How to Win More Government Contracts: A Tactical Guide
Winning government contracts isn’t just about submitting the most proposals — it’s about submitting the right proposals.
Producing competitive proposals requires a strategic approach built on three essential pillars: good capture, relevant past performance, and quality delivery. In this guide, we’ll explore how to refine proposal strategies to reduce bottlenecks, streamline workflows, and increase the probability of winning (Pwin).
If your team is ready to stop spinning their wheels and adopt a smarter, more effective approach to government bidding, read on.
Challenges in Government Contracting
Winning government contracts is challenging. When the stakes are high and competition is fierce, even the best teams can find themselves stuck in a cycle of resource depletion and burnout.
The pressure to win proposals often leads teams to cast a wide net, pouring hours into proposals that aren’t aligned and offer diminishing returns. This pattern usually stems from a few common roadblocks.
1. Short Timelines Result In Low-Quality Proposals
Most RFPs come with aggressive deadlines of 30 days or less. On short timelines, tasks pile up fast — like assessing each opportunity, coordinating efforts across departments, and developing proposals that meet strict compliance standards.
When turnaround time is limited, companies are often forced to rush the proposal process, leaving little room for strategic thinking or quality control.
To address short timelines, teams usually rely on a mix of pre-built content, recycled proposal language, and last-minute coordination efforts. While this approach gets proposals across the finish line, it often results in generic, boilerplate proposals that check requirement boxes but fail to address unique qualifications and points that make teams stand out.
When pressed for time, proposal teams may also skip other competitive steps, like strategic pricing discussions. When compliance is the only focus, win ratios are bound to suffer.
2. Siloed Data Slows Down Proposal Development
Winning proposals aren’t often written from scratch — they source data from past performance narratives, previous proposals, compliance documents, and customer insights. But, for many companies, this information is scattered across SharePoint, email threads, and disconnected spreadsheets.
Without a centralized system to organize data, teams can easily waste hours chasing down the right details for each proposal. Inefficiencies like these lead to proposal inconsistencies, unnecessary errors, and missed opportunities to provide details that strengthen a team’s case.
3. Team Burnout Leads to Inefficiency
Because government contracting is high-stakes work, proposal teams often juggle multiple proposals at once. Proposal teams are no strangers to long hours, evening work, and weekends spent in the office to meet critical deadlines. Workloads like these inevitably lead to burnout, high turnover, and simple mistakes that could cost a contract.
Many companies respond by hiring more staff. While this might initially seem helpful, it doesn’t address the root of the problem. The real issue is inefficient workflows, which force proposal professionals to spend time on repetitive, low-value tasks instead of strategy.
4. Generic Proposals Lower Win Rates
When teams are overworked, short on time, and forced to parse through siloed data, little time is left to tailor proposal responses in a meaningful way. Instead, resource-strapped teams often focus on compliance and default to generic proposal language.
This scenario creates a domino effect of challenges, including reduced competitive position, wasted resources, and low Pwin. Compliance alone won’t win over government evaluators — they also need to see details that demand customization, like relevance, credibility, and evidence of risk reduction.
Three Essentials for Winning More Government Contracts
Navigating the proposal process is complex, but the right approach can go a long way in simplifying a company’s work. A strong bid isn’t built in a vacuum — it requires a strategic foundation that ensures every proposal is targeted, competitive, and backed by real proof.
Companies who consistently win proposals follow a repeatable process based on three core pillars:
Good Capture: Identifying and shaping the opportunity before the RFP drops.
Relevant Past Performance: Using quantifiable proof to build credibility.
Quality Delivery: Meeting compliance requirements while crafting a compelling, persuasive proposal.
Each pillar plays a distinct role in the proposal lifecycle. Strengthening all three leads to higher win rates and more successful outcomes. Let’s break them down.
1. Good Capture: Winning Before the RFP Drops
Most government contractors miss proposal opportunities before they even start writing — and the reason isn’t always obvious. This scenario is usually the result of waiting too long to start working — in other words, waiting until RFPs go live to begin building the proposal.
When timelines are short, getting an early start can be the critical factor that sets a team apart.
A strong (and proactive) capture process involves:
Early Intelligence Gathering: Engaging with the agency before an RFP is released means companies will better understand the agency’s needs, priorities, and pain points. This approach enables teams to build tailored responses, even when deadlines are short.
Strategic Positioning: Identifying key differentiators, teaming partners, and pricing strategies based on customer expectations enables teams to offer highly competitive proposals. Instead of responding only to the most obvious requirements, companies can provide extra-mile context to secure a win.
Teams who invest in early capture work enter the proposal phase with a built-in competitive edge. Companies already know what qualities customers are looking for, allowing proposal staff to quickly craft solutions that align with each agency’s priorities.
2. Relevant Past Performance: Proof That You Can Deliver
Past performance is more than just a compliance checkbox — it’s the government’s primary risk assessment tool. Contracting officers use past performance data to determine whether a company is capable of executing a project successfully.
However, many companies make the mistake of submitting generic past performance summaries that don’t clearly connect experiences to the opportunity at hand. Instead, past performance should be:
Directly Relevant: Demonstrating experience that matches the size, scope, and complexity of the contract will give contracting officers confidence in a company’s abilities.
