I was recently asked a question which seemed to imply that managing proposals came before writing them. My first thought was that this was a case of "the chicken and the egg." Upon further thought, I decided it was really a case of "the chicken, the egg and the omelet."
Here's my thought process.
First you learn to coordinate the components of a proposal.
You take your instructions and your input from a number of sources, including the proposal manager, the principal in charge, the technical champion, other technical contributors and, probably, other recent proposals.
You learn how an organization chart is related to the overall staffing discussion and the resumes that are included.
You learn how the technical requirements enumerated in the RFP and discussed in your experience section inform the selection of projects to present, as well as how the descriptions of those projects must be tailored to respond to the RFP.
You learn how even the firm introduction and administrative information (i.e. D/M/WBE firm utilization, awards, quality assurance/quality control [QA/QC] processes) are related to the client's goals for the project as stated in the RFP.
If the project requires subconsultants, you learn how to coordinate with marketing and technical staff from subconsultant firms, including confirming their firms' project roles, discussing information needs, providing templates and formatting instructions, and establishing deadlines for delivery of their information.
And you learn a very important lesson about sticking to the document organization shown in the RFP to prevent "the fool with the checklist" from eliminating your submittal as being "non-responsive."
Then you learn how to write sections of the proposal.
Assuming that you read all the text you handled as a proposal coordinator in the earlier stages of your A/E/C marketing career, you should now have enough of an idea of what makes a good proposal to write some of the administrative and/or connecting sections of the proposal. These would generally include:
- Firm introduction
- Services
- Awards
- QA/QC processes
- Staffing (including tailoring of resumes)
- Firm experience (including tailoring of project descriptions)
The technical sections will be created by the technical champion and other technical staff s/he pulls into that effort. These sections would include:
- Project understanding
- Project approach
- Detailed work plan (if requested)
- Schedule
- Cost proposal (if appropriate)
Sometimes the proposal coordinator is asked to draft the project understanding. The information needed to write this section will generally be found early in the RFP, in a section discussing project need/justification/history. Once drafted, this section needs to go to the principal or Business Development person with the primary responsibility for that client relationship. That person, hopefully, will know more detail about why the project is needed, why it is being undertaken now, and what factors (schedule, cost, etc.) are most important to the client.
Then you manage a proposal.
Once you have demonstrated competencies in assembling the pieces provided by others and writing the proposal sections within the marketer's knowledge, you will be asked to manage your first proposal.
The two biggest differences between this task and everything you've done before are:
YOU now set the proposal development and production schedule; and
YOU now have to motivate proposal staff to deliver their assignments on time, meeting the requirements of the RFP and the expectations of superior thought and writing.
If you want information on any of these items, email me at [email protected] and ask for my eBook called "Proposing: what I've learned in 30 years of proposal writing." Make sure your complete contact information is in your email.