Chapter 11
Effective Proposal Management
Your ability to prepare a winning proposal will be no better than the quality of the tools you use to plan and manage the proposal effort. The six documents described in Chapters 9 and 10 and their use can be summarized as follows:
Program Requirements Document—Summarizes bid opportunity, key technical requirements, and program schedule. It is used to coordinate bid efforts and communicate basic program requirements to proposal team members.
Proposal Requirements Document—Identifies proposal organization, volumes, and attachments and gives specific instructions for proposal preparation in terms of font type and size, spacing, margins, page limits, packaging, and delivery. We use this information to organize and produce the proposal to ensure we comply with RFP instructions.
Evaluation Criteria Document—Shows the relative importance of evaluation factors and subfactors. We use it to set initial target page counts for proposal sections and as a guide to determine where to put maximum emphasis.
Proposal Outline—Provides an outline for the entire proposal, determines the order in which proposal topics are to be addressed in the proposal, and defines proposal paragraph headings and numbering.
Proposal Requirements Matrix—Provides a full-text narrative of all RFP requirements organized against the proposal outline. It defines the mandatory content of each proposal section and serves as the primary document to determine whether the resulting proposal adequately responds to RFP requirements.
Author Guide (Sheet 1)—Provides a detailed outline of each proposal section and identifies potential section graphics. Used by authors to plan their writing assignments and by the technical volume manager or proposal manager to ensure an adequate plan exists before an author begins writing.
Author Guide (Sheet 2)—Identifies section themes, discriminators, features and benefits, and risk mitigation strategies. Its purpose is to ensure the inclusion of information that will enable the proposal to receive the maximum number of evaluated strengths, avoid weaknesses, and achieve a low proposal risk rating. Sheet 2 is also used to determine whether the final proposal contains the planned information necessary to receive a favorable evaluation.
These documents collectively define proposal organization, format, and content. Preparing them properly and following them judiciously practically guarantees you will produce a proposal fully responsive to all RFP requirements. Sometimes that alone is enough to win.
Two additional proposal planning documents—a proposal responsibility matrix and a proposal schedule—will help you monitor and manage daily proposal progress.
PROPOSAL RESPONSIBILITY MATRIX
The proposal responsibility matrix shows the person responsible for each proposal preparation requirement. The easiest way to develop a responsibility matrix is to paste the proposal outline into a table. Then assign a person responsible for every single section and subsection of the proposal outline.
The core capture team will fill the roles of proposal manager, technical volume manager, contracts manager, and cost volume manager. Individual author responsibility is then assigned to cover every remaining proposal requirement. Also plan to include page count allocations in the responsibility matrix. For page-limited proposals, use the relative weights of evaluation criteria from the evaluation criteria document to calculate a target page estimate. Then factor this by the amount of information being requested by Section L for each section. Remember to allocate pages for section and volume introductions.
Responsibility needs to be assigned for every proposal volume and attachment. You can use the list of volumes, sections, and attachments in the proposal requirements document as a starting point. For cases where detailed narrative is required, such as the technical volume, you can use the proposal outline to create the responsibility matrix.
Figure 11-1 provides a sample responsibility matrix using the outline for section 2.2, Training System Support Center, of the proposal discussed in Chapter 10. The completed matrix should cover all proposal volumes and sections, including any required attachments, such as statements of work, integrated master schedule, risk management plan, etc. A responsible person must be assigned to every item of the proposal outline. Whenever two or more people collaborate on a section, assign primary responsibility to one of them. Once you are finished, personal responsibility will have been assigned to every proposal requirement.
Figure 11-1. Sample Responsibility Matrix for Section 2.2 of the Proposal Outline
The value of a responsibility matrix should be self-evident. I have worked numerous proposals where a proposal section or attachment was not completed either because it was never assigned to anyone or because the assigned person did not know it was his or her responsibility. To circumvent this problem, assign personal responsibility for every proposal requirement. If you are really anal, send an email copy of the matrix to everyone listed in the matrix. Ask them to read the email and respond back that they recognize and accept their proposal responsibility.
