Introduction

Proposal Development is an arduous, multi-stage process necessary for certain lines of business in order to sell products or services to potential clients. The process is never the same for each proposal due to the differences and complexities of Request for Proposal (RFP) documents, yet the goal is always the same - to present the most complete, descriptive and fully compliant proposal to the client in order to have a chance to win the business. Over the last ten years, the proposal development process has had to evolve to meet the challenges that have come with enhanced and expanded electronic delivery requirements. This has in some cases made the process easier, and more time-efficient, but as things change, different skill sets may be necessary to help meet these ever-changing requests.

Definitions

The proposal development process begins at the time of release of a request from a potential client for a product or service they require. These requests come in several forms. An RFP document is a straightforward piece in which the client has a number of specific requirements which require responses from the interested service or product vendor. It typically will include a request for pricing on that desired service or product. A Request for Information (RFI) document may simply be another name for the RFP, and be much the same, but it can also be more in the form of a questionnaire in that it will only ask for information on the vendor and its offerings, sometimes quite specific information. The RFI many times asks for no pricing and is a prequel to the RFP. A Request for Qualifications (RFQ) document again could be mimicking an RFP, or it could simply be asking for company background information and experience. An RFQ document often has no defined requirements, and a standard boilerplate response from the vendor could suffice. A fourth type of document, a Request for Quotation (also known as an RFQ), is most often simply a request for pricing with no specific detail or requirements necessary. We are going to explore the RFP process, as that is typically the longest and most faceted type of document that requires a response.

Getting Started

The process commences once the firm to provide the products or services receives the RFP document from the client. For the purposes of this paper, I am going to describe the process where I work, a very large engineering firm. Our Business Development (BD) personnel are typically those that receive the RFP document. This comes most often via email, hopefully after the BD representative has had multiple contacts with the potential client. Once received, the BD representative will thoroughly read the document and determine whether our firm is a good fit for the engineering services required by the client. If it is determined that we are a good fit, the document will be passed on to more technical personnel along with business group management and legal personnel to determine whether or not we can provide the services required, at a price that makes sense, in the time frame necessary, and that we can live with the proposed contractual terms.

Our firm utilizes a Go/No-Go process to ultimately determine whether or not we proceed. This is a meeting conducted via web based audio or video conferencing between the local technical people, local BD people and corporate risk review and management teams in order to determine whether or not we are to proceed with developing a response. The local BD and technical personnel must convince the risk and management groups that this effort makes sense for the company to pursue. If the effort is determined to be a "Go", then the proposal development process really begins.

Once the determination to proceed has been made, the proposal development team is determined. This team will include the BD representative, a project manager, technical personnel to help develop the response, and members of the dedicated proposal team which typically will include a proposal manager, proposal coordinators (again, based on the complexity), technical writer(s) and a graphic designer if required. Basically, the size of the proposal determines the size of the team necessary to complete the proposal. On large proposals, formal reviews are required at several stages of the process, so review teams may be set up in advance as well. A kickoff meeting is occasionally held to assemble the proposal team and go over requirements, scheduling and anything else deemed necessary. The kickoff meeting is usually only part of very large proposal efforts.

The necessary requirements on a proposal are individual to the RFP document. On some documents, the client may simply be requesting a price. For an engineering company however, the clients are usually looking not only for a price, but for a description on how the firm will complete the work required. This can lead to very lengthy responses. Pieces that are often asked for in a proposal response include an executive summary, a cover letter, a table of contents, an organization chart, resumes or biographies on individuals being proposed to work on the project, a project schedule, scope of work, experience on similar projects, pricing and a sample contract or contract review.

Compliance Matrices

To assist in assuring that the proposal put forth meets all of the RFP requirements, a Compliance Matrix is often used, especially on larger, more complex proposals. This is a document that allows for tracking of the proposal from start to finish, and includes a description of the project (from the RFP), a calendar for proposal development, the actual requirements that must be responded to, assigned authors, editors, and due dates. A compliance matrix is a vital tool to ensure full compliance with RFP requirements. Szaz notes, "No matter how unique your situation to an agency's problem is; no matter how experienced and qualified your team is…compliance to specific requirements in the RFP, which vary widely, is absolutely mandatory". Missing a due date or a response to a question can disqualify a firm, particularly on governmental proposals. The compliance matrix is a living document that gets updated as required. Updates could include changes in section authorship, additional requirements passed forward from the client requiring response, a change in due dates or review dates, etc. The images below are samples from an actual compliance matrix.

