Imagine how it would feel when you are able to manage a proposal process from start to finish that is planned, organized, and follows a predictable schedule.

You not only know the steps involved in any proposal response situation but take charge of the entire process and delegate with authority and confidence.

You are confident your proposal is compliant, customized, and showcases your firm as the best.

After you hit that submit button, you feel like a success. It makes your entire marketing department (which might only be you) proud. Firm leaders take notice of how smooth the proposal process was.

Can you even imagine that? Now that’s #marketingboss

I’m your host Lindsay Diven and welcome to the Marketers Take Flight podcast.

After managing proposals for 17+ years in the architecture/engineering industry, I have compiled a list of the activities involved in proposal management from the moment that RFP hits your desk to its timestamped by the client.

I’ve boiled all of it down to three phases—Coordinating, Content Development, and Review, Finalization, and Delivery (RFD).

And in today’s episode, I am going to narrow on one of those phases – the Content Development phase. And more specifically some best practices on how to approach the order in which you develop your proposal content.

Because with all the moving parts that go into getting the first proposal draft ready, it can be hard to know exactly what to work on first. Also, you probably have a few proposals going on at the same time with varying deadlines.

But first, let me quickly go through each proposal production phase because you’re probably wondering what the heck I am talking about!

Coordinating Phase

The coordinating phase is when the proposal manager spends time reviewing the RFP, identifying the pursuit team, and completing the proposal management and production schedule.

This phase also includes holding a proposal kick-off meeting with your team. This meeting gives the team to go through all the requirements, ask questions, understand the timeframes and deadlines, and agree on strategies and content.

Then there is the content development phase, which I’ll come back to.

Review, Finalization, and Delivery (RFD) Phase

And at the end of the proposal process is the Review, Finalization, and Delivery Phase. Wow-what a mouthful. If someone can up with a better name for this phase, I’ll send you Starbucks gift card!

Anyways during this phase, you’ll have the proposal review meeting.

During the review meeting, the reviewers provide their comments, concerns, and edits to each section of the proposal. You document these changes in a recovery plan. Effective reviews go beyond checking spelling and compliance, they make sure your proposal is compelling and clearly communicates your firm’s differentiators for the project.

Next is final proposal production. This is the crunch time to get all the final pieces into place. You put together all the final edits and have a final review with a smaller group of reviewers.

At this point, you are either going to print and deliver the proposal or prepare for electronic submittal. No matter what delivery option, you want to make sure that you meet the specifications in the RFP (number of copies, file size, format, etc.) and submit it to the client prior to the deadline, including the time!

Okay, so now that you have a quick intro to the three phases of proposals – Coordination, Content Development and Review, Finalization, and Delivery Phases – let’s go back to the phase that takes the longest and is the most complex – the content development phase.

This is the phase that most people are used to working in, often proposal newbies just jump to this phase and skip the coordination phase because they just want to start working on that dang proposal.

However, that can be another podcast in itself, so let me stay focused.

Going back to the Content Development Phase. In this phase, a lot of things are happening. You are getting final sign-offs on org charts, resumes to include, and project examples to use. You are finalizing subconsultants and maybe even reaching out to them to get their information. And, you’re actually developing content – either writing sections, putting together resumes, and/or creating graphics. The goal of this phase is to get to that proposal draft that is complete enough to have a meaningful review.

And, most likely you are not working on only one proposal at a time. Am I right? So you have several proposals going on at once with different external and internal deadlines. So, how can you efficiently work through all of these tasks to get that coveted draft proposal document ready?

Over the years, I have realized that I worked better when I followed some kind of order of operations when working on my proposals.

Now, if you have kids or can remember back to 3^rd or 4th-grade math – there’s an order of operations for math. PEMDAS or Please excuse my dear aunt sally. It’s the order in that you solve mathematical problems.

But don’t worry. We are doing no math today. I just wanted you to start thinking about the concept of order of operations. But, if that triggered some horrible memories then just regard!

