurance, number of reviews, or allocation of reviewers for one pursuit, may not be acceptable for another pursuit. It is a good idea to prepare a table that documents your company's quality standards based on the size, complexity, value or other facts for a given pursuit. For example, above a certain value you might require a certain number of people participate in the reviews, or require participation by certain executives.

Before you can create proposal criteria, you have to understand what it will take to winProposal Quality Validation starts with identifying what it will take to win. This is the standard used to measure quality against. The MustWin Process facilitates identifying what it will take to win by collecting the intelligence you will need during the pre-RFP phase. The MustWin Process will also guide you through preparing a list to document what it will take to win. This list is the first step in providing a set of quality criteria to measure your proposal against. It is also critical for developing your win strategies and the themes that will articulate to the customer why they should select you. Collectively, the items on your list should add up to what it will take to win the opportunity. Your “What it will take to win” list should include: The actions you must take The things you must know or information you must gather Anything you must have, prerequisites, or dependencies in order to complete the tasks The results you must achieve The following areas should be explored and considered in order to develop a list of items that define what it will take to win the opportunity. Within each area, consider what items should be on your “What it will take to win” list: Readiness at RFP Release: There is a great deal that you must know about the customer, the opportunity, the competitive environment, and even yourself in order to win. Most of this information should be collected during the pre-RFP phase so that you can act on it immediately when the RFP is released. Many of the questions asked during the MustWin Readiness Review process are designed to lead you towards knowing what it will take to win. You should mine the Readiness Review forms for inspiration for your “What it will take to win” list. Customer’s Evaluation Criteria: If the customer is conducting a formal evaluation, they should publish the criteria they will use to select the winner. Before the RFP is released, you should attempt to discover what those criteria will be. You can also use previous RFPs to provide clues. If they do not publish written evaluation criteria, then you should gather intelligence regarding what they think is important and what will impact their decision, preferably weighted or in order of (the customer’s) priority. The customer’s evaluation criteria are the most important consideration in designing the proposal, determining what you must do in writing in order to win, and assessing the quality of your proposal during development. Your “What it will take to win” list should include items related to responding to the customer’s evaluation criteria. Competitive Advantages: In order to win, you must be a better choice than any of your competitors. Competitive advantage can come from many sources, including offering superior benefits (and not merely better features), a proposal that achieves the highest evaluation score, an excellent relationship with the customer, and outstanding references. Your “What it will take to win” list should include all of the items related to finding, identifying, and articulating your competitive advantages. Win Strategies: Win strategies are the things you plan to do in order to win. An example is hiring a Project Manager with particular qualifications. Another might be opening a local office or teaming with a particular company. Win strategies can and should be related to achieving a competitive advantage. Everything that you must do to identify and implement your win strategies should make it onto your “What it will take to win” list. Themes: Themes are how you articulate why the customer should select you (as opposed to a competitor). They provide customers with reasons to justify their decision. Your themes will be based on a combination of the evaluation criteria, and your win strategies and competitive advantages. Your “What it will take to win” list should include identifying your themes, incorporating them into your proposal, and validating their implementation. Completion of Proposal Plans: Since planning is critical to winning, it makes sense that successfully preparing, validating, and implementing your proposal plans should make it on to your “What it will take to win” list. Execution: Follow-through is critical. This means you must track progress towards the completion of the plans and then validate that they have been executed successfully and that the desired outcomes are achieved.

How you are going to conduct your reviews should be planned. The MustWin Process makes it easy. You should not wait until the proposal is written to figure out how to review it. Instead, you should start with a Validation Plan that specifies how the proposal will be reviewed and provides a basis for measuring quality and progress. A Validation Plan takes the quality criteria based on what it will take to win and allocates them to a series of reviews. Creating the plan can be made checklist simple. Once prepared, the Validation Plan itself must be reviewed. The Proposal Manager is responsible for preparing the Proposal Quality Validation Plan. The Executive Sponsor is responsible for reviewing it (and thus setting the standard for quality). Implementing Proposal Quality Validation is as easy as 1, 2, 3… The first step is to create a written Proposal Quality Validation Plan. To do this, start by preparing a list that documents what it will take to win. You can use the sample list provided with the MustWin Process as a starting point. Next, list the criteria you will use to review the proposal. We have provided sample criteria as well. For each item that you need to validate, you need to determine when, where, and how the validation will be performed. To plan your reviews, allocate the criteria, either individually or collectively, to your schedule and assign reviewers using the form provided. The result is a written Proposal Quality Validation Plan that specifies what will be validated, how it will be validated, who will perform the validation, and when the validation will occur. The second step is to approve the written Proposal Quality Validation Plan. The Executive Sponsor and key stakeholders should review the plan to determine whether it is sufficient to achieve the level of quality required. The third and final step is to implement the Proposal Quality Validation Plan. This is essentially a checklist-driven process of elimination. You can measure the progress of your proposal based on how many items have been validated and checked off the list.