DETAILED PROPOSAL SCHEDULE
Proposal schedules have three levels or tiers. The first tier is a schedule for the overall proposal. The second tier is a separate schedule for each proposal volume or major section. The final tier is a detailed schedule that includes every item contained in your proposal outline.
Tier 1 Proposal Schedule
Tier 1, or the overall proposal schedule, is developed during the pre-proposal phase. It is then adjusted to reflect any subsequent changes in the draft or final RFP. Tier 1 schedules include only major proposal activities and milestones. They are used to coordinate the overall proposal effort. All lower-tier schedules are keyed to the Tier 1 schedule.
Key variables used to build an overall proposal schedule include:
Amount of time allotted by the government to prepare your proposal
Number of proposal drafts you plan to write in addition to the final version
Number and type of proposal reviews
Any required management reviews
Time to prepare and deliver the proposal to the government.
Be realistic in estimating the amount of time required to complete proposal tasks. Leave a little slack in your schedule to accommodate unforeseen contingencies. Things always end up taking longer than you planned.
Some common mistakes to avoid include:
Scheduling a proposal review before authors have had adequate time to prepare responsive proposal sections
• Expecting authors to include everything—themes, strategy, features/benefits, etc.—in first draft proposal material
Trying to squeeze in more proposal iterations than time will reasonably allow
Failing to recognize the dependency between the technical and cost proposals and that many technical authors are also responsible for preparing staffing and cost estimates
Failing to allow enough time after the final proposal review for final editing and quality assurance.
Generally, I prefer three proposal iterations: two drafts and a final. Ideally, the first draft proposal is prepared in response to a draft RFP and before the final RFP is released. Otherwise, you may be hard-pressed to complete two drafts after the final RFP arrives and still allow enough time for reviews and final proposal preparation.
Today, most government agencies allow a response time between 30 and 45 days. Some task-order RFPs allow less than 30 days, and some major programs give bidders more than 45 days. Figure 11-2 provides a sample overall proposal schedule based on either a 45-day or a 30-day response time (numbers in parentheses are for a 30-day response). The sample includes a draft proposal, an internal review, and revisions prior to the first formal review (red team). Time is allotted to make corrections based on the red team review and then do a final edit before production and delivery.
Figure 11-2. Sample Proposal Schedule for 45- and 30-Day Response Times
For the 45-day schedule, five days are devoted to preparation, 12 days for the first draft, one day for a quick pink team review, and then six days to revise the draft before the red team review. Three days are allotted to prepare for and conduct the red team review. Six days are given to correct deficiencies detected by the red team; then another seven days are allotted to verify red team revisions have been incorporated and to complete a final, in-process gold team review and edit (see Chapter 15). Finally, three days are allotted to produce the final proposal and perform a final quality check. The remaining two days are devoted to packaging the proposal and delivering it to the customer. This gives a total of 29 of the 45 days to prepare the proposal, with the remaining 16 days allocated to preparation, reviews, production, and delivery.
For the 30-day schedule, activities are more compressed. Only a single pass is made for the first draft proposal, with no revisions performed before the red team review. For this schedule, 22 days are devoted to preparing, correcting, and editing the proposal, and eight days are allotted for preparation, review, and final production.
It should be clear from either schedule that precious little time is available to prepare your proposal. Therefore, the more work you can accomplish before the RFP is released, the better.
Tier 2 Proposal Schedule
The Tier 2 schedule is keyed to the milestone events of the Tier 1 schedule. It provides a separate schedule for each proposal volume and includes a finer level of detail for proposal activities. Proposal activities for the technical volume, for example, differ from those required for the past performance, cost, and contracts volume. Each requires its own detailed schedule.
A Tier 2 schedule for the technical proposal requires a breakout of major technical volumes, sections, attachments, or additional technical requirements like the preparation of a statement of work. Some technical proposals consist of multiple volumes, such as management, engineering, and logistics, or the development of plans, schedules, or specifications that are included as part of the technical proposal. Each major technical requirement must be scheduled separately to allow easy monitoring of proposal progress and to help ensure a coordinated technical effort. This is especially important when there is a sequential dependency between two or more sections of the technical proposal. For example, if you must finish preparing a product specification before completing a section of the technical proposal, this must be accounted for in your Tier 2 proposal schedule.
