Government Matters | Francis Rose and Bob Lohfeld discuss Bob’s new book, “10 Steps to creating high-scoring proposals”

Government Matters (ABC7 and NewsChannel 8) host Francis Rose and Bob Lohfeld discuss Bob’s new book, 10 Steps to creating high-scoring proposals: A modern perspective on proposal development and what really matters, and how government contractors can apply these principles to grow their businesses.

In this book, we share our modern perspective on proposal management and what matters within the proposal process. We’re using these insights to help our customers concentrate on what’s truly important in proposal development and on best practices that may have fallen to the wayside in their companies.

Available on Amazon.com (paperback and Kindle) – click to order

10 steps to creating high-scoring proposalsWe examine the Federal Government source selection decision-making process and what the government evaluators and the final decision maker look for as they review your proposals.

We discuss our strength-based solutioning process and the difference between features and benefits—and how to really make your proposal stand out.

Finally, we walk you through 10 actions your organization can take that will positively affect your proposal outputs.

Topics covered include:

  • Introduction
  • Part 1 – How the Federal Government evaluates proposals
    • Objectives of a high-scoring proposal
    • How the government evaluates proposals
    • Factors and subfactors are key
    • Rating methods are important…strengths are critical
    • DoD color and adjectival rating method
    • Typical evaluation terminology
    • Defining strengths
    • Briefing to SSA
    • Source selection decisions
    • Takeaways from the evaluation process
  • Part 2 – Rethinking the way we do proposals
    • Changing the state of the practice
    • Action #1 Design the proposal to be scored, not read
    • Action #2 Use our strength-based solutioning approach to create high-scoring proposals
    • Action #3 Draft your briefing to the SSA
    • Action #4 Think of proposals like artwork – built in three layers
    • Action #5 Put your proposal effort where it matters
    • Action #6 Review proposals the way your customer does
    • Action #7 Make proposals easy to evaluate
    • Action #8 Communicate your message visually
    • Action #9 Establish a standard of excellence for your proposals
    • Action #10 Improve your lessons-learned exercise
    • Final thoughts – can you change?
  • Part 3 – Q&A
  • Part 4 – Related articles
    • 7 questions to answer when making bid/no-bid decisions
    • Take your proposal from good to great in 30 minutes
    • What makes your bid a winner or a loser?
    • How bad are your proposals?
    • 3 keys to creating winning proposals – a defined and efficient process is essential to success
    • What the government won’t tell you about your proposal
    • 3 steps to improving your proposals – break the cycle of relearning key lessons each time around
    • 5 steps to winning proposals

Available on Amazon.com (paperback and Kindle) – click to order