Fedmarket’s Advanced Proposal Development Workshop will give you hands-on experience with proposal development techniques that improve your ability to manage proposals, reduce rework, and create proposals the evaluators can use to choose you.

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Date: Monday, May 19, 2008
Location: The Federal Sales Academy in Bethesda, MD
Time: 8:30 a.m.  Refreshments, Coffee, Bagels, Juice
Course: 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Cost: $900 per person

Why is this Workshop Different?

If you have the basics of proposal writing under your belt and you are ready to develop the skills most proposal writers develop only through years of hands-on experience Fedmarket’s Advanced Proposal Development Workshop takes you to the next level.

It gives you hands-on experience with a series of team-oriented activities, many of which are completed well before the RFP arrives, aimed at accomplishing the following:

• give you insight into pre-RFP best practices
• help build your win strategy into proposal documents
• create a framework for your proposal that is both complaint and responsive
• dramatically reduce the amount of rework required to complete the proposal when the RFP arrives
• organize your response so it is responsive and persuasive

This workshop will give you tools and techniques that dramatically improve proposal quality, whether you are writing task order proposals for a current contract or working on a large, complex competitive procurement.

Who Should Attend?

This workshop is tailored to the needs of proposal managers; writers; functional or subject matter experts; proposal support staffs; and anyone else in your organization who regularly participates in developing proposal strategy and/or creating proposal documents.

Why Should You Attend?

Success with any proposal process depends on two critical factors:

1. starting early
2. creating the proposal in a highly collaborative, team-oriented fashion.

If you are experiencing any of the following, this workshop is for you:

• Waiting until the RFP arrives to get started
• Starting from “scratch” when you do finally start
• Poor coordination and communication among contributors
• Problems with RFP compliance
• Inability to create responsive proposals that allow the evaluators to see your strengths and discriminators
• Continuously reworking and rewriting sections right up to the proposal delivery date

Workshop Description

This workshop introduces participants to a series of high-value planning and organizing activities that help get proposal development off to a fast and effective start. It begins with a brief overview of roles and responsibilities in a typical proposal team, and provides a working framework to bring the team together in an integrated and efficient manner. The techniques apply regardless of how many people participate in your team.

Often times, people fail to recognize how much they can accomplish before the actual RFP is released. The workshop gives you insight into pre-RFP best practices that, when implemented effectively, will dramatically reduce the level of effort required to complete the proposal when the RFP arrives.

During the workshop, you will learn how to organize your response so it is compliant, responsive, and compelling. You’ll learn how to build your win strategy and customer insight into the proposal sections, and how to employ visual outlining (e.g. mockup) techniques that simplify the writing task for your proposal section contributors.

Participants will use excerpts from a sample RFP to build a proposal “shell,” design a section mockup, and create an information package for proposal section contributors (i.e., your writers) that fully prepares them to write the actual proposal sections, and to do it right the first time.

Throughout the workshop, you will gain insight into best practices from our workshop leader, Mr. Chuck Moeller. Chuck has more than 24 years of executive level business development, proposal development, and federal sales expertise. His insight into what works and what doesn’t in the federal proposal process has helped hundreds of people make proposal development a less daunting task, and he has contributed to major contract wins for his former company and his current clients.

Content

Introduction

• Roles and responsibilities for team-based proposal development

Planning the Proposal Project

• What can we realistically do before the RFP arrives?
• Who do I need on my proposal team?
• Creating the pre-RFP proposal schedule
• Sharing opportunity information (the Sales Intelligence Questionnaire)
• The value of creating a simple proposal project plan
• Defining your style and content standards
• Identifying and tailoring your past performance
• Developing a staffing plan
• Considerations for the initial cost/price model

Building the Proposal “Shell”

• Tips if you don’t have a draft RFP to work with
• The Compliance Checklist
• Proposal Outlining and Page Budgeting
• Creating top level mockups
• Integrating your strategy and selling points
• Integrating your style and content standards

The Executive Summary

• Benefits of creating it early
• Creating an Executive Summary Mockup
• Drafting the initial text

Preparing for RFP Release

• The kickoff meeting agenda
• The writer’s package

Creating the Proposal Sections

• Adding content details to the mockups
• The mockup review
• Writing the first draft

Completing the Proposal

• Volume Integration Do’s and Don’ts
• The Red Team Review
• Publishing and Delivery Do’s and Don’ts
• Documenting Lessons Learned

Daily Schedule

Federal Sales Academy Location: Class begins at 9:00 am (continental breakfast included)

All seminars conclude with a Q & A period from 4:30 pm to 5:00 pm

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Cancellations & Rescheduling

Cancellation notification must be received one week prior to the seminar date. Upon notification, your registration fee will be refunded less a $100 non-refundable processing fee. Any cancellations beyond the one week period are non-refundable. You may reschedule at anytime; if you reschedule to attend another seminar, we will apply your payment toward your new registration fee. Personnel substitutions may be made at any time. Payment must be received prior to the seminar date. No-shows are liable for the full seminar fee.