The proposal manager, along with input from the project manager will determine assignments for the sections of the proposals, along with due dates for completion of those sections, and determine review dates along the process of proposal development. Several reviews may take place, again, all depending on the complexity of the proposal. These types of reviews will be detailed later. The sections of our proposal response will also be determined based upon the requirements of the RFP. The image below is of a proposal calendar pulled from an actual compliance matrix.

Typical Response Items

One section of a proposal response often included on a large proposal is an executive summary. An executive summary is an overview of the proposal that hits upon the key issues our firm sees as vital to the client, and how our firm is best suited to provide answers to those key issues. As Garage Technology Ventures, a seed and early stage venture capital fund states, "The executive summary is often your initial face to a potential investor, so it is critically important that you create the right first impression." Our firm utilizes in most cases an eight page executive summary, where the first page is a cover, followed by a second page describing five key issues facing the client. Pages three through seven then each detail one of the key issues and how our firm can meet the challenges inherent to these issues, and winds up with a summary on the final page. Garage also notes that "The job of the executive summary is to sell, not to describe". The executive summary will not go into detail on the finer aspects of what we are going to deliver to the client, but instead give an overview as to why we are the best choice to deliver solutions that meet the client's key needs. The executive summary is written most often by the BD representative, along with input from the project manager and proposal manager. The executive summary is usually placed immediately after the cover of the proposal in the response to the client.

The cover letter is the next item in the proposal, and unlike the executive summary, is present in every response. Like the executive summary, it is written by the BD representative, with input from the project and proposal managers, and is often signed not only by the BD representative but by an individual from upper management. It is a microcosm, in a sense, of the executive summary. As Deiric McCann states, "Business proposal letter writing is about enticing the recipient to read the proposal - or at least to read the Executive Summary and, even if they fail to read no more than the cover letter, to provide enough information to position yours as a strong solution to their requirements." It is important that the cover letter is not just a simple introduction to the proposal, but instead, informs the client that we understand their needs, and have the ability and experience to deliver the project so that it meets their financial, time and quality requirements. The cover letter is usually followed by a table of contents to the proposal response.

After the introductory sales-type pieces to the proposal and (executive summary and cover letter), and the table of contents, the technical pieces required in the proposal response follow. These vary on every proposal due to differing requirements. One part of our response that will be included on every proposal is responses to specific questions asked by the client in their RFP. These questions will be assigned to individual authors based upon the question type. At times, they may just require a standard boilerplate-type response, in which case members of the proposal management team will re-use information that has been stored from other proposals. Other times, there will be more specific questions that require a specific technical response from specialized technical personnel.

There are also a number of other typical sections included in a proposal. An organization chart is often asked for in the RFP and a generic one that would be used by an engineering company is pictured below.

This is developed by the project manager and in most cases, includes the names of the actual personnel that our firm is proposing to work on the project. This is drawn out by the project manager and is laid out for the proposal by one of the members of the dedicated proposal team, either a proposal coordinator or graphic designer. Our firm has several templates we use based upon the complexity of the organization chart. Along with the chart, we often have to supply resumes and/or biographies of the individual team members. We keep a library of resumes for all employees that can be tweaked in order to suit the type of project we are proposing on. This work is typically done by proposal coordinators.

A project schedule is often asked for by the client. The client will usually supply a schedule with milestone dates as part of the RFP. Dates would include project start, end of certain phases of the project, and then a hopeful final completion date. As part of the proposal, our technical scheduling personnel will develop a more in-depth schedule with specific milestones along the way that is included in our proposal response. This type of schedule is usually a Gantt chart developed in Microsoft Project. A Scope of Work section is also typically included. This section will detail what our firm will deliver in order to meet the specific project requirements along the life of the project. A project schedule has been depicted below.

