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Free Checklist – Responding to Request For Proposals (RFPs)

Editor — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 14:24:10 +0000

Want to avoid last minute mistakes when submitting your business proposal? It’s easy to forget something when responding to an Request For Proposal (RFP) as there are so many activities to coordinate. One way to ensure your proposal gets delivered on time – and with all requirements covered – is to create a checklist. Here’s a sample checklist to get you started.

Click here to download the RFP Submission Checklist template

Checklist – Submitting Business Proposals

You can use this checklist when responding to RFPs, ITTs and RFIs. Please note that this checklist does not cover all areas (ie non-exhaustive) but will ensure that all information required by the Request For Proposal is provided in accordance with it provisions.

Key Deadlines

ASAP – Confirm receipt of RFT document
Date – First deadline for sending queries
Date – Final deadline for sending queries
Date – Deadline for receipt of Tenders

Tender Documents

X printed, signed and executed copies and one electronic copy of Tender Documents.
Tender documents in envelope marked “Formal Title of Bid – Response to Request for Tender”
Tender documents delivered to the offices of [conform that this is the correct address] by the Closing Date for Receipt of Tenders (see paragraph X).

Confirmations and Certificates

Confirmation that Response complies with National law (see paragraph X).
Certificate there is no economic, legal, commercial or financial relationship with another Respondent (paragraph X).

Information

Furnished full details and identified licences, permits, permissions, including planning permission, authorizations etc required and have been obtained.
Provisions of details of ownership and group structures of Respondent or if joint venture or consortium, the members thereof and, the commercial and legal relationship among the members thereof and other agreements with required confirmations.

Compliance

Compliance with the provision of Section X.
Compliance with the minimum qualification requirements (paragraph X)

Response

Response completed in required format (paragraph X).

Tender Documents for Lot X must include the following:

Completed Specifications Template (ref Appendix 1)
Completed Costs Template (ref Appendix 2)

Tender Documents for Lot Y must include the following:

Completed Specifications Template (ref Appendix 3)
Completed Costs Template (ref Appendix 4)

ALL Tender Documents must include:

Signed Confirmation and Compliance Statement (ref Appendix 5)

Document RFP Submission Template

Click here to download the RFP Submission Checklist template

Conclusion

Every proposal writer has different ways of organizing their bids. One thing to watch is you are responsible for delivering the response – and if you’re working with a team of writers – is to assume the something is missing.
If you have this attitude, you are more likely to spot an omission, error, or discrepancy in the final document.

Sometimes it looks trivial, for example, the footers may be different. Create checklists to capture before the leave your office.

So, if you’re working later, under pressure, and coordinating many documents, use checklists to assemble the proposal correctly and make sure it gets submitted with all the relevant information.

Proposal Software Skills for Bid Managers

Editor — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 16:35:00 +0000

Let’s look at the software Proposal Managers use to write, track and monitor their responses to Request For Proposals. The Proposal Manager’s role also includes the development of Proposal software, Microsoft Word templates, checklists, forms and Excel spreadsheets to track all aspects of the bid process.

Proposal Software Skills for Bid Managers

For example, Business Proposal software will help you, the bidder, to:

Maintain a database of questions and answers for each bid
Maintain boilerplate text for each proposal
Create the award-tracking database
Prepare budget support documentation for all submissions
Ensure the bids are evaluated for compliance
Ensure that each requirements is responded to in the final bid
Establish development milestones
Managing the project calendar and team tasks
Review the proposal team at different stages
Schedule bid/no-bid meetings
Organize the graphic designers, proposal coordinators, and technical writers
Maintain proposal files, legal files and other related documentation
Track the status of multiple bids and coordinate the presentations if necessary

Do I need Proposal Software to write Bids?

I’ve worked in different size firms as a Proposal Manager. Some have been very successful with well-designed Microsoft Word templates, with good checklists, forms and spreadsheets the bid process.

Others used very complex and expensive procurement software. A lot depends on your budget and also what works best for you.

Sometimes the more expensive software can creates problems as you need to train staff, create new workflows and ensure everyone knows how to use the system. The learning curve may defeat the overall purpose.

What do you think?

Software or templates? Which works best?

About the Author: Ivan Walsh provides business proposal writing tips, tutorials, and templates on the Proposal Writing Course every week. Get his free proposal writing newsletter here.

How to Write Headlines, Summaries and Abstracts For Business Proposals

Editor — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 07:18:00 +0000

Philip Koopman, at Carnegie Mellon University, reminds us that, “Writing an efficient abstract is hard work, but will repay you with increased impact on the world by enticing people to read your publications. Make sure that all the components of a good abstract are included in the next one you write.”

Let’s look at how to write headlines, summaries and abstracts. Before we start, what is an Abstract?

Photo Credit Pjern

Why We Read Abstracts and Summaries?

When you open your inbox every Monday morning and see a stream of emails crying for attention. Which do you choose? I’d guess it’s the ones with the snappiest headlines, like these:

Zen and the Art of Remarkable Blogging
A Simple Four-Step Strategy for Developing Content That Connects
The Benjamin Franklin Guide to Marketing Your Business Online
Five Common Headline Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Become a Master of Metaphor and Multiply Your Blogging Effectiveness
Metaphor, Simile and Analogy: What’s the Difference?

