*** Often times the Contracting Officers already has a company in mind to award the contract to; but, because they "legally"  have to, they post  pre-solicitations that are over $25K on the http://fbo.gov site. 

The way around spinning your wheels and preparing a proposal for a contract that you may never get is to:  get to know Contracting Officers BEFORE they post a pre-solicitation.  (Turning in a well written proposal is also another way of getting the Contracting Officer's attention)

Just put yourself in the Contracting Officer's  shoes for one moment  They have been given the job of finding and selecting a company to do a particular job for the US Government.  They are evaluated on the job that they do.  When a Government Contractor does a good job, it makes the Contracting Officer look good.

So if you were in their shoes, wouldn't you select a company that you are comfortable with?

Getting to know the Contracting Officers is a good thing. 

Asking the Contracting Officer the right questions lets them know you are serious about your work.  It also helps them to feel more comfortable with you and your company.

Finding out who the Contracting Officer is for the products or services that you provide, contacting that individual and introducing yourself is called "Marketing to the Federal Government"  Don't under estimate this step, especially if you are a disadvantaged business.

Help With Preparing Government Contracts - Process

If you don't have $2500 to $5000 to have your first or important proposal written by a professional, then there are options.  However, let's look at the senioro.

A government contracting officer is busy.  What if they have a dozen bids listed on www.fbo.gov and what if all of these bids have a closing date during the same month.  Let's say that the responding RFPs  each have a large number of pages and over 10 companies for EACH bid posted, have submitted a bid.

That's a lot of reading.

Common sense should tell you, that proposals that are not organized as requested, carefully prepared and easy to read may get put aside.  In other words, the moment the contracting officer finds something that is "incorrect" within the proposal, it may be put to the side.

Having your proposal professionally prepared means, your proposal should be prepared according to the Federal Acquisitions Regulations (FAR)       and the RFP.  There are very few words to express how extremely important a professionally written government contract proposal is to the success of your business.