Winning Bids (Government Style)

[frederick]

So you want to win a government RFP/RFQ. It's not something you can just jump into. It takes some work to know the process, and sometimes who you know really helps. So how should one go about getting in to the bidding process. I do a lot of bidding for Schools and City departments. And this is what I've learned to get me considered, and some times, the contract.

This first part is about writing your bid. I'll add more about how to go about visiting the person who advertised the bid, and other things later.

Writing The Proposal

It starts with the learning of how to write in a professional tone and using a specific format. Find a place that teaches you how to write a Proposal/Quote. It is and isn't like writing a quote for a B2B, this is B2G which means politics. Learning how to write out a bid is your first stop on the road, there is a flow of how they are supposed to be written out. To help you out...this is our flow of each bid.

Section 1 (Submission Details): Who are you, where are you located, deadlines, contact person w/ phone number, any clarifications you think would help you.

Section 2 (Executive/Business Summary): This is a brief overview about your company, and any requirements you might have. Things like access, or you will only work between 9-5, etc. If you don't say what your requirements are, don't complain when they say all work must be done at 2AM.

Section 3 (Business Background): So now they know who you are, and who your company is. But what products, services, and market sector do you work in? "I work in IT" is a wrong answer. Things like "We provide Managed IT Support Services to the Phoenix Metropolitan Area for small and medium-sized businesses." Professional, and says it all. Next, what's your background, been servicing the area for 10 years? Put that down. If you have a client that you service, that requires similar services, put that down. It has to speak to the person you are bidding to. So any experience you have that relates directly to what is being asked of you needs to go here. If you have any experience with working with the government, this also helps. Veteran Owned Businesses get moved up the list. Also minority owned, women owned, and disabled persons (veteran or not) also get moved up the list for selection. The government likes working with these businesses cause it makes them look like they actually care, whether they do or not. It's politics.

Section 4 (Detailed Specifications of the job): If you haven't visited the prospect, talked to them, or even gotten details on what all is needed, then don't even submit your proposal. What they advertise is a brief (even if it seems detailed), it's not. This section is the meat of your potatoes. If it isn't long, detailed, and addresses everything, then don't submit.

You need to include drawings (if applicable) for wiring, setting up AP's, etc. This is where programs like Power Point become awesome. They want to see pictures, have a visual of what it is that it's going to look like. Having a before and after is up to you. I love doing a before and after, that way they can see the changes.

Your action plan, with milestones, to include requirements, tolerances, functionality, etc. If you are doing an evolution proposal, write it out in phases, and detail how each phase works, what will be available at each step, etc. Details and pictures help. Make sure they can understand how the whole thing is going to flow. Include deadlines, processes, equipment, personnel requirements, client requirements (maybe they will have take Tuesday off or something).

Service levels, this one is important if you are doing a LTS bid. At what point do third party vendors get involved, or what all are you going to cover, and therefore, anything outside of your realm needs to be covered by someone else. I saw a bid one time for this school. The proposer said he would cover only workstations, no networking or servers...needless to say, he didn't get the bid.

Section 5 (Constraints): List them. Be thorough. If, for any reason, you see there will potential issues that the requester should be aware of, list it, and why it is important. The more you list, the better you might look. If you are not upfront about this stuff, be prepared to lose the bid. Things like the requester wont have X, Y, Z during the service, or because of the current CAT 3 running, installing the 10Gb hardware would be pointless are important. You can also put these in Section 4, and if you do, mention them with a blurb here as well.

Other things are travel/expenses, licensing rights, upgrade and modification costs, and sometimes the unforeseeable if you were denied access to an onsite survey (more on this later).

Section 6 (Terms and Conditions): How much are you going to charge? Contract Length (if they didn't mention how long)? What is their exit strategy? Warranties, renewal options, service levels, etc. All of it goes here. And...if you don't deliver or make deadline what do you lose?

