[jmorrison]

I kid you not that there are such things as "proposal schools" and proposal-preparation companies that teach you how to win as low bidder by being "minimally compliant." Then, when the customer finally understands what they are (not) getting, you can hit them up for "change orders" that have to be negotiated. Bottom line strategy is be the low bidder at all costs, and recover your buy-in costs and and also make profits from change orders.

The real villain is letting CPFF (cost plus fixed fee) contracts rather the fixed-price contracts.