Here are some tips on how to successfully bid on a government contract:

CAREFULLY REVIEW THE RFP DOCUMENT

The Request For Proposal posted by a federal agency is an essential document that contains all the necessary project details that should guide you in crafting your contract bid. This hundred-pager document is divided into different sections, and reading through it all is essential for your contract bid writing process.

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT SECTIONS OF AN RFP?

The contents of an RFP may vary depending on the nature of the project or the federal agency requesting contractors. 13 sections make up an RFP, but here are the four most important sections that you should pay greater attention to:

B – Supplies or Services and Price/Costs

This section will let you know the required deliverables of the federal government contract and how the government plans to compensate you.

This second section encloses a comprehensive list of all the billable items or Contract Line Items (CLINs). The CLINs include supplies, labor, and other billable items in the contract. Additionally, this section will stipulate the pricing structure it will adopt for the project.

There are different contract pricing structures you should know about, such as the fixed-price contract and the cost-reimbursement contract. A fixed-price contract is a pricing structure where the stated expenses included in the proposal are not subject to change. On the other hand, a cost-reimbursement contract is where you will shoulder all the costs first before the government reimburses you at the end of the contract.

STRICTLY FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS STATED IN THE RFP

Being a detail-oriented leader is an asset if you want to make it in the federal contracting industry because federal agencies are heavily scrutinizing each contract proposal whether it followed the specified instructions at Section L or not. If your contract bid fails to follow the direction of the government agency, the government agency might eliminate your proposal due to technicalities.

So before you start writing down your contract bid, take note of all the instructions indicated in the Section L of the RFP to guide you through the process.