A Scope of Work will many times have several sections, depending on what kind of engineering services we are offering. For example, if we are offering civil, structural and architectural services, along with construction management, each of those four disciplines would have their own piece as part of the entire Scope of Work section of our response. These sections would have authors assigned from each of those engineering disciplines. Another section, if asked for by the client, would include pieces on our experience from similar projects (and we have a library of ready-made project descriptions usable for this). These project descriptions can then be tweaked to make them more applicable for the type of project we are proposing on.

Two final sections that are sometimes asked for in proposals are the commercial section, where the client is supplied with a price for services to be rendered by our firm, and a legal section. The commercial section can be supplied in several manners based upon client requirements. Clients may provide very detailed pricing spreadsheets which must be filled out by the company proposing, or they may simply ask for a price. In either case, the price is determined by employees who specialize in setting prices for the services that our firm provides. Any spreadsheets or forms to be filled out are filled out by the firm's pricing personnel, not by the proposal management team. Legal responses can take various forms. We may simply provide a sample contract, if that is what the client has asked for, or they can be much more complex. At times, the client will include their contract in the RFP document, which our legal experts must then read line by line and take exception to clauses or sections with which our firm could not agree to.

Proposal reviews are an integral part of the entire process, and are key to a complete and compliant proposal. As Lohfeld states, "Independent reviews ensure that proposals are compliant and responsive to the request for proposals. They also guarantee that proposals are feature-rich and technically and politically sound." In many cases, multiple proposal reviews per response are commonplace. One technique is to use color-coded reviews. In these cases, a relatively standardized set of colors is used to signify and identify the multiple reviews along the proposal development process, from start to finish. As Shipley Associates notes, these are:

Purple Team Review - Assesses the probability of winning and alignment with organizational goals
Blue Team #1 Review - Reviews initial capture strategy and capture plan
Black Team Review - Predicts competitors' solutions
Blue Team #2 Review - Reviews updated capture plan and solution set
Pink Team Review - Reviews storyboards and mockups to confirm solution set and to validate proposal strategy
Green Team Review - Reviews cost/price solution
Red Team Review - Reviews final proposal draft-including price-to predict how the customer will score the proposal
Gold Team Review - Approves final price and proposal

Our firm does not use all of the listed reviews, but we do use the pink, red, green and gold reviews on large proposals. With the availability of web-based meetings, reviewers need not be present at the reviews. This allows for a wider selection of proposal reviewers, including those that would otherwise be unable to participate. The reviewers that do participate are not the same for all of the different reviews. Reviews can be an excellent tool if used properly, but it can also bog down the entire process if scheduled at inopportune times or too close to the due date of a proposal. For example, a red team review can't be scheduled the day before the proposal is due. It would not leave enough time to make changes before the proposal would need to be completed and delivered.

The Future of Proposal Responses

Proposal responses have changed a great deal over the last ten years. At the turn of the century, proposal responses were largely word-processed documents that were compiled, and then printed and bound in either three-ring binders or by use of a binding machine. This was a time- and labor-intensive, paper-heavy process that required a great deal of time at the end to account for printing of sometimes up to twenty copies of a proposal as well as shipments of boxes full of three-ring binders. Two or three days might have to be allocated at the end of a proposal development effort to complete the printing and shipping of these documents to the client. Things have changed over the last few years.

The electronic proposal response can incorporate more effective and creative tools that can be used to convey a company's offering. Boretz and Parkinson note that the electronic proposal is "a more effective communication tool than the old-fashioned written proposal." They define today's electronic submission as "'Paperless paper' submitted and reviewed on-line or on disk." They also note that soon, electronic proposal delivery will consist of a "multimedia package consisting of written documents, interactive links, and videos or animations to help communicate our message".

Current Electronic Delivery Methods

There are several current methods of electronic proposal delivery. One type of electronic submission that has increased in popularity is not complete elimination of printed proposals, but a reduced number of printed copies. Many firms will now ask for a single printed copy of a proposal, to be accompanied by electronic copies of the proposal on compact disk or via e-mail, usually in a PDF format. This cuts down greatly on the amount of paper used and the time and money spent on printing, binding and shipping.

