Consider how important having the ability to write a responsive proposal is to you winning
contracts as a government contractor.
I want to share with you the key information you must know.
What to consider and questions to answer before creating a proposal to be a project.
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One of the tips I'll be sharing, I have all my clients use every time they consider a
contracting opportunity, and this is coming out of part three of my 5 Part Government
Contracting Framework.
Let's dive into one of the most important elements that will have a huge impact on your
success or failure as a government contractor.
All right, so here's the first thing I want to share with you guys.
It's about solicitations.
One of the key elements to creating a responsive proposal, it all stems and begins with the
solicitation.
Now, here's the thing.
Solicitations I have not...
Well let me just say personally, I have not seen one that is always the same.
They were exactly the same.
Every solicitation you have to treat it individually and you have to break down the solicitation.
You have to be able to analyze, break down what they're asking you for, understand what
they're asking for, and then, in turn, take that and put it into a proposal where you're
responding to what they're asking for.
Okay.
It's very, very important.
And one of the most important elements of the solicitation that you have to be able
to decipher is the scope of work.
I get asked this all the time.
People are like, "Well, the scope of work, can you write that for me?"
And here's the thing, yes, we can help, anybody can help you write it, but you should know
the scope of work.
If you can't understand the scope of work, then you shouldn't be bidding that opportunity
because the scope of work is all about you and performing on that particular opportunity,
doing the work that you do.
The second thing about these proposals is what you put in it matters.
What you put into your proposal, it really, really matters.
And that's why in my Bootcamp we spent a lot of time on the proposal process itself because
it's not something that ideally when done effectively when done correctly, that you
can do it in one sitting or ideally in a day or something like that.
I mean, you could kind of hard charge through it.
I don't suggest it because that's where mistakes happen.
And here's the other thing about proposals and the solicitations that I do want to say
is that when you're submitting the proposal, it's a representation of your company.
It is the first thing that they're going to ideally see about you.
You know how we say those first impressions are a lasting impression?
Well, that's the same thing when you submit a proposal.
If you haven't already built a relationship with the contracting officer or the contracting
team collectively, because understand it's more than one person reviewing the proposals
together to make the decision as to who's going to win the opportunity.
You want to make sure you put your best foot forward and know that the proposal is representing
your company.
It is speaking for you, so you want to make sure that it’s intact and is written correctly.
You're responding to all of what they're asking for.
You provided everything they asked for and your scope of work is tight.
The other thing within the solicitation proposal that you need to know and be aware of is the
terminology.
Terminology and I dive deeper into this in the Bootcamp, but you need to understand the
terminology because if you don't understand the government lingo, then it's going to be
difficult for you to create a responsive proposal.
Here's a little sugar for a dime.
If you've been submitting proposals and you haven't been winning, you've done two or three
and you're not winning, no positive feedback at all, you need to check that out.
Are you understanding what the government is saying?
Are you able to break down the solicitation, pull out the requirements?
Are you able to then take it and put it into a responsive proposal?
If you're not winning, something is missing.
It's something in the written or even your pricing.
One of the two.
And the third...
Well, the third part of this I want to share with you is being proactive.
Being proactive.
I can't stress that enough.
A lot of times we're waiting around until the opportunity presents itself.
Then it's like, oh, I want to bid at this, let's hurry up and put together this proposal.
It does not work like that.
And I don't work like that with my clients because if we have not gotten to the point
to where you're ready to bid, you're prepared and positioned and part of that is knowing
how to read the solicitation, break it down, pull out the requirements, then you're not
ready to bid.
We can't just overnight flip the switch and okay, let's do this.
You need to be proactive.
You need to be prepared for when the opportunities come out.
I say that all the time.
If you check across the social media spectrum, I'm always promoting, maybe preaching if you
will, that you need to be proactive in your approach.
And that's part of your approach.
You need to prepare a time beforehand to put together your proposal template.
And I say that because if you've been doing it long enough, you're going to find that
certain information you will always include in the proposal.
But if you don't have it there readily available, it's going to take you hours on end to gather
all of that data and information to put into the proposal.
