Managing subcontractors during a proposal response is a crucial element of a successful proposal submission. A proposal or capture manager without a handle on the entire proposal team (including subcontractors) is like a quarterback without a playbook, and a hodge-podge team. Everyone is doing their own thing, (or nothing at all) and the ball ends up getting dropped.
Make sure you communicate with your subcontractors.
Know your goals and expectations for subcontractors, and make sure they know them as well. If you are unsure, or haven’t figured it out yet, they will be unsure. If you are not clear with your expectations, they will end up frustrated and won’t participate when you expect them to. They will feel like you are wasting their time. And you probably are. Publish a calendar of events. Include status and update calls, key milestones and data calls. Stick to this schedule as much as possible. If it has to change, identify this and modify the schedule as soon as possible. Especially true when dealing with key personnel from multiple companies, schedule slippage of a single day can have huge impact. You run the risk of other commitments taking priority for your subcontractor, and them not showing. Think about the effectiveness of your proposal review if 3 out of 4 of your subcontractors cannot show up due to a last minute schedule change.
Tell your subcontractors why you brought them on the team.
This is the most important element to having an effective relationship with your subcontractors during a proposal. If they clearly understand why they are there, they are more likely to play well. Stroke their egos. If you picked a company to be on your team to represent a certain capability, remind them of it periodically. We all play better if we feel our position is important, and that our value is being recognized and utilized.
Tell your subcontractors what is at stake with the proposal.
When key subcontractors don’t participate and provide essential support or information – especially when this information can best (or only) come from them – they jeopardize the effectiveness and legitimacy of your proposal. You need to ensure your subcontractors realize this, and their role. Tell them early and often. If your agreement has a certain subcontractor providing the bulk of the draft narrative for technical factor 1 in exchange for the majority of the work share under that factor, a reminder that their ‘reward’ is relative to their effort can be enough to keep them motivated.
Make sure your subcontractors participate.
Know your subcontractors’ key players. Not only do you need to understand the management team to keep the business relationship going, you need to know who on their team is going to support your proposal effort. If they have key personnel who can uniquely provide detailed input for your proposal, you need to ensure that person is going to be available. You don’t want to get ‘stuck’ with a company representative who does not have a background in the area of expertise you need. Let the subcontractors know your expected level of participation. A couple things that you may want to ensure your subcontractors participate in are: status meetings, storyboards and drafts, intelligence gathering, proposal writing and color team reviews, etc. Take attendance at meetings. If a subcontractor isn’t participating at your agreed level, tell them that they are not meeting those expectations. What would happen if none of your subcontractors provided technical input? Or didn’t participate in the document reviews?
Take care of your subcontractors.
Earlier, we let the subcontractors know what we expected; now make sure you have taken care of their needs as well. If you expect their personnel to be as vested in this project as you are, make sure that they walk away happy with the business arrangement as well. If you expect them to do quite a bit of technical writing for example, make sure your plan for work share distribution is commensurate as well. This conversation should happen as early as possible. If they are not performing up to expectations, remind them what their work share is based on. It’s not a threat, it’s being fair.
Respect your subcontractors’ time.
I mentioned that you need to communicate early and often with your subcontractors. Specifically, you need to communicate your schedule and schedule changes. Although they are on this project to support you – remember that you aren’t actually signing their paychecks, and their company needs will come first. If your schedule changes at the last minute, you should expect some complaints and absences. Respect your subcontractors’ time and investment, and they will perform more effectively for you.
Obviously this list isn’t the end-all-be-all for managing subcontractors during your proposal response, but if you implement these 6 concepts, your life will be much easier.