Carl Dickson

If we had to pick one thing to change that would have the most impact on an organization’s ability to win, it would be how they approach bid/no bid decisions. If you think of them as just being about deciding whether to bid, you’re missing a tremendous opportunity, because they can have a much greater impact on how you bid, than just on if you bid. See also: Bid/no bid decisions Do you know what percentage of bids you drop at each stage or do you never drop anything? Do the things you bid reinforce your strategic plans or ignore them? Do you arrive at RFP release with an information advantage or just knowing what’s in the announcement? Are you tracking metrics that can quantify what’s driving your win rate? Or are you just assuming that conventional wisdom applies to your circumstances? Do leads go immediately into your tracking system? Or do you sit on them until you know you’re going to pursue them before you make them “official?” Do you put every lead you can find into your tracking system, no matter how weak or unqualified they are, to boost your numbers? Can you articulate what it will take to win before you start the proposal, or do you just base it on what is in the RFP? Do you know your win strategies and themes before you start