Working with inexperienced proposal teamsequires a different approach than working with a team of experienced writers and reviewers. With leadership buy-in and some extra guidance and emphasis on APMP best practices, inexperienced teams can create outstanding proposals.
1. Senior Management Buy-In
Present to senior management the reasons it should buy into forming a more consistent proposal process and offer its utmost assistance, including carving out resources and helping to guide the team. Many businesses, especially small ones, have never done a competitive proposal. Make the case as to why competitive proposals are crucial to continued growth for the business. There are guides, webinars, and studies online that you can reference to find reasoning and numbers to back up your ideas.
2. Early Identification of the Right People for the Right Jobs
Once you have senior management buy-in, ask yourself these questions: Who has an ability to write? Who can provide technical input? Do you have any seasoned reviewers? What business development or sales staff, recruiters, HR, contracting, and legal staff will be needed? A small business may not have dedicated writers, recruiters, or business development or sales staff, so it’s important to identify your needs and to start onboarding these people early. Use senior management to help carve out the resources for this effort. Your managers will likely know the strengths of employees and can help assign tasks to those who may not normally perform those tasks but would be able to handle them.
3. Kick-Off
Once you know who is on your proposal support team, start educating your team members on the proposal process, the opportunity itself, the customer, etc. Introduce them to the other team members and identify who will be resources for one another.
The proposal team members must understand what is expected of them. The expectations should be laid out, with no vagaries, before activities start.
4. Clear, Concise Expectations
The proposal team members must understand what is expected of them. The expectations should be laid out, with no vagaries, before activities start. Things that may seem like no-brainers to an experienced proposal team (late nights, customer pain points, win themes, etc.) will not be obvious to individuals who have never done this type of work. The clearer the expectations, the smoother the process will be.
5. Helping Your Team Find Balance
At a small business, it is likely that the proposal team members will also have the regular tasks of their primary jobs to complete. This additional responsibility can be overwhelming to inexperienced team members. They may miss deadlines and tasks for the proposal or for their everyday jobs because they shut down in a panic over finding the time. Have senior leadership guide the team about the best ways to prioritize responsibilities—and emphasize the lack of flexibility in a proposal timeline.
6. Communication
Open and clear lines of communication between a team and the proposal manager are always key, but they are especially important when working with an inexperienced team. Often, green writers will say, “Everything is going great,” but when you receive sections for review, the content is not where it should be. Don’t hesitate to drill down: Ask exactly where they are and make them list their accomplished tasks. Do “mini-reviews” for sections before the color reviews so you can provide feedback that gets your proposal to color-review quality.
7. Collaboration
In the first week of writing, get those individuals who have been assigned writing tasks and their resources together in a room or an online collaboration tool. Have a more experienced team member, such as the proposal manager or a representative from senior leadership, guide the writers through a rough outline or draft. Write it there and then. This activity will help guarantee that you receive sections completed to the level and quality they should be from the start.
Meghan Hilbruner is a business development analyst at Chenega Technical Innovations, based in Chantilly, Virginia. She can be reached at meghanhilbruner@gmail.com.
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