Your schedule for the cost and contracts volume will be determined by the specific cost volume requirements dictated by the RFP, the type of procurement, your own internal cost-estimating process, and required internal reviews. Some RFPs require only a completed Section B. Others require considerable cost volume narrative, including a basis of estimate for each area of your proposed cost. These individual cost activities must be scheduled. In addition, the cost estimate is directly dependent on your proposed technical solution.
The same people writing the technical proposal may be required to provide input into the cost estimating process. The Tier 2 schedule is the place to schedule individual costing activities and to show their relationship, if any, to the technical proposal schedule. A common mistake that proposal teams make is to allow the final technical solution to remain in flux until the last minute. With insufficient time remaining, the cost volume team then is unable to develop and document an adequate cost estimate. This may cause government evaluators to downgrade your proposal due to perceived cost risk or a lack of traceability between your proposed technical solution and your bid cost. If this happens, you are surrendering competitive advantage to the competition.
Another factor in building a Tier 2 cost volume schedule is the type of internal cost reviews to be conducted, especially those given to senior management. If you work in an organization that is part of a larger corporate structure, you will probably need to schedule time for corporate review and approval.
If a past performance volume is required, a separate schedule will be required for this volume. Sometimes, the past performance volume has to be delivered before the rest of the proposal. Many RFPs also include a past performance questionnaire that must be sent to the customers responsible for the contracts cited in your past performance volume. Questionnaires should be scheduled and sent out as soon as possible after you receive the RFP. You are responsible for ensuring the questionnaires are completed and returned to the procuring agency by the deadline specified in the RFP.
Tier 3 Proposal Schedule
The third tier proposal schedule is a detailed day-by-day schedule. Tier 3 schedules are required for every proposal section where detailed narrative is required. At a minimum, this includes the technical proposal and all of its attachments. An easy way to develop a Tier 3 schedule is to schedule each activity contained in the proposal responsibility matrix. Build the Tier 3 schedule for only the next approaching proposal milestone. To illustrate, the responsibility matrix from Figure 11-1 is shown again in Figure 11-3. A column has been added to the right to show the due date for each proposal section.
Figure 11-3. Sample Responsibility Matrix with Due Dates Added
As shown in Figure 11-3, Jones has several proposal assignments. Each needs to be scheduled. Moreover, the schedule due dates should not all occur at the end of the total allotted schedule. If 14 days are allotted for a first draft proposal with a scheduled due date of October 1, the individual schedule for Jones might look like this:
Section 2.2.2 Due: September 22
Section 2.2.3 Due: September 28 (has three subsections)
Section 2.2.4 Due: October 1
Once we schedule a due date for each section and author, we have a complete Tier 3 schedule for the proposal milestone being addressed.
Tier 3 schedules focus on the next proposal milestone to be achieved. For example, completion dates would be entered for the first draft proposal only until that milestone was achieved. Thereafter, completion dates would be entered for the next proposal milestone. This enables individual daily schedules to be based on the amount of work to be accomplished within the boundaries of milestone and Tier 2 schedules.
My preference for establishing Tier 3 schedules is to ask individual proposal authors to schedule each of their assigned proposal sections within the boundaries of the milestone date. This gives authors the freedom to assess schedules and manage their own workload. The only caveat is that not everything can be scheduled to be due on the last day before the milestone. Authors who have more than one assignment must spread them over the available timeframe.
Having a day-by-day proposal schedule may seem to be an unnecessary level of detail. It is not. Time is precious. Therefore, it is critical to identify problems early enough to solve them before they negatively affect the proposal. A Tier 3 schedule also enables individual proposal sections to be reviewed as they are completed versus waiting until the milestone date. Authors receive timely feedback both to correct completed material and to guide preparation of future proposal sections. Finally, building a daily proposal schedule often reveals shortfalls in proposal resources that are not evident otherwise. An author may not notice the magnitude of his or her assigned tasks until they start building a daily schedule. Again, this enables the early identification of potential problems while sufficient time remains to solve them.
Once a proposal milestone has been achieved, develop a new Tier 3 schedule that gets you to the next milestone.
