Presented by Tom Schmitz PROPOSALS MAKING THEM BETTER, MAKING THEM STRONGER

Transcription

1 Presented by Tom Schmitz PROPOSALS MAKING THEM BETTER, MAKING THEM STRONGER

2 TOPICS WE LL COVER 10 Ways To Improve Proposals Supporting Material and Subcontracts Supporting Commercial Acquisitions

3 10 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR PROPOSAL Plan your proposal Understand and Respond Fully to the RFQ Understand Your Regulatory Environment Be Consistent Communication Develop a Common Format Develop and Use a High-Side Compliant Process Deal Well With Common Information Use a Proposal Disclosure Statement Use a Rates and Factors Package Use a Bid Category Package Support it! (!!!)

4 BEFORE WE JUMP IN Proposals don t have to be hard to do Proposals are necessary, but they don t have to be evil Proposals are what fills your pipeline Proposals, well done, improve your business and can enhance your success Proposals, well done, help you communicate that you re the best choice for the job Proposals, well done, convey the professionalism of your organization If you ever run into a job you don t want but are forced to bid on, just do a poor proposal and refuse to support it but if you want the job, well, it s obvious, isn t it?

5 PLANNING TO DO THE PROPOSAL A proposal is nothing more than a small program or project. Treat it like you would a new project! Begin this immediately upon finding out that you need to submit a proposal You (or someone you trust with your business) are the General Manager Develop a Master Plan/Schedule with a logical WBS that bounces against the RFQ Establish a budget Identify Long Lead Items Assign appropriate resources Appoint a Competent Proposal Manager The PM reports to you The PM assigns WBS Task Leads who are responsible for meeting due dates Hold a Proposal Kick-Off Clearly share the schedule and get nods from people regarding commitment and responsibility Strategize the proposal development What historical programs can be used to support the proposal? What hard points exist? What are the risks and opportunities? Who is your competition? What are their strengths and weaknesses What are your strengths and weaknesses? Document the strategy, work it into the Master Plan/Schedule, distribute If you lose money, you can get more. If you lose an opportunity, there will be more. If you lose something physical, they ll make more. If you lose time, it s gone forever.

6 PLANNING TO DO THE PROPOSAL Hold regular status meetings Make then short; don t take time away from building the proposal Be the executive sponsor, providing support and enforcing accountability Have a policy of No Surprises!, encouraging open and honest communication Don t be afraid to ask the customer questions Questions that arise during kick-off and status meetings that don t have a clear answer And don t worry, if you ask an inappropriate question, they won t be offended. They ll just let you know When it s all over, celebrate. It makes it less painful for the particpants next time. Hold a review meeting What went well? How can you make sure it happens that way next time? What went poorly and how can that be avoided in the future? If you lose money, you can get more. If you lose an opportunity, there will be more. If you lose something physical, they ll make more. If you lose time, it s gone forever.

7 UNDERSTANDING THE RFQ Read it thoroughly Understand what the customer wants delivered Fully understand delivery requirements Understand how it is to be delivered and where it is to be delivered Understand all terms and conditions and what they mean to you Understand all clauses and what they mean to you Don t be afraid to take exception to anything in the T&Cs and clauses, but make sure the customer understands and accepts your exception Plan to respond to every point in the RFQ Build it into your Master Plan/Schedule Create a checklist that can document your coverage

8 UNDERSTAND YOUR REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT There are many regulations out there and they can be quite confusing, arcane, and onerous. Believe or not, though, they are designed with one single intent To insure that We the people can provide goods and services to the Government at a fair and reasonable price and so that you can successfully make a fair and reasonable profit. Know your business and know what regulations govern you. Know where you want you business to go and know the regulations before you get there. Understand the agencies that have cognizance over your business, what their function is, who they are, and what motivates them. Understand the same about your customer. Really, it s all about spending all that money I pay in taxes wisely and effectively. Thanks!

9 UNDERSTAND YOUR REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT Understand your customer and what their mission is. Take advantage of opportunities for education you are not alone out there! There s plenty of help. Some of it is free, some of it costs, but the cost of ignorance is much greater. No, you may not ask me how I know that If you get in a bind there are people who can help you through it, but if the adage Teach a man to fish.. were true, it s here. Your upper management has to understand, at the very least, that there is a regulatory environment and it s not optional. Really, it s all about spending all that money I pay in taxes wisely and effectively. Thanks!

