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Government Contracting for Small Business
How to Make the Contracting Officer's Job Easier
By Marsha Lindquist
Many of the small businesses writing proposals to the Government often tell us that the job of responding to the requirements of Federal Government solicitations (RFPs) seems daunting. While there are a great many rules and regulations you need to adhere to, the job of responding isn’t all that difficult if you break the job down into bite size pieces and work diligently to respond to just what is asked in the solicitation.
When researching why their proposals did not win, clients often hear that they didn’t respond to the requirements as set out in the solicitation – they were not responsive. Sometimes, we notice that respondents say the specifications are unclear or the Government doesn’t understand what they are asking. While both of these may sometimes be true, most often what the Government is asking for is relatively simple and straightforward, but people interpret their own desires into what the Government is asking. This causes them to guess and second guess how to respond. Often asking a clarifying question provides the answer and then determine your direction. Sometimes though, the Government gives you a non-answer causing further consternation on your part. Then you have to decide how to respond.
While you may not be overwhelmingly the best technically, you may win simply by making it easy for the Contracting Officer to find the information she is looking for. What may oftentimes carry the day is a responsive and easy-to-read proposal that makes the Contracting Officer’s job easier. You want this person to find your proposal easy to follow and a product that gives all the answers where they expect to find them. If you’ve made the Contracting Officer’s job easier, you’ve gone a long way towards letting her know that you’ll be easy to work with once the contract is awarded to you. Here’s how to respond in order to make the job of the Contracting Officer easier.
1.Do Careful Bid/No Bid Evaluations. When you decide to bid on a Government contract, the results of your decision last for many years to come with long-term implications for your company. That’s why it’s vital to come to the right decision that will move your company forward. Many companies think that a decision to not bid means they will be giving up an opportunity to increase revenues (and hopefully profits), gain significant experience, and enhance their reputation. However, oftentimes submitting a proposal necessitates a significant and expensive commitment one that may or may not be the right opportunity for you. When you consider your bid/no bid position, it would not be unheard of for you to consider this question many times during the proposal process. Oftentimes what looks like a great opportunity at the beginning turns into a nightmare to perform as the information you obtain unfolds or changes during the process. Let the bid/no bid evaluation, when accomplished honestly, tell you whether to move forward or not.
2.Read The Solicitation. We know that everyone responding to a solicitation will read the solicitation. However, when we say you need to read the solicitation what we mean is that you need to tear apart, dissect, and parse all of the solicitation requirements into the meaningful components of what you need to respond to. Reading the solicitation really involves grasping what is being asked, recording the key essential elements of what is needed, and quantifying the fundamentals that need to be addressed. Many people who read a solicitation only focus on the main subject areas (past performance, resumes, technical approach, etc.) and begin writing immediately. Critical to an adequate response, is to dive down into the minutiae to find out the details of what will really make your responses not only credible but will also highlight why your answers are distinctive – and why the Government should choose you. When you really read the solicitation for the subtleties, you will usually find the simplicity of what is usually being asked. Too often you read into what is being asked and interpret either what someone has told you they “really want” or you try to second guess what the Government wants. In either case, you risk being incorrect. Read and simply define what the Government is asking. Then answer only the questions asked.
3.Give Them All The Information They Need And Document Your Supporting Information. This applies to technical, management, performance or costing information. While you may be restricted to a certain page count, make those pages really count! Condense what you have to say to the most important concepts and give the evaluators pictures, graphs and charts to help them understand what you are conveying quickly and easily – even in the cost volume. Most respondents typically present textbook writing and don’t give illustrations that demonstrate what they really mean – in other words, give all the information you would want in order to easily understand.
Information presented in tables is almost always much easier to evaluate than straight text. Often we hear that costing information should be presented just in the detail required and nothing more. Nothing could be further from the truth. Unless you are specifically requested not to send in supporting information, presume the reader/evaluator/pricing analyst wants to know what you meant by the numbers on the page. Give them documentation that will substantiate your numbers and make it easy for them to find that support. The proposal that documents the numbers will usually win the pricing analyst and Contracting Officer over. More importantly, give it to them in both written and electronic formats even if they don’t require both.
4.Give Them A Compliance Matrix. Some solicitations require you to submit a compliance matrix as part of your proposal. In most instances, you need to include one even if it's not required. When you provide a compliance matrix you restate the solicitation requirements in great detail, give the Government a roadmap of where they can find your response, and let them know you have considered the instructions and the evaluation criteria. Basically, a compliance matrix is a cross-reference table that tells the evaluators where they can find your responses to specific solicitation requirements. In addition to showing evaluators where to find items they are looking for, compliance matrices demonstrate you have paid careful attention to the solicitation and have taken the time to identify the requirements. They are also useful as internal checklists, which you can use to make sure that you have addressed everything that the solicitation asks.
5.Make It Neat, Technically Understandable, And Portray A Good Business Approach. It may sound like a logical suggestion that you believe you already know. Too many times though, we see proposals that are not neat, are not technically understandable, and do not portray a good business approach. The compliance matrix we talked about earlier, when prepared to map out the requirements of the solicitation and your responses, theoretically ought to present an organized picture. In this point, making it neat means you simply make your written and cost presentation visually pleasing. It ought to include charts, graphs and pictures that are incorporated into the text; and the numbers you present must also be easily read, interpreted and visually agreeable. It seems that saying the proposal should be technically clear should go without saying, but too often the technical approach is only understandable by the people who wrote it; get your review teams to see it with fresh eyes and let them tell you it is technically comprehensible. Presenting a good business approach is not simply presenting the numbers and expecting the reader/evaluator to uncover your business approach. It should not require an internal understanding of your organization and the inner working of how you do business for the evaluator to know how you intend to run this business you are proposing. Give the reader explicit written narrative of how you intend to manage the project and give the client the best technical solution and customer service.
Preparing a good sound proposal, in every volume, requires that you use good common sense and give the evaluators the meaty, understandable, and easy to read solution that is uniquely yours. When you make the Contracting Officer’s job easier (or all the evaluators’ jobs easier) you have made points that maybe cannot be scored – they make a significant impression. Be sure you make their job easier too with a sound and detailed approach to your solution – not just a textbook approach. Top it off with an easy-to-evaluate cost proposal with electronic means that guide them to your logic and you’ll likely have a winning proposal.
About the Author
Marsha Lindquist, CEO of The Management Link, Inc., has over 30 years experience as a business expert in Government contracting She has enhanced her clients’ cost competitiveness, improved their contractual positioning, and solidified overall strategies with companies including BP Amoco, DynCorp, and Northrop Grumman. Marsha adds value by telling you what you need to hear. For more information on her, please visit: www.TheManagementLink.com or email her: Marsha@TheManagementLink.com.
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