November 12, 2023

A Kickoff Call Agenda That Saves the Proposal

Most late or weak proposals were decided in the first hour, when nobody agreed who was writing what. A short kickoff call with a fixed agenda prevents most of it.

Keep it to thirty minutes

A kickoff that runs long is usually a sign that the go or no-go question was never settled. Send the request document to everyone before the call so the time goes to decisions, not reading aloud.

Circulate a one-page summary of the request before the call: due date, submission method, evaluation criteria, page or format limits and mandatory forms. People who have already seen the essentials can use the thirty minutes to decide rather than to orient themselves.

Start with the bid decision

Ask the partner directly whether the firm wants this work at this price and with this client. If the answer is uncertain, agree on what information would settle it and who will get it. Writing a proposal you are unsure about costs the same hours as writing one you want.

Keep the bid decision honest by asking three short questions. Do we know the buyer? Can we staff it without hurting current clients? Is the price likely to leave a reasonable margin? A no to any of them does not end the discussion, but it should be spoken aloud.

Name the buyer and what they said they need

Restate the client's problem in two sentences, using their own words from the request or from earlier conversations. If the team cannot do this, the proposal will read like a brochure. Note any question you should send back to the client before the deadline.

Where the request is unclear, write down the questions and agree who will send them. Many buyers accept clarifying questions until a stated date, and a well-framed question also signals that the firm reads carefully and thinks about the client's situation.

Assign every section to one person

Give each section a single owner and a due date. Shared ownership means no ownership. Include the less glamorous parts: fees, team biographies, references, terms and the submission mechanics.

Set internal deadlines that come earlier than the section owners will like. A draft due three days before the review leaves room for a second attempt. If everyone works to the last hour, the team will discover errors at the point when it is hardest to fix them.

Agree the review path now

Decide who reviews for accuracy, who reviews for tone and who approves for release. Put review dates on the calendar in advance, ahead of the deadline, with a buffer for the inevitable slip.

Also decide who will assemble the final document and who will submit it. The mechanics of a portal upload or a courier delivery are a frequent source of last-minute stress, and they are easy to plan for when nobody is yet in a hurry.

Send a written summary the same day

Circulate the decisions, owners and dates within a few hours. If your team uses an AI-assisted tool to draft first passes, note which sections it will draft and which will be written by people from scratch.

Keep a running record for the next bid. Note what took longer than planned, which sections needed the most rework and which questions arose late. Ten minutes of notes after submission will improve the agenda for the next kickoff more than any general advice.

Adapt the agenda to the size of the bid

A small, routine proposal may need only a ten-minute check of the same points. A large or unusual one may need a second call once the client's answers arrive. The agenda is a set of questions, and it should shrink or grow with the stakes.

Whatever the size, do not skip the call. The cost of a short meeting is small compared with the cost of two people writing the same section, or of nobody writing the fee page until the night before.

VIPMarketing Editorial