RE: Building a FAQ for preparing RFPs

[Toni Williams <tonicw -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

Thank you for your response, Katherine.
First of all, I did not mean that I would be using the
FAQ as the proposal, rather I would be using the FAQ
internally as a resource to answer the questions asked
in the proposal.
We are writing proposals in response to potential
clients who want to contract with us for services --
not government related at all. These RFPs usually
consist of a plethora of questions regarding all
aspects of our business but none as extensive as the
ones you mention.
So I was looking for a way to organize the answers
from previous proposals into an easily accessible
source.

--- "Darges, Katherine"
<katherine -dot- darges -at- defensegp -dot- com> wrote:

> Toni,
> 
> To whom are the proposals addressed?  
> 
> My knowledge of proposal writing is mostly
> government-related, but I've
> taken a course on the subject, too.  Currently, I am
> writing two
> proposals - due 27 October and 31 October, meanwhile
> moving our offices
> from the suburbs into the city (no computers from
> Friday morning to
> Tuesday morning!).  I've written five others since
> June, including a
> six-volume, 500 page one (with a lot of help).
> 
> None of the recipients of our proposals will accept
> FAQs.  We pay very
> careful attention to the exact requirements in the
> RFP.  In the 500-page
> proposal one volume wanted our small business usage
> plan.  Since we are
> a small business, our reply was one paragraph saying
> that the
> requirement doesn't apply to us.  We still had to
> put it in a separate
> notebook with cover, table of contents, list of
> acronyms, and index.
> 
> We were not allowed to use a global acronym list, so
> only acronyms used
> in a particular volume were allowed to be in that
> volume's list.
> 
> Also, I wonder about the feeling engendered by using
> an FAQ vs. making a
> proposal look like it is the only one and the most
> important one you
> ever will do.  Even if you are providing an FAQ, do
> you want to call it
> that or imply that?
> 
> But then, your industry certainly dictates what feel
> your proposal
> needs.
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> Katherine Darges
> Sr. Management Analyst
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
>
techwr-l-bounces+katherine -dot- darges=defensegp -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+katherine -dot- darges=defensegp -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- c
> om] On Behalf Of Toni Williams
> Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 1:03 PM
> To: TECHWR-L digest
> Subject: Building a FAQ for preparing RFPs
> 
> Good morning,
> I have had to respond to several RFIs/RFPs over the
> last few months and want to put together a FAQ for
> them so I don't have to keep inventing the wheel. A
> former colleague was listing the questions and
> answers
> by category in a Word document but I was wondering
> if
> there was a way to build a database that could be
> searched by keyword. I don't know much about such
> things but it seems there must be a more efficient
> way
> to store and retrieve information.
> Thanks very much.
> 
> Toni Williams
> tonicw -at- yahoo -dot- com
> 


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