MANAGING DAILY PROPOSAL PROGRESS
Time is our single greatest enemy when it comes to preparing a winning proposal. We use the integrated responsibility matrix and Tier 3 schedules to measure proposal progress against plan through daily proposal status meetings. The purpose of these meetings is twofold. First, they permit daily monitoring of proposal progress. Second, they create a setting and forum to foster daily communication among proposal team members.
The proposal manager conducts a daily proposal status meeting at the same time each day, preferably late in the day. Most people are more productive in the morning. Save this time for work on the proposal. Normally these meetings should last no longer than 15 to 20 minutes.
Each meeting begins by having each person report progress toward his or her individual proposal assignment. Every proposal team member will have a scheduled due date for each individual assignment, as illustrated in Figure 11-3. Have each person report the status (percent complete) of each incomplete proposal assignment and either verify that he or she is on track to meet the individual schedule or state the reason why not. The purpose of asking for the reason is not to determine whether the excuse for being late is acceptable. Instead, the reason is used to determine what corrective action is required to return to schedule.
Everyone is responsible for meeting schedules and must identify immediately any potential schedule slippage. This is the time to highlight any resource shortfalls or issues that could jeopardize proposal schedule or quality. Record each issue as an action item. Assign responsibility for each action item to a capture team manager, and set a date when the action is to be completed. Review the status of open action items at each meeting. Actions that require coordination or authority beyond the capability of individual capture team managers should be assigned to the proposal manager or capture team leader.
By monitoring proposal status daily, you can identify potential problems early and implement corrective action before they turn into a disaster. This also affords an opportunity to identify individual team members who may be struggling with their proposal assignment or a situation where available resources are inadequate. In either case, implement actions to remedy the problem.
Daily proposal meetings also enable timely team communication. Use them to discuss any issues that affect the entire team, including any changes in technical approach, proposal formatting, or customer requirements. If an issue requires a detailed discussion that involves only a subset of the proposal team, schedule a separate meeting so you do not take up the time of the entire team.
BASICS OF PROPOSAL MANAGEMENT
Managing a proposal to the government is among life’s most demanding challenges. It is not for the weak of heart, nor is it something sane people do for very long. Yet there is no doubt that the proposal manager plays a crucial role. His or her ability to effectively orchestrate the seemingly infinite number of tasks required to prepare a proposal has a direct impact on the success of your bid efforts. There is no substitute for talent and experience or the demonstrated ability to lead teams. Having an established proposal process in place, along with the necessary proposal development tools, is another essential ingredient of proposal management success.
The proposal manager, in addition to orchestrating the seemingly unending number of tasks required to prepare a proposal, must decide in advance how to manage the proposal team and create an effective work environment. Within this context, he or she will continuously battle issues like maintaining the proposal schedule, keeping the team on track to prepare a completely responsive proposal, and maintaining a system of effective communications.
The proposal manager must be prepared to deal with a host of management issues. For example, how will you handle a situation in which a proposal member is not capable of performing the assigned proposal task? What will be your policy for missed deadlines? How will you deal with interpersonal conflict on the team? Decide in advance. Determine your proposal policy, set a work schedule, and develop the ground rules that define the type of working environment you plan to establish. Communicate this information to the proposal team so everyone is reading from the same page.
Effective proposal management is yet another brick in the house of competitive advantage. Do it well and you will succeed more often than not. Stumble and the entire team will fall with you.
Management Style
Apart from the capture team roles and responsibilities previously discussed in Chapter 6, proposal managers play three separate roles: coach, cheerleader, and commandant. The key is to know when to play each role.
As coach, the proposal manager has the job of ensuring that all players are properly prepared and equipped to perform their assigned proposal tasks. This includes providing proposal team training, developing tools to help proposal authors, and giving authors timely feedback about their performance.
As cheerleader, the proposal manager must encourage the proposal team. This is especially important when things are not going well, like after a devastating red team review, a tiresome succession of long workdays, or the demoralizing effect of an RFP amendment that requires a major change to the proposal. When morale has taken a nose dive, consider doing something to boost the team’s spirit. Bring in hot-fudge sundaes or banana splits; do something silly like wearing a funny hat or not shaving until the proposal is due; start sending emails that contain funny or amusing stories/jokes to everyone; be creative. Even if your efforts don’t work, they will likely be appreciated.
