Why Your Business Needs Proposal Consulting Services

For most companies, proposal writing can be very tedious and time consuming without the proper assistance. However, with the help of an experienced proposal consultant, like those at The RFP Firm, your proposal writing process can become expedited, less stressful, and result in an improved outcome. Proposal consultants have the knowledge and expertise enabling them to fully understand an RFP and thus respond to said RFP much more effectively by creating a high quality proposal.

Understanding and Effectively Responding to an RFP

A winning proposal is not just about meeting all the RFP requirements and providing competitive pricing. Often it is necessary to seek the assistance of a proposal consultant, someone who is really able to read between the lines of an RFP and understands what the Proposal Evaluation Team is looking for. This type of help will separate your bid from the competition. All organizations responding to an RFP answer the same questions, but a quality proposal consultant maintains knowledge of those extra things beyond RFP guidelines that will aid in bid award.

Possessing a thorough understanding of what works and what does not work for specific government contracts, is required to go above and beyond in the proposal writing process. An experienced proposal consultant will have the wide breadth of experience needed to make those crucial decisions, collect the proper resources, and provide your organization with a competitive proposal within the specified timeline.

Reliable and Consistent Proposal Management

Despite their best intentions many professionals are not able to provide a full-time commitment to proposal management because they are already too busy with their daily responsibilities like managing their business and employees. It is this exact reason that many organizations seek out professional proposal consulting services at The RFP Firm. Our consultants are able to provide full-time proposal management and oversight ensuring the production of a high quality and competitive proposal, while simultaneously taking the burden of proposal management off of core staff, that way employees do not become overworked and producing a lower quality proposal is avoided.

The RFP Firm consultants are trained to understand everything involved in the proposal process and possess the experience to execute each stage efficiently. We are experts at coordinating reviews, consulting with subject matter experts, and ensuring that companies do everything possible to raise the probability of a winning bid, thus seeing a return on their investment in proposal consulting services.

Improve your Return on Investment

It is likely that your company has begun investing time and resources into planning your RFP response, even before fully accepting to take on a specific RFP. It can take months of planning and hard work between many individuals within an organization to create a Proposal. A poorly planned proposal process can create a lot of stress, an added burden on employees, and ultimately cost more money. Hiring a professional proposal consultant increases your organization’s likelihood of winning a contract and helps to ensure time and resources are used to their greatest effect, thus increasing the probability of seeing a greater return on investment on your efforts.

Procedural Compliance

Large corporations and government entities usually have strict procedures set in place in regard to the award of contracts. Often there are a slew of complex forms and documents that must be filled out and responded to correctly, if not done properly those forms and documents are often the reason for not being awarded the contract. One of the many things The RFP Firm’s proposal consultants do is ensuring that all paperwork is filed and submitted properly, even if it is only a formality. This raises your chances of contract award, as well as guaranteeing that your organization will be paid for the services it provides.

Leverage In-House Expertise Effectively

Proposal managers have experience entering new business environments and effectively managing new people with different roles and personality types. This profession demands that such proposal managers, or proposal consultants, must learn quickly and leverage their previous managerial experience to get the most from the proposal team they are working with, regardless of how large or small that team is. A proposal schedule helps to maintain a specified timeline for pulling together the content for each section and sub-section, for every volume of the proposal. Often, your organization’s internal point of contact can be used as the funnel for dispersing and collecting information between the proposal consultant and your organization’s staff.

Marketing Purposes

Sometimes submitting an unsuccessful proposal, when done properly, can be a great way to get your foot in the door with a prospective client. Even though they may have chosen a different provider for the project you submitted your proposal to, if they are impressed with your proposal they will probably remember you and retain your information for potential future projects. It becomes obvious that writing a professional and effective proposal can help you to build and safeguard your consulting business.

Takeaway

Accepting to take on an RFP, creating a high quality proposal in response, and submitting that proposal is a huge undertaking that can be well worth the time and money when done correctly. Hiring a proposal consultant is the perfect way to ensure that your organization is able to create a compelling and competitive proposal, and that the proposal process runs smoothly from start to finish.