You Feel Me? Why Empathy is Critical for GovCon Growth
As 2023 drew to a merciful close in mid- and late-December, our favorite federal government continued to show the government contracting industry deep respect by releasing solicitations just in time for the holidays. Sympathy goes out to anyone who needed to work over the holidays. Why does the federal government do this to us before […]
Navigating the Impact of AI on Federal Proposal Development
I suppose you’ve heard about Artificial Intelligence (AI) in our business; all the cool kids are talking about it. There has been a flurry of presentations about AI at APMP and other events. And the proliferation of AI tools on the market is growing faster than the mold in my son’s bathroom (teenage boys; sheesh). […]
This is How to Write a Winning Past Performance
Before we dive into the key approaches to developing winning Past Performance proposal sections, it’s useful to remember that most Government customers use Past Performance as a way of gauging the risk to the success of the program. This means you should write your Past Performance proposal sections to give your customer confidence that you […]
7 Tips to Build a Killer Proposal Schedule
As we all know, proposal success hinges on planning the work carefully, then executing that plan. While some interim deadlines may need to slip around a bit, the proposal due date and time is immovable, so a thoughtfully designed proposal schedule creates the conditions for success. Below are the key principles to follow when building […]
Pro Tips for a Useful Lessons Learned Process
Your proposal has just been submitted and everyone breathes a sigh of relief. It was a roller coaster of ups and downs and you are thankful that you came out unscathed. But wait, it’s not over yet. The lessons learned meeting! Many of us have gotten to experience the thrill of an unstructured lessons learned […]
Proposal Acronyms: Sometimes It’s Okay to Break Rules
In business writing, and in proposal writing in particular, we seem to have an unrequited love of acronyms and similar abbreviations. Perhaps we’re worried about strict page limits in our proposals, or maybe we want to sound cool, or maybe we think if we save a bunch of syllables we can collect them all and […]
How to Strategically Ask Questions to the Government
Submitting questions on a solicitation is an important step in the proposal process and should not be taken lightly. The customer uses the written Q&A process to give the bidders a chance to clarify the requirements of the solicitation. But by the time the final solicitation is released, the customer feels that they have published […]
5 Things to Remember for Your Next Orals Presentation
More and more federal agencies are turning to hands-on methods to compete their contracts and evaluate offerors. Though not new, the use of oral presentations as a means of evaluating contractor proposals is on the rise. As more agencies begin adopting this approach to evaluate offerors, companies need to understand the keys to success with […]
6 Steps to Recycle Your Proposal Content
I had the occasion recently to spend some time talking with a few folks who only knew the proposal world peripherally. They were particularly interested in understanding how we use previously written proposal material when we’re developing a new proposal. Imagine the usual scenario: you’re assigned to write a proposal section, and the timeline is […]
How to Effectively Work Remotely as a Proposal Professional
