Who, What, Where, When, and Why - How to Formulate your Proposal

Although you can employ all sorts of intricate language and numbers in trying to explain why your organization deserves to win the proposal you seek, if it is lacking fundamental information, it may throw off the evaluator, and result in failure.  It is important to remember the simple “who, what, where, when, and why” technique in order to ensure that your message doesn’t get convoluted in complicated language.  Ensure that your proposal is able to demonstrate how these apply. 

• Who: Parties responsible for completing the work, who manages, who is the contact person, who is ultimately responsible for what?
• What: What needs to be completed, what is required, what is expected, what is the cost?
• Where: Where is the work to be completed, where is it sent to?
• How: How is everything managed, deployed, completed, who will satisfaction be delivered, how are risks managed, how long will it take, how are you the best choice?
• When: When will work begin, when are deliverables scheduled, when is everything to be finished, when is payment going to occur?
• Why: Why have you chosen this route, why are you the best option? 

Having a thorough plan for your proposal allows for much easier completion.  Your proposal needs specific goals and should address client requirements brought in the RFP.  Documenting a proposal plan is of the utmost importance, so that it can be validated before production begins.  Once you have validated your plan, it can be used as a guiding blueprint for the completion of the document, or utilized as a checklist.  This can provide guidance to authors, and be used for future reviews. 

10 Steps to Get into GSA Scheduling

General Services Administration or GSA scheduling programs are an excellent way to do business with the Federal government.  These include the GSA establishing long-term government-wide contracts with commercial firms to provide access to millions of commercial supplies and services at volume discount pricing.  GSA scheduling has many benefits to both the offeror and supplier, and can be a great way to get started with Federal contracting. 

1.       Getting started

Think it through before getting started.  Carefully consider whether or not you have the resources to pursue a schedules contract, and the time to both market and compete for business once on contract.  Determine if your products or services fit with a Schedules solicitation.  The GSA Schedules Solicitations page contains contract numbers with their corresponding Special Item Numbers (SINs).  The SIN functions as a number you can use to easily identify your particular product or service. 

2.       Ensure your prices are competitive with the competition, and that you have the available time and resources to complete the job

Before jumping head-first into a GSA Schedule contract, ensure that your pricing approach is competitive with current Schedule contractors.  A good way to do this is to visit the GSA Advantage webpage, which allows you to do a complete price comparison for similar products and services.  IN addition to pricing, make sure that your company has the time and resources to dedicate towards responding to a Schedules solicitation.  Include in this estimation proper contract administration and marketing time.

3.       Create a business plan

Just because you’re on a GSA Schedule doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting government sales.  Once a contract is awarded, the company is responsible to market both the company, and the GSA contract.  Competition plays a part in this as well, as vendors need to be prepared to compete with other contractors on Schedules.  It is highly recommended that a firm business plan is created prior to getting involved with Scheduling, and the plan should include: estimate of the expected Return on Investment, a sound marketing plan, and a personnel determination. 

4.       Learn more

Market research should be conducted prior to getting involved with Scheduling.  Include in this research of comparable products and services provided to the government market.  Good sources for this variety of research are FedBizOpps (FBO), Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS), and Schedules Sales Query (SSD).  Research what agencies have been known to purchase your product or service, where these agencies are located, the pricing of sales to these agencies, and the buying trends and forecasted sales of the product or service you’re offering. 

5.       Find the solicitation that’s right for you

Once you have made the determination to get into a Schedules contract, you now need to find the correct Schedule solicitation.  A good place to find solicitations pertaining to you is the GSA Schedules Solicitations page.  On this site is a brief description of the acquisition centers and specific GSA Schedules, complete with links to the GSA eLibrary, and FedBizOpps.

6.       Become registered and certified

Before responding to a solicitation, you must become certified and registered through a number of sources. 

·         Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS)

o    This is a nine-digit number managed by Dun & Bradstreet.  It is a widely accepted, unique identifier for companies worldwide.

·         Central Contractor Registration (CCR)

o    Collects, validates, stores, and disseminates data in support of agency acquisition missions.  This needs to be updated annually. 

·         Online Representation and Certifications Application (ORCA)

o    Consolidated certification process that is applied to all Schedules solicitations and federal contracts.  This also needs to be updated annually. 

·         Past Performance Evaluation (link here)

o    Open Ratings surveys your past customers in order to assess work performance.  Unlike the other services, this one does require a fee.   

7.       Respond to a solicitation

Dedicate the time and resources to responding to a GSA solicitation.

8.       Completing a solicitation

Once you have found the correct solicitation, registered and certified your company through the appropriate portals, and have dedicated the time and resources to responding to a solicitation, it is time to get to work.  Go through the documentation thoroughly, and meticulously review the requirements. 

Ensure that the information that you present is readable, and thorough.  When you submit your response, ensure that you submit a completed Standard Form 1449, complete with electronic signature.  Also, ensure that you submit two dated copies of your commercial pricelist(s), with appropriate SIN next to them.  The Commercial Sales Practice Format (CSP-1) needs to also be included in your pricing history. 

Pricing is the key factor in winning a solicitation, pay close attention to the pricing you’ve provided, and be prepared to negotiate the best offer for the government. 

9.       Offer review process

The GSA review process typically takes anywhere between 30 to 120 days to complete.  Having a complete and accurate offer speeds up the process considerably, returns to the vendor for correction or clarification are common, and make the review process longer.  Reviews are completed by a GSA Procurement Contracting Officer (PCO), who utilizes a series of criteria in evaluating offers. 