Well over here at the Contractor's Edge where we hang out, we don't work like that.
You'll already have your template together and ready to go and it's kind of like plug
and play put the pieces in where they go, but it's already created and you kind of know
what I mean.
It's kind of similar if you think about it to creating a website.
You can't just sit down and bam, here's the website.
You got to think about, okay, what's going to go here?
What is the layout going to be?
And then what will I say?
You have to write that content for that section.
Then you have to proofread and then does it flows like you want it to flow and say what
you want it to say.
It's kind of similar to that.
Just a little bit more detailed though, because we're having to respond to what's being asked
and then, in turn, put it that way, where with a website you're kind of just thinking,
okay, I want this here, and then how will I say it?
But I wanted to give you that just so that you could have an idea of what we're talking
about.
Here's what I want you to do.
I want you to comment below, yes or no, no or yes.
Have you created a proposal for your business before?
Whoa.
This is it right here.
This is going to get juicy.
Remember I said I was going to share something with you in the beginning, stick around?
I was going to share.
Here it comes.
What I'm about to share with you saves me and my clients from wasting time and bidding
resources when we have no shot at winning.
This is a game-changer when done correctly.
I'm getting ready to share it with you.
Are you ready?
If you're taking notes, you're going to want to write this down and if you're not taking
notes, you're going to want to write this down.
Grab your note-taking device, pencil, paper, whatever it is.
Let's go.
You can do a quick check to decide if it's worth your time to bid on the opportunity.
You can easily determine really quickly, I'm talking 10 minutes or less as to if you should
bid on the opportunity or not.
Do I have a shot at winning this or not?
Because if you don't have a shot, why bid?
It takes a lot of time to put together a bid and proposal.
Let me just tell you if you have not before, it's very time consuming and I say this about
government contracts anyway.
It's hard work.
It's time-consuming, but it's worth the investment.
It's very, very lucrative when done right.
Here's one of the things you want to check.
Due date.
Check the due date.
If you're just starting out and an opportunity is due in say a week or two, definitely a
week, you probably don't have enough time to put it together.
If it's two weeks, you may, you may not.
You're still going to have to push it and then be realistic that you're still running
your business.
So check the due date.
Can you meet the deadline?
The second thing is looking at the general requirements.
Do you meet the general requirements?
If you do not, it's a no-go.
If you can't meet the due date, it's a no-go.
You also want to look at specific requirements as far as bonding and insurance.
If you're not bondable, if you're going at it by yourself, it's a no-go.
Can you get the insurance that you need to have?
And a lot of times that's just a matter of raising your levels if you need to, but you
still want to check and see if you can meet the bonding and insurance requirements.
Now, if you answered no to being able to meet the due date, do you meet the general requirements,
do you meet the bonding and insurance requirements?
If your answer is no to either one of those three, move on.
Did you hear me?
Move on.
There you have it.
I just giving you insight into preparing proposals and how to quickly decide if it's an opportunity
that you should proceed with or not.
Really quickly.
This is where a lot of people are wasting a lot of time because they don't go through
this and they're spending time putting things together and then, Oh my gosh, it's due tomorrow
and we're not done.
We don't even have our pricing yet.
We're still waiting on pricing and you don't get it and you just wasted two weeks.
Okay, so you don't want to do that.
Now if you like to go deeper because this is just the tip of the iceberg, this is just
the tip of the iceberg.
If you really want to know how to put together responsive proposals.
If you want to know and learn and be able to do this for yourself, how to analyze, understand
solicitations, pull out those requirements and then put it into a responsive proposal.
I'm inviting you to come join us inside the Contractors Edge Bootcamp Live Sessions.
Not just the course where you just get the product.
I'm talking about the live sessions.
I'll put the link down below in the description as well, and it's coming here right here at
feliciastreeter.com/boot camp.
We're diving deeper.
You're going to actually create your proposal inside the Bootcamp.
You'll have the template, you're going to actually break down a solicitation in most
cases that's related to your business and what you do.
All right, so there you have it.
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And until next time, I'll see you right back here real soon.
Bye for now.