Shattering Proposal Myths: Myth 4 – We Need to Ask Lots of Questions!

After a solicitation has been released, the opportunity team reviews the documents and focuses on everything that is wrong. The solution lead develops a massive list of questions that includes every last piece of information they feel is needed to execute the contract properly. The capture lead tries to make up for a lack of client intimacy and opportunity information by asking a long list of probing questions. Everyone has at the top of their list to ask for an extension. What is the overwhelmed proposal manager going to do?

The ability to ask questions is a great resource for both industry and Government. When used properly, it can resolve ambiguities and misconceptions, thereby improving the solicitation and the resulting responses. However, when used incorrectly, questions can lead to contradictions and annoyance on both sides.

So what is a good question? In this post I address some of the misconceptions about solicitation questions and how we, as industry, can help the Government through our process.

‘we can make up for capture’

On many pop-up opportunities, teams try to make up for poor or non-existent capture through questions. They ask for a wide range of technical, client, and competitor information to try to position their responses. They ask specific information about the environment, the budget, who the incumbent is, and the like.

This type of question goes against what the process is actually for. Questions should be used to provide clarification on the solicitation, not to make up for a company’s shortcomings in the pre-solicitation period. They also waste valuable time of the contracting shop chasing answers that a proper capture effort would have gained. This can annoy the contracting officer, and if there is one thing we know as proposal professionals it is how important it is to have the contracting officer on your side.

‘we need to be ready for execution’

This is the most common myth about questions during the proposal cycle. Technical teams often want to have all the answers and highly detailed information to begin planning for contract execution. While it is great to begin planning ahead of time, asking a plethora of questions about execution concerns, once again, is not what the question process is for.

Questions that would significantly impact a technical response, or would result in substantial risk to the company in execution, should not only be asked but encouraged. These have a critical impact on the solicitation and the potential of your firm not only to win but to be able to properly execute. Proposal managers need to work with capture and technical leads to get to the root of each question and judge its impact on the proposal. Only those that meet the test of significant impact should make it into the final list.

‘we can get an extension if we ask a ton of questions’

Often the result of poor capture, some firms try to ask a large number of questions right at the deadline to force the Government to extend the solicitation due date. This approach wastes the contracting shop’s valuable time by focusing on questions that have no impact on the response. If this is your approach, your probability of win is not very high to begin with, and is unlikely to increase significantly with an extra 10 to 14 days.

There are times where an extension is required. One example is the Government has not provided adequate time to prepare a response or to address significant changes that came about through an amendment. Occasionally there will be forces outside anyone’s control, including natural disasters or Government shutdowns. However, trying to force the acquisition shop into giving additional time disingenuously is insincere and problematic.

conclusion

The question and answer process allows us to build relationships with the Government in general and improve individual opportunities. In order to do so, we need to make sure we do not abuse the process. Make sure any question you ask does not insult or overly burden the contracting office and is aimed at improving the solicitation. By doing so we can take additional steps toward decreasing the confrontational elements in the acquisition process.