A written definition of proposal quality helps to get everyone on the same page The CapturePlanning.com MustWin Process assures quality by first defining it and then validating whether or not it was achieved. The MustWin Process defines proposal quality as: The degree to which a proposal implements all of the things you have determined are necessary in order to win. Using this definition forces you to: Identify what is necessary to win Review the proposal against what you have identified as being necessary to win This gives you a measurable way to assess proposal quality. This is critically important, and yet most proposal processes do not provide any definition of proposal quality, let alone one that is measurable or verifiable. Measuring your proposal quality enables you to: Measure your progress against what really matters, instead of just watching the clock run out Know whether you have created a quality proposal To achieve this, the MustWin Process guides you through turning what you know about what it will take to win into quality criteria. The quality of your proposal is measured against these criteria. Your progress towards creating a quality proposal is measured against how many of these criteria you have fulfilled. We have provided you a set of criteria that you can use as a starting point. Some criteria are more important than others. Some may not apply at all to a given proposal. The criteria that are most important to winning may vary from proposal to proposal.

Premium Content for PropLIBRARY Subscribers It amazes us that companies create proposals without ever having a written definition of proposal quality. So we've defined proposal quality for you and built our proposal quality validation process around it. Here are some more items from our MustWin Process library related to proposal quality validation: Sample quality criteria for proposal reviews. Implementing proposal quality validation. Guidance for itemizing what it will take to win and turning it into a list. How to create a proposal quality validation plan. Checklist for reviewing your proposal quality validation plan.

Our approach to quality involves double checking the things that are necessary to win, in order to make sure they are right. The MustWin Process validates quality continuously instead of waiting for key milestones. As you get closer to the deadline, the risk increases. By identifying what is necessary to win and then measuring progress and quality against it, you also ensure that reviews are more effective.

The number and names of the phases are not important. What really matters is that each phase has defined activity, roles/responsibilities, and a means to track performance. Marketing. Marketing is the combination of the things you do to make potential customers aware of you, and the things you do to discover and better understand your customers. Marketing takes place before the CapturePlanning.com MustWin Process starts. Lead Identification. Once marketing efforts result in a lead, the CapturePlanning.com MustWin Process can begin. Lead Qualification. The Process divides the time before the RFP is released into phases so progress can be tracked and measured. Intelligence Gathering. Each pre-RFP phase has specific goals and ends in a progress review. Intelligence accumulates with each phase. Bid Preparation. As RFP release draws closer, the Process turns the intelligence gathered into information that is ready for use in the proposal, which is the only way it can impact the closing of the sale. RFP Release. The Process is designed to prepare you like a runner at the starting blocks for the release of the RFP. Proposal Planning. Proposal activity is planned, but planning efforts are expedited and fully validated. Proposal Writing. The Process is designed to determine what should be written, provide the information writers will need, and guide and facilitate their efforts. Proposal Validation. Plans, goals, and execution are all validated to ensure that the proposal produced is the right proposal. Proposal Production. Proposal production is a separate activity from writing and is where the proposal in its final form is prepared. Submission. Delivery to the customer is verified. Post-Submission. The process provides for clarifications and questions received after proposal submission. Award. The process ends with the award of the contract.

The CapturePlanning.com MustWin Process organizes the opportunity pursuit lifecycle into phases. You can use this process in whole or in part, to supplement an existing process. The MustWin Process begins with the identification of a lead, and ends with the award of the opportunity. This chart shows how the process is organized, with both pre-RFP release and post-RFP release activities:

