Corporate support

You should take advantage of all of the resources available within your company.  These may include:

Contracts Specialist.  A Contracts Specialist is almost always involved in responding to a Government RFP.  A company may or may not use them in response to commercial solicitations. When available, a Contracts Specialist should review the draft and final RFPs.  Contractual issues like Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI) can be a Bid/No Bid determination.  A Contracts Specialist should also review any contractual terms specified in the proposal and may also review the terms of any subcontracting or teaming arrangements.

The Contracts Specialist should participate in the validation of the proposal plans, to ensure that they have adequate opportunities for review.

Pricing Specialists.

 Most large, complex proposals use Pricing Specialists who have the accounting expertise, spreadsheet skills, and access to sensitive cost data necessary to complete the pricing proposal.  If the Pricing Specialist is involved with assessing the pricing of the competition or if the pricing involves collecting a large amount of data, then they may need to be involved before the RFP is released.  Otherwise, the Pricing Specialist will get involved at RFP release.  The pricing proposal needs to be validated and developed through stages, just like the proposal narrative.  The initial pricing model (structure, strategy, and approach) should be validated as a plan prior to completing the draft.  The draft should be validated and then the numbers refined to produce the final pricing.  Typically, the Pricing Specialist will be responsible for preparing the entire price section or volume.  Often, at least in government proposals, the pricing volume must be packaged separately from the other volumes and sealed.  The Proposal Manager needs to discuss the preparation of the pricing and incorporate the needs of the Pricing Specialist into the schedule, validation plan, and other proposal plans.  The Capture Manager will need to meet regularly with the Pricing Specialist to provide data and guidance towards preparing a winning bid.

 

Human Resources/Recruiting.  Some RFPs require you to provide the names and/or resumes of staff being bid.  Sometimes you will have to recruit staff in order to do this.  You should take advantage of your company’s Human Resources/Recruiting function to assist with this.

Facilities.  You need the help of your Facilities Manager to locate space for the proposal, obtain badges/entry clearances for consultants and subcontractors, and locate space for the project after award.