Beyond the PWS: Leveraging relevant, project-specific data points like metrics, outcomes, and customer testimonials will clearly differentiate companies from their competitors.
Easily Accessible: Storing data in a structured, centralized format enables teams to quickly tailor past performance narratives without scrambling to find details.
Winning companies go beyond sharing a generic list of past contracts. These teams craft persuasive, data-backed narratives that show how their experience translates to reduced risk and guaranteed results for an agency.
3. Quality Delivery: Compliance Gets You In, But Quality Wins
Many contractors believe meeting compliance requirements is enough to win — but it’s only the bare minimum. While proposal compliance gets a company’s foot in the door, persuasive storytelling, tailored information, and structured responses swing the door wide open, leading to contract wins.
A quality proposal:
Goes Beyond Compliance: Clarifying how the company will execute their strategy — not just what their team can do — helps teams craft proposals that demonstrate their qualifications and value to an agency. Before submitting a proposal, companies should consider if they’ve included detailed project schedules with clear milestones and deliverables, if they’ve provided solutions for the specific problem the agency is trying to solve, and if they’ve shared a meaningful plan for maintaining transparency and communication.
Gives Every Section a Job: Building each section out to serve a distinct purpose — like building credibility, differentiating from competitors, or addressing agency concerns — will make it easier to create a compelling proposal. For example, past performance sections provide an opportunity to highlight outcomes that align with the agency’s goals, while management plan sections allow companies to outline a clear project execution strategy.
Maintains a Clear, Structured Flow: Creating a simple, structured document enables evaluators to quickly understand qualifications without digging for information. Proposals should follow a logical progression, use clear headings, and use visual elements like tables and bullet points to highlight key points and break up text.
Companies who consistently win don’t just submit compliant proposals — they submit compelling proposals. Government evaluators aren’t just looking for minimum qualifications. Instead, they want confidence that the contractor will exceed expectations and deliver real value.
The Role of AI in GovCon Proposals
Meeting all three pillars — good capture, relevant past performance, and quality delivery — is already difficult. Doing it at scale is even harder.
This is where AI-powered solutions like GovDash come in. Instead of replacing proposal teams, GovDash enhances their capabilities by automating manual processes, centralizing critical data, and freeing up time for high-value strategic work.
AI is a powerful tool for enhancing efficiency and organization — but generic AI tools often aren’t enough for the proposal development process. The right proposal solution will go beyond generative content and help teams with a variety of tasks:
Automate Compliance Checks: AI can scan solicitations to ensure proposals meet every requirement, reducing the risk of non-compliance.
Structure Responses: AI can generate draft outlines, suggest section headings, and ensure alignment with evaluation criteria.
Retrieve and Organize Past Performance: AI can quickly surface relevant contracts, metrics, and case studies, making it easier to build strong narratives.
Reduce Manual Effort: AI eliminates repetitive tasks like formatting, summarizing, and organizing proposal content.
Many teams assume AI can generate winning proposals independently, but that’s not the case. While AI can streamline proposal development workflows and increase win rates, it can’t tackle uniquely human functions — like engaging agencies, building relationships, and influencing RFPs before they drop.
AI also can’t add persuasion, differentiation, and customer understanding to the proposal without proper data and instructions, and it can’t make strategic bid decisions. Additionally, while AI can highlight relevant opportunities and create drafts, humans must assess fit, pricing, and competitive positioning.
And that brings us to why most AI solutions fall short in GovCon bidding.
Many AI tools promise to “write proposals in an hour“ but fail to consider the entire proposal lifecycle, including functions that rely on human intelligence, like human strategy, storytelling, and capture expertise. This process results in proposals that sound polished but lack depth, strategy, and differentiation.
GovDash takes a different approach. Rather than treating AI as a shortcut, the platform integrates AI across the entire GovCon workflow — from bid selection and capture management to proposal development and contract tracking. This strategy ensures that AI enhances and amplifies human expertise.
How GovDash Empowers Proposal Teams
Proposal teams don’t need another generic AI tool that churns out boilerplate responses — they need a strategic enabler that streamlines workflows, organizes past performance, and frees up time for high-impact work.
GovDash helps teams win more contracts by:
Automating Compliance And Structuring: GovDash ensures every proposal meets RFP requirements while maintaining a structured, evaluator-friendly format.
Surfacing Relevant Past Performance: Instead of scrambling for contract details, teams can instantly access the most relevant past performance records, metrics, and case studies.
Guiding Capture Strategy: GovDash helps teams assess opportunities, prioritize bids, and align proposals with agency needs.
GovDash also integrates with SharePoint and Microsoft Word, allowing teams to work with familiar tools while using AI-powered capabilities.
Instead of switching between multiple systems, proposal managers can centralize content, ensuring better version control and collaboration while reducing miscommunication and duplicate efforts. With AI-powered drafting built directly into Word, teams can refine AI-generated content in real time, improving their existing workflow.
GovDash also empowers proposal teams to win more contracts by reducing tedious and time-consuming tasks. By reducing the manual burden of formatting, compliance checks, and content retrieval, GovDash facilitates compelling proposals and accelerates turnaround.
GovDash doesn’t just make proposal writing easier — it makes winning more achievable. By giving teams the tools they need to work smarter, not harder. Book a demo today to see how GovDash can help you win more government contracts with less stress.
