Do you like writing proposals? When you’ve put in the long hours, the mind-numbing drudge to check each box and meet the deadline, it may have occurred to you to ask, “Could there be an easier way to go about this?” The answer is, maybe. There is proposal writing software available, with the ability to complete complex spreadsheets in just minutes compared to the hours it can take to complete manually.
Proposal creation is an arduous process. Proposal writing software aims to make the process less time-consuming through creating automated processes for storage of and retrieval, data validity, and getting signatures, among other things. Consistency and accuracy are vital to proposal pricing, especially when bidding on government contracts. The top three government agencies that granted contracts to small businesses in 2015 were the Department of Defense ($52.7 billion); the Department of Veteran’s Affairs ($6.3); and the Department of Health and Human Services ($5 billion).
Proposal writing software works by automating routine processes. Creating a proposal is mainly about many iterations of a proposal being further and further refined over a period of time. Proposal writing software cannot take the role of a human during a brainstorming session. It cannot handle complicated writing. It can, however, take over for simplified writing and assessing the validity of data. Complex spreadsheets are taken care of.
Proposal writing is valuable work. Take for example a proposal written and submitted for a project that is worth tens of millions of dollars. This complex and detailed proposal will be worth about 1 to 2% of the final contract value. It is long, arduous work, but it is high-value work. Proposal writing software could assist in the process, especially for those parts that require an eye for detail but not creativity. The creative portion of the proposal belongs to you and your team, and the ideas thrown around during a brainstorming session. Delegating the portions of the proposal writing process that are easily automated to specialty software gives you more time to write better proposals.