As commandant, the proposal manager must often make difficult and unpopular decisions. He or she must occasionally push the team beyond its natural endurance level or confront an author who is not meeting schedule. In other instances, the proposal manager must impersonate Attila the Hun to get timely support from other parts of the organization.
Work Environment
Proposals are not developed in a democratic environment. Everyone does not get an equal vote. Things move too fast, and many of the keys to winning appear illogical or even nonsensical to the uninitiated. Informed decisions need to be made quickly by the proposal manager and followed to the letter by the proposal team. Everyone should be allowed input, but the proposal manager makes the final decision.
This probably sounds harsh. It may be an alien concept for many. Nonetheless, this type of dictatorial work setting typically is necessary to conserve time and prepare a proposal that complies with all RFP requirements. Therefore, it is critical that proposal members trust the ability and leadership of the proposal manager. Otherwise, they will have a difficult time following his or her leadership.
Effective proposal managers quickly instill this type of trust in their proposal team. How they achieve this trick varies according to their basic management style.
Proposal Work Schedule
Everything else being even, the amount of time devoted to preparing your proposal is directly related to win probability. Generally, the more time you spend, the higher the probability—unless, of course, you waste time or have an ineffective process. Hence, maximizing time available for proposal preparation is yet another component of gaining competitive advantage.
Consider the following comparison. If you work a five-day week while your competitor works a seven-day week, you spend about 29 percent (2/7) less time on your proposal. If you work a six-day week, the differential drops to about 14 percent. Either way, you give your competition a time advantage. Alternatively, you cannot expect to work the proposal team continuously without losing productivity. The key is to maximize the time available to work on the proposal without killing the proposal team.
For proposals of 45 days or less, plan to work a six- or seven-day week, but give each person at least a half-day off per week to attend to their personal affairs. Let people select their own half-day. This work pace is easily sustainable for six weeks. Furthermore, many non-key personnel assigned to the proposal can be released from the normal proposal work schedule during the final phase of proposal editing and refinement or after they completely and satisfactorily fulfill all their proposal assignments. This typically amounts to about four or five weeks of truly hard work. Do not work an extended workday or workweek responding to draft RFPs. You do not want an exhausted team when the final RFP arrives.
For longer proposals, consider working a six-day week, or start off with a seven-day week and then cut back on the work schedule once you are comfortable with the team’s progress.
Long workweeks are unpopular, and they can be hard on proposal teams. If you use the same group of people on every proposal, you cannot repeatedly enforce a long workweek.
Team Communications
Maintaining timely, effective communications is essential to proposal success. Proposals are dynamic, and things change quickly. Moreover, a single change in one proposal area can affect multiple other areas. A change in your technical approach or product design, for example, will likely affect costing and any required logistical support. Even simple changes can have a profound impact on your proposal. If such changes are not communicated quickly, other efforts suffer. Time and effort are wasted as proposal teams continue working with out-of-date information. You cannot afford to waste time if you hope to submit the winning proposal.
The difficulty of maintaining communications grows exponentially with the size of the proposal team. Special efforts are required for larger proposal teams. Yet even under the best of circumstances, good proposal communications pose a challenge, especially if your team is spread among multiple locations.
Actions you can take to enhance team communications include the following:
Host a proposal kickoff meeting.
Conduct daily proposal status meetings.
Give all proposal team members ready access to proposal information.
Co-locate the proposal team.
Proposal Kickoff Meeting
Plan to host a kickoff meeting shortly after you receive a draft or final RFP. Invite the entire proposal team, major subcontractors, and any functional managers whose support will be required during the proposal. The following topics should be covered at each meeting:
Description of the technical and programmatic requirements of the contract
Strategic value of the contract to your organization
Overview of the bid strategy
Proposal schedule
Proposal outline
Proposal assignments (including functional managers and subcontractors)
What is expected of proposal team members
Communications tools to be used
Proposal security
An overview of your management style and your expectations of the team.
The kickoff meeting sets the groundwork for subsequent proposal development activities. It provides a good opportunity to explain the importance of the bid to the entire proposal team, including functional managers who might not directly participate in proposal preparation. This is also the time to give the team an overview of the entire proposal development process and to explain how progress will be monitored and reported. Proposal kickoff meetings should not last longer than one hour.
