Response to Government RFP’s – How It Works

By Theodore P. Watson, Esq

The government seeks appealing competition when it rates your response to RFP’s.  Many small businesses find it difficult to maintain a competitive edge. However, this hurdle can be eliminated by doing some basic things. 

Reading the Solicitation from beginning to end gets some idea about your customer

The approach to responding to government solicitations means getting to know your customer. After all, sometimes you are competing for multi-million dollar contracts. It is worth the effort.

Develop a Checklist as You Read the RFP

Responding to a government solicitation takes meticulous and careful consideration. Many commercial businesses simply rush to the statement of work (SOW or PWS) and beginning pricing. One of the key mistakes is not to read any introductory language. This can help for a few reasons:

• The government usually explains their needs or problems for you to solve
• Now that you know the problem, you are in a better position to be creative and provide value in solving the problem
• The type of contract ( IDIQ or Fixed Price) can give you an idea of how to approach the response

Your checklist will help you to stay on track and hopefully not miss any critical elements of the Response.

Relevant Past Performance is Critical in a Government RFP; You Must Be Intuitive

Federal contract solicitations are often graded on the offer’s price and past performance. The Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) provides this as the minimum threshold for the contracting to decide ‘best value’ to the government.

• Your past performance can be commercial or previous work with the government
• Performance can be as a prime contractor or subcontractor
• Must be within the past 3 years.
• You must be able to articulate why the previous work is relevant to this requirement. Sometimes ( if you don’t have page limitations, you should briefly explain the relevancy)

Pricing is also critical to a successful government bid

New contractors often make the mistake that they can get substantial profits from each government contract. The government will usually have an estimate of what the work actually cost. Don’t make the mistake of believing that you can ‘pull a fast one’ on the agency. Although, the agency does look for lower pricing, the can be a trade off between little past performance if you can demonstrate a high technical capability. The Solicitation will usually discuss this point.

• Never underbid yourself
• Keep pricing reasonable and fair
• Keep pricing as low as possible but realistic
• Consider giving the government incentive during the option years

You can still stand a god chance of winning the award if you have no past performance

Contractors shy away from bidding government RFPs because of no prior relevant past performance. The rules state that the agency must give you at least a neutral rating. However, if you have a subcontractor or teaming partner that has excellent past performance, you might want to consider using them in the project.

• Consider adding more valued items and reduce your pricing
• The government sometimes uses a trade-off approach. This means that it might consider balancing the better price for lack of past performance

If you hire a consultant to help you with a response to a government RFP consider the following:

• Has the consultant or firm have any actual experience in federal procurement?
• Does the consulting firm include your technical staff into the RFP completion?
• Can they explain any of the above-mentioned points
• If templates are used, stay away from this offer of services. The government knows genuineness when it sees it
• A skilled government RFP consultant should not equate past projects to sell you on this project. Each solicitation is unique. Don’t compare apples to oranges

You should learn your rights early as to possibly challenging an award decision

Many RFP and solicitation writing services merely help write the response. However, hiring someone that also can write to prevent a bid protest can be value added to your cost. When you decide to hire a solicitation writing consulting firm, you should inquire into the process of challenging the award decision.  Although not required, one can argue that a writer that understands the protest rules can write with an eye towards litigation.

How much does Government RFP writing services cost?

The pricing varies.  A good rule of thumb is a range of $7500 – $18,000

• The higher the price tag on the contract, the higher the cost of writing
• Businesses are paying for the chance to possibly be awarded a contract worth millions and not just the amount of pages in the response; you are also paying for the short deadlines associated with responding to government RFP’s

What is does solicitation type” full and open” mean?

When the government issues an RFP under full and open, this means that both small and large businesses can respond to the solicitation.

• When competing with large businesses, consider utilizing a strong subcontractor or teaming partner

Can the agency simply throw out an 8a firm because it thinks that the small business cannot perform the work?

