As a Proposal Manager, writer, consultant and trainer, I get this question fairly often. And, it’s really hard to answer! There are so many variables in company capabilities, proposal requirements, evaluation criteria, and performance work statements, it is really impossible to say what an “average” proposal will take.
When this question comes my way, I find that what the inquirer really wants to know is, how much would it cost to hire a contractor (me) to “write the proposal” for them? No one can write a proposal for your company without your participation, at least to some extent. The proposal is going to be yours, and needs to accurately reflect your experience and capabilities. It will require you (the company) to provide a lot of company specific information that will be included in the proposal. And it should involve your company at least reviewing the proposal prior to it being provided for your signature and submittal.
Make no mistake: whatever is in that proposal is yours, and you will be the ones living up to it once it’s submitted.
If you want someone who can help you put together a proposal that is responsive (responds to all of the requirements), compliant (includes all of the information required to be submitted by the solicitation) and that puts your company in the best position to win, that’s a different story. How many hours of work it will take depends on a wide number of variables, including, but not limited to, the following:
• How much “capture” has already been done by your company? (How well do you know the agency and what their requirements are? How well does the agency know you? Have you had any input or effect on the Performance Work Statement (PWS)?)
• How “large” is the procurement? Will you need to have teammates (subcontractors) to viably pursue this opportunity? Do you have them already on-board? How many?
• What are the proposal requirements? I’ve worked on proposals for multi-million dollar contracts that have been “restricted” to 350 pages plus 15 – 20 attachments laid out in five volumes, and other proposals for similar dollar value contracts that are required to be no more than 10 pages (no kidding!).
Both can be difficult and time consuming, with one requiring a lot of writing, while the other requires a lot of planning and graphics to get the message across.
• How much expertise do you have in successfully writing, submitting, and winning government contracts?
Assuming you can answer “average” to the above questions, my rough estimate is between 80 – 100 hours for a fully qualified Proposal Manager/writer plus 20 – 30 hours for additional reviewers, would be “typical.” (About $10,000 – $15,000) This assumes the following:
• You are bidding this with no more than two subcontractor teammates. More subcontractors = more time for gathering, reading, editing, and incorporating their information into your proposal.
• You have some usable baseline material (i.e., previous proposals you have written on the subject) to work from (i.e., I’m not having to generate all new sections and having to do a great deal of research to make that happen).
• Your subject matter experts (SMEs) draft subject specific areas of the technical proposal and are available for questions, edits and re-writes afterwards.
• You are able to provide pictures and graphics that you have created for previous proposals that can be used in the proposal.
• You perform final production of the proposal (e.g., print, assemble, and perform final check of hard copies, create any CDs and DVDs required by the solicitation, package the complete proposal as required by the solicitation, and ship). Just FYI, you should allow one full day for this activity alone.
No matter what, the time spent by your company personnel (i.e. you, your pricing folks, and your technical experts) will easily match every hour expended by the Proposal Manager/Writer you have hired. (100 hours by PM/W = 100 hours by your company personnel.) Even if you do not hire additional proposal expertise, it represents a big investment of time and money which should be used wisely to pursue efforts that you have positioned your company to win!