These three are the big ones:
1) What is your quote? It better be a solid number. If you, for any reason tell them $10,000, and not $10,000 per month of contract...HA!!! I laugh at you. Also, if you tell them $10,000, and then hand them a bill for $12,000, be prepared to go to get in trouble. What are the financing options as well? With some project contracts, I've done a 30% now, another 30% mid way (assuming I've met deadlines up to this point), and then the final 40% at the end.
2) What is their exit strategy? If you give them no way out, your proposal will be tossed in to the furnace. This is a bigger thing for LTS contracts. But basically it boils down to either a mutual agreement, or if you don't live up to your promises, your gone.
3) Missed deadlines/failure to deliver. If you go over a project by 3 days, how much do you have to pay them? Remember, your affecting their productivity, efficiency, work flow etc. It really depends on the job, and scope. If you are doing something that severally affects their ability to work, be prepared to pay some employees paychecks. If you are doing something simple like replacing old VoIP phones with new ones, the impact will be less, assuming the old phones still work kind of thing. Also, if you are proving LTS, so say, maintaining their network and systems, ensure in section 4 you established priority levels for service. And if you stated that if their whole net goes down, you'd be there in 5 minutes, and you show up in 15, state what you lose. If you are willing to roll the dice, don't get in to the contract business. Be prepared to propose to lose a lot.

Section 7 (Why they should choose you): Seriously, what makes you the perfect candidate? What is your end-game or angle? What do you get out of this contract? This is used to gauge what is important to your company.

If you have any questions about how to write a proposal/quote, don't hesitate to contact me.

 

[cmonova]

We (the company I work for) is a sub on a recently awarded contract of $3.5 billion contract thru 2018. Massive contract and the overall proposal itself was delivered in boxes of binders, it was massive. We sat there forever going over things and it took in total almost a year to prepare it.

What I have learned over the years is to know all the key people ahead of time. Typically if you wait until an RFP or RFQ's come out it might be too late to even get in the game.

Now if you are ahead of the game you can even "help' the RFP and RFQ processes along the way....

The only way to really get into the contracting game and actually win these contracts is to do your due diligence ahead of time and find out what contracts are going to end. Find out who is doing the work now. Find out who the COR (Contracting officer) is and try to talk to that person about the performance of work and if they are happy with the work.

Another thing to remember is things like 90 day or whatever pay term and it actually can go alot longer. Problem is the contract will state the invoices paid in 30-90 days but once submitted if it takes longer then it's pretty much oh well. You can complain but only so much because the people you are complaining to are not going to forget come re-compete time.

Nice thing to get into IF you have the time and patience for it..But years ago you could make big money and charge great rates but lately typically things get awarded to "lowest bidder"....

Fed Govt, State, Local all different players with different rules and requirements...Much to learn if you are going to do it.

 

[frederick]

Getting the information for bids

Advertised Bids
Not all bids are public public. Sometimes you have to register with your city, county, state, etc., to get access to the bids available. Some sites do this for you already. Usually there is a fee with getting access to see the advertisements. And sometimes you have to pay to even submit your proposal. There are many options you can take to getting to the advertised bid. Once you get access to see the bids, you have to start narrowing it down. There are lot of different types of bids: Plumbing, HVAC, Electrical, Equipment, Vehicle, etc. So narrowing it down really helps find the ones you are looking for. Don't expect them to publish a budget, it wont happen in most cases.

Once you can see the advertised bids, next is reading through them. Read them carefully. They might be very brief, or somewhat detailed. Get as much information as possible from the advertisement. Get contact information, deadlines for when the bid has to be submitted, as well as their process for selection and any on-site visit informaiton, you are going to need this. Sometimes they will put their requirements in the advertisement such as background checks, no sub-contracting, etc. If you are lucky, they will even say the facility that actually needs the work done. Almost always will they say what agency needs it (i.e. schools, police stations, etc.). This way you can move on to whats next.

Do your homework before you call
If you know who is needing the proposal, say a specific school or school district, look to see who has won the last three contracts for the same or similar thing. These are public. How much did they charge, what did they offer, etc. Chances are, they are going to propose again for the same thing, so knowing what they wrote up to win can help you. Also do your homework on the people needing the proposal. Historically, what have they needed, what they use, things they have been up to. The more you know about them will help you when it comes time to write up your proposal and do an interview. If you can get non-winners of past bids for the same requester, this can help as well. You can get clues about your competition, and why maybe they didn't get the bid.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK BEFORE YOU EVEN START!!!!!

