1. Capabilities Statement Do’s and Don’ts
A practical guide for government contractors
DO DON’T
VisualAppeal
Keep it to 1 sheet (2 sided if you must) Folded brochures, white papers, staples, portfolios, or folders
Add color It’s not a flag. It doesn’t have to be Red-White-AND-Blue
Consistent branding with business cards &
website
Create it in a vacuum, dissonant from your company’s brand
Use Headings, bullets to break up text Paragraphs: you have 5 seconds to catch someone’s interest.
Don’t make them work for it, make it really easy.
Content
Customize for your audience Use the same boilerplate regardless of customer.
Get to the point: your Unique Value Prop-
osition tailored to client’s need/mission
“About us” paragraph that recites your mission/vision/values; ge-
neric descriptions; repetition of any information elsewhere on the
page (especially socioeconomic status!)
Reference your client’s mission, strate-
gies, technologies; use relevant keywords
Generic jargon, no matter how consultant-like it makes you sound.
It’s meaningless.
Use appropriate graphics Generic or irrelevant pictures; Template people clichés.
Experience, confidence, expertise. Defini-
tive verbs.
Aspirational verbs/adjectives —”strive to,” “Expect” Aspire” Work-
ing towards” mean that you’re not quite there
Edit and tailor your capabilities list A 1-person business cannot do more than a Tier-1 prime.
Only include “differentiators” if they really
are differentiators
On-time, right-price, responsive, customer service oriented are
NOT it. Don’t even think about putting in how cheap you are!
Facts & figures tell the best story.
“Maintained uptime of 99.996% over 3
years” “Saved Agency X 10% in energy
costs over 6 consecutive quarters”
“delivered 2 months ahead of schedule”
“Best in class”, “industry leader,” “best practices” are meaningless.
And the only number no one wants to see is the combined years:
“our engineers have 98 years of combined project management
experience”.
List relevant customers (if allowed). “Government and Commercial.” “Any…..”
Marry your capabilities to your custom-
ers—Successfully performed Project X for
Customer A.
Separate columns that lets us guess, like a Chinese menu, what
work you did for which organization.
CompanyInformation
Include in the sidebar or on the
bottom.
Leading with your small/disadvantaged status makes you ap-
pear risky instead of advantageous
NAICS Codes, CAGE Code, DUNS #,
Contract #s, GSA Schedule
Every NAICS in the directory.
Contact information (phone, website,
address, email, social media)
Forgetting it makes you appear novice
Name@yourcompany.com Gmail, Verizon, Hotmail… makes you look amateur, novice,
unprofessional, and risky
Www.virginiaptap.org ptap@gmu.edu @VirginiaPTAP VirginiaPTAP