The CapturePlanning.com MustWin Process is an opportunity pursuit process that starts as soon as a lead is identified so that the way intelligence is gathered supports the closing of the sale with the submission of a proposal. Most “Must Wins” are already lost when the RFP comes out. Even companies who start early often find that time slips by and end up feeling unprepared when the RFP is released. The CapturePlanning.com MustWin Process provides you with a way to track and measure progress so that you can maintain momentum, achieve a competitive advantage, and position your company to win. The CapturePlanning.com MustWin Process provides: A means to get everyone on the same page. Written standards and processes to expedite the process. Clearly defined roles and responsibilities that make it easier to work together and set expectations. Planning tools to ensure that everyone has the information needed to execute their role. Tools to measure progress and provide constant feedback so that everyone knows where they stand. Validation to ensure that every aspect of the proposal is right. Applicability The MustWin Process is designed for written business proposals. While it's designed to meet the requirements of preparing government proposals, we avoid using government contracting jargon so that the process can be used by commercial firms or anyone with a non-government RFP. It can even be used for proposals where there is no RFP if you understand your customer’s expectations. There are many, many different kinds of proposals: information technology, engineering, landscaping, construction, grants, research, products, services, staffing, healthcare, etc. This process was not designed around a specific type or industry. We encourage you to customize it to reflect any specific requirements for your industry or offering. The questions that specify the intelligence to be collected for each of the Readiness Reviews are a good place to start any customization. What is a Must Win? A Must Win opportunity is critical to the company for either financial or strategic reasons. Recompetes are often Must Wins because the company relies on them financially and uses them as qualifications, and people’s jobs are often on the line. Must Wins can also be strategic, such as breaking into a new customer, releasing a new product, or launching a new service line/capability. In each of these cases, you need something that you can cite as a reference, so your first customers are critical to your success. They often merit extra effort to secure the win.

This process was designed to support the pursuit of a business opportunity that requires the development of a large, complex, RFP-based proposal that will be produced by a team of people. Description It also designed to meet the requirements of preparing government proposals. However, we avoid using government contracting jargon so that the process can be used by commercial firms or anyone with a non-government RFP. It can even be used for proposals where there is no RFP if you sufficiently understand your customer’s requirements. There are many, many different kinds of proposals: information technology, engineering, landscaping, construction, grants, research, products, services, staffing, healthcare, etc. This process was not designed around a specific type or industry. We encourage you to customize it to reflect any specific requirements for your industry or offering. The questions that specify the intelligence to be collected for each of the Readiness Reviews are a good place to start any customization. What is a Must Win? A Must Win opportunity is critical to the company for either financial or strategic reasons. Recompetes are often Must Wins because the company relies on them financially and uses them as qualifications, and people’s jobs are often on the line. Must Wins can also be strategic, such as breaking into a new customer, releasing a new product, or launching a new service line/capability. In each of these cases, you need something that you can cite as a reference, so your first customers are critical to your success. They often merit extra effort to secure the win.

Introduction to the MustWin Process The MustWin Process provides documentation for pursuing and capturing important business opportunities The MustWin Process was first published in 2007 as a workbook that enabled you to simply begin at page one and start completing the steps and activities. As a “workbook,” it was intended to be used by those participating in the pursuit, and not just sit on a shelf. Today, the MustWin Process is published online. It is still simple, practical, and useful, only you click through it. This enables us to link to topics and information as needed, so you can go straight to the issue you are facing and find everything we've published that's relevant. The MustWin Process focuses on: Discovering what it will take to win in writing Turning that into quality criteria to guide proposal writing Providing quality validation that traces back to what it will take to win The MustWin Process scales to support any size proposal or proposals without an RFP on any schedule. It supports government proposals, but without the use of government contract jargon. It is also used for international proposals. It is intended for use on specific business opportunity pursuits that require a proposal to win. It starts with lead identification, provides support for the pre-RFP phase of pursuit, and at RFP release provides the process you need to win the proposal.

Instructions Answer the following questions to provide the context for writing the technical approach after the RFP is released. Keep your answers short. The less narrative the better. After the RFP is released, your responses here will enable the Proposal Content Plan to be prepared more quickly and to contain better instructions for the authors who will write the proposal narrative. Questions that drive your strategies Since this is intended for pre-RFP response, anticipating the final outline is difficult. You can however, anticipate the topics that will be relevant to a Staffing Plan. Apply each of the following questions to each of the topic below. What results are the customer looking for? What matters to the customer about the technical solution? What will we offer or do that’s different from our competitors? What will we offer or do that’s different from the previous contract (if any)? Why are we doing things the way we are? What trade-offs will we face, how will we make them, and why make them that way? What will the customer get out of working with us as opposed to a competitor? What will the customer get as a result of our qualifications? How do our capabilities exceed the requirements of the RFP and those of our customers? What will the customer get as a result of them? What risks are the customer concerned about? What risks are we concerned about? Why should the customer trust our technical approach? In addition, you should review the Technical Approach guidance in PropLIBRARY’s Recipe Library.

