34 reasons why people don’t complete their proposal assignments on time and 18 things you can try to do something about it

Sometimes it seems like the proposal schedule is a work of fiction or a plan that has failed before it has even begun. Sometimes you know the moment you give a proposal assignment that it will not be met.  Sometimes you and the person getting the assignment both know it is going to be ignored and no one is going to enforce the deadline. When this happens routinely, it can make being a proposal manager discouraging and feel pointless.

The trap you should avoid falling into is to assume that if only the deadlines were better enforced, it would all be better. There is more going on than mere deadline compliance. Many of the reasons that people miss their deadlines can be mitigated. It may not be hopeless. 

Here are some of the reasons why people miss their proposal writing assignment deadlines:

1. They don't have the information they need
2. There is a disconnect between their expectations and yours
3. Their current work wasn’t completed or delegated before they got the assignment
4. They have competing priorities
5. They need an uninterrupted block of time
6. They need someone else's input
7. They can't make the decisions required
8. They're not sure what you want from them
9. They're not interested in the proposal
10. They have no incentive to focus on it
11. They think it's a waste of effort
12. They don't know how 
13. They are too important
14. The RFP confuses them
15. The assignment is too complicated and they are overwhelmed by it
16. They don't understand the reader they should be writing for
17. There are trade-offs, options, and considerations, and they don't know what to do about them
18. They keep finding ways to make it better
19. They can’t separate how they think things should be done from what the RFP asks for
20. They don't know where to start
21. No one has accounted for all of the ingredients that will go into their section
22. They're trying to architect the solution while writing about it
23. Many people need to have input and they don't know how to approach incorporating it
24. They have a day job and the proposal isn’t it
25. They don’t know the subject they’ve been asked to write about
26. They’ve been given too much time to write it, got distracted, and ended up procrastinating
27. Their assignment simply specified a proposal section and that’s not very inspiring
28. They’re too busy looking for something previously written to write what’s needed now
29. They don’t understand how much work needs to be done after they complete their assignment
30. They see the deadline as a progress check and not a completion milestone
31. They know there are holes they will be unable to fill, so what does a completion milestone even mean?
32. They see their assignment as a best effort goal
33. Nobody set any expectations for them regarding their involvement in the proposal prior to getting the assignment
34. There is simply more that needs to be done to complete the assignments, than people assigned to do it

Most of these are solvable problems for the proposal manager. But they aren’t solved by demanding that people meet their deadlines. They are solved by delivering the right information or guidance at the right time. And the failure to deliver that information is a proposal management process failure. Some of them are cultural and depend on how the organization has set expectations. But they point to possibilities that can help get assignments completed on time. Try asking yourself what can you do to:

1. Prepare yourself and the writers before giving assignments
2. Help people make sense of the RFP
3. Help people balance their priorities
4. Ensure the information and inputs people will need are there when they need them
5. Surface and track impediments and issues slowing down the writing
6. Eliminate distractions for contributors
7. Accelerate the act of writing
8. Accelerate figuring out what to offer
9. Separate designing the offering from writing about it
10. Give writers the information and guidance they need in addition to their assignments
11. Ensure that all stakeholders have the same expectations
12. Enable proposal authors to get it right on the first draft
13. Prevent surprises during draft reviews
14. Change the culture
15. Explain the importance of growth and the impact on ROI
16. Make their job easier
17. Demonstrate the ROI of adequate resourcing
18. Create an objective measure of success for what they are writing

Why haven’t proposal managers already done these things? They probably have done some of them. But many of them are continuous efforts and not the kind of thing you only have to do once. 

It turns out that their reasons for not having done them are the same as the list of reasons above for why proposal writers miss their deadlines. So maybe a little empathy is called for. Instead of focusing your proposal management process on deadline pressure, try focusing it on the flow of information and guidance. Try focusing it on anticipating issues and helping each other.

Deadline enforcement will be a constant struggle that you can’t win. Deadlines can always be met by sacrificing quality. Meeting deadlines requires a process and not an assignment. That process should be built around helping each other to win the proposal.