Federal RFP Bids and Proposal Writing Developments

Federal RFP Bidding Impact on Contractors

As competition for federal RFP bids has become tougher over the years,  proposal writing efforts have proved fruitless for both small and large businesses. The developments for source selection leave contractors wondering why they are not winning government contracts. Not only has competition become fiercer but federal agencies have adjusted how they evaluate federal RFP bids.

Changed Landscape Impacts Your Bidding Efforts

One main reason why the agencies have made recent changes to the landscape for evaluating government proposals is that more and more companies are filing GAO protests. As a result, the government contracting agencies face a tough time meeting their mission requirements. Not only are agencies better documenting their source selection decisions, they are also publicizing bids less on a negotiation platform and more on a lowest priced technically acceptable basis.

This way, Federal RFP bids are lumped into one technical pool on a pass fail basis. Then, the only thing the government has to look at is the lowest priced bidder. This makes source selection a lot easier and takes more of the business judgment authority away from GAO.

Why Contractors are not Winning Federal RFP Bids

When it comes to writing a bid proposal for the federal government, many contractors are not sure why they are losing more and more federal RFP bids. As stated above, the first thing companies must realize is that agencies are looking for more bang for the buck when evaluating each federal request for proposal response.

Failure to realize this important change forces bidders to keep using the same  strategies over and over only to realize that the same results happen time and time again.

Agencies are Spending More Money

An article in the Washington post  stated that “Federal agencies awarded $115.2 billion in no-bid contracts in fiscal year 2012, an 8.9 increase from $105.8 billion from 2009, according to government data. The jump unfolded even as total contract spending decreased by about 5 percent. Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Raytheon were top recipients of sole-source contracts.”

Unless you keep abreast of the continuous change of the federal procurement landscape, both small businesses and large DOD contractors will tend to see a decrease in Federal RFP wins.

Companies Learn Quickly That Old Federal RFP Bidding Strategies Don’t Work

The old days of copying and pasting federal RFP responses from old databases are long gone. Each government request for proposal has unique requirements for federal RFP bidders. In addition, the Statement of Work requirements are narrower. Agencies want to see more details on HOW to perform the work.

• Your successful bidding  strategies from the past will not always win new or follow-on projects
• Unless you change your approach to meet either the negotiated procurement threshold or a lowest priced technically acceptable bidding strategy. Government contractors will continue to have a more difficult time writing a bid and proposal.
• Make sure that your proposal team avoids cut and paste from previous proposals

Read more information about Writing a Government Contract Bid Proposal.

You Must Adapt or Lose More Federal RFP Bids

The reality is that to win more government contracts, you must understand the changing procurement landscape and source selection strategies for federal RFP bids. Making sure that your proposal writing efforts align with these changes is essential to your future success.

• Learn how to write better technical proposals
• Understand the best value concept
• Make sure that your internal staff have substantive government proposal writing training under their belts

SIGN UP FOR OUR PROPOSAL WRITING WORKSHOP AND TRAINING CLASSES.
For more information on federal RFP bids and government proposal preparation, call our consultants at 1-866-601-5518 for a FREE Initial consultation.