Proposal Land

Better RFP Responses & Management
 
Proposal Land

No Upside in Re-litigating

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Skateboarding is not my sport. I know you’re surprised. I’m not sure what decided it: my lack of balance, coordination and strength, or my unwillingness to break my neck. Yet, somehow, today’s piece by Seth resonated for me.

One of the most difficult things to do in skateboarding is to learn to ‘drop in’. This is the commitment at the top of the ramp. One moment, you’re standing still, at the abyss, and the next you’re committed, fully engaged with gravity.

The worse thing you can do is half.

When you sort of commit, you’re likely to fall.

The rule is pretty simple: If you’re going to bother going skateboarding, then you’ve already decided. In this moment, you’re not making a new decision. You’re simply acting on what you said you wanted to do in the first place.

Decide once. It’s fine to opt-out. But once you decide, there’s no upside in re-litigating your decision, particularly when it leads to needless risk and wasted effort.

Like skateboarding, working on proposals is an all-out effort. And the decision of whether to exert that effort is made when you agree to do it. As each new demand arises, you’re not making a new decision.

 

A Kick-off of Another Sort

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The Bottom Line

I’ve published my work memoirs, and am selling it for charity. I hope you can help me make a difference.

The Details

In 2014 I published a technical manual on proposal development — my work for 25 years — using little stories to illustrate many of the points I was making. It was a whack of work: the writing, the revising, the laying-out, the marketing. A. Whack. Why had no one warned me?

Continue reading“A Kick-off of Another Sort”

Term: Kick-off

 

Initial proposal team meeting to orient team members to the opportunity and the rules of engagement, and to discuss the RFP analysis conducted to date.

The only glossary entry starting with K, the significance of which is Not Known.

Contracting 101: Taking Notes

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As I’ve noted, contracts matter.  But so do conversations, especially conversations at meetings in which you reach agreement on something with the client.

In start-up and ongoing projects, the something can be some deliverable. Some change to procedures – theirs or yours. Some task or project. Some schedule. Some thing that doesn’t warrant a contract amendment or not yet.

Good contract management means taking good notes at the time. It means documenting agreements in minutes or emails or both. It means reporting your work or progress against the terms of what was agreed.

Good proposal management means taking good notes, too. Through inattention, sloppiness, or just the various ills that flesh is heir to, clients sometimes say things about the procurement in meetings. Things that don’t make it into an RFP amendment or even into their minutes of the meeting:

  • Some interpretation of a contract clause
  • Some clarification of a response requirement
  • Some change to a Work requirement

How nice, then, that you have it in your hands to capture what was said, to document it, and to submit it for client acknowledgement if they happened to miss it.

Never count on everybody remembering the same thing the same way – or at all. Take formal notes.

Contracting 101: Risky Business

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Well, what’s the problem?
Businesses take risks.

As a retired senior military officer told me more than a few times, this attitude prevailed among his not-yet-retired military colleagues who were responsible for developing RFPs.

Yes, businesses “take” risks. But maybe a better verb would be “calculate” or “estimate” or “cost-in.” Businesses don’t just “take” risks wildly and blindly — not and survive very long, anyway. Based on their experience, they look at what could go wrong and at what could change over the contract term, and they allow some margin for it in their price. They include some contingency for things they can’t control.

So what? So this.

If you’re a client, consider the Work you’re contracting out in light of this train of thought:

  • What uncontrollable risks will the contractor be subject to?
  • What could the downside be for the contractor? What are you likely paying for the contractor to “take” that risk; that is, for every competent bidder to include it in their price?
  • Would it be cheaper to find a mechanism to share the risk?

What sorts of risks are uncontrollable? Input costs are a big one, for everything from insurance to commodities. Market shocks are beyond any contractor’s control: Think of the original oil embargo, or the 9-11 attacks that drove insurance prices, or the hard-to-predict swings in commodity prices that wreak havoc with cost control over the extended schedules inherent in capital acquisitions.

Finding a way to share those risks with contractors will get you a lower contract price. It might also encourage competition, by lowering the bidding risk for smaller companies. Finally, it will prevent windfall earnings if cost increases don’t materialize.

If you’re a contractor, consider suggesting a risk-sharing arrangement if the client doesn’t suggest it. After all, who knows the risks of the Work better than you?