Services
Proposal Process & Proposal Development Services
Proposal Development Consulting
The Federal negotiated procurement process, centered on responding
to a Request For Proposal (RFP), is complex and lengthy, with
sales cycles approaching two to three years. Regardless of
the Business Development or capture process used, even the
largest companies struggle to turn capture activity into a
winning, responsive proposal strategy and proposal document.
Additionally, many proposal development processes are transactional
and process driven, not customer need driven. They emphasize
RFP compliance over strategy development and responsiveness
to client needs. They simply assume the proposal team will
somehow have "perfect knowledge" of the buying environment,
and do not incorporate methods to identify, understand and
respond to the needs, wants and issues impacting the evaluators
and decision makers.
Strike Team LLC offers clients a proven approach to overcoming these issues. Our approach features a three-phase process that effectively integrates BD/Capture and early proposal activity; develops a roadmap and action plan to translate competitive knowledge into proposal strategy; and generates a series of products from which the proposal team can build a compliant AND responsive proposal.
Our proposal consulting services span the entire sales cycle – from early involvement with the BD/Capture team to ensure strategies and themes are developed and validated, through pre-RFP activities that build the proposal framework and ensure you are ready for the formal RFP, to actual proposal development, review and delivery. Strike Team LLC’s proposal consulting process works with any existing BD/Capture and proposal development process, and does not require your BD/Capture team or proposal team to be distracted by having to learn complex new processes or procedures when they should be concentrating on developing the winning offer!
Ready for Strike Team LLC’s to help you build a winning proposal
strategy and product?
Please contact us.
Proposal Development Tools and Just-in-Time Training
Strike Team LLC offers a full range of proposal development tools. Our own Proposal Developer’s Toolkit includes all of the resources a proposal manager needs to begin planning and organizing for proposal development, develop mockups and equip your writers to be successful on their first try.
In addition, we offer Fedmarket’s Proposal Architect, a highly flexible tool that:
- Save 30 to 60% of the typical costs associated with proposal
writing
- Allows writers to focus on critical customer-centric aspects
of the proposal and maximize evaluation points
- Helps ensure that the proposal will address all the RFP requirements
- Helps assure that proposal-writing deadlines will be met
without last minute crises
- Improves proposal consistency and quality
For additional information and a free demo of the Proposal Architect, click here.
Strike Team LLC also provides just-in-time training for your proposal teams on a project-by-project basis. The training centers on the key early phases of proposal development to help your team get a head start on the many things that can be completed before the RFP arrives. Our training can be integrated into actual proposal development, where your team will be able to immediately apply what they learn to develop actual proposal products.
To contact Strike team LLC about other proposal training services, contact us.
Red Team Planning and Execution
One of the most important steps in the proposal development process is the Red Team review. Unfortunately, many companies do not plan, staff, or execute their Red Teams effectively. Reviewers are not prepared, they do not assess the proposal from the customer view, and the whole event becomes an exercise in technical editing. In many instances, only the technical and management sections of the proposal are reviewed, leaving factors such as proposal risk, past performance, and cost/price for the proposal development team to complete on their own, and creating a situation where inconsistencies between the technical, management and cost sections are not detected. All of these things negatively impact your ability to present a compliant, responsive and fully integrated offer to the customer.
Strike Team LLC’s approach to Red Team reviews begins with early team selection and planning. Team members are provided awareness training on how proposals are evaluated. We use the RFP to create a Red Team Plan that emulates the approach your customer will use to evaluate your proposal. We make specific team assignments, create scoring systems and evaluation criteria, and focus on the entire proposal to provide your proposal team actionable feedback and recommendations to improve the proposal. Management receives an independent, candid appraisal of how the proposal will be rated by the customer.
You provide the experts – whether that is people with intimate knowledge of the customer or subject matter experts. We will turn them into effective evaluators and improve your probability of winning.
For more information on how Strike Team LLC can help, contact us.
GSA Schedule Proposal Preparation
As a licensed affiliate of Fedmarket.com, Strike Team LLC offers clients who are selling and/or considering selling to the federal government access to a comprehensive suite of consulting, training and GSA proposal solutions.
GSA Proposal Preparation E-lab
This program is designed specifically for small businesses
on a budget who wish to obtain a GSA Schedule contract. Participants
gather the required product and pricing information for the
products or services they want to place on the Schedule, and
attend a 3-Day GSA eLab workshop. Workshops are scheduled on
a regular basis, and are offered in major metropolitan areas
across the US. Participants leave the workshop with a professionally
prepared, ready-to-submit proposal offering.
GSA Proposal Preparation Assistance
If you need assistance in developing the information required
for your schedule, Strike Team LLC can provide additional
preparation assistance. You provide us with corporate experience
data, discounting practices, and price data using templates
and instructions provided by us. We then prepare a complete
GSA proposal for you and provide you with an electronic copy.
The steps in the process are:
- We send you detailed instructions and templates for compiling
the corporate information needed for your proposal.
- You do not have to read the GSA solicitation or worry about
confusing GSA instructions. You simply follow our easy to use
guidelines and examples and compile the following types of
information.
• Corporate experience
• Discounting practices
• Product/service descriptions and pricing
- You send the corporate information to us electronically
and we prepare your proposal at our office.
- We send you an electronic copy of your proposal within 5
working days of receipt of the corporate information.
- You submit the proposal according to our instructions and negotiate with GSA
Full Service GSA Proposal Consulting
Strike Team LLC can also provide full service consulting support
to help companies obtain your GSA schedule contract. This
includes:
- Reviewing Commercial Sales Practices
• Gathering the information to support price negotiations; and
• Reviewing and analyzing sales data for each product, including standard terms of sale and commercial warranties offered to each class of customer.
- Developing a Pricing Strategy
• Defining the products to offer;
• Preparing pricing exhibits; and
• Preparing commercial pricing practice disclosure and price support documentation.
- Preparing and Submitting the Proposal
• Preparing the schedule price list;
• Completing all required forms, including representations and certifications;
• Gathering past performance references and point of contact information;
• Defining management structure and capability; and
• Delivering the proposal to GSA.
- Performing Post-submission Tasks
• Monitoring proposal status;
• Responding to GSA requests for clarification; and
• Preparing final proposal revisions at the close of negotiations.
Click here for a complete description of the Fedmarket GSA Proposal products.