Calling the POC
Call the POC. You are going to ask at least the following questions:
1) Will there be an on-site tour? When? Where?
2) Confirm deadlines.
3) Confirm submission details.

If they are not doing an on-site tour, don't be disappointed, and sometimes if there is it can be rescheduled or even cancelled...ask them would be a good time to talk about the details of the request. You've done your homework, and you've read the advertisement, so you should already have all questions you might have written down as a just in case. When you call, and there is no on-site tour, you need to make sure you have a lot of questions. You need to know everything in order to write out your proposal. Key things to get information about if not in the advertisement:

1) How much acceptable down time is allowed? (if applicable)
1a) If work needs to be done that would disrupt normal business hours, are you allowed to perform after-hour services?
1b) How will after-hour access work? Can't fix it if you can't enter the building, right?
2) what equipment/software that is relevant to the job do they have now, how many? number of users? etc. What is the now.
3) What is the end-result they are looking for? how are they wanting it to operate, etc. Are they expanding? upgrading? replacing? what is the end goal here?
4) Just because they have a final deadline, doesn't mean they don't have a milestone deadline. Ask about these. What are they wanting half-way to the deadline, or a quarter of the way, etc.

You are more than likely going to have a million questions. If they are needing things to be installed, request a layout of the building, blue print, etc. Some places will not give you this (i.e. high security locations, police departments, etc.), but may give you a crude map, or offer an onsite tour.

Don't be afraid to ask them about their budget for this request at this time. They may or may not have an answer for you.

Visiting The Requester
Dress to impress. You are being interviewed. Just because they don't sit you down in front of a desk and talk to you doesn't mean they aren't taking notes on you. Look professional, slacks and a company polo is normally how I shop up. Be mindful of the following: They may say no cellphones, cameras, etc. You should have gotten limitations of access when you called. Carry at a minimum a notebook and pen (if allowed, usually is). Make sure you got your questions in hand, this will be important. And be prepared to write out more questions as you proceed through the tour.

The reception: Be 15 minutes early, always. When you first show up, you might be herded into a conference room. You'll sit there for a while (assuming there are seats available), spin around in your spiny chair, and count the holes in the ceiling. Then a representative will walk in, adn they will talk about the agency, or school, or department, etc for about 20 to 30 minutes. If you did your homework, this is all a refresher for you, and sometimes you get more information about them and what they do. This is the personality interview or right-fit so that you know who they really are. Then they will discuss in some detail what they are looking for, what they are needing, and how they want it all to go down.

Some of the tours I've gone on, you are herded in to a waiting area, and there is no cool briefing on them. The rep walks in, she's ******, and says lets do this, and spits out a bunch of information and walks out...leaving you clueless.

Others, there is no briefing on them in the waiting area, they walk you around, tell you a little about them as you get the nickel tour. They'll give you details on the project or what they are needing, and take questions. You are going to use this tour to get a feel of what and where everything is. Be mindful and vigilant to note, comment, question, etc., anything you see, hear, or feel that is relevant to what the proposal is. On one tour of a school, they were talking about how they connect the buildings using WiFi, and on some really hot days, some of the buildings loose their connection...This is the time to ask if they are planning on or wanting to have wired connections between buildings. I asked this and the other proposers were like "why change it if it works" (lazy [censored]), and the rep said "yes, we are considering replacing all the copper runs and wireless with fiber". BAM!!!! I asked, and already knew what they wanted while all the other competition pretty much ignored what he said.

At the end of the tour, ask all remaining questions, confirm the POC for this, in case you come up with new questions.

I missed the tour date...what now?
This happened to me a couple of times. I didn't see the advertisement until the day or two after the tour. I called the POC, and asked if I could get a tour, or sit with them. Sometimes they say yes, usually its a no. But make the call, and do it over the phone. Get details, see if you can get any material from them, etc.