But for proposals, there is a certain order of operations that I refer to when working on my proposal drafts.

First, I start by making sure all long-lead items are done first. This can include my requests for information from subconsultants, requests to technical staff for information or write-ups, graphic design requests, etc. I do this first because I want to send those requests out and then work on my assignments while I am waiting for them to respond.

Next, I work on any items that need final sign-off from someone else. These often include the final org chart or project list or list of references. I make those drafts and give them to the person who needs to approve them. My goal is to get that approval as fast as possible because most likely need to wait for their approval to work on the items.

For example, if I don’t have an approved org chart it’s going to stop me from working on the resumes. If I can get that draft org chart approved or at least the key people in that org chart approved, I know I can start working on the resumes and maybe they won’t change too much. However, If I begin working on resumes without an approved org chart, I am running the risk of doing work that has a good chance of getting changed or removed from the proposal. And, who has extra time to do work that is wasted!

So after I get all of my requests for information out and all of the items that need at least initial sign-off approved, I work backward from my internal deadlines to determine what components I will work on next.

For example, if I gave the subs and technical staff one week to get me their information, I won’t start with the sections that information is in. Instead, I’ll start working on the sections or pieces that I have access to the information I need to complete those sections. For example, if I got my project list signed off I’ll start putting together the project pages. Or, if there are standard forms or T&Cs I’ll go ahead and set those up.

My personal goal is to get all of those types of sections or pieces completed before the internal deadline for the subconsultant and technical information.

My aim is that the technical and sub information should be the last pieces to be placed into that draft proposal document.

Throughout this process and depending on the size/priority of the pursuit, the proposal team will get together once per week to conduct milestones checks. This helps keeps us on target and identify any content still outstanding. This also gives us the ability to reassign tasks or change content direction, if needed. I call these tag-up meetings.

Typical items that need to be completed during the content development phase can include:

Hold authors’ meetings/approach sessions

Hold tag up meetings

Confirm client references

Submit questions to client

Research/assemble information necessary to answer specific RFP questions

Prepare required forms

Finalize covers, backs, and tabs

Prepare proposal draft document based on proposal management plan and content plan. Elements may include:

Qualifications based content

Technical writing

Pricing

Project schedule

Graphics

Conduct marketing quality control of draft proposal document

Distribute proposal draft for review meeting

Okay so to recap my proposal order of operations, I do the following:

Send any requests for information out including subconsultants or internal technical content

Prepare any items or lists that need to be signed off such as an org chart or project list

Work on those items or sections that I can do while I am waiting for the requested information, with goal of having those items or sections completed before the other internal deadlines

Hold any tag up meetings to help keep assignments on track or adjust as needed

Get the requested information and plug it into the draft document

Assemble the draft document and move into the Proposal Review phase

Now, when I say it like this it sounds super easy! I know I know. It’s when you are dependent on others to give you information or you have other things drop on your lap during this phase that tends to get in the way. I am not saying that doesn’t happen. But, what I hope from this episode today, is that when you can start thinking about the order of operations when it comes to the proposal content development stage, it makes you think 2-3 steps ahead and work backward from that. And, when you start thinking that way, and start putting that thought process into action, it gets easier when people miss internal deadlines or new addendums are published that change the proposal.

And, hopefully, by me sharing my order of operations when it comes to proposals or quite frankly any type of project or campaign I am working on now, it helps you to start thinking about your own order or operations.

So tell me, friends, did this make sense to hear this type of concept via a podcast? Were you able to follow along and understand me? Let me know your thoughts over at the show notes page – marketerstakeflight.com/64.

And, if you have your own order of operations when it comes to putting together proposals, I would love to hear it! Share that with me on the show notes page. Again that was marketerstakeflight.com/64.

Don’t forget to hit that subscribe button so you don’t miss the next episode. And, if you liked what you heard today, please share it with your marketing and business development friends. I am a firm believer that as our individual skills improve, so does our entire industry.

All right that’s it for me today. Until next time, bye for now.