·         Responsibility

o    Ensure that the company is financially healthy, and they have a proven record of positive past performance

·         Responsiveness

o    Ensure that the instructions included in the solicitation were followed properly, and that the correct documentation is included.

·         Scope

o    Seeing if the products or services offered match the Schedule / SIN description.

·         Subcontracting Plan

o    It is required for large businesses to have a plan in place for subcontracting a portion of the work towards socioeconomic goals.  The PCO checks to see how sound this plan is.

·         Pricing analysis and review of terms

o    PCO checks to make sure the pricing offered is fair and reasonable, with data supporting and explaining the structure provided. 

10.    Negotiation and contract award

Once the review has been completed by the PCO, a meeting may be scheduled to discuss terms and negotiate pricing.  The goal of negotiations is to create a discount ratio in regards to your Most Favored Customer (MFC), this being the customer or class of customers who receive the best pricing and discount for your product or service.  After negotiation, a final offer is prepared, complete with discounts or concessions.  If this offer doesn’t meet the evaluation criteria, or offer fair and reasonable pricing, it is likely to get rejected.  At this point, you may alter and re-submit the offer based on feedback given by the PCO.  However, if your offer is accepted, you will receive a Schedules contract and will be eligible to start doing business with the government through a Schedules program. 

While this list certainly doesn’t cover the entire breadth of GSA Scheduling contracts, it is a good way to get started on the way towards completing these contracts with the Federal Government. 

Responding to a Request For Proposal (RFP)

RFPs issued by the government have a tendency to be very complicated, and highly regulated.  As such, they can be a daunting task for someone unfamiliar with proposal writing to tackle.  Although completing a solicitation for an RFP can be very tasking at times, they all mostly follow the same criteria, and understanding how to fill these criteria make proposal writing a much more manageable task. 

The first thing to examine in an RFP is the “statement of work” which is contained in the RFP.  The statement of work describes what needs to be included in the proposal, how to format and submit the proposal, and evaluation criteria which explains how it will be examined, and ultimately be decided upon.  Included also is a due date, which is absolute, and non-negotiable.  It is of the utmost importance that all of the criteria provided in the RFP are met, as this is usually what determines the difference between a winning proposal, and another loser. 

Preparing To Write Your Proposal

In order to win, you first must ensure that you meet the needs addressed in the RFP.  This means that you must first determine what those needs are.  You must identify not only what the customer wants, but why they want it.  This includes what is important to them, what they want to get done, and why they need this fulfilled.  In addition to addressing what you can do for them, you also need to explain why they want you to do it for them over the competition. 

Proposal Formula

• Who: Parties responsible for completing the work, who manages, who is the contact person, who is ultimately responsible for what?
• What: What needs to be completed, what is required, what is expected, what is the cost?
• Where: Where is the work to be completed, where is it sent to?
• How: How is everything managed, deployed, completed, how will satisfaction be delivered, how are risks managed, how long will it take, how are you the best choice?
• When: When will work begin, when are deliverables scheduled, when is everything to be finished, when is payment going to occur?
• Why: Why have you chosen this route, why are you the best option?

Having a thorough plan for your proposal allows for much easier completion.  Your proposal needs specific goals and should address client requirements brought in the RFP.  Documenting a proposal plan is of the utmost importance, so that it can be validated before production begins.  Once you have validated your plan, it can be used as a guiding blueprint for the completion of the document, or utilized as a checklist.  This can provide guidance to authors, and be used to future reviews. 

Using Themes and Discriminators

In a proposal, you want to suggest why you are the best option for the job, and how you best benefit the customer.  A well-written proposal should be able to be digested by simply flipping through the pages, and examining the themes apparent throughout.  From this, the message you are trying to convey should be immediately apparent.  The best way to accomplish this is to minimize the amount that needs to be read.  There are numerous techniques that can be employed to do this:

• Discriminators: Explain why your business is ideally-suited for the task, and how you are unique or special.
• Summaries: Round-up statements that detail your proposal.
• Conclusions: Message that tells reader what you want them to conclude about a particular section of a proposal.
• Ghosts: Subtle messaging that illustrates why your company or organization is the best to fulfill this contract, and why the others are inferior.
• Action captions: An illustration caption that states the conclusion you wish them to reach.
• Win themes: Drives home the point of why your company should be chosen above the others.

Reviewing Your Proposal

Reviewing your completed proposal ensures that your product is of the highest caliber.  Ideally, this is done by a party not involved in the writing of the proposal, as they have a clean-slate with the project, and are better equipped for giving criticism.  Having clear goals in place when you are conducting a review is very important: you may for example want to try and score it how the criteria of the RFP suggests, and fix areas that need improvement.  Utilizing “track changes” and leaving comments in word processing software allow for team-members working on the proposal to get in-depth information on how to improve the document. There are numerous things to examine when reviewing:

• Proposed solution:  Will your proposal work?  Are risks mitigated well enough?  Is your price adequate?  Do you have a good value?  Have all features been sufficiently tied to the evaluation criteria?
• RFP compliance: Ensure all requirements are addressed, particularly those that might conflict with relevant requirements.  Call attention to anything that might contradict RFP criteria.
• Score: Give your paper a score based on the evaluation criteria.  Act as though you are the client.
• Additions and deletions: Ensure that all the information you have presented is necessary, and fulfills requirements.  Take out fluff and potentially patronizing wording.  Ensure there are no redundancies.
• Changes/corrections: Grammatical, spelling, etc.
• Experience: Mention all relevant experience.
• Themes: Make sure themes are well-highlighted, and they are easily distinguishable.
• Graphics/illustrations: Are there sufficient pieces of graphical design?  Are there too many?