I called the POC, went on the tour, now what?
Start writing your proposal, do up your drawings, etc. Take all your ducks, put them in a row, and start developing them. Don't shoot your ducks. If you can't provide at least 50% of what they are wanting, you are not going to be a good fit. As you draw up your proposal, be mindful of the costs to them here, especially if you got their budget information. My rule is 10% under their budget. Also be mindful of the costs to you. There have been many proposals where I ended up breaking even. And it hurts...a lot...when you win the break-even, cause you risk taking a loss. Don't let break-evens discourage you. I won a School Contract last year that was a break-even, they renewed me at the end of contract cause they liked me, and increased my budget so that I made a 3% profit...we are coming up to renewal again (which I got), and they are increasing it again so I make an 11% profit.

Keep in mind the economy is still down...so there are going to be a lot of barely making anything contracts. This is going to make your proposal writing very difficult.

How do these deadlines work?
Extremely strict, that's how they work. Your first deadline (if applicable) will be a deadline to register in order to make a proposal. This might include getting registered for the onsite tour, and getting signed up with whoever. You might have to send them a background on employees and your company profile (very rare). Be prepared to surrender company financial information (very rare, again). Your next deadline will be the first day in which you can submit a proposal, and then followed by the last day to submit a proposal. If you submit your proposal before they even accept them, they will toss it.

In some cases, you might have to have a personal interview with the POC or other representative. You must complete your in-person interview before that date (not on it), because many people wait tell the last minute, and you wont get seen. Sorry...

There is a deadline on them as to when they are to be done with the selection process. Uh...its a 50/50 if they keep this one, and what sucks is when they make the decision the day before the deadline to start. Nothing sucks more than getting awarded the contract the day before a project, and you have nothing to start it with...you will be running around town looking for equipment and supplies...hehehehehe...Usually after the contract has been awarded though, they will give you the date you start on and the date it ends. Sometimes a few days after being awarded, sometimes a month or more. All depends on them.

Once it starts, stick to a strict schedule, anticipate errors and delays. And be flexible. It's the only way sometimes to make the end deadline. If you pass the deadline without finishing, be prepared to be fired, fined, or both.

 

[frederick]

We (the company I work for) is a sub on a recently awarded contract of $3.5 billion contract thru 2018. Massive contract and the overall proposal itself was delivered in boxes of binders, it was massive. We sat there forever going over things and it took in total almost a year to prepare it.

What I have learned over the years is to know all the key people ahead of time. Typically if you wait until an RFP or RFQ's come out it might be too late to even get in the game.

Now if you are ahead of the game you can even "help' the RFP and RFQ processes along the way....

The only way to really get into the contracting game and actually win these contracts is to do your due diligence ahead of time and find out what contracts are going to end. Find out who is doing the work now. Find out who the COR (Contracting officer) is and try to talk to that person about the performance of work and if they are happy with the work.

Another thing to remember is things like 90 day or whatever pay term and it actually can go alot longer. Problem is the contract will state the invoices paid in 30-90 days but once submitted if it takes longer then it's pretty much oh well. You can complain but only so much because the people you are complaining to are not going to forget come re-compete time.

Nice thing to get into IF you have the time and patience for it..But years ago you could make big money and charge great rates but lately typically things get awarded to "lowest bidder"....

Fed Govt, State, Local all different players with different rules and requirements...Much to learn if you are going to do it.

Exactly. It has been a learning process for us. Knowing people will really really help. A lot of times, the advertisement is released with not enough time for some to prepare. Knowing when these contracts will expire is big, and then doing your homework really helps.

We got a High School that needed 3 projects, and LTS. I won't say what we were awarded, but it was all one proposal rather than submitting 4 separate proposals like many others did, and all 4 were due on the same day. We spent 8 months working on this, and we had a 7 month head start because I knew the principal. So when the advertisement was published, many only had a month to write this up for each thing. I can't tell everyone everything when it comes to writing a proposal, only because it's such a large...large...and broad thing. Taking classes will really help. Or you can do what I did, and just jump right in to it, and do a learn as you go, then take the classes.