For the past few weeks, I have been getting some offers to be a Proposal Manager or Proposal Coordinator for some great companies.  It’s something that I can’t refuse because proposal writing is definitely a passion of mine, and the opportunities are once-in-a-lifetime. They ask many questions about my management skills, which is understandable because I will be managing various proposals at a time. It got me thinking about how grateful I am to have been a freelance proposal writer.

Usually when you work in a proposal writing team, you are only responsible for a particular section. My friend worked as a Proposal Writer at a huge company, and she was tasked to write past performances, while someone else was in charge of writing the management approach. Everyone would write their particular section. A Proposal Coordinator would be in charge of ensuring that the proposal writers were doing what they are supposed to be doing, putting all the sections together, and ensuring that it flowed. You can think of a Proposal Coordinator as a Team Lead or Supervisor. He/she reports to a Proposal Manager. The Proposal Manager would ensure that the proposal deadline is not missed, a compliance matrix is created, and everyone is following the proposal schedule. It’s similar to a Project Manager.

Being a Freelance Proposal Writer, you are not just a writer, coordinator, or manager; you are all of the above and more. When an organization comes to me, they sometimes have just completed the first part of a proposal writing process, which is the Bid/No Bid Decision. There are times when they haven’t even thought about that. Therefore, you have to play a semi-Business Development Consultant, as well as a Capture Planning Strategist. You have to manage the proposal, coordinate with subject-matter experts, stakeholders, and your client, and write the proposal. You are not in charge of a particular section, like if you were working for a company. Therefore, you learn quickly how to wear different hats. It’s one of the things that I have learned as a freelancer.

When the person interviewing me asks if I have experience managing proposals, I smile inside because I have more experience than a regular Proposal Manager because I have learned to do everything on my own. It’s harder to write and manage a proposal on your own because you do not have a team of people writing the proposal, and having someone coordinate it before it even comes to you. I also get asked if I know how to conduct meetings. After teaching a few workshops, and holding meetings for requirements gathering, I have more than enough experience in conducting meetings.

Talking about requirements, I am glad that I worked in that area as well. Requirements gathering and analysis is pretty similar to the proposal writing process. You have to know the system and the people using it before a better system can be created with the requirements you gathered. In proposal writing, you have to do extensive research before you can create an exceptional proposal.

I’ve been asked about my win/win ratio. It’s kind of hard to figure that out when you don’t work for a company. I think it’s sometimes hard even when you work for one. If the capture planning team and stakeholders haven’t ensured that they have a chance in winning the work, you can write the best proposal ever, and still not win. The fault shouldn’t rely lie with the proposal writing team, but with the people who didn’t ensure there was a chance of winning. I can tell you that my proposals have never been rated less than “Exceptional.” This means that they were 100% compliant with the RFP, and they didn’t have grammatical and spelling errors.

Am I fit to manager proposals? Yes. Can you get it done? Yes. Can you help us develop our company? Yes.

Written by: Shevonne on November 15, 2010.
Last revised by: Shevonne on November 14, 2010.

Tags: difference between freelancing and working on a proposal writing team, freelancing, freelancing good experience, proposal coordinator, proposal manager