Instructions Answer the following questions to provide the context for writing the Staffing Plan after the RFP is released. Keep your answers short. The less narrative the better. After the RFP is released, your responses here will enable the Proposal Content Plan to be prepared more quickly and to contain better instructions for the authors who will write the proposal narrative. Questions that drive your strategies Since this is intended for pre-RFP response, anticipating the final outline is difficult. You can however, anticipate the topics that will be relevant to a Staffing Plan. Apply each of the following questions to each of the topic below. What matters to the customer about the staffing plan? What will we offer or do that’s different from our competitors? How will we do things differently? Are our staff immediately available? What is our approach to filling proposals that aren’t already filled at contract start? What is our approach to handling turnover? Why are we staffing this project the way we are? What results can the customer expect from working with us? What risks are the customer concerned about? What risks are we concerned about? Why should the customer trust us?

Instructions Answer the following questions to provide the context for writing the Management Plan after the RFP is released. Keep your answers short. The less narrative the better. After the RFP is released, your responses here will enable the Proposal Content Plan to be prepared more quickly and to contain better instructions for the authors who will write the proposal narrative. Questions that drive your strategies Since this is intended for pre-RFP response, anticipating the final outline is difficult. You can however, anticipate the topics that will be relevant to a Management Plan. Apply each of the following questions to each of the topic below. What matters to the customer about the management approach? How will we manage things in ways that are different from our competitors? Why are we approaching the management of this project the way we are? What results can the customer expect from working with us? What risks are the customer concerned about? What risks are we concerned about? Why should the customer trust us? In addition, you should review the Management Plan topics in PropLIBRARY’s Recipe Library. These include: Teaming Project Management Organization Risk Project Schedule Tools, methodologies, and techniques Customer involvement Security Legacy Issues Change Management Training and Support Deliverables Transition Plan Quality

Instructions Answer the following questions to provide the context for writing about Past Performance and Corporate Experience after the RFP is released. Keep your answers short. The less narrative the better. After the RFP is released, your responses here will enable the Proposal Content Plan to be prepared more quickly and to contain better instructions for the authors who will write the proposal narrative. Past performance and corporate experience and usually evaluated as separate things. Past performance is simply a reference check, but is also evaluated for relevance. Corporate experience may or may not also be evaluated, but it is usually a good idea to show the depth and breadth of your experience, often using matrices and statistics to summarize it. Questions that drive your strategies Since this is intended for pre-RFP response, anticipating the final outline is difficult. You can however, anticipate the topics that will be relevant to a Staffing Plan. Apply each of the following questions to each of the topic below. What matters to the customer about our past performance (typically relevance/size/scope/complexity and reference check)? What in our experience is a differentiator? How does our experience prove our ability to deliver on schedule and within budget? What trade-offs did we face, how did we make them, and why did we make them that way? How does your experience prove you follow through on the promises you’ve made in the proposal? What will the customer get as a result of your experience? What performance risks are the customer concerned about, and how did we handle them in the past? What does your experience demonstrate about your ability to manage risks? How does your experience prove that you are trustworthy? Which references will you use? What are the strengths/weaknesses for each one in the areas of: Relevance (size/scope/complexity) Reference Will you include references from your subcontractors? How do the strengths/weaknesses of our past performance selections support or contradict our other strategies? Do we have any gaps? Do we need to select different projects or conside adding a teaming partner?