These are from CopyBlogger .com and show how smart headlines can tickle your fancy. So, when you read, ‘Are You Leaving Your Readers Out of the Conversation?’ you can’t help but start to answer the question in your mind. And when you do that, you open the article and start to read.

So, good headlines act like hooks bringing you into the story.

Abstracts are also important. We have an ever-increasing need for quick access to information we rely on abstracts and summaries to provide a snapshot of what’s in the article.

If you visualize it as a pyramid, on the top is headlines, then summaries, and then the body of the article. You can see how one leads to the other.

How To Write An Abstract

You have two options. Write it before you start on the main document or after you’ve finished writing, take a break and explore:

What is the main subject in this article?
What conclusion has the writer made?
What message does the writer want to convey?
What do you want the reader to do after reading the document?

Analyze this and define it in one sentence – this is your ‘topic’ sentence.

Write one topic sentence that covers the entire document, regardless of whether the document is a five page letter or a hundred page annual report.

1. Getting Ideas

Then, look at the recommendations, conclusions, summaries, and results in the final document. When abstracting a technical manual, look at the tutorials and see if these help form the topic sentence.

2. Don’t Use the Document’s Title

Avoid using the formal name of the document as this can be misleading and may not help you write the topic sentence. Chances are the ‘working title’ will be too vague. Parts of the title might serve as modifiers in your topic sentence, but you’ll probably need to go beyond the title.

3. Be Specific

Make the topic sentence as specific as possible.

Avoid writing

"This report describes [document title]."

Instead, write something like

"The results of this [subject] study show that [result]."

4. Use Supporting Sentences

After you identify your topic sentence, write supporting sentences. Make each of these supply specific details about the ideas in the topic sentence. Think of what supports the topic sentence.

Who?
What?
Where?
When?
Why?
How? and
How much?

Give statistics, results, conclusions, or recommendations that back up the topic sentence. Only use two or three major supporting ideas. Include the less important evidence as subordinate clauses and modifiers.

5. Use Transitions

Arrange the supporting sentences in a logical sequence after the topic sentence. Add whatever transition is needed to connect the supporting sentences to the topic sentence and to connect ideas within the sentences to each other.

Re-write the sentences to improve the connections.

10 Other Ways to Write a Better Abstract

Write the abstract only when the document is finished. Abstracts written before then are just previews.
If you are forced to write an abstract before the document is completed, think about its purpose and write a topic sentence. Keep in mind that you’ll need to rewrite the abstract when the document is finished because it will no longer accurately reflect the contents of the document.
Before starting the abstract, list your thoughts on the document. Group related items together.
Prioritize the list and put the most important group first. The first few groups form the core of the topic sentence. The rest lead to supporting sentences.
If you can’t create a topic sentence, write the supporting sentences first. The topic sentence may then become obvious.
Write for an audience not necessarily up to speed in your subject area. This is important because you never know who will read your abstract.
Choose acronyms, abbreviations, and technical terms carefully as they may confuse many readers.
Define the scope of the project in the abstract.
Re-read your abstract after several days have passed and remove superfluous information and padding.

This technique works for documents of any length from a couple of pages to multi-volumes.

Using Keywords in Abstracts

I’ve added this in as many business documents are published directly to the web. This tip applies to writing abstracts, headlines and summaries.

Use keywords in your Titles, Abstracts, Headlines are documents are file electronically. As users search for documents by keywords, write the documents headings with these keywords in mind.

Likewise, your abstract must contain keywords that about the article, proposal, or report so readers can retrieve it quickly.

What other ways can we improve our business documents?

About the Author: Ivan Walsh provides Business Tips for Smart People on Klariti.com. His also runs the popular Business Planning Blog at http://www.ivanwalsh.com

Donald Trump’s Guide to Delivering Negative Business Messages

Editor — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 13:11:00 +0000

Ever watch the Apprentice? I enjoy waiting for Trump to pull the trigger and give it to them. ‘You’re fired!’ It’s nice to watch this from the safety of our sofas. We’re involved but also separate from it. And we can switch off.

In the real world, it’s not so cosy. Sometimes you’re the one that has to give the bad news, sometimes you’re the one that has to give negative appraisals. Sometimes you’re the one that has to fire people. In many respects, this may fall under the umbrella of your Communications Plan strategy.

‘All of the women on The Apprentice flirted with me – consciously or unconsciously. That’s to be expected.’ Donald Trump

Negative v Positive Business Writing

This week we look at how to write negative messages. Not nasty messages, emails and such but material with a negative edge.

For example?

In some ‘negative messages’, you may have to address faults or issues with a team member. When writing these emails, reports or messages such, keep a professional tone, avoid attacking your colleague – but make your position on the issue clear.

Don’t fudge it. That creates other problems.

‘Do you mind if I sit back a little? Because your breath is very bad.’ Donald Trump

One school of writing encourages us to ‘express bad news in a positive angle’.

