You’ve gone through the painstaking effort of submitting a proposal or request for quote. You’ve waited for the requests, and finally an awardee is announced. With the award announcement, the timer begins and interested offerors have 3 days in which to request a debrief. Should you make the request? The answer – Absolutely!
Whether you won the award or not, you should always request a debriefing. In a contract management context, a debriefing is “an explanation given by buyer personnel to an offeror detailing the reasons its offer was unsuccessful.”
Granted, the process has gained a bad reputation and is often thought of as a protest precursor causing an agency wariness of speaking with unhappy offerors. The debrief process is not a “call to arms” meeting but should be viewed as a valuable opportunity to speak with the contracting office about your proposal. The goal is to find out how to improve your offer on the next proposal.

Handouts:
Discussing Debriefings – Strenthening proposals thru Conversation handouts After Award Debrief as a Tool for Winning Proposals
Back to Basics – Debriefings by Gregory Weber SmallGovCon