3 Benefits of a Proposal Manager
Whether it’s a $50,000 or a $1M contract, pulling all the pieces together for your response requires a clear strategy and organization. The good news is you don’t have to go through it alone. A Proposal Manager (PM) serves as kind of a project manager for the RFP response period. A PM can help develop an overall response strategy, including developing a team and writing template, setting up the necessary systems like check-in calls and document management, or ensuring you’ve met all the RFP requirements by doing compliance checks.
Depending on the size of your team, even if you are just a team of one, here are three reasons to hire a PM.
1 - ORGANIZED PROPOSAL PROCESSES
Having a system in place for your proposal takes the guess work out of what’s coming next or who’s doing what. This is something a PM can help you do so everytime you respond to an RFP, you aren’t reinventing the wheel. Once an RFP is released some of the first steps are to review it and distribute it to your proposal team if you already have one in place. This is also a good time to ensure your online collaboration space (like SharePoint) is in order and you have a clear document management system.
Checklists and templates are also important to have set up to make the outlining, writing, and even the submission of questins to the government more efficient. A proposal schedule and compliance matrix are also big must do’s early on to keep you organized and ensure proper communication to the team. A PM can help get all of this set up so its custom to your company’s specific needs.
2 - QUALITY BID SUBMISSIONS
A PM works with your team to ensure your response is compliant and fully responsive to the RFP. This can be done through compliance checks, helping to build and nourish the proposal writing team or even doing some writing and editing themselves, working with leadership to clarify the solution, and doing a final check of documents before submission.
Regardless of if you have 2 weeks or 30 days to respond to an RFP, it moves fast. A PM has an objective and aerial viewpoint so you and your team can focus on writing the response and highlighting what your company does best.
3 - CLEAR COMMUNICATIONS
Being able to clearly and confidently communicate all the little details throughout the proposal development process makes a big difference in the end result. Before I was a PM, I’d been on proposal teams that were not so organized and I was definitely more exhausted at the end of those projects. Organization and expertise really help bring peace of mind and allows for a more streamlined bidding process. This is where a good PM makes a difference. They should be able to clearly communicate schedules and next steps while also anticipating potential issues and making concise decisions.
Being able to grow your business through government contracts can set your company up for success and working with proposal development professionals with industry knowledge can take your bids to the next level and get wins. A PM is a great way to get the systems you need in place and save you time throughout the response period.