10 CONSISTENCY This is a simple concept, but can be hard in practice. When you are developing a proposal you need to a have a baseline, a spring board, a source for data and information. Perfection is I have done this before in the recent past. I have three successive contracts and I have good data from all of them. I m going to use the most recent history to the greatest extend possible. I will use averages from those three contracts when and if I need to. If I have to use data that is not from the most recent contract, I ll have a good reason for it and will explain it well. What often happens is that the history is not what we would like it to be in content, accuracy, applicability, or completeness, so we cherry pick data from a myriad of sources. This destroys credibility and confuses the customer; the outcome is seldom good.

11 COMMUNICATE WELL This is so important and central to proposals that it s worth exploring an anecdote and quote or two. Spock once offered to let a being who consisted entirely of energy to occupy his body so that he could interact with others as an ambassador. This being, upon taking over Spock s body, was quite wondrous at the experience, especially verbal communication. He said This thing you call language, though. Most remarkable. You depend on it for so very much. But are any of you really its master? Rudyard Kipling once noted that he had six honest serving men (they taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who. Napoleon said Why and How are words so important they cannot too often be used. Aw, c mon! It s not far; it ll be fun!

12 COMMUNICATE WELL By law, there may be a page that you are required to have as your first proposal page do that! But make the next section of your proposal and introduction Describe your company, your products, history, capabilities and successes Describe the product what is it, what does it do, where does it fit Make the effort to write comprehensive BOEs, paying attention to the 5 Ws and an H. Include a good table of contents for your proposal.

13 DEVELOP A COMMON PROPOSAL FORMAT Use of a common proposal format reduces proposal cycle time Emphasis is on developing the proposal, not figuring out how to publish it The common format helps improve compliance, as things are less likely to be skipped or forgotten Listen to input from your customers and evolve the format, ever improving it

14 DEVELOP A HIGH-SIDE COMPLIANT PROCESS Build a proposal process that supports the most demanding type of proposal you re likely to encounter Make it a data-driven process Build feeder systems to provide good data Use it for all your proposals, just tailor the compliance side There should be very little difference between how a singlesource table 15-2 table requiring CCOPD contracted by negotiation is built versus a competitive proposal The difference is in what s delivered A common high-side process helps to insure that all proposals are realistic, data driven, supportable, and low risk

15 DEAL WELL WITH COMMON INFORMATION There s a lot of information that is common across proposals that can be better communicated through the use of common proposal sections The introduction and the template for product description can be prestaged and maintained. A description of all of the bid categories used in the proposal creates a common info point for the auditor and reduces the amount of explanation that has to be built into BOEs A Rates used In This Proposal section with a description of the rates and rates structure is a good idea and helps the auditor A Proposal Disclosure Statement gives you a place to list all of your systems approval information, any negative issues that are unresolved, and any common TINA information.

16 SUPPORT IT! (!!!) The proposal is not finished until the contract is negotiated! Plan for post-submission support, making sure you have the budget for it and people committed Set a standard to respond in a timely manner to RFIs If the proposal has been done well it should be fairly easy to support it

17 SUPPORTING MATERIAL AND SUBCONTRACTS Develop a Consolidated Bill of Material that lists the part number, supplier, all of the next higher assemblies it goes into and quantity per, every unit price for that part number, the total quantity, average unit price, and the source of the data. Sort the CBOM high to low and request quotes for the top 90% Use Recent PO history for the balance Have, as a part of your process, a running Decrement Analysis for purchased parts Use it and disclose it

18 SUPPORTING MATERIAL AND SUBCONTRACTS Start planning the requirements for subcontracts during proposal planning Identify those that will require COPD vs those requiring CCOPD $12.5M/$700K/10% Issue quality RFPs, flowing down the requirement for appropriate cost data Make sure it is understood that Cost Analysis must be and will be done Develop a Cost Analysis schedule The best way to support Subcontract effort is by getting good proposals, doing a good cost analysis, and putting it in the proposal

19 SUPPORTING COMMERCIAL ACQUISITIONS The FAR requirements for establishing commerciality are crystal clear. Sorta It starts out easy: Has been sold, leased, or licensed to the general public; or (ii) Has been offered for sale, lease, or license to the general public Then it gets complicated with Any item that evolved from an item If you are going to claim commerciality for an item in your proposal, you need to establish commerciality Don t assume that the item will be recognized and accepted as commercial when it appears in your proposal cover your bases Write a brief Commerciality proposal clearly outlining, based upon the FAR definition fo a commercial item, why it is a commercial item Submit it as soon as possible, but, in any event, include it in your proposal