Often, preparing a proposal is the most stressful and costly part of the business development process. The way to reduce both the stress and the cost is to develop an understanding and methodology for producing winning proposals and use it for every proposal. With the “learning as we do it” and “let’s try it a different way this time” eliminated or reduced, proposal creation and production can evolve to a reasonable and practical business process.

• Introduction to Proposals

In this training module we review the critically important steps the government takes in preparing a RFP. Steps, that if you understand them, can give your firm a winning edge over many competitors. Based on these steps, we review the basics of how to read a RFP and the first task to be completed in the creation of a winning proposal.

• Value Delivery in Proposals

The understanding of why your firm is valuable to clients and how you deliver that value is the single most important facet in creating consistent, long-term revenue growth. When that understanding permeates a firm, it becomes a market leader. We go through the fundamentals of value delivery strategy and how it is used in a proposal.

Our approach is derived from the work of Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema as presented in their book “The Discipline of Market Leaders,” published by Perseus Books in 1995.

This concept is used in several, different training programs. In each case, it is modified to be aligned with the objectives of that program.

• Best Value

Many government contractors do not, strangely, have a comprehensive understanding of the best value concept and how it works in procurements. Understanding what the government means by “best value” is the key to developing an effective best value proposal.

• Discriminators

Discriminators are the thin ice of proposal writing. Poorly thought out and prepared discriminators will almost always result in losing. Correctly prepared discriminators, following a rigorous analysis and development process, are the elements a Source Selection Evaluation Board is trained to focus on in selecting a winning proposal.

• Proposal Writing

Efficient proposal writing follows the same basic road map or defined process for each proposal. The time to prepare the proposal or the value of the potential contract may vary greatly but the basic steps and procedures are the same. In this module we go through the fundamental steps and process for creating and producing a proposal.

• Proposal Structure

In this training module we review the basic structure of a government proposal and define the typical outline for each section or volume for developing a winning proposal.

• Proposal Tips

How to write to win. We review a number of techniques for creating winning proposals that you can use to put distance between your firm and your competitors.

• Proposal Management

This module consists of a review of the content and use of a Proposal Creation and Production Plan.

• Proposal Reviews

Proposal reviews are called many things - Pink, Blue, Green, Gold and Black are names in common use. Regardless of what they are named, the review process at each phase of proposal development must be structured and executed to produce specific and useful results. The training walks through how to organize, staff, plan, chair, conduct and capture results of each type of review.