Re: Help! Suddenly I'm a new RPF/proposal writer

[Sue Ellen Adkins <sea -at- best -dot- com>]

Dick,

I wrote proposals for a government contractor for almost ten years 
and loved the pace. Here are some suggestions I can offer.

Most organizations keep a library of proposals, winners and losers, 
that have been submitted. Look at both. Are there notes from others 
as to why one proposal wasn't a winning one?

It's necessary to complete the first draft before you can begin 
working on the second draft. This may sound like an obvious 
statement, but it's easy to forget.

The deadline is most important. If your proposal is even five minutes 
late, it can't legally be considered. I remember one proposal that as 
assembled in the back of a van on the way to the airport. Because 
we'd missed the deadline for counter-to-counter shipping, we had to 
buy a ticket on the red-eye flight so it could go as luggage. 
(Imagine someone in shorts and a t-shirt flying to Washington, D.C. 
in January.) We made the deadline; I don't remember whether we won 
the contract.

If you discover an error in a submitted proposal, you *usually* will 
be allowed to correct it.

If your marketing organization has information about who may be your 
competitors, compare your product's features and your competitors to 
the RFP requirements in a table. It's especially effective to shade 
the all but the best, which highlights what (hopefully) is your 
company's product.

Work to avoid "be" verbs; they make for a boring proposal. Also, 
write in the present tense rather than the future tense. You're 
telling the client what you are capable of doing.

Recognize that stress and lack of sleep can cause people to become 
short-tempered. Accept it when someone yells at you for something 
that wasn't under your control; they will probably apologize later.

These are what I can come up with off the top of my head.

Good luck!

sue ellen

At 2:38 PM -0400 6/7/02, Dick Schellens wrote: