Should a small business hire a proposal writer, use a proposal consultant or outsource to a managed proposal service?

Why not just hire a proposal writer?

Hiring a writer works if you bid steadily enough to keep them busy. One proposal manager costs about $134K a year in pay and benefits, using BLS’s closest occupation, project management specialists (median pay $102,320^[1], loaded at 1.31 for benefits^[2]), and has a year’s hours for about 45 bids of the reading, compliance and drafting work, so below that the position sits partly idle.

Contracting a proposal manager runs a median GSA ceiling rate of about $122 an hour, and a capture manager $168; ceilings, not prices paid^[3]. ResponseRail quotes each pursuit instead, before any work starts.

Can a small contractor bid on government RFPs without a full-time proposal manager?

Yes. A small contractor can bid on government RFPs without a full-time proposal manager, as long as someone at the company makes the bid decision, approves the price and signs. Among other things, the FAR’s responsibility standards ask whether a company has, or can obtain, the organization, experience and skills to perform the contract; they say nothing about proposal staff^[4]. The reading, compliance checking, drafting and scheduling can go to a consultant or a managed proposal service, bid by bid.

At the small contractors we talk to, proposals are often a second job: they fall to an owner who is often out on job sites, a COO who used to run business development at a firm where bids are sometimes “all hands on deck”, an office manager who is the company’s listed government contact, or staff who support the executive team. One firm told us the marketing director it was hiring would also help organize its proposals.

ResponseRail, StandardData’s managed proposal service, is for companies where proposals land on people with other jobs. Busy founders bid on public contracts through short emails and calls with our team.

What does an outsourced proposal service need from my company, and what work is left for my team?

A managed proposal service needs your approved company materials and a completed intake, then your decisions, pricing, answers and signatures along the way. You don’t need a proposal writer or files ready to work with ResponseRail: we start your company record from public records such as SAM.gov and state registrations, for you to approve. A pursuit with ResponseRail goes like this:

1. Finding: we scan federal, state and local portals, read each full solicitation, and check it against your eligibility before telling you about a match. You can also send us one you found.
2. Deciding: we surface the clear blockers first, then the secondary reasons, so you can decide whether to bid, and you get a quick no when you’d be deemed non-responsive. We can also write clarification questions for you to submit in the Q&A period.
3. Calls: short calls built from what’s still open on the pursuit, so you answer a handful of questions instead of writing. With your approval, we keep what you tell us on file so you aren’t asked again, and we flag credentials near expiry.
4. First draft: the target is one business day after we have the solicitation, your approved company materials and a completed intake; the clock pauses while we wait on you. Revisions are included.
5. Review: a proposal specialist reviews every response and keeps it on schedule with check-ins.
6. Submission: we fill in the agency’s forms, leaving every signature, date, notary block and sworn answer for you, and prepare the final copy with a signing checklist. You sign and submit, including any portal upload; we never submit on your behalf.

How can a company with one proposal writer respond to more RFPs without burning them out?

A company with one proposal writer can respond to more RFPs by taking the repeatable work off that writer’s desk and leaving them the judgment. Decline poor-fit bids early, keep approved company facts and past performance ready to reuse, have subject-matter experts write their own sections, and send out the reading, compliance checking and first drafts when bids stack up. With ResponseRail, that outside share is about 76% of a response’s hours, on our engagements to date.

Will a managed proposal service replace my proposal writer?

A managed proposal service doesn’t have to replace your proposal writer, and ResponseRail doesn’t. ResponseRail takes the reading, compliance checking and first drafts, the hours that keep a writer from bidding more.

The rest of the work is shared. A proposal specialist works through it with your writer, or with you if there isn’t one: win strategy, customer knowledge, pricing and staffing decisions, company facts and credentials, legal interpretations (not legal advice), signatures and submission.

Your company is still responsible for what’s submitted: you confirm the response and pricing, provide credentials and signatures, and submit. ResponseRail never submits a proposal on your behalf.

When is a managed proposal service not a fit?

When you already run a full in-house proposal team, or your responses are short and rare enough that the hours aren’t a burden. ResponseRail also doesn’t take work involving CUI, classified, export-controlled or health data.

If you don’t have a proposal writer, we’re probably a fit when you bid on public work regularly and have past performance to draw on.

When a company already has a proposal writer, we ask two questions: how many responses does the team get out each month, and how many does it want to get out? If the numbers match, we’re probably not a fit; when there’s a gap, it’s usually capacity, and that’s the part we take on.

Sources

1. 1BLS, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Project Management Specialists
2. 2BLS, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation
3. 3GSA, Contract-Awarded Labor Category (CALC): ceiling rates, not prices paid
4. 4FAR 9.104-1, General standards (contractor responsibility)