From a career break to a Proposal Consultant

I am actually an anomaly in the proposal field—I learned about proposals as I started networking while finishing up my Master’s degree at George Mason University. I didn’t know what Government contracting really was until I moved to the Washington, DC area, but I quickly learned how critical the industry really is to that area in particular. I applied for proposal positions directly out of school, and my first full-time job was actually as a corporate knowledge and proposal specialist for a commercial and government contractor.

My first involvement with proposal consulting came after I experienced a bit of burnout in the proposal field as a full-time corporate employee. At the time, I was working for a company that was bidding on a ton of opportunities, and I was pursuing my MBA at the same time. I hit a point where I just needed to take some time for myself, so I took two months off to focus on finishing my degree. Once my life and sanity were back on track, I eased back into the proposal world part time as a proposal consultant. Less than a year later, when AOC Key Solutions, Inc. (KSI) approached me with a full-time proposal consulting position, I jumped at the opportunity, and I haven’t looked back since.

So many people enter the proposal field from other professions—in fact, that situation is more common than not! So it’s definitely possible to break into this industry, even if you don’t have any direct proposal experience. One easy way to add value to a proposal team is to be able to offer up some subject matter expertise. Technical personnel who actually enjoy supporting proposals are so hard to find, so technical subject matter experts can usually make an easy transition into the proposal field. 

However, there are so many other skillsets that are transferrable to proposals. Writing, organization, and attention to detail are the three skills that I have found most useful. These are critical skills in not only proposal management, but in proposal writing and editing roles as well. But even if writing, editing, and management aren’t really your thing, the great thing about proposals is that there are so many different roles that individuals can play as part of the process. For example, teams frequently reach out to graphic artists to help them develop covers and graphics. Another useful proposal skillset is desktop publishing and understanding how to format the proposals to be compliant with font restrictions, margin sizes, and other formatting requirements. 

The amazing thing about the proposal profession is that you can always learn new things. No two requests for proposals (RFPs) are exactly alike, procurement trends are always changing and evolving, and proposal teams are always changing as well. It is such a dynamic career, and that’s why APMP is such a great organization. APMP is always offering webinars, conferences, and seminars on current trends and topics—and I am continually learning from my APMP colleagues and peers. 

The APMP Certification can definitely set you apart from other job applicants. The APMP Certification Program establishes a baseline of knowledge for all certified members to demonstrate, and it helps to better position our profession as a well-established career path versus being written off as a secondary or administrative function within organizations. Some companies definitely value APMP certification more than others, but more and more, I’m seeing APMP Certification as a requirement for proposal employment. 

Even if you’re a highly experienced proposal professional, I recommend studying for the exam before sitting the test. This is because the terminology has been standardized to cross global standards, so you’ll definitely want to make sure you understand the test-specific lexicon. You’ll also want to be sure you understand the best practices that APMP has documented for success and how you might apply those in real world situations. 

I’ve heard that the training courses offered by the APMP Approved Training Organizations (ATOs) can be helpful in preparing for the exams; however, I haven’t participated in any training courses first-hand. I used APMP’s self-study materials to prepare for and achieve APMP certification, and I found them extremely helpful in making sure that I was prepared.

Winning business through bids and proposals is definitely exciting and rewarding, but it’s not a career without its pitfalls. The nature of the work can be extremely demanding and stressful, so if that’s not up your alley, this might not be the profession for you. Additionally, depending on the company you work for, the type of proposals you support, and the resources available to you and your teams, you can typically expect some long days, occasional late nights, and some negatively impacted vacation plans.  

Hiring proposal consultants is somewhat different from hiring a proposal professional to support a single organization full time. Successful proposal consultants are like proposal professionals on steroids because they need to be able to adjust to proposal processes in a variety of different organizations with varying levels of support and resources. The most successful proposal consultants are extremely flexible and agile. They are comfortable in a variety of roles—writer, editor, and manager, for example—and can easily adjust to small business and/or task order environments where multiple hats are frequently required, as well as to large business/effort requirements where roles may be more stove-piped and rigid. I also tend to seek out proposal consultants who are team players, not only within the customer organizations they support, but also in support of their fellow proposal consultants. 

The short answer is no - in best value trade-off competitions, bids do not always come down to price. However, as proposals become closer in technical merit, price typically becomes the deciding factor. That is why it is so important to understand compliance and how proposals are evaluated. Even if you have the best price, if your response is non-compliant, you are not going to win. 

Beyond compliance, teams need to be able to articulate why their solution is better than that of the competition. Further, teams should strive to highlight potential risks that other competing solutions may pose. In doing so, teams provide the evaluators with justification to select their solution over competing solutions. This is why capture management is so critical to the proposal process. Without the customer and competitive knowledge, the proposal team won’t be able to articulate these advantages and benefits in their proposal response. What’s more, teams may not actually even understand what the customer actually wants or needs—let alone how the solution stands up to the competition. If the team fails to demonstrate this value in their solution, and they are not the cheapest option, then the cheaper option is almost certain to win. 

But teams must also understand that even if your technical solution is superior, and this fact is articulated well in your proposal, if your price is significantly higher than the competitors, you’re still unlikely to win. This is why price to win is so important, particularly for large, competitive procurements—and why so many people just default to believing that proposals always come down to price. Winning proposals must deliver both a competitive price and a technical solution that meets (or exceeds) the customer’s needs.