If you’ve ever proposed on Federal, or even state, A/E contracts…you’ve probably run into the Standard Form 330 (SF330). People often struggle with the SF330. But you don’t have to. In this post, I’m going to explain: I’m not going to go over much of the obvious. Instead, I’ll answer common questions and give you […]
February 17, 2021 by 3 Comments
Why I Never Shy Away From Using Photos In Proposal Resumes
There is an age-old debate about whether you should include photos of staff members in their resumes. You see, someone could look at the photo and decide (just by their appearance) that they do not want to work with that person. And your firm could lose a valuable contract as a result. I’m here to […]
August 21, 2020 by 3 Comments
Proposal Win Themes: Stop Relying On Them
I can just smell the hate mail coming. Yes, today I’m going to try and convince you that relying on proposal win themes is a fool’s game. For many people, this will be hard to swallow. Others may be staring at the screen wondering, “What is he even talking about?” But if you stay with […]
July 22, 2020 by Leave a Comment
How Clients Read Your Proposals
Have you ever felt this way? You see…sometimes I just want to grab people by the shoulders and SHAKE them. It’s not because I’m evil or out to punish people. It’s just that sometimes assumptions are lodged so very deeply in our brains that I can’t think of any other way to possibly shake them […]
November 21, 2019 by Leave a Comment
DBE: How To Grow Your Disadvantaged Business Enterprise The Smart Way
I recently met someone desperately trying to grow their Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) engineering firm. But they were going about it in a way I thought was a bit crazy. So, what I’m going to do today is provide a complete, soup to nuts, guide on how to grow your DBE firm the smart way. […]
March 15, 2019 by 15 Comments
Proposal Win Rate | Why Winning All The Bids Doesn’t Make You A Winner
Like many firms in the A/E/C industry, the firm I work at is experiencing an uptick in business. We’ve got a lot of work and we’re hiring (If you know any schedulers or claims analysts looking, please…please send me an email). But there is one thing we’re experiencing that I never have before. For the […]
March 14, 2019 by 18 Comments
Project Proposal Images | Graphics For A/E/C Proposals
The best graphic to put into your proposal is one that is custom made to address the client’s needs. We all know that. However, sometimes we can either use a little help getting started or find ourselves looking for some stock solutions. Here are five places you can find stock imagery and graphics for your […]
March 12, 2019 by 4 Comments
Tactical Debrief | Effective Debriefing Techniques To Win A Contract
You submitted a proposal and lost. Now it’s up to you to figure out what happened. So, what do you do? You ask for a debrief. An agency head of construction management recently told me that he was relieved to just finish up the award of 54 contracts and the conducting of 76 debriefs. Wow. […]
February 28, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Technical Proposal Writing | How To Write A Technical Proposal Management Plan
Each RFP you see will give you instruction on what is to be in your proposal. Sometimes it will ask for what’s called a “management plan.” This can sometimes trip technical writers up, but writing a management plan isn’t really that hard. In fact, once you get used to writing them, you may end up […]
February 8, 2019 by 1 Comment
Proposal Writing Format – My Proposal Writing Formula
Now that we understand some basic rules governing proposal writing and the different sections of a proposal, let’s look at the basic formula for how to write a proposal. Let’s learn the proposal writing format. The Proposal Writing Format The formula is, in essence, a story. Stories have always been a very effective tool for […]
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