This morning I completed a proposal critique for a client that is bidding on a government contract. It took me a little over 6 hours to do the critique -- and the proposal was only 25 or so pages long, excluding resumes of key personnel.
In doing these critiques, I see my job as helping clients to improve their proposals and, thereby, their chances of winning. I am pretty tough when it comes to critiques -- I don't just tell clients what they may want to hear, namely that everything looks great. I review the proposal against the RFP, point out gaps and deficiencies, and give them suggestions as to how to fix the identified problems.
This particular proposal had a lot of problems -- 5-1/2 pages worth of comments from me. The major problems were:
Poor Organization: The proposal was poorly organized because the client didn't take the time to prepare a detailed outline. As a result, their proposal was all over the map. They didn't convey their understanding of the project, they left out some important activities and information, they did not show an understanding of the relationships among activities, and they put some required information in the wrong place. Failure to prepare a good outline and to take time to determine what exactly should be addressed in each section and subsection will doom a proposal, particularly a complex one.
Lack of Specifics: It is imperative to explain, in as much detail as possible considering page limits and other factors, what you are going to do, how you are going to do it, when you are going to do it, who is going to do it, and why it is important. Basically, the who, what, when, where and why. The proposal I reviewed had too much meaningless jargon and did not set forth -- in a comprehensible and organized fashion -- what the bidder was going to do.
Poor Writing: Some people are just not good writers, and that's OK as long as they can get down the information. What is not OK is not having someone who IS a good writer review and edit the proposal so that it reads professionally and presents a good impression of your company.
That's enough for today...
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