Writing winning proposals

1. Building a Proposal that Wins:
Tips for Success

2. Know Your Customer
• People do business with people
• Develop your networks long before a proposal hits the
street
• Invest strategically in that network
• Understand the customer’s environment
• Know the customer’s pain
• Pour your knowledge of the customer into your
proposal

3. Use a Framework
• Adopt a proposal development methodology
• Adapt it for your business (size, type, scope)
• Tailor it accordingly for each proposal
• Train your organization regularly on it

4. Sample Proposal Process
No
Yes
RFP
Received Bid/No Bid
End
No Bid
Bid Kick-Off Mtg
Win Strategy
and Themes
Proposal Outline
& Schedule
Issue Writing
Assignments
Capture
Manager
Create PDWs
Capture
Manager
Approval
Yes
Proposal Draft
Pink Team
Issues
Identified
Writing
Assignments
Issued
Capture
Manager
Incorporate
Changes
No
Yes Complete?
Red Team
Review
Issues
Identified
Issue Writing
Assignments
Capture
Manager
Incoprporate
Changes
Make
Changes
Management
Approval
Yes
No
Yes
Compliant?
Yes
No
Compliant?
No
Compliant?
No
Start
End
Proposal
Production &
Delivery
Executive
Summary
Submission
Cover Letter
Prepare
Proposal Mgmt Plan
& Compliance Matrix

5. Assign Roles & Responsibilities
• Capture Manager
• Proposal Manager
• Technical Writers
• Technical Solutions Writers
• Review Team Participants (Pink, Red, Gold)
• Train all members of your team on their roles &
responsibilities

6. Develop a Proposal Management Plan
• Always prepare a Proposal Management Plan (PMP)
• Complete and review the PMP prior to the kickoff
meeting
• Distribute the PMP at the kickoff meeting
• Keep the PMP current, but manage to the plan
• Avoid sliding completion dates
• Develop a PMP template for your organization

7. Sample PMP Contents
• Proposal project
summary
• Customer profile
• Competitive analysis
• Proposal strategies and
themes
• Staffing roles and
responsibilities
• Proposal operations
• Proposal schedule
• Proposal outline
• Writer’s info (forms,
templates, references,
guidelines, etc.)
• Proposal strategy
• Executive summary
• Work breakdown structure

8. Develop Win Themes
• Brainstorm theme statements
• Use them consistently
• Link benefits to features – state benefits first
• Quantify benefits whenever possible
• Draft themes that matter to the customer
• Use the Theme Litmus Test:
• Can your competition make the same claim?
• Could the evaluator plug your theme statement into the
evaluation form to give you the highest rating?

9. Use Storyboards
• Storyboards are planning tools used to develop and
review new content before writing text
• Use templates for storyboards
• Meant to save time and improve quality
• Tailor storyboards to the opportunity
• Train writers to storyboard
• Manage the difficult transition from storyboarding to
the first draft

10. Sample Storyboard Template
• Understanding the task
• Proposal info
• Bid request info
• Analyzing the bid request
• Compliance section
• Section outline
• Defining your offer
• Major issues
• SWOT analysis
• Approach
• Features & benefits
• Risk management
• Past performance
• Developing your strategy
• Section discriminators
• Volume strategy
• Section strategy
• Section theme
• Creating key visuals
• Figure number
• Figure title
• Action caption

11. Select Relevant
Past Performance
• Select past performance that is of similar size & scope
• Include all relevant past performance data in location
required by solicitation
• Integrate examples of specific past performance wherever
you make claims
• Ensure that write-ups highlight solicitation requirements
• Use matrices to relate experience to technical
understanding
• Emphasize experience graphically – easy to read
• Address all weaknesses known by customer

12. Compliance is Critical
• Pay close attention to evaluation criteria
• Develop a compliance matrix early on
• Monitor it regularly for adherence
• No matter how good your solution, it may not even be
read if it is not compliant
• A proposal can be won simply because it is compliant