Proposal planning is essential to ensure that you have time to develop, write and produce a well though-out solution to the clients requirement. Everyone who has written proposals regularly has occasionally wished that they had planned better, started earlier and various occasions stayed late trying to deal with an unsatisfactory and unfinished proposal.
Think of proposals as small projects develop a plan. Think about all the relevant issues you must cover – how to meet their problem? How you have done similar work in the past? Who will work on the project? Do you need subcontractors or partners to help deliver the project? Who will work on the proposal? How will you present yourself to the client in order to win?
Ensure you are prioritising bid opportunities and have your best people working on the most important opportunities for your organisation. Think carefully about which contract is more important. Is it the high value opportunity that will consume all your time and resources for the next several months? or is it the smaller project that allows you to maintain other client work at the same time? Whichever is the most important prioritise your bids...