Proposal Development

Red Team’s proposal development consultants are some of the best in the government contracting industry. Our staff have won some of the largest mission-critical opportunities using Red Team’s guiding principles of proposal excellence. While some consultancies may claim there is only one viable proposal process and try to force-fit that process to every bid, Red Team applies a set of ten guiding principles of proposal excellence and empowers our consultants to optimize the proposal process to fit the needs of each bid. This allows us to ensure excellence across various clients and engagements while also being flexible and able to adapt to any proposal development scenario or process that our clients may have implemented internally.

Proposal Development Services

Proposal Management

Proposal management is the most critical function in any proposal development effort. Proposal managers operate in a leadership role and are responsible for architecting and engineering compliant, compelling, competitive, and winning proposals. Our proposal managers bring both broad and specific knowledge across a variety of industries. They have extensive business, personnel, project, proposal management, and document development skills to develop high quality proposals. Our proposal managers are adaptable to many client environments, including company size and proposal maturity, and tailor the proposal process to maximize the chances of winning. They develop proposal tools such as outlines, compliance matrices, schedules, progress trackers, milestone lists, proposal review sheets, and other materials necessary for ensuring the proposal is developed in a timely, compliant manner. Red Team proposal managers bring extensive experience running large strategic meetings such as kick-off meetings, storyboarding sessions, proposal review meetings, and strategy discussions. Our proposal managers lead the day-to-day operations including overseeing all deadlines and deliverables, and managing all staff contributing to the proposal.

Proposal Coordination

In support of the proposal manager, Red Team proposal coordinators have a critical job in coordinating various aspects of the proposal development process. Some of these tasks include working with subcontractors to collect data-call information, working with individual content contributors to make sure deadlines are met, and collecting and compiling proposal review feedback into a cohesive document. The coordinator handles many day-to-day tasks, enabling the proposal manager to focus on more strategic tasks. Our proposal coordinators are multi-faceted and contribute to a wide variety of proposal functions that enable a seamless proposal development process.

Writing

Proposal writers face many challenges: varied subject matter, the need to address solicitation requirements and evaluation factors, time- and page-constraints, and a process that includes lots of “help.” Red Team’s writers bring extensive experience leading solution development writing sessions for management, technical, and past performance volumes. Red Team has many technical writers on staff with backgrounds in various technical disciplines and professional service domains so they can come up to speed more quickly and have productive conversations with our client’s subject matter experts. Our writers work with content contributors, SMEs, operational staff, and business development teams to build the narrative, strength statements, and proof points. We have a variety of writers that can handle strategy, research, analysis, and volume development, and make strategic recommendations to capture and proposal managers.

Red Team follows a sequential writing process that starts with agreement upfront on themes and approaches before the writing begins to improve the efficiency of content development. We provide both technical and non-technical writers and editors. Our technical writers have the experience of interviewing subject matter experts to extrapolate the content necessary to address highly complex requirements. Our non-technical writers are able to develop new content with input, or work with existing content to address management and past performance volumes with ease.

Editing

Red Team’s proposal editors are not generic copy editors. They understand proposal best practices and how to apply both solicitation requirements and company writing standards to edit proposal writing for maximum effect. Our editors revise content for grammar, readability, and “one voice”, identifying gaps in the proposal response, and providing guidance for expanding or substantiating the content. Our editors are careful not to alter the meaning the content they edit and are accustomed to working with technical experts to clarify writing without changing the meaning.

Graphics

Red Team’s graphic designers develop high-end graphics that clearly convey proposal subject matter through the use of conceptual graphics, process flows, technical layout drawings, and illustrations. We make sure that graphics are tied closely to the messaging, theme, and approach for each proposal section. Our designers collaborate with the client to ensure all graphics are content-rich and meet the solicitation’s requirements. Our graphic resources use the latest graphic design and development tools, including the software suite in Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign).

Pricing

Government solicitations often require detailed cost and price information that take a significant amount of time to collect, compile, and document in a price volume. In addition to developing and refining the most competitive price, companies need to spend a significant amount of time developing the volume itself to show how the pricing was derived. Red Team’s pricing managers have worked on pricing volumes for numerous industries and on some of the largest price volumes with lengthy and complex price models. Red Team supports clients with price volume management, writing pricing narratives and cost justification information, working with subcontractors to get pricing data, and building comprehensive price models.

Proposal Reviews

A critical component of a winning proposal process is a set of external reviews of the proposal as it matures. Red Team provides expert services to review proposal drafts, either as part of a company’s proposal review cycle (typically pink team, red team, and gold team), or as a separate, tailored review. When serving as part of the review team in a company’s normal review cycle, our consultants know how to provide useful, impactful comments to improve a proposal’s quality and evaluation. We can also provide review services focused specifically on determining a proposal’s compliance with the solicitation instructions and evaluation criteria.

Desktop Publishing

Red Team’s desktop publishers format the proposal to meet the requirements of the solicitation and ensure that it is well-structured to ease proposal evaluation. Our desktop publishers collaborate with clients to make sure that details such as font size, margin spacing, page numbering, dates, tables, charts, and diagrams are aligned to the proposal instructions and, where applicable, corporate publishing standards. Our desktop publishing experts have experience using and updating a client’s existing template or developing a new template that conforms to the RFP’s requirements. Prior to production, Red Team’s desktop publishers ensure that spacing is adequate, page breaks are consistent, tables and graphics are within margin requirements, and the entire proposal is professional-looking.

Production

Whether the solicitation calls for electronic delivery of proposals, shipping of proposals to remote locations, or hand delivering proposals to government facilities, Red Team has met the need. Our production efforts include preparing all documents and volumes for printing, and/or electronic submission. Printing preparation includes producing tabs, binders, and other necessary printouts for production. After printing volumes, Red Team proposal staff will “white-glove” each proposal page to ensure the print job was accurate. For electronic delivery, Red Team ensures that all volumes are prepared in accordance to the solicitation’s instructions and emailed or uploaded to the appropriate point of contact prior to the due date.

Orals Coaching

As Government customers rely more and more on some form of oral presentation as part of a competitive procurement, Red Team is ready to provide end-to-end orals support. We lead the development of an orals strategy and orals slide content, and prepare the team for their time in front of the customer. Orals coaching is much more than helping people with presentation style. We work with our clients to refine their team approach to orals, to define a strategy for handling questions, and to prepare for a technical demonstration or challenge. And we’re equally adept at preparing teams for in-person orals and virtual orals via video.

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Why Choose Red Team for Proposal Development?

What is Proposal Development?

Red Team uses a highly tailored proposal approach, implemented by some of the best proposal professionals in the industry, to maximize your chances of winning every bid. From strategy to production, and everything in between, we have you covered.

What’s Next?

Call or email us about your proposal development needs and we’ll help you get a plan in place.

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Proposal Development