Readiness Assessments for GSA Proposals–7 how-to tips.

Are you preparing a proposal for a GSA Schedule contract? As part of this effort, an officer of your firm will have to prepare and sign a “Readiness Assessment”—a 7 page document that presents your answers to 33 questions.  GSA states that the purpose of the Readiness Assessment is to help you decide “if you are ready to become a MAS contractor.”  (“MAS” is the abbreviation for “Multiple Award Schedule,” another name for GSA Schedule contracts.)

Filling out the Readiness Assessment presents challenges, two of which include the following: (1) In preparing a Readiness Assessment, it can be difficult to sequence this task with the rest of your GSA proposal.  (2) While most of the questions in the Readiness Assessment are relatively easy to answer, 6 of them require you to retrieve, sort, and/or analyze quantitative data.  For example, you will need to answer questions about sales of existing GSA contractors in the statement of work areas you are thinking of including in your proposal.

This article provides 7 tips on how to take on these challenges and prepare a Readiness Assessment efficiently.

But no matter how quickly you can prepare the document, do not treat it as a rote exercise or as an annoyance.  If you are already convinced that a GSA Schedule contract makes sense for your firm, use the Readiness Assessment to help you sharpen the focus of your proposal—and to give yourself renewed confidence of your ability to manage a GSA Schedule contract.  And if you do not yet know much about such contracts, or if you are unsure about whether there is a strong business case to be made, the Readiness Assessment will provide you with useful insights as you make a decision about whether and how to proceed.