Carl Dickson

<p> This document provides a set of criteria can be used in several ways to assess the quality of a proposal. They can be used to: </p> <p> Assess a past proposal to establish a benchmark to measure progress by. </p> <ul><li> Assess a collection of past proposals for benchmarking purposes. </li> <li> Collect metrics on proposal quality (by establishing numerical grades for each criteria). </li> <li> Identify areas of concern and focus for future improvement. </li> <li> Assess the trend towards improved or diminished quality over time. </li> </ul><p> This set of criteria does not focus on: </p> <ul><li> Whether the offering is compliant, effective, or what the customer really wants </li> <li> Typographical accuracy and proof reading </li> <li> Pricing and contractual terms </li> <li> Style and design choices </li> </ul><p> By excluding the offering and pricing, this set of assessment criteria focuses on the proposal itself, and not the overall offering or its likelihood of winning.<br><br> Before using these criteria to assess a current proposal prior to submission, they should be customized to include criteria related to the items above. We recommend the Proposal Quality Validation methodology for assessing current proposals because it does include these criteria. The Proposal Quality Validation methodology is part of the MustWin Process and the details for implementing it are contained in the PropLIBRARY Knowledgebase. </p>

<p style="font-size:larger;"> <span class="blueSub">About this file</span> </p> <p style="font-size: larger; margin-left: 40px;"> <strong>This file is free. As in beer. It contains a wealth of lessons learned the hard way. It contains things I wish I'd understood about proposal quality at the start of my career. </strong> </p> <p style="font-size: larger; margin-left: 40px;"> <strong>It contains the key insights you need to reengineer how you review your proposals. It will enable you to take a step back from how things are usually done and discover what proposal quality really is, so you can change how you do things to properly achieve it.</strong> </p> <p style="font-size: larger; margin-left: 40px;"> <strong>I'm passing it on to you in the hope that we can finally shift the way people do proposals out of the Stone Age. Take what's here, put it to work, and let me know how it improves your win rate. And if you add to it, enhance it, or find better ways, please share those as well.</strong> </p> <p style="font-size: larger; margin-left: 40px;"> <strong>This page is for downloading the PDF file. It's a large file, at 7.7Mb. <a href="<___base_url___>/proplibrary/item/813-over-40-critical-truths-about-defining-proposal-quality-and-developing-criteria-to-assess-it/" rel="">You can see the file without downloading it here</a>.</strong> </p> <p> <span class="blueSub">From the introduction</span> </p> <p style="margin-left: 40px;"> Since 2001, I have published over a thousand articles on business and proposal development. </p> <p style="margin-left: 40px;"> This document is not like any of them. </p> <p style="margin-left: 40px;"> If you want process, methodology, structure and training, you should visit PropLIBRARY and read those articles. </p> <p style="margin-left: 40px;"> If you want deep insight to ponder that’s a little too honest and bordering on insubordinate, keep reading. I’m going to share what I’ve learned about what matters the most from doing all that writing. And it’s not the procedures we follow. </p> <p> <span class="blueSub">Key excerpts from the license page</span> </p> <p style="margin-left: 40px;"> You are free to give this file to as many people as you'd like. Share it with your whole company. Or other companies. </p> <p style="margin-left: 40px;"> Use part or all of it in your training materials. </p> <p style="margin-left: 40px;">   </p> <p> Current version of this file: 1.0 </p>