The best way to get an early start is to prepare to articulate the strategies, points of emphasis, and context that should be incorporated into your response to the RFP requirements. Description The best way to get an early start on the proposal is not to try writing to the anticipated requirements. In fact, the less narrative you produce before you see the RFP the better. You want the text of the proposal to be built from the ground up around what it will take to win, according to the RFP instructions and evaluation criteria. Until you have the RFP, you can’t do that. What you can do is prepare to articulate the strategies, points of emphasis, and context that should be incorporated into your response to the RFP requirements. For each section of a typical proposal, we have prepared a list of questions that should help you draw out the right information. The questions in each section are designed to provoke thought and not to produce specific answers in a specific format. Feel free to add questions if you think of something related. Step 1. Answer the Questions For each question, make a bullet list of possible answers. If you can’t answer a question or aren’t sure what it means, then skip it. It’s probably not a driver of your strategies. If you think of something and aren’t sure what question to put it under, just put it at the end. Capturing your ideas is far more important than matching them up to questions. You can put in notes, annotations, placeholders, action items, and even questions for other participants. You can even put in weaknesses that you aren’t sure how to counter. Think of this as a container that will be passed around until you have everything in it that you need. Try to identify what things will drive the strategies and context for the proposal. Don’t try to nail the final wording, just identify the elements. If the same element could go under different questions, just put it under one of them. There is no need to be redundant with your responses. Step 2. Convert the answers into strategies and context The goal of the effort is to arrive at RFP release being able to describe the strategies, conclusions, and context that the authors should substantiate. This should enable you to prepare instructions for proposal writers that go being simply responding to the RFP requirements, and instead instruct them how to respond to the RFP requirements in a way that: Explains how your response to the RFP requirements matters Shows what the customer will get out of what you propose Differentiates what you propose from the competition Substantiates the conclusions you want the customer to reach Identifies the key points of emphasis you’d like to make In the final version, you want to have the source material to improve the instructions you will give to the proposal writers when you prepare the Proposal Content Plan after the RFP is released. Premium Content for PropLIBRARY Subscribers Questions to answer when preparing to write the: Staffing Plan Past performance response Management Plan Technical Approach

Sometimes proposal writing is done by a specialist, and sometimes it's done by a subject matter expert. A Proposal Writer: Writes finished copy. Helps plan the contents of your sections before actually writing them. Incorporates detailed instructions into your writing. Delivers your sections by their deadlines. A Subject Matter Expert: Describes approaches and provide technical details. Delivers information and details instead of finished copy. Makes sure the proposal is technically accurate and complete. Makes sure the solution is executable and best-in-class. Proposal Writers create the proposal under the leadership of the Capture Manager and Proposal Manager, in much the same way that musicians create the music under the direction of a composer and a conductor. Proposal Writers are generally responsible for creating the text, with formatting being performed by Production Staff. Subject Matter Experts bring knowledge to the proposal. They may write to deliver that knowledge, but are not responsible for providing finished copy. Instead they are responsible for providing complete, accurate technical details that another Writer can incorporate into a finished proposal section. People are depending on you to deliver finished sections of the proposal, according to the instructions of your assignment, and to deliver it by the assignment deadline. In order to complete your assignment, you may have to invent some or all of the approaches to fulfilling the project. If you cannot fulfill any part of your assignments by the deadline it is vital that you say so loudly, clearly, and early so there’s a chance they can find someone to fill the gap. Writers may also be Subject Matter Experts. It’s a special bonus when that’s the case. However, not all Subject Matter Experts can prepare finished copy. Sometimes a Subject Matter Expert can be paired up with a Writer in order to get the right combination of knowledge and writing skills. The MustWin process is designed to identify everything that should be included in a proposal section and check it to make sure it’s complete and correct prior to its being written. For some Writers, this will be a tremendous help. You will not have to work from a blank page, and will be able to easily check what you’ve written to see if it fulfills what you were asked to do. For some Writers, this will seem like adding extra steps when you could just write it. Those extra steps are needed to objectively define whether a completed section fulfills the assignment and to prevent Writers from having to do extensive rework. Book Bosses/Volume Leads. Large proposal efforts with multiple contributors per section are often organized with a leader for each section. These leaders are commonly referred to as a Book Boss or Volume Lead. They are typically responsible for developing the solution as well as overseeing the writing.

The Proposal Manager: Has the lead role for developing the proposal process, plans, schedule, and assignments. Gets involved shortly before the RFP is released to help ensure that intelligence gathered is staged for use in the proposal and that plans can be drafted. Should avoid putting pen to paper and personally creating the proposal. Instead, the Proposal Manager should manage the process, staff, and other resources to develop the proposal. When the RFP is released, the Proposal Manager should have everything staged so that the proposal can take off like a runner at the starting blocks. This can only be accomplished if the Proposal Manager is involved early enough before the RFP is released. The Proposal Manager is responsible for defining and overseeing the proposal development process. This means the Proposal Manager is in charge of assignments and schedules. The Capture Manager will identify the staff who will participate in writing the proposal. The Proposal Manager will guide them through the process. The Proposal Manager and the Capture Manager form a partnership to develop the winning bid. The Capture Manager is responsible for deciding what the winning approaches will be. The Proposal Manager is responsible for getting them on paper in a form that will win.