Maximizing Proposal Success: The Critical Importance of Requesting Debriefs

Whether you're celebrating wins or awaiting decisions on proposals, there's one vital action you should always take: request a proposal debrief, win or lose.

I learned the importance of this step through a hard experience early in my career. I was leading a proposal team for a major opportunity we had been tracking for over two years. When we finally submitted our proposal and received the award, we were ecstatic. However, a plot twist awaited us. A competitor protested, the award was retracted, and all finalists, including us, had to resubmit their proposals. We resubmitted without making any changes and, unfortunately, we lost.

During the debrief, we discovered several deficiencies in our proposal that we were previously unaware of. Interestingly, the winning firm, which initially had more deficiencies than us, had requested a debrief after the first round, used the feedback to improve their proposal, and ultimately won. 

This experience taught me a valuable lesson: Always request a debrief after every proposal submission. This feedback is crucial for understanding where your proposal can be improved and learning how specific contracting offices evaluate submissions. Often, you don’t realize the value of this information until you're faced with a situation where it could have made a significant difference. Avoid the pain of losing after you’ve already won by making debriefs a standard part of your proposal process. This practice can be the difference between a near miss and a successful contract award.