[52383] in Zephyr_Bugs
Proposals: Two of the Deadliest Proposal Writing Sins
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Fedmarket)
Sun Jun 11 19:33:44 2006
Date: Sun, 11 Jun 2006 17:09:49 -0600
From: "Fedmarket" <noreply@fedmarket.com>
To: zephyr-bugs@mit.edu
Reply-To: "Fedmarket" <noreply@fedmarket.com>
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<title>Proposal Writing</title>
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<p align="left"><img src="http://www.fedmarket.com/images/logo.gif" width="254" height="51" alt= "Fedmarket.com"></p>
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<b>Welcome to our series called "Proposal Writing." This newsletter is the fortieth installment in a series of email
newsletters about proposal writing and federal sales.</b></font><br>
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<p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2"><b>Installment 40 - Two of the Deadliest Proposal Writing Sins
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<p>A service company's two greatest assets are its corporate experience and the background of its staff. Often, both assets are not presented effectively in a company's federal proposals. The following is a summary of common mistakes contractors make when drafting their proposals.
<p>In the case at hand, a company is overwhelmed because it is attempting to write numerous proposals at once. Due to the chaos associated with such a task, the personnel and corporate experience chapters are not dealt with until the last minute because everyone assumes that they are pieces of cake. The thought process is that the company can use corporate experience descriptions and staff resumes from other proposals and plug them in at the last minute into the proposals being drafted.
<p>It is the day before the 'due date and the company's new Proposal Manager schedules a meeting with management. The proposal being discussed requires that bidders provide resumes for (i) the prospective Project Manager, (ii) a senior Oracle DBMS engineer, and (iii) a security specialist (three in total). At the meeting, management tells the Proposal Manager, "We have scads of those types. Let's give the agency six resumes. That will show how strong we are." The Proposal Manager replies, "With all due respect, Richard White of Fedmarket.com says we should only give the agency exactly the number of resumes requested and rewrite the resumes to meet each and every requirement in the Request for Proposal (RFP)." Management responds, "We don't disagree but the proposal needs to be out the door by 10:00 am tomorrow. Pick six and throw them in. It will be fine."
<p>Furthermore, in our hypothetical, the RFP states that the bidder should submit three corporate experience descriptions demonstrating the company's ability to handle the tasks outlined in the RFP. Management tells the Proposal Manager, "Wow, we can do this type of work in our sleep and we are the best qualified company out there. Give them six projects. We need to prove to them how eminently qualified we are. By the way, throw in the phrase 'world class' in the corporate experience introduction. We are truly world class in this field and the agency's proposal evaluators need to know this." The Proposal Manager, an avid reader of this installment series, once again objects and says, "Shouldn't we only give them exactly the number of corporate experience descriptions requested and rewrite them to meet each and every requirement in the RFP?" Management's response is similar to the one outlined above. While the meeting is winding down, the Proposal Manager is thinking t
o
himself, "Richard White says we should write fewer proposals and win more. Maybe we shouldn't have attempted three proposals at once." It isn't difficult to envision what the success rate of this company will be. <br><br
>
<hr><br><br>
<P align=center><font color="#000000" size="3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><i><font face="Courier New, Courier,
mono">Write Less - Win More</font></i></b></font></P>
<P align=center><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2"><IMG
src="http://www.fedmarket.com/CRMFederal/crm_logo.jpg" alt = "CRMFederal"></font></P>
<p align = center><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2"><b><i><font size="3">A
Complete Business Process for Sales & Proposal Writing</font></i></b></font></font></p>
<ul>
<li><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2">An interactive tool to
help technical writers think </font></li>
<li><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2">Time saving model text
</font></li>
<li><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2">Proposal writing instructions
and electronic content generation </font></li>
<li><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2">Proposal library and
version control </font></li>
<li><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2">A training tool for new
proposal writer</font></li>
</ul>
<p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2"><i><b>CRMFederal</b></i> is
about developing relationships, our interactive technology enables you to know
how strong your customer relationships are and your chances for success in a
simple and straight forward manner.</font></P>
<div align = center>
<table width =450>
<tr>
<td><a href
="http://www.fedmarket.com/CRMFederal/index.shtml">
<font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2"><li><b><i>CRMFederel</i> Home Page </b>
</font>
</a> </td>
<td><font color="#0000FF"><a href = "http://www.fedmarket.com/CRMFederal/demo/chart.html">
<font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2"><li><b>Demo <i>CRMFederal</i></b></font>
</a></font></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2"><Br><b>
If you would like more information about CRMFederal call 888-661-4094
ext 8. </b>
</font> <br><br>
<hr>
<font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2" color="#0000A0"><br>
<b><font size="3">Proposal Writing Breakfast with CRMFederal Author, Richard White</font></b>
</font><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2"> </font>
<P align=left><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2"><b>Is your company
experiencing proposal writing problems? Join the crowd of most federal contracting
companies. Learn why your proposals are less than successful in this two hour
breakfast training event. </b></font></P>
<P align=left><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2"><b>Date:</b>
Friday, June 16, 2006 in Bethesda, Maryland</font><br>
<strong><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2">Time:</font></strong><font face="Courier New,
Courier, mono" size="2"> 8:30 am - 10:30 am</font><br>
<font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2" ><b>Location:</b>
The Federal Sales Academy</font><br>
<font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2" ><b>Cost:</b>
$100 per person</font>
<P><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2"><b>Richard White, author of
CRMFederal, a Complete Business Process for Sales Proposal Writing will address:
</b></font>
<ul><li><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2">Why sales and proposal
writing must be treated as a single business process </font>
<li><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2">Defensive proposal writing
</font>
<li><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2">Advanced proposal writing
techniques </font>
<li><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2">Features and benefits of
CRMFederal </font>
<li><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2">Demonstration of CRMFederal
</LI>
</UL></font>
<p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2"><A
href="http://www.fedmarket.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=38"><STRONG>REGISTER
HERE</STRONG></A></font></p>
<p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2"><b>Question? </b>Call Suzie
White at 301-652-9504 ext. 10</font></p>
<hr>
<DIV align=center>
<P><IMG height=56 src="http://www.fedmarket.com/images/whitepaper.jpg" width=72; alt ="federal proposals"> <FONT
color="#0000a0"><FONT face="Courier New, Courier, mono" color="#000000"
size=2><b>Free Informative Whitepaper by Richard White: <A
href="http://www.fedmarket.com/whitepaper_download.php?which_one=crmfederal">
Solution to the Proposal Dilemma</b></A></FONT></font>
</B></P></DIV><br><hr>
<p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2">If you need help with any other product sales, call or write as follows:
(888)
661-4094 ext. 8 or <a href="mailto:"><b>sales@fedmarket.com</b></a>.
</font>
<p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="2">Regards, <br>
Richard White<br>
President <br>Fedmarket.com <br>
The Federal Sales Academy <br>
<a href = "mailto:"><b>rwhite@fedmarket.com </b></a><br>
(301) 652 - 9506 (office)<br>
(434) 962-9508 (cell) </font>
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