The 8a program is managed by the Small Business Administration. Although the Contracting Officer has substantial latitude to make decisions on behalf of the government, the correct approach in handling issues of this nature would be to:

• Follow the rules for challenging a offerors’ competency with the SBA
• Keep in mind that GAO usually will not hear a bid protest in this situation unless there is a substantiated allegation of bad faith on the government’s part
• A good proposal writer should be able to minimize this effect by clearly demonstrating to the government how you will perform the work

A performance-based RFP must be handled very differently

The government is directed to issue performance based solicitations to the maximum extent possible. There are significant problems on the agency’s side because many RFP’s have the title “performance based contract.” However, when reading through the statement of work (SOW or PWS), the government clearly tells the contractor how to perform every detail of the contract. Here are the basics of performance based contracts.

• The government should only state the end result in the RFP, not how to get the result
• The agency should inform the bidder of the critical areas and any measurements or allowable errors
• The Statement of work should be written in  a fashion that is easy to understand; the contractor should be able to respond  in a simple and easy to understand document

Clues that a government solicitation may not meet the performance based requirement include:

• The government tells you what experience and education your employees must have
• The agency tells you the year, make and model of you business vehicles (they should describe the vehicle capability, not the specific type
• The government tells you how many times to perform certain tasks
• Agencies that state that only contractors from certain states can submit a bid

Summary

Government RFPs and solicitations have short deadlines. You must read them carefully and develop a checklist to follow. If you are considering hiring a proposal writing consultant, ensure that they not only understand how to write with glossy grammar, but that they understand the rules of the game. Writers that have worked for the government have a unique advantage and add value to your cost.

For more information or immediate help, contact Watson & Associates, LLC online or call 720.941.7200

Avoid Fatal Mistakes in Bid Protest Procedure

WASHINGTON, DC — On, March 25, 2008, the Government Accountability Office sustained a Fedcar Company, Ltd’s. protest of the award of a lease contract to Duke Realty Limited Partnership by the General Services Administration (GSA) under solicitation for offers (SFO) No. GS-05B-18064, for the construction and lease of a dedicated campus facility in Indianapolis, Indiana, for use by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The GAO ruled that the agency’s source selection was not reasonably based due to a miscalculation in the lease cost. In addition, the source selection material did not discuss the protestor’s weaknesses. This is an example of where the government did in fact make a mistake and the bid protest was sustained.

As shown in this case, the government must document its source selection material to justify its decision.  This includes any tradeoffs, proposal strengths and weaknesses.

Protest Against the Navy Dismissed As Untimely

In yet another case, a bid protest was dismissed because of timeliness. In the Matter of: RTI Technologies, LLC, B-401075, the Protest was untimely under GAO’s Bid Protest Regulations, where a protest on the same grounds was initially filed at the agency and denied, and filed with GAO more than 10 days after receipt of the denial; the protester’s receipt of a required debriefing after receipt of the denial of the agency-level protest does not toll or provide an exception to our timeliness rules where an agency-level bid protest was filed.

Here the protestor was notified by letter on January 20, 2009 of its elimination from the competition with an explanation. RTI then requested the contracting officer to reconsider its clerical error. However, the government refused. RTI then asked for a debriefing. The debriefing was given on the 27^th and provided the same information as before.

RTI then filed the bid protest with GAO on February 3, 2009. The key point here is that the 10-day debriefing does not toll the deadline to filing a protest until whenever a debriefing is given. In this case the 10-day rule applied to the date of the letter when the Navy attorneys explained its reasoning for not granting RTI its request for reconsideration.

A yet better approach (safer) would be to count the ten days when RTI received the notice of elimination. This constitutes the “knowledge of the adverse action” requirement under the bid protest rules. Many government contractors incorrectly believe that they have time to file a protest late so long as they have requested a debriefing. This case shows a very sharp opposite analysis.

Of importance, is the fact the the court also considered RTI’s letter challenging the agency’s denial of the reconsideration an agency protest.

In sum, contractors should not conclusively believe that all requests for debriefings will toll the ten-day bid protest filing requirement. For more information or help regarding a bid protest, contact the bid protest attorneys at Watson & Associates, LLC at 720.941.7200 or Toll Free at 1-866-601-5518.

Your Business Can Grow by Utilizing The Government As Your Largest Customer

Government contractors are winning contracts everyday from the government.  A cursory review of www.fbo.gov proves this point. Businesses find it hard to break the ceiling into government contracting and are oftentimes reluctant to put for the effort. This is largely due to the horrors of bundling and rumors of agencies that consistently award contracts to the same contractors.

