by: Bernard F. Pettingill, MBA, Ph.D.
When last I checked, this was one of few websites on Planet Proposal that does not wax poetic about writing “winning” proposals. In fact, in more than 29 years, a couple of thousand proposals, and client awards in the billions, not once have we ever bragged of writing a “winning” proposal.
If that seems an oxymoron, perhaps it's time we revisit the primal components of the competitive bidding process. Once done, I trust you'll appreciate why writing winning proposals is such a nebulous claim.
Let's do some simple math, shall we.
The vast majority of local, state, and federal contracts for which our clients compete have three separate and distinct components: Price, Past Performance, and Technical Response.
Our clients provide the Pricing. Obviously, this is their area of expertise. We may assist in that regard, but in the end it’s the client and his/her pricing folks who take full and final responsibility for the numbers. Our clients also provide the Experience and Past Performance on which the awarding entity determines the relative merits and inherent risks in selecting them as its future Service Provider. We provide the Technical Volume. This is our area of expertise and, as critical as it is, it still represents only one-third of the equation on which the bulk of awards are based.
It’s the client who controls two-thirds of the Evaluation Factors that ultimately determine its success or failure on virtually every contract.
Once you understand that, common sense and simple math will tell you how ludicrous it is for proposal houses to brag of "writing winning proposals!" Those that do clearly have no clue how the competitive bidding process works today, and has since the dawn of time.
Dr. Bernard F. “Biff” Pettingill is co-founder, CFO, and Managing General Partner of Federal Database Services, Inc., one of the industry’s longest-running proposal preparation firms. He can be reached at (561) 776-7083.