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For agencies, consultants & first-time bidders

The Agency Playbook for Winning a First Federal Contract.

We packaged the field-tested framework we use with every agency client into a free 24-page PDF. Same toolkit our team runs internally before we touch a capture — yours to keep.

The 9-Question Bid Filter We Run for Clients

Before we put any of our agency clients on a capture, we run them through this matrix. Score under 60 and we walk — chasing the wrong RFP costs every firm we've worked with $20–40k in lost capture cycles.

The PWin Model We Brief to Founders

The same 10-factor scoring frame the primes use, scaled down so a 5-person agency can run it in an afternoon. Customer relationship, competitive position, past performance, and price-to-win — weighted into a single number we report back to the client.

The RFP Response Skeleton Our Writers Use

Compliance matrix + section-by-section outline. The exact structure we hand off to our proposal writers. Cuts a first RFP draft from 40 hours to about 12.

The Pricing-to-Win Worksheet We Hand Clients

Federal pricing is its own discipline. First-time bidders chronically under-price by 25–40%. We give our clients this worksheet on day one so direct + indirect rates plus a competitive band are baked in before any number lands on a proposal.

Who runs this

We're Americurial. We build software and capture pipelines for small federal contractors — and we built this PDF for every agency, consultant, and first-time bidder asking us the same questions on the discovery call. If you'd rather hand the whole thing off, book a call.

Sneak peek inside

3 sample pages — the rest comes in your inbox.

Below is the actual structure of three frameworks from the manual. The full worksheets, scoring weights, and benchmark numbers live in the PDF.

Page 7

Bid / No-Bid Matrix

QuestionScore
Do we know the customer?_/10
NAICS match?_/10
Past performance fits?_/15
Set-aside aligned?_/15
Win price defensible?_/15
+ 4 more…_/35

Under 60? Walk.

Page 13

PWin Calculator

  • Customer Relationship12%
  • Competitive Position10%
  • Technical Fit15%
  • Past Performance12%
  • Price-to-Win15%
  • + 5 more factors36%
PWin = Σ(score × weight)
Page 18

Pricing-to-Win

Direct labor rate$___/hr
+ Fringe (typ. 28%)$___
+ Overhead (typ. 35%)$___
+ G&A (typ. 8%)$___
+ Profit (typ. 7-10%)$___
Loaded rate$___/hr

First-timers under-price by 25-40%.

17 more pages of frameworks, worksheets, and benchmark tables — emailed instantly.
After you've read it

Want us to run the playbook for you?

We work with a small roster of agencies and first-time bidders each quarter. Book a 30-min capture call and we'll walk through one of your live opportunities together — free.

Book a capture call →