Are you in a complex business, like government contracting? If yes, you already know how difficult it is to write a winning proposal within a tight deadline. When your team is just done with a proposal, the last-minute proposals with a fast turnaround come out of nowhere.
Furthermore, with businesses getting smarter on how to write a winning proposal, competition in the proposal is also quite tightening. Let’s see the following five tips for tight proposal turnarounds that won’t compromise the proposal quality or schedule.
Plan Before Writing
In tight turnaround proposals, it is impossible to put together a proposal within 30 days. Thus, rather than compressing a 30-day process into a 5-day task, plan for writing based on the time allotted to you. As you have limited time, validate your proposal sample before the team starts working.
Your operations staff and sales team already figured out whether your offerings meet the business needs. Use this information to create a strategy for prioritizing the requirements.
While outlining a strategy, give your team a plan for proposal writing. Tell them which section to prioritize or who this section is important to. Give them clear directions on how to write proposals with high-quality content. You can also think about providing them with professional proposal management training.
Create Good Proposal Templates
Having a proposal template ready using MS Word macros will save you a lot of time. With a custom toolbar in these templates, you can add a professional style to the text and save time on formatting. For this, you also need to include a cover with space to insert an image or text, a transmittal letter, or documentation common for proposal to proposal.
Do you want to learn the best practices, like the Shipley proposal process, and streamline proposal writing? Registering for professional proposal coordinator training is the best bet.
Write A Clear And Concise Draft
What exactly do you expect from the first draft of the proposal? Does your team have any questions that need to be answered before proposal writing? Get clear on all these things and communicate a schedule to your team. Here is what you can do to kick off the questions-
- Go through the proposal outline to raise questions and ensure that everyone is on the same page.
- Fix a time when your team can reach out to experts to get validation or a solution.
- Create a list of forbidden words or phrases to include in the proposal; it will also help your team correct the misspelled words before submitting the final work.
Build A Documentation Library
It is such a valuable reference resource that can provide you with an array of relevant documents. This library should include all the proposals you have won or lost, previous task order RFPs, a record of your team’s past performance, and a database of resumes for the personnel you bid frequently.
Besides, there should be a contact list of everyone who you can involve in the process, the consultants you can call in case of scarce resources, your company’s accomplishments, as well as certifications.
Focus On Quality Reviews
Instead of skipping the reviews, focus on one or two quality reviews. Though you have to organize documents and monitor schedules, quality reviews important to consider as they are based on clear instructions. So, centralize the reviews to eliminate the confusion. Ask for instructions, not feedback; it helps you get details your team needs to revise.
Conclusion
These are some of the tips that can help you and your team to focus on the most important tasks when there is a tight proposal turnaround. Writing a solid draft, validating the strategy, and having all the key references at hand will improve the proposal quality.