evaluators may still be reluctant to make a change. Doing so could make them vulnerable to criticism that they “changed horses in mid-stream” and caused harm to the Government by so doing.
Does this mean a company should not compete against an incumbent? Not at all. If the proposal and the oral presentation succeed in making a compelling case for change (especially if intelligence can be gained as to the weak elements of the incumbent's performance), then a company certainly has a good chance of winning.
Just realize that in such a situation, the “new guy” is not playing on a level field-some companies (incumbents) are simply "more equal" than others.
V. Winning Contracts Through the "Three P's"
The heart of my presentation skills workshops and the essence of this brief essay is what I call the Three P's––Planning, Practicing, and Presenting. I use this teaching model for both corporations and Government agencies. It is a flexible model that can be adapted to situations ranging from presentations to supportive audiences to those made to hostile groups that would rather jeer than cheer. It is particularly adaptive to the unique requirements of the oral presentation for a Government contract.
1. Planning
The oral presentation must be consistent with the written proposal. Evaluators will have scrutinized the written document, which undoubtedly will have provoked many questions. When the proposal is being written, I believe it a good idea to have those who will be presenting the orals to be looking over the shoulders of the writers so they can extract “nuggets” of relevant information to be included in the orals.
Unfortunately, many companies wait until the lengthy written proposal has been submitted to start thinking of the Orals. This leads to a hurried pulling together of these “nuggets” into an oral presentation. Combined with selecting, per the RFP, who the presenters will be, the result can be a hurried drafting which may not accurately reflect the written proposal. If the presenters are working jointly with the writers, a more efficient, thematically consistent oral presentation will be the result.
The RFP should, to the degree possible, be read from the Government's perspective. The Government has written the RFP to solicit a solution to a problem, and is looking to the private sector for that solution. The Government agency also believes it has the ultimate responsibility to the taxpayers, and probably will not look kindly at the...