Other firms have embraced the green philosophy of purely electronic submission of proposals. This can come in several forms. Most often, when delivering a proposal electronically, we are asked to deliver it in PDF format, via e-mail, or sometimes via CD. This works well, but it does have limitations. Many entities have limits as to the size of emails they can receive, which makes electronic delivery of large proposals problematic. A 500 page proposal with many images included can easily exceed the 5MB limit placed by many firms on e-mail size. At times, the proposal will have to be split into multiple pieces in order to satisfy the e-mail size requirement. This is the type of "Paperless Paper" electronic submission noted above by Boretz and Parkinson. This type of submission saves a great deal of time at the end of a proposal effort, as no printing or binding is required. This allows for more time to spend developing content for a quality proposal, as opposed to having to leave time at the end for printing, binding and shipping.

An emerging method of electronic proposal delivery is via a dedicated website where the proposing firm uploads its responses into specially designed forms which are set up often times by a third-party supplier management system firm that has contracted with the client. A good example is the Ariba proposal system. In the Ariba proposal system, bidders upload their responses into forms set up on a website. This includes both pricing information as well as technical information, and the system can also be set up to allow for upload of full documents where the client wants a "Paperless Paper"-type proposal as well as just the responses to specific questions.

Some firms are even foregoing asking for the traditional proposal response, either via paper or paperless methods, and are asking for PowerPoint presentations to serve as a company's response to an RFP. This allows for questions and answers in real time at the point of proposal delivery, which saves time, and also reduces proposal development costs for the offering firms. This methodology gets the people involved in making the decisions on both sides there, in real time, and will separate those firms unprepared from those ready to take on the challenge of a new project.

The Next Phase

The next phase of electronic proposal delivery will naturally go beyond what is currently in vogue. Properly formatted and designed web-based development of proposal responses would allow for CGI animations, simulations and models to be used for engineering, architectural and manufacturing-type proposals. Multimedia delivery of proposal responses will be able to be presented or viewed on laptops, tablets, or smartphones. Delivery costs will be dramatically reduced. Interactive methodologies of transmission of these types of proposals are still being developed. As the State University of New York at Albany's Center for Technology in Government notes, "The ability of the enterprise to effectively bring this information to bear on funding decisions rests heavily on the development of technologies to support the incorporation of multimedia resources into the proposal development, submission, and management process." Once these technologies are developed and end-users (proposing entities) have access and training on these new applications, the opportunities for new and exciting methods of proposal delivery are endless. Items now best suited for print in a proposal response will now need to become responsive, web-based pieces. A good example will be the ability to utilize responsive resumes. It will become imperative for bidding entities to hire or train employees with a broad skillset that will include multimedia experts, web designers, application developers and the like. Those that do not will soon find their prospects for winning new work waning.

Works Cited

Lohfeld, Bob. "Proposal Reviews Will Raise Your Competitiveness and Increase Your Win Probability-Washington Technology." Proposal Reviews Will Raise Your Competitiveness and Increase Your Win Probability -- Washington Technology. Washington Technology, 05 July 2010. Web. 29 Apr. 2013.

"Writing a Compelling Executive Summary." Garage.com. Garage Technology Ventures, n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2013.

McCann, Deiric. "The Critical Importance of the Business Proposal Cover Letter." blog.deiricmccann.com. Deiric McCann, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2013.

Szaz, Claire. "The Compliance Matrix: A Key Tool for a Successful Grant Proposal." Timelytext.com. TimelyText, 02 Aug. 2011. Web. 28 Apr. 2013.

"Finding Our Future: A Research Agenda for the Research Enterprise:." Finding Our Future: A Research Agenda for the Research Enterprise:. State University of New York at Albany, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2013.

Boretz, Mitch, and Mike Parkinson. "Presentation." Proc. of Association of Proposal Management Professionals Bid & Proposal Con, Dallas, Texas. Association of Proposal Management Professionals, n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2013.

"Shipley Associates - Business Development Training - Public Workshops - Winning with Color Team Reviews: An Introduction." Shipleywins.comShipley Associates, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2013.