How our process actually runs.
Every stage produces a concrete deliverable: named, on a schedule, and reviewed with you before it moves. Here is what you receive, step by step, from the first go / no-go call through closeout.
Go / no-go review
Before you commit a dollar, we assess the opportunity, the solicitation, your capabilities, and your odds, and we tell you plainly whether to pursue it. This first look is at no charge and no obligation for prospective clients and those not on retainer, and it is already covered for Growth Retainer clients.
Get on the record early
When we engage before the solicitation exists, we produce the documents that get you known early, and the questions and constructive feedback the government invites during its market research. Once the solicitation drops, we produce your questions for the formal question period.
Map the requirements
We turn the solicitation into a compliance matrix that captures every scored requirement and every instruction, an outline built to Section L, and a schedule that works backward from the deadline, all before any writing begins.
Build and review
We draft each piece and bring it to you at defined review points, not just at the end, so your input and direction shape it as it develops. You are never handed a finished package at the deadline and never left wondering where it stands.
Approve and submit
Nothing goes to the government without your sign-off, because it is your proposal and your signature. We recommend and advise; the decision is always yours. Once you approve, we deliver a submission-ready package with the hard-stops already cleared and stay with you through the upload.
Clarifications, negotiations, and debrief
The pursuit does not end at submission. We produce your answers to clarifications and discussions, your final proposal revision if the agency opens negotiations, and, win or lose, a read of the debrief that makes the next pursuit stronger.
After award
If you stay with us after award, we build and maintain the performance schedule and track compliance across every deliverable, clause, modification, invoice, and CDRL, giving your representative the prompts to keep each obligation ahead of time so nothing slips from award through closeout. Every prompt goes to your representative. Nothing goes past them.
The review process the primes use, scaled for a small business.
Large contractors win by putting every proposal through a sequence of structured reviews, each with a different job, before it ever reaches the government. Small firms rarely have the staff to run that process, so the discipline gets skipped and winnable evaluation credit is left on the table.
We bring that same methodical, detailed review to your bid, sized to the pursuit. A short solicitation may need only one or two reviews; a major, multi-volume proposal gets the full sequence. Every review is run by people who spent careers on the government side of the table, evaluating proposals like yours, so we prepare and analyze your bid.
Structure review
Before much is written, we confirm the proposal is built to Section L, that every requirement has a home, and that the outline is aimed at how Section M will score it. Correcting structure early takes far less effort than reworking it at the end.
Content and compliance review
With the volumes substantially drafted, we read them the way an evaluator will: against the compliance matrix, for scorability under Section M, for clarity, and for consistency across the technical, price, and past performance volumes. This is where a strong bid is made airtight.
Price review
We test the price the way a government price analyst will, checking the rates, the basis of estimate, the assumptions, and the realism narrative, so the number holds up under scrutiny and nothing required is left unpriced.
Final approval
The complete package goes through a last compliance and quality check and then to you for final sign-off. Nothing is submitted to the government without your approval. We recommend and advise; the decision is always yours.
This is the rigor that separates a proposal that reads well from one that survives evaluation. You get it built in, without hiring a proposal department to run it.
See what this looks like on your pursuit.
Tell us about the opportunity. We start with a go / no-go review of your realistic chances, at no charge for prospective clients.