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Proposal Management: The Expert Contributors Perspective Part 2

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Cheryl Smith

12.01.2022

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3 min

After reading about the first few tips to increase the quality of your proposal, today we continue with part 2 of the Proposal Management tips.

Today the industry has evolved. To remain competitive government contractors are also evolving their tactics, so to stay ahead Cheryl shares a few ways to drive greater productivity. 

Greater Reviewing and Revising Visibility

Your reviewers are on a mission of discovery; how to improve the proposal for the win. Experts want insights and direction, yet reviews are time-consuming and the results are not always productive – stealing time away from expert revisions that better position your proposal for evaluation and scoring.

Status Quo: Like expert writers, reviewers also access centralized documents. Together they comment and come to consensus on the direction of revisions. But when it comes time for experts to apply those revisions, they are forced to jockey their screens between the review comments and the document.

Status Grow: Reviewers also centralize their comments and collaborate with other reviewers on revision consensus. Comments are still stored in the system so they are never inadvertently submitted. But now experts are notified when they have review comments – and they can have a clarification conversation with the reviewer via the comment. When it comes time to apply the revisions, experts view comments and the document side-by-side, making it easier to copy and paste comment suggestions or revise.  

Bonus: Status grow also finds teams relying less on linear, “big bang” pens-down review cycles and more on an agile approach; writing and reviewing in parallel. Instead of waiting for the next review cycle to find and make content accuracy updates or strategy course corrections, they are doing that in parallel, saving more time for more productive review cycles focused on quality and scoring.

Accurate Content that’s Easy to Find

Past proposal content and content libraries help experts get to the first draft faster, whether it’s a large, complex proposal or a quick turnaround. But if the content is not accurate, experts must invest time in updating the accuracy, as well as tailoring for strategy, on each and every proposal.

Status Quo: Most experts consult past proposals for content they can tailor. Mainly because maintaining a content library is labor-intensive and time-consuming and very few teams have a content manager. Yet, accurate content libraries remain an efficiency driver, especially when requirements are the same or similar. There’s nothing more frustrating that knowing you’ve answered a requirement before but just can’t find it.

Status Grow: The content library is easier to monitor and refresh. Important content is assigned to an expert by subject matter. For example, if project managers are writing the proposal implementation methodology then they are assigned to monitor and update a master copy on a regular basis. This master is copied into proposals and tailored. Experts automatically receive a reminder email, along with a link directly to the document, and update the master, on a regular basis you define. Or, they can kill two birds with one stone; they can make updates to the copy as part of their proposal task and then update the master. Either way, accurate library content saves expert’s time – including the experts who are responsible for keeping the content fresh and viable.

Bonus: You can also add tags to your content to aid in the search for content. For example, tag your content with the year or the agency. When you search, you can filter by year and/or agency to narrow your search.

Today’s proposal contributors, our expert writers and reviewers, are always balancing their time between their clients and projects and their assigned proposals. A more efficient user experience helps them balance this time by fulfilling their needs, i.e., facilitating and guiding them through their proposal tasks.

Click below to download The Proposal Management: The expert Contributors Perspective full version.

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Cheryl Smith

Cheryl Smith is our Senior Content Writer. She has additionally been writing and managing proposals since 1998. Shipley trained, she has helped establish proposal centers and advised on capture strategy, coached orals teams and lead marketing, communications and knowledge management programs. Cheryl is a graduate of The George Washington University with degrees in Theatre, Communications and Literature. When she’s not sharing her passion for work, she loves drawing, writing, cooking and exploring the Virginia woodlands with her husband, their dog Chase and the fuzzy guests they host for Rover.

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