Putting Your Business in a Position to be Competitive is Key To Success In Government Contracts

• The first order of business when considering whether to do business with the government is to know which agency is buying your service or product. Anything is else is simply hope or guess work. Having a government contract consultant could be worth the investment because you will be now doing business or factual data
• You must know how the federal procurement game is played. All government agencies follow the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) as their guidelines to buy commercial services or products. Have someone on your team that understands the rules of engagement. It will save a lot of money and time in the long run.

Approaching Government Contracts Does Not Have to be a Headache. Having the Right People on Your Team Makes the Difference in Success of Failure

New contractors are apprehensive to venture into government contracts for several reasons. They include:

• Simply not knowing the market place of even how to get started
• Adhering to rumors that government contracting involves to much red tape
• Wondering whether their business really stands a chance of acquiring a contract

There are many other reasons for being apprehensive. However, the reality is that many contractors across the country are very successful in government contracting. Given today’s economy, more and more business are seeking refuge in federal contracts.

President has ordered Change to How Government Contracts are Awarded. This Can Increase Your Chances of Competing for Awards

Contractors often fear that their chances of being even considered for government contract award is not worth the effort. In 2008, the government awarded approximately $500 Billion in contracts. The president requested that the executive agencies look for more competition when awarding government contracts.  He signed a presidential memorandum addressing this matter. This is will provide small business to present better responses to solicitations and be allowed to compete for contracts.

Congress passed legislation in 2003 mandating that federal agencies set goals for awarding at least 23% of  contracting dollars at small businesses. But several investigations found the government has done a poor job of enforcing that rule. And a Washington Post investigation last fall found that 38.5% of all government contracts coded as small were actually being diverted to Fortune 500 companies including Lockheed Martin Corp. and Dell Inc.

Having an Effective Team In Place Increases Your Chances of Success In Federal Contracts. You Need People That are Truly Experts and Know How the Government Thinks

When you decide to have someone on your team to pursue government contracts, it is critical that they know the rules of engagement and can bring value to your business initiatives. As former government contracting and small business officials, we have seen contractor presentations and bid responses that simply had no value to the government.

Contact Watson & Associates for more information on how we can help you. 720.941.7200

Government Teaming Arrangements

By Theodore Watson, Esq

As the economy becomes more challenging to small business owners, government contracting is also becoming more challenging. There are mixed reactions as to whether the amount of federal contracts will increase or decrease in 2009 – 2010. However, survivors are aggressively finding teaming partners to perform those federal projects that are left.

The focus on teaming agreements in federal contracts is becoming more popular in that companies are reducing overhead by teaming with other businesses when submitting bids to the federal government. A few things that companies should be aware of include:

• Having a clear and concise teaming agreement that spells out the terms and conditions of the agreement
• The  teaming agreement must articulate the percentage of work that each party will complete
• Who is responsible for what critical part of the project

Approval of 8a Teaming Agreements

When it comes to 8a teaming agreements, the Small Business Administration (SBA) generally approves the relationship. However, this does not force the contracting officer to accept. More specifically, if there is a question concerning one or all party’s ability to perform the project, the challenge should be raised with the SBA.

For non 8a teaming arrangements, then the agency contracting officer will make a final determination and request supplemental information if necessary.

Forming teaming agreements suggests that business owners must know the other party’s background. Performing due diligence is key to forming this type of relationship.

Have Your Teaming Agreement Drafted by a Professional

Drafting a teaming agreement is a very crucial aspect of the relationship. A lot of companies purposely copy and paste teaming agreements simply to avoid legal fees. However, the more successful companies turn to a government contract attorney to draft a joint venture agreement or teaming agreement. As the relationship sours, then many contractors find that the agreement did not cover the critical areas to protect their rights.

Teaming Agreement Templates

Having a template from an agency website does not equate to a legally sound document. At best, these sites show the basic guidelines to pass muster with the SBA or agency for purposes of contract award.

It is always advisable to have a  government contract lawyer review or draft your teaming agreement or joint venture agreement for soundness and whether or not the document addresses the parties’ rights.

If you are seeking help with a teaming agreement, contact  Watson & Associates, LLC at 720.941.7200 or 1866-601-5518.