Articles
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Using boilerplate in a proposal Careful thought is required before assuming you can re-use existing proposal content or “boilerplate.” People are often tempted to recycle proposal content from past proposals or “boilerplate.” Unfortunately, this only works for certain proposals. For others, it actually makes things take longer and reduces the effectiveness of the proposal. Boilerplate and re-use material can destroy your chances of creating a gr- 0 comments
- 232 views
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Planning your solution and planning the content of your proposal are two very different things: Depending on the type of work and how the RFP defines the requirements, you may need to conceptualize your approach as well as your content. This is typically true of proposals to provide solutions or to perform research. If the RFP does not tell you what to propose or how to do the work, then you have to determine how you will achieve the goals in addition to what you will- 0 comments
- 434 views
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Validating your Proposal Content Plan helps to ensure that your proposal writers: Aren't trying to hit a moving target. Are aware of everything they should be when they start writing. Know what their assignments are. Define proposal quality the same way the reviewers do. Does the Content Plan do the following? ❏ Do you have the right balance of placeholders and details to guide the writers while still responding quickly? ❏- 0 comments
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Proposal Content Plan Quality To do its job, a Proposal Content Plan must achieve certain objectives. It is not simply a summary of what you might write or a collection of placeholders. It should be far more than a simple annotated outline. For example, it should provide instructions for writers and quality criteria for reviewing the proposal. The following is intended to be used as a checklist both by the author of the Proposal Content Plan and by any subsequent reviewers- 0 comments
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A Content Plan enables writing to become a process of elimination instead of an open-ended exercise. With the MustWin Process, authors don’t start with a blank page. Instead you start from a Content Plan that has already been validated to ensure that it includes all of the ingredients that should go into your section. All you have to do is follow the recipe. The Content Plan contains instructions for what to write. Authors simply replace the- 0 comments
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Two ways to accelerate your Proposal Content Planning: Cheat. Skip some of the iterations. The methodology was designed with this possibility in mind. Think "checklist" instead of "iterations." Do them all in one pass and then use the "steps" as a checklist to make sure you didn't overlook anything. Cheating is not only allowed, it's encouraged If you skip some of the iterations, your plan will be not be as thorough, but will still add value. See the to- 0 comments
- 320 views
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Proposal Content Planning can be implemented with different management models. Should the content plan be given to writers or should the writers participate in creating the content plan? This will vary according to your corporate culture and the complexity of your offering. Should all stakeholders be involved? Is your company centralized or decentralized? How are decisions made at your company? What is the balance between consensus and authority? Content planning can be done with each of these- 0 comments
- 188 views
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Why do companies only have one proposal process? Planning the activity is not the same as planning the content of the proposal. The activities that go into the proposal process include things like: A kickoff meeting Building a compliance matrix Proposal writing Proposal reviews Final production Etc. You could claim that proposal content planning should be a step between the outline and the start of proposal writing, but while that is some- 0 comments
- 2,217 views
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Like the chicken and the egg, proposals suffer from a “which came first” problem. Does the story come first so you can build the proposal around your story and then you develop the offering and work it into the story, or do develop the offering first so you know what your story should be? Just like with the chicken and the egg, there’s no right answer and you’re left with the paradox. We were looking at a couple of proposals that are in progress and stumbled right into an approach that- 0 comments
- 4,892 views
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- 8,368 views
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Where do you spend the most time on a proposal? Most people think it’s writing. But if you watch people as they work on a proposal, you’ll find they spend more time on something else. If you look at a typical proposal schedule, you may see 50% or more of the time dedicated to writing. But most of that time isn’t spent on actual writing. It’s spent on figuring out what to write, with a healthy dose of distraction and procrastination thrown in. Distractions are really competing prioritie- 0 comments
- 9,649 views
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Our approach to Proposal Content Planning. This material was extracted from the MustWin Workbook to use in a training course we delivered.- 0 comments
- 1,231 views
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When I want to sound like a process guru, I refer to proposal “quality criteria.” When I want users to go along with my recommendations, I call them “checklists.” Either way, you have to figure out what they should be. This list can help you make sure your proposal quality criteria actually deliver the quality you are seeking. What it will take to win. This is the standard that defines proposal quality. You should never decide to bid a pursuit if you can’t define what it will take to win- 0 comments
- 4,353 views
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Different people bring different perspectives to a proposal, both good and bad. They also bring different skill levels. Unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve a great proposal with contributions that are merely good. Or worse. It takes more than trying really hard to get good people to produce a great proposal. And yet, working with a team is the only way to create proposals larger than yourself. The only way to achieve a great proposal with a team of people is to design a great proposa- 0 comments
- 4,949 views
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See a sample of a Proposal Content Plan being built through each of the 8 iterations. Includes comments discussing some of the choices that have to be made along the way.- 0 comments
- 1,690 views
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Very few companies achieve consistently effective proposal reviews. Most tell themselves that their reviews are better than nothing. But ineffective reviews do not somehow lead to an effective increase in quality. Still, they assume that if they just try harder next time, their ineffective approach to proposal reviews will somehow produce effective results. No matter what they try, their reviews are still a struggle producing questionable results. Here are three reasons why your proposal reviews- 0 comments
- 3,982 views
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A Content Plan is built through an iterative process: Start with an outline/compliance matrix. Format the outline as a document. Insert instructions for addressing RFP requirements. Add instructions for incorporating win strategies/themes, and to optimize the proposal against the evaluation criteria. Add instructions for incorporating your customer, opportunity, and competitive intelligence. Add instructions for incorporating th- 0 comments
- 270 views
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Read the proposal and make it sound better. The end.p.s. If you are not precise and careful, making a proposal sound better can actually hurt your chances of winning. Changing the wording of proposal headings and requirements can get you thrown out for non-compliance without even being read. Even if you don't get thrown out, it can hurt your score when customers search for keywords or strings in the RFP and can't find them in your proposal. Their words may be archaic or awkward, but th- 0 comments
- 4,581 views
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Most companies perform their proposal reviews at level two. They recognize the need and are serious about reviewing their proposals. However, the results are not always effective, definitely not consistent, and many ask themselves if it's worth it. Some have made it to the third level and they understand that reviews are needed across all phases of the pursuit. But they too suffer from inconsistent results. Few, if any, companies ever reach the higher levels. I wonder why that is. It's espe- 0 comments
- 4,687 views
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Congratulations! You've reached the point where you always have proposal reviews. You may even recognize that only having one review can be worse than having none, and have several reviews. But while your reviews make clear improvements, reviews alone are not enough to achieve quality proposals. It all comes down to how you define your proposal quality criteria. The odds are you don’t have any. Most companies don't have written quality criteria (and there is no other kind). Most review- 0 comments
- 3,069 views
