Managing Bid and Proposal Expenses By Sid Jaffe, President Advantage Consulting Inc. Your bid and proposal budget is the lifeblood of the business. B&P is how you address the opportunities you have pursued and how you win the repeat competition for the work you are now performing. Time and again we speak with people in companies who see proposal efforts that are underfunded, or worse, still addressed with almost no B&P or time available. The issue seems to sneak up on companies at the end of every year. The solution is a fundamental change in your business development and capture process: Start Early, Qualify Carefully, Track and Follow Up. These three complimentary actions, when instituted, become a system that will reduce the expense of chasing losing proposals. Start Early. Winning teams—through suggestion and support help their prospective customer—mold the procurement so that it is a win-win-win for the taxpayer, the government agency or command, and the contractor. The ultimate benefit of starting early is that your firm writes a proposal that addresses the customer’s win theme and concept of operations. Starting early means your business developers are creating value-based relationships and introducing ideas, capabilities, innovations for a successful program.   Qualify Carefully. Any company that is qualified can win, but not every company that is qualified will win. The government wants to work with a company that has earned the opportunity through a long-term relationship and has created a cost-effective, compliant, compelling response that meets their concept of operations and funding. If your firm doesn’t have a relationship with the customer and can produce a cost-effective, compliant, compelling bid that addresses the client’s concept of operations, your response will be deemed “risky.” The government doesn’t select “risk” and your B&P was not well spent. Make sure you can qualify against the criteria and the decision maker’s selection process—and work to solidify that relationship. Track and Follow Up. Detail, details, details. Even straightforward procurements can be filled with endless details and lots of stakeholders working the program, both in the government and in your company. Develop or implement a strong capture system that migrates to the proposal or response. It is more than simply being compliant—it is describing the solution using the customer’s language and thoughts that you have been documenting throughout the business development and capture process. Contact Sid Jaffe at sjaffe@acibiz.com.