With the appropriations delayed and the impeachment investigation, it behooves us all to be as efficient as possible in our proposal prep. Following below are 5 ways we can do better in developing Federal Proposal winners this fall. 1. Make Good Use of Price-to-Win (PTW) Techniques Anyone who pursues Federal Business can’t [...]
After several months of fast RFP releases, federal government contractors are wondering if the impeachment will throw a wrench into the procurement works? We all know that fall federal RFP activity is slower than spring and summer. But will the effect of the impeachment on the federal procurement market be relatively large, [...]
Industry lobbyists with deep insight say that calendar year 2020 may be the first year to see 2 shutdowns. The recently passed Continuing Resolution (CR) takes us only to November 27. The Current Status of the Appropriations At this time, the House of representatives has passed 10 of the 12 major appropriations [...]
All of us are hunting for the secret sauce that will help us win more Federal proposals in this – the most hectic month -- of the fiscal year. Let me offer some suggestions based on experience helping customers prepare 4,000 proposals during the past 33 years: 1. Get executive commitment [...]
Every year about this time, we see a repeated ritual: DoD commands rush to spend remaining budget dollars as fast as possible. (DoD spends 1/3 of its annual budget in fourth fiscal quarter.) The result is a frenzy of procurement activity, mostly through simple contracts such as Task Orders (TO) and Invitation [...]
After what has seemed like an eon, the draft RFP for the $6B RAPID IV program finally came out yesterday – July 18, 2019. And the final RFP is expected in late September. It comes as a relief to contractors that the RFP doesn’t even genuflect to the new NASA paradigm that [...]
During my career, I have evaluated, reviewed, edited, or written over 20,000 resumes, mostly for technical personnel. This experience was obtained in preparing staffing and personnel sections for Government proposals.
During the days when I had time to actively assist in proposal writing, I was often elected to prepare the management plan. During the past 30 years, I have probably prepared at least 150. I will never forget the first management plans I wrote. I was a Vice President at Computer Dynamics, a rapidly growing small business in Virginia Beach. The year was 1983; and this was my first experience writing a management plan. If I had had an MBA degree, the work would have been fairly straightforward. However, my degrees were in English, History, and Education.
An Interview of Rick Harris, APMP CEO Question 1: What are the greatest challenges facing the industry? Answer: On the Federal side I see three challenges: 1. First are the government shutdowns that wreak havoc on the industry. They are not good for business. They are not good for our industry and [...]
During my career, I have seen a huge number of companies that prepared federal proposals without doing the business development work needed to win. This includes both small and large business. Following below is a list of 19 questions every bidder should ask before investing in a federal proposal. 1. How early [...]
