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Articles tagged with: proposal development
This article was originally published November 14, 2011 in WashingtonTechnology.com.
By Bob Lohfeld
In last month’s column, 6 ways your proposal can fail, I wrote about a company that submitted a less-than-professional proposal and wondered how pervasive this problem really is. After all, as professional proposal managers, how bad can our proposals really be?
All professional proposal managers strive to make every proposal compliant, responsive, and compelling, yet a recent presentation reinforced my assessment that only about 15% of the firms bidding…
Audio Tip: Creating your proposal outline and compliance matrix
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This month, proposal development expert Beth Wingate, APMP Fellow (aka AppMaven), offers insights and tips for developing your proposal outline and compliance matrix.
I attended a roundtable presentation given by the Association of Proposal Management Professionals’ (APMP) National Capital Area (NCA) Chapter where three government contracting officers agreed with my assessment that you need to develop your proposal outlines following the hierarchy of Sections L (Instructions), then M (Evaluation Criteria), then C (Statement of Work (SOW)),…
Ask the Proposal Doctor: How to write technical volumes more efficiently
Dear Proposal Doctor,
I work for a small business, and all our engineers work on a customer site while our BD/Proposal staff work at our office (which is in another state). This makes writing the technical volume really difficult because we can’t get our engineers on site to write. We end up having to travel a lot, which disrupts the proposal and takes people away from their families for weeks at a time. How could we write technical volumes more efficiently?
Running Out of Ideas
Dear Running,
This is…
Section L Update – October 2011
In this issue – and in upcoming monthly issues – our capture and proposal experts share capture and proposal management knowledge, offer helpful tips and techniques (check out Beth Wingate’s Audio Clip on how to review a Federal Government RFP (draft and final!) and Wendy Frieman’s latest Proposal Doctor advice for working effectively with subject matter experts), and provide insightful commentary about challenges in our industry.
We’ll help keep you current on best practices in our field with valuable information you can apply every day! Section L Update – October 2011
Get more insights from…
Ask the Proposal Doctor – Waiting by the phone
Dear Proposal Doctor,
One subject matter expert (SME) in my company has the bulk of the information we need for the technical proposal. It is all in his head. This person is very busy with clients all day and keeps telling me that he will write the sections assigned to him at night—and that he will meet the deadline. We are a week into the writing period, and so far, he has produced nothing. He is inaccessible all day and often does not answer…
AppMaven’s Secret Arsenal – Tools & Apps that Deliver
Proposal masters deploy many stratagems to develop winning proposals. Leverage AppMaven’s (Beth Wingate, APMP Fellow) targeted time and effort-reducing PC tools, iPad apps—and tricks—to develop proposals more efficiently and effectively (and reduce your battle stress!). This real-time demo builds on Beth’s 2010 APMP presentations with more cost-effective PC and iPad tools, apps, and reliable tips—and advice on applying them strategically to increase your winning proposal capabilities. Many tools are inexpensive or free and useful for one-person to large proposal organizations—commercial and government. Lots of real-time Q&A to answer your burning app questions. Arm yourself with a checklist of software…
Section L Update – September 2011
In this issue – and in upcoming monthly issues – our capture and proposal experts share capture and proposal management knowledge, offer helpful tips and techniques (check out Beth Wingate’s Audio Clip on how to position your company as a top contender and Wendy Frieman’s latest Proposal Doctor advice for getting proposal team members to “stick to their knitting”), and provide insightful commentary about challenges in our industry.
We’ll help keep you current on best practices in our field with valuable information you can apply every day! Section L Update_September 2011
Get more insights from…
Session Title: Setting a Course for High Performing Proposal Organizations (Bob Lohfeld)
High Performing Proposal Organizations consistently deliver win rates above 65%, but this requires more than just good proposal managers and writers. It takes sound business development, capture and proposal processes; an efficient proposal development infrastructure, and a team of skilled capture and proposal professionals to do the work. This presentation describes how high performing proposal organizations are created and how they work, the kinds of processes they use, and the types of infrastructure they depend upon to create winning proposals efficiently. The presentation also describes how you can…
7 tips for crafting a dominant proposal summary
This article was originally published August 26, 2011 in WashingtonTechnology.com.
By Bob Lohfeld
Not all requests for proposals (RFP) call for an Executive Summary, and when proposals must have limited pages, it might be best to skip an Executive Summary.
But for large proposals or RFPs that ask for an Executive Summary, here are seven steps to creating an effective one.
1. Decide when to write.
I’m in the camp that believes later is better. An Executive Summary is a summary of your proposal, and if…
Section L Update – Capture & Proposal Tips – July 2011
In this issue-and in upcoming monthly issues – our capture and proposal experts share capture and proposal management knowledge, offer helpful tips and techniques (check out Beth Wingate’s Audio Clip highlighting 3 Keys for Winning Proposals and Wendy Frieman’s latest Proposal Doctor advice about the perils of Faking Deadlines), and provide insightful commentary about challenges in our industry.
We’ll help keep you current on best practices in our field with valuable information you can apply every day! Section L Update_July 2011
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