How to benefit the most from working with proposal consultants, and 30% Spring discount

One type of growth challenge that business developers and owners face stems from not having enough time, personnel, or expertise to prepare and respond to the solicitations that otherwise would be a perfect fit for the company.

You may be completely new to hiring consultants. You may be worn thin from all the heavy hours you have put in and overwhelmed with all the proposals you have to write. You may be considering bringing in a professional capture or proposal manager to run a pursuit and to prepare your staff to run better pursuits in the future. You may have a must-win pursuit, and you may be looking to bring in the pros.

Then again, you may also have heard of, or had bad experiences with, consultants who charge heavy hours and run through a budget well before the proposal process is complete. This could leave you stuck in a situation in which you cannot let go of the consultant mid-proposal for risk of not finishing, since there may be a learning curve or heavy workload for a new employee. You will of course be reprimanded by your management, partners, or your own conscience for blowing your budget. You may even have to forego bidding on other proposals because you have run out of pursuit funds.

For the next 8 weeks, we will run a series of articles on How To Benefit The Most From Working With Proposal Consultants to help you figure out whether it is the best avenue for winning your bids. This set of articles will:

• Give you some tips on properly budgeting for consultants’ work.
• Discuss the pros and cons of hiring a consultant vs. using your own employees.
• Take you through the process of working with consultants not only to manage their costs, but to get better products out of their work.

Let me start by saying that before I became a proposal consultant, I was on the other side of the fence, working as a business development manager for a large defense contractor. I juggled tight budgets and scraped together the resources to assemble capture and proposal teams. For the last seven years, I have been providing consulting services personally and hiring consultant subcontractors to work for my company’s (OST Global Solutions) clients or for me directly. I have worked alongside other consultants and consultant teams. I have seen and heard the whole gamut of issues of cost per hour or per day, package pricing, and of quality of work. My experience working with consultants has been mostly great, but I have had several disappointments and have heard of many more. In the upcoming series of articles within next 8 weeks, I will explain to you some of the key realities of the proposal consulting world, and will share with you my techniques for not getting burned and for making the most of consultants’ work—so stay tuned!

P.S.: If you need Business Development, Capture, Proposal Consulting, or Training Support, contact us at 301-384-3350 or at [email protected]. We have 800+ fully vetted capture and proposal managers, technical writers, graphic artists, orals coaches, editors, subject matter experts, and other proposal support, with a long track record supporting 18 out of the top 20 Federal Contractors, winning $18 Billion since 2005.

Best,

Olessia Smotrova-Taylor, CEO/President

OST Global Solutions, Inc. www.ostglobalsolutions.com

Announcing 30% off Spring discount!

(For our instantly downloadable electronic tools and self-study training)

Spring is here… The joy, the warmth, a new beginning… It is a time for renewal and new ideas. Try our proposal tools and self-study courses with a 30% off discount, and refresh your understanding of your proposal development process.

• How to Succeed as a Proposal Consultant (5-hour video course).
• Task Order Manual Template (reusable professional toolset, electronic Word template).
• Blueprint for Winning Government Contracts (comprehensive system with 30-hour videos, templates, checklists, and more).

Use this coupon code at the checkout for 30% discount (expires on May 17, 2012): 12Spr1705

Capture and Proposal Training

Don’t miss early bird registration pricing – it ends 3 weeks before each class. Register at www.ostglobalsolutions.com/training/schedule

If you don’t find a class that suits your schedule, consider us for on-site corporate training at your company, or for a webinar for your dispersed workforce if you have multiple locations.

Useful Proposal Resources

• Executive Summary Secrets – Self-study course (workbook and audio CD) to persuade evaluators to award the contract to you.
• A Proposal Manager’s Essential Checklists – Reusable toolset for consistently successful proposal management and coordination.
• Proposal Resources Estimating Guide – Guide for determining required manpower and hours to calculate how much a proposal should cost

P.P.S.: Feel free to forward this newsletter to others who may find it useful. If you have received this from a colleague and would like to sign up yourself, here is where you can do it: http://www.ostglobalsolutions.com/eZine-signup.htm.