Key Steps in the Proposal Management Process
Creating compelling proposal content is a team effort. The proposal manager and subject matter experts work together to edit content provided by authors to make sure the proposal tells a consistent and compelling story.
Conducting daily proposal status meetings is crucial to keeping the team on track. These meetings should be kept as disciplined and to the point as possible.
1. Identify the Scope
The first step in the proposal management process is determining the scope of the project. This is important because it helps set expectations for the team and ensures that only the necessary work is completed. It also helps to avoid ad hoc requests that can add time and cost to the proposal.
This can be accomplished by creating a detailed proposal plan and using a WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) to breakdown the project into manageable tasks. It is also important to include a change control process for requesting, evaluating and approving changes to the proposal scope.
It is also important to conduct research into past projects that have similar requirements and use this information in the proposal. This can help prove to the customer that your company has the right expertise and experience. In addition, it is useful to provide just-in-time training to the team during this phase. This can save a lot of time in the long run.
2. Conduct a Kickoff Meeting
When you have multiple authors and SMEs working on a proposal it’s important to coordinate their efforts. A good way to do this is by conducting a team kickoff meeting. During this meeting you’ll review the proposal outline and assignments at a high level. It’s also important to include your cost and contract volume leads at this point so they are integrated with the technical teams and understand how their volumes support customer hot buttons, win themes, and proposal strategy.
This is a great opportunity to also provide a quick training session on the speed writing process and how to construct persuasive arguments in proposal prose. Keeping these sessions short and to the point reduces the amount of time your team spends on rework. This is where many companies fall down on their proposal processes. They have steps but no goals and as a result, their processes end up working against them.
3. Develop a Proposal Outline
In order to build a compelling proposal, you need to first develop an outline. This will provide the framework for what you need to include in each section of the proposal and how those sections should flow together.
During the development of an outline, you will want to make sure that the proposal reflects your company’s branding and that it is consistent with the message you are trying to convey to your client. It is also important to make sure that the proposal content is correct and free of any grammatical or stylistic errors. Using an online text editor such as Grammarly can help you catch these mistakes before they are sent to your client.
You will also want to make sure that you are clearly identifying the problem, explaining how your solution will resolve that problem, and demonstrating your qualifications in solving the problem. In addition, you will want to include a summary and a timeline for your work.
4. Create a Proposal Content Repository
A proposal content repository is a centralized collection of all your most common, reusable, and approved response content. It is a great way to streamline the proposal writing process and improve consistency, quality, and win rate.
When you have prewritten, popular content in a library that is easily customizable for each proposal, your team can spend more time on customization to ensure the final proposal is a good fit for the customer’s needs and challenges. Using a library can also save you money by reducing the need to hire temporary staff during busy periods.
When creating a proposal content repository, make sure that the information is updated regularly. For example, credentials that were current for a past project may no longer be relevant for a new project opportunity, so it’s important to update the information in the library. Additionally, it’s a good idea to do regular library reviews to delete old, out-of-date information.
5. Conduct a Status Meeting
Conducting a daily status meeting ensures that every person in the proposal team knows what they are expected to do and when. This helps maintain a high level of quality in the proposal document. It also enables you to keep a close eye on individual progress towards the completion of their section, so that everyone stays up to date with how they are performing against their deadlines and the overall timelines.
The meetings should include all team members who are responsible for a specific section of the proposal, including SMEs and subject-matter experts. You should also consider incorporating an agenda into each daily meeting. This will help to ensure that each meeting runs as efficiently as possible and keeps within the allocated time.
The best way to run a daily status meeting is by using a tracking matrix that lists out each section along with its author, any issues the writer is experiencing and their plan to get to blue (i.e. outstanding). This will create peer pressure to ensure that your writers are staying on top of their performance.
6. Conduct a Final Review
Every proposal is a significant business investment, and the detailed research, business insights and skillful storytelling that go into responding to an RFP represent hours of work. To avoid a missed opportunity or a costly mistake, it’s critical to ensure that your proposals meet the high standards set by your company.
This is where proposal management steps in. Proposal management helps ensure that all stakeholders are aware of the status of each proposal, that review sessions are effective and that the final proposal submission is free from errors.
It also involves ensuring that a compelling RFP response is based on fact and not opinion, that key stakeholders are consulted in the capture process, and that the Capture Team and the Proposal Manager work closely together. To help achieve these objectives, PandaDoc offers a cloud-based platform that’s designed specifically for proposal management. It allows contributors to collaborate on and share documents while also allowing users to add comments.