To do this, avoid such words as:

Cannot
Deny
Fail
Forbid
Impossible
Prohibit
Refuse
Restrict

Look at these examples. The first draft is phrased in cold and negative terms; the second is positive, cordial and generous:

Negative writing:

The incredible amount of information you requested in your report is too much ad means that I cannot help you without disrupting our work schedule. Revision: I see in your letter that you require specific project information, which I will help you locate. However, due to our work load, I can answer only a few of the questions right now….

Negative writing:

If you do not complete and return this contract by Jan 1, 2011, you will not receive your apartment. If we have not heard from you by this deadline, we will sell the apartment to another person.

Positive writing:

Please complete the enclosed contract and return it to us by Jan 1, 2011. After this date, we will have to put the apartment back on the website. I hope we hear from you before then.

Negative writing:

While I am willing to discuss changes in the Functional Requirements, I am not prepared to change the project deadlines.

Positive writing:

I am open to suggestions and comments about specific Functional Requirements, or your thoughts on additional areas that you think we should examine. However, I want to ensure that this does not impact the project deadline as you can understand.

‘If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster.’ Clint Eastwood

How to re-position negative communications?

Focus on the other persons:

Needs
Interests
Purposes

If you must talk about yourself (or role) in a business letter, make sure it relates to your concerns for the other person (and their role).

Develop a You First Attitude

This recipient-oriented ‘you-attitude’ writing style means the recipient is the focus of the letter, not you.

Negative writing:

We have changed our pricing policy to save our company time and money. In an operation like ours, it costs us a great amount of labor time to clean our equipment…

Positive writing:

We will update our pricing policy effective December 15^th, 2015. This will enable us to serve your needs more often and without delay…

Like Donald Trump you will have to deliver bad news on occasion. The approach you use, and how you structure your arguments, will influence the outcome. Instead of creating conflict, you can help the Project Manager or Proposal Team Lead to see your side and try to accommodate your needs.

The trick is to acknowledge their needs first and then outline where you stand in relation to these. Don’t bulldoze them into submission. You may win the first battle, but you’ll lose the war.

What’s the worse piece of news you have to give someone in the office?

About the Author: Ivan Walsh provides Business Tips for Smart People on Klariti.com. His also runs the popular Business Planning Blog at http://www.ivanwalsh.com

PS – The Communication Plan Template is here

6 Ways To Write a Better Executive Summary

Editor — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 14:15:09 +0000

photo credit: Dicemanic

This is part 2 in our Proposal Writing Course. Yesterday, we looked at why you need to make the Table of Contents that central hub from which all information flow. Today, we’ll go a step further and examine the Executive Summary. Most Proposal Writers are intimidated by the Executive Summary. There’s something daunting about writing this chapter.

And it should be. The Executive Summary and the Finances are the two most critical sections in your proposal. For this reason, I’ll talk about these more than others and show you how to refine these sections and overcome the pitfalls associated with them. Let’s start.

What goes into the Executive Summary?

Use the Executive Summary to place the proposal in context.

This section should be one or two pages max. Don’t over-whelm the reader with background material. They can find more details about your organization on your website and in press releases.

So, what goes into this section?

In this example, we’re looking at submitting a bid for a government contract, say to do with Waste Management. To frame the bid correctly, look at how you can introduce the key topics as soon as possible. Think of these as pillars upon which the rest of the proposal will be written.

Identify the Government bodies involved in this procurement process, for example.
The Health Department encompasses five counties in the greater London region. These are…
Identify any strategic plans that relate to the success of this project
The London Region, which encompasses the administrative areas of counties X, Y, Z, adopted a Strategic Management Plan in 2002.
Identify significant data that the bidder must be made aware of, for example,
The administrative area of this region has a combined population of 500,000 and covers 10000 sq Kilometres.
Outline your over-arching goals and the key people on the bidding team
We now wish to review and replace 2002 Strategic Management Plan in compliance with the Waste Management Act 2003 and the Waste Management Regulations, 2005.
Identify other preliminary work that has been performed:
The new plan shall make reference to the existing Waste Management Plan, existing preparatory work, the recently commissioned Waste Management Study, EPA National Waste Database, EU Waste Management Plans and all other relevant documentation and legislation.
Close with reference to legal documents and supporting materials.
The new Plan should take account the Government policy statements, such as Recycling Waste and Waste Management Moving Forward

The pillar concept is worth considering as it gives you a framework to write your proposal around.

The most successful proposals are those that develop themes and then use these to press emotional triggers that influence the assessors.

If this doesn’t make sense, think of it like this.

The team who wrote the RFP have a checklist of things they’re looking for in the bids. For example, costs, ability and experience.

But, they are also looking for bidders that feel right, who are on the same wavelength, and who get it.

These are emotional factors play a key role in their decision-making process.

As you write your proposal, step back from it occasionally and ask yourself, ‘Does this feel right? Does it strike the right notes? Does it come across as though we feel their pain or are we just in it for the money.’

In the next lesson, we’ll look at how to write the Supervision section.

About the Author: Ivan Walsh is a Proposal Writer who develops Business Proposal Plans. He also shares Business Planning Strategies on IvanWalsh.com. Follow him on Twitter & Facebook.