Proposal Security
Four schools of thought on proposal security:
What Me Worry?
- Proposal team meets in a conference room with floor to ceiling windows to both the outdoors and the of your office.
- No door locks
- All work is done in cubicles open to the rest of the office
- Phone calls are handled at cubicle desks where anyone can overhear details being discussed.
Good Enough
- Windowless War Room
- a shredder or box reserved for the shredder
- The building has a receptionist monitoring traffic in and out
Good
- Proposal team uses a suite of cubicles and/or offices separated from the rest of the office staff.
- Each person has a shredder
- Entry into the area is secured, everyone is badged
Best/Overkill
- Underground, lead-lined, unmarked entry with each person using their personal security code to enter and depart.
- Stand alone hardwired network.
- No outside phone, no internet access, no network access outside the immediate group
- Guards on the floor above
- Shred box in every room, no wastebaskets, everything is incinerated or shredded.
I’ve worked in all of these settings for proposals. The underground facility was like working on a submarine. And boy! Everyone took it seriously.
Only the naive think proposals don’t need security. I find proposal security helps remind people that this is confidential and business sensitive work. Treat your proposal casually, and folks tend to chat about your strategy and themes over lunch at a crowded restaurant.
Treat your proposal with a higher level of security, and folks remember that talking over the baseball game at lunch is a better topic than talking about anything having to do with your proposal.
But seriously, outside of pricing, what’s going to leak that could shift the win from you to someone else? It’s better to focus on winning than not losing. 
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