Ready Access to Proposal Information
Every member of the team needs ready access to proposal information. This includes customer information such as a complete RFP, answers to bidders’ questions, and any customer information that needs to be integrated into the proposal. Additional information includes the bid strategy, all proposal development documents and schedules, plus any other documents used to guide proposal preparation. Not only do team members need quick access to proposal information, but they also need access to the latest configuration. So plan to develop and implement a system to manage the configuration of all proposal information.
A simple solution to information access is to create an online proposal directory and provide each proposal member access. A notice of any change to the proposal or supporting documentation should be sent to every proposal team member by email and followed up at the daily status meeting.
Many government agencies use an Internet-accessible website to post contract information such as answers to questions, clarifications, and amendments to the solicitation. In these cases, have at least three people, including the proposal manager, check the website three times a day—early morning, noon, and evening. Immediately disseminate any customer changes to the proposal team, and then review the changes during the daily status meeting.
Co-location of the Proposal Team
Co-locating the proposal team is one of the most effective ways to foster team communication. People are more likely to walk to the next office or cubicle to talk to another team member than they are to phone or email, especially if the issue does not appear to be particularly important. Moreover, phoning is often inefficient because people may be away from their offices; the same applies to email.
Communicating with off-site subcontractors or other organizations required to provide proposal input is always problematic. If possible, require them to be on-site with your proposal team. This will save you a mountain of headaches. If this is not possible, here are some tips for managing off-site proposal team members:
Make sure they have a copy of all proposal development documents and schedules.
Provide them access to your online proposal directory (if possible). For major proposals, consider creating a proposal website with limited access and post proposal documents and information to the website.
Have off-site team members participate in daily status meetings via teleconference.
Require team members to submit all of their proposal assignments by email, according to the proposal schedule.
Require team members to be on-site at regular intervals, or ask that they place a representative at your facility to serve as a conduit back to their organization to expedite communications.
If possible, require the entire proposal team to be on-site for at least the last two weeks of proposal preparation. This tends to be a frantic time. Delays due to long-distance communications can seriously undermine your ability to produce a quality proposal.
Successful Proposal Managers
Each proposal manager will develop his or her management style based on personality and what has worked in the past. Within that context, some basic attributes consistently define successful proposal managers.
Successful proposal managers typically possess a keen ability to communicate effectively with people at all levels of the organization, from company presidents to technical proposal writers to publications staff to financial and administrative personnel. They command and instill confidence in others by their technical knowledge, business development savvy, command of proposal development principles, understanding of government source selection, and self-confidence.
Successful proposal managers also know when to push their proposal team, when to empathize, when to encourage, when to be flexible, and when to relax. Most have a well-developed sense of humor.
Finally, successful proposal managers are inherent problem-solvers. They are quick to seek a work-around or solution. If one approach does not produce the desired result, they try another and another until the barrier is removed or the problem is resolved. Fundamentally, they are leaders, facilitators, communicators, and listeners.
Well-managed proposals produce a quality end product and transform the nightmare of proposal preparation into a livable event. Poorly managed proposals are disastrous at best. They waste valuable resources, squander bid and proposal funds, demoralize proposal members, and produce far more losers than winners. Gain competitive advantage through effective proposal management.
The essence of effective proposal management is surprisingly simple. It consists of three primary elements. The starting point is a good plan that clearly defines proposal organization and content to ensure a fully responsive final product. The second ingredient is disciplined management—making sure all proposal team members fulfill their assignments according to schedule. The final element is judicious monitoring of proposal progress and quality, along with quickly and effectively fixing problems and altering course when necessary.
Start with a good proposal plan as defined by the planning documents described in this and previous chapters. Ensure that every proposal requirement is covered by assigning it to a responsible person. Develop a detailed, day-by-day schedule for each proposal requirement and each person assigned to the proposal. Monitor individual performance against schedule during daily proposal status meetings. Identify potential problems early and take immediate corrective action. Treat members of the proposal team with dignity and respect, but hold them accountable for producing a high-quality product within schedule boundaries.