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Writing contract RFP responses and knowing how to write a proposal for
federal contracts requires a careful approach because you have to balance the
sales aspect with the FAR regulatory aspects. As compared to the commercial
sector, writing contract RFP responses for federal procurement is a different
‘animal.’
Today’s federal market is very lucrative but a tough market. Even “seasoned”
contractors are having a tough time getting the end result – the award. In
order to increase your chances for serious consideration by the evaluation
team, you should consider the following basic steps.
What this means is that there are ways to assess what projects federal
contracting agencies have forecasted ahead of time – sometimes more than 12
months ahead and before they are finally posted on fedbizopps. The reality is
that you want to find projects that are projected for one year or less.
This information gives you the time to build the right relationships and
to develop a plan of action that is meaningful and realistic.
There are ways to gather this data and to develop a successful strategy
when bidding on government contracts.
If you do not project out the government’s requirements, you will find
yourself waiting until a proposal comes out on FBO for bid. Then you will
subject yourself to as little as seven days (oftentimes a little more) to prepare
a proposal response. This is simply not enough time to write a proposal
that stands a chance of actually winning.
Has your company performed a project for this dollar value, type of work
and this magnitude?
Did it need the same level of management, oversight, and materials?
If you answer yes to both of the above, then you are off to a good start in
developing your internal strategies for writing contract RFP responses. If not,
you MUST seek out a teaming agreement partner or subcontractor to help
you to reduce the chance of getting low evaluation scores. However, see
information about bidding on an IDIQ contract.
Very few government contracting agencies will take the risk of awarding a
much larger project than you are used to unless performing, of course, you
reduce the risk of non-performance. You do this by bringing a teaming
partner on board that can fill in the gaps.
The fourth step for how to write a contract proposal to the federal
government is that you must be able to tell the federal agency HOW you will
perform each and every step of the Statement of Work (SOW) requirements.
Literally, tell the evaluators as though they knew nothing about your
company (especially if you are the incumbent.)
We have seen time and time again where bidders generalize their technical
proposal approach to how they will perform the Statement of Work
requirements. This is a fatal mistake when learning how to write a
government project proposal.
The fifth step in how to write a government proposal response, and the one
that most contractors miss, including the large DOD conglomerates, is to
offer something that your competition might forget to. Bidders who win
government contracts often focus on getting more technical strengths than
weaknesses when developing thier government proposal format. Knowing
how to apply this strategy puts your company in the top percentile for
consideration.
The final thought for this general overview is to research the specific agency.
In your cover letter and introduction to your technical response,
your proposal response will create an impression when you can tell the
agency that you know about its mission.
Everything that you do has to relate to the mission objective in some fashion.
See information on writing winning proposals.
For questions about how to write a government proposal call our consultants
at 1-866-601-5518 or Contact a government contracts attorney.