If you want to get on the GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS), the first step is putting together your proposal. Preparing an MAS offer is no easy task, and there’s plenty of pitfalls to avoid. Luckily, we here at Winvale have years of experience with creating GSA Schedule proposals, and we’ve learned a few tricks along the way. In this blog, we’ll talk about some of the Do’s and Don’ts to keep in mind when preparing a GSA Schedule proposal.
DO: Plan Ahead for the GSA Schedule Process
Before you start the actual process of putting together your proposal, it’s important to make sure you’re prepared. One aspect of preparedness is simply making sure that GSA is the right fit for your company. Luckily, GSA has a tool to help with this: the Readiness Assessment. The Readiness Assessment is a series of questions designed to make sure you understand what you’re getting into with the GSA, and to help you determine if your company is able to be competitive on the GSA. Completing the Readiness Assessment is a great way to determine if you’re ready to pursue a GSA contract. Additionally, it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the overall process before starting to prepare your proposal. That way, you’ll know everything that you need to do, and you can create a schedule for yourself.
DON’T: Be Unwilling to Modify your GSA Schedule Plan
There’s one constant when it comes to the GSA: it’s always changing. GSA regularly releases Refreshes to the main Solicitation, which often include updates and changes to templates and requirements. This is why, even though it’s important to plan, it’s equally as important to remain flexible. You’ll need to be on the lookout for any new guidelines from GSA in order to ensure your offer is as compliant as possible.
In addition to being flexible with the GSA requirements, it’s also important to remain flexible in terms of your timeline. Because you must gather so many materials from so many different individuals or departments, there will likely be delays that are out of your control. Don’t let these derail you—remember, slow and steady wins the race.
DO: Be Detail-Oriented
There are a lot of documents required for a GSA Schedule proposal, and it’s critical that you don’t leave any of them out. If an offer is missing even one of the required documents, this could cause your entire offer to be rejected. A good way to avoid this scenario is by keeping a checklist of which documents you have ready, and which ones you still need to obtain or prepare.
In addition to just having the documents present, it’s also important to make sure they include all of the required information. There are several documents for which the GSA has provided templates, but this doesn’t mean there’s no work for you to do. For example, the Price Proposal Template is a spreadsheet with more than 20 columns, and they all must be filled in. A single column missing information is grounds for your offer to be rejected, so don’t leave anything blank. Be attentive when putting together your offer, but also, don’t forget to review the entire proposal once you’ve finished preparing it. This is the absolute best way to ensure there are no lingering mistakes or omissions in your proposal. Small details can absolutely make or break your proposal, so taking a detail-oriented approach is a smart choice.
DON’T: Give Too Much Information in Your GSA Schedule Proposal
Details are important in a proposal—but there is such a thing as too much information. In order to understand why, it helps to understand what happens after a GSA Schedule offer is submitted. Offers are sent to Contracting Officers (COs) for review. The CO must carefully read through the entire offer before deciding if there are questions and points of clarifications, in addition to whether or not it will be awarded. Thus, the longer the offer, the longer the review period will take.
It’s still important to provide all the necessary details (if you don’t have enough information, your offer could be rejected), but it’s also important to be concise. For example, offerors are required to provide two years’ worth (or an equivalent if you're submitting as part of the Startup Springboard Program) of financial statements. This simply means a profit and loss sheet and an income statement, not a 200-page document from a complete financial audit.
Some documents also have specific page limits—the Corporate Experience Narrative, Quality Control Plan, and Past Project Descriptions all have a limit of 2 pages. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with reaching these page limits (in fact, it’s a good goal), but it would be a bad idea to go over the limit.
DO: Form a Team
Preparing a GSA Schedule proposal is a large undertaking and will require involvement from multiple areas of your company. It’s a good idea to reach out to individuals from different departments early so they will have an idea of what you may need from them. If your company has the resources, you may also want to form a dedicated team of individuals to help you prepare the proposal.
DON’T: Tackle the GSA Schedule Offer Process Alone
Feeling overwhelmed by all that’s necessary for a GSA proposal? You don’t have to do it alone! If you don’t have someone on your team who is knowledgeable about government contracting, especially GSA Schedules, it can take a considerable amount of time and resources to prepare a successful MAS offer. If you don’t understand the process, government jargon, or how to communicate with a CO you might want to consider hiring a GSA Schedule consultant to help you.
If you want more advice, have questions, or need help preparing your MAS offer, feel free to reach out to Winvale. Our team of experienced consultants can help you get your GSA Schedule proposal from start to finish.
