Don't forget to ask for a debrief, win or lose

Most government contractors don’t ask for a debrief after winning a contract. Why would you? You won.

Here’s a tip: ALWAYS request a proposal debrief, even after you’ve won!

I learned this the hard way. Early on in my career, I led an organization’s proposal and capture team as we pursued a significant opportunity that we’d been tracking for more than two years. When the RFP dropped, we were ready. We crushed the response, submitted it, and then waited for what we all knew was coming.

Sure enough, a month later we received notice of the award. We celebrated - we thought it was a done deal.

Plot twist: it wasn’t.

A competitor protested the award, the contracting officer decided to pull it, and each finalist was asked to resubmit a proposal. 

So we did, and we didn’t change a thing.

And we lost.

Yeah, we asked for a debrief this time. When it arrived we were shocked to learn that our proposal had been deficient in a number of key areas. We had no idea. How could we?

I later learned that the winning firm’s initial proposal had far more deficiencies than ours. They requested a debrief, rewrote the proposal based on the feedback they got, and turned in a winning bid. 

Losing hurts, but losing after you already won...don’t let it happen to you.

Request a debrief after every proposal submission, regardless of the outcome. You might not like it, but that feedback will show you and your team where to improve and teach you how certain contracting offices evaluate proposals. Sometimes, you don’t realize how valuable that information is until you just don’t have it.

PS, have a similar story? Would love to hear from you!