In my more than 40 years as an A/E/C marketer, both as an in-house staff member and as an outside consultant, I have participated in and/or managed between 1,200 and 1,400 pursuits. Almost all of them required the development and submittal of a formal proposal, including firm information, subconsultant information, proposed project personnel, relevant experience, and anything else that might help the client select my team for the assignment.
For an A/E/C firm pursuing projects in the public sector, it is a rare pursuit that includes no special-category (DBE, MBE, WBE, 8[a], disabled veteran or other category) subconsultant firms. In all pursuits where the team included subconsultants, I asked those firms to provide a number of items and gave them a deadline no more than one week away. The requested information included:
- the complete and accurate firm name;
- the firm logo (.jpg file);
- 1/4-page to 1/3-page firm introduction;
- 3-5 projects where their firm performed the disciplines they would perform on this pursuit;
- photographs of the project;
- resumes of only those individuals who would actually perform the work;
- a list of projects (if any) performed with my firm (the prime consultant);
- a list of projects (if any) performed for the client; and
- anything else they bring to the table that could raise our chances of success.
I also asked for information on any proprietary assets they brought to the team, whether those assets were equipment (vehicles, computers, drones [unmanned aerial vehicles] or computer programs, along with an explanation of what the asset was and how it would benefit the project.
All information was to be provided in Word files with relevant graphics both in the text file (to show placement) and as separate .jpg files, for easy editing and inclusion in my document. If the submittal was to be an SF330, all information needed to be provided using SF330 templates—which I would provide, if necessary.
As far as I can tell, most proposal managers ask their subconsultants for the same information when confirming them as pursuit team members, with the possible exception of firm logos. I like to use a subconsultant's logo alongside the firm description because the visual will often make for easier recognition of that team member.
What I also like to do—which I believe fewer proposal managers do—is to have each subconsultant draft the section of the project approach dealing with the specific discipline(s) they are covering. I find that when the subconsultant writes his/her part of the project approach, both the accuracy and clarity of the method and the likelihood of innovation in the offered approach go up. Also, if the approach to that discipline is truly innovative, the subconsultant is more likely to be able to explain what the innovation is, how it will benefit the project and the client, and why that benefit is important.
All this, of course, is based on the assumption that your firm makes its Go/No Go decision in time to identify and select the best subconsultants, and request and acquire their information in plenty of time for them—and you—to produce a top quality submittal.
And by the way, I keep a list of subconsultants who didn't provide information on time, provided regular text for SF330 submittals, or provided .pdf files when I requested Word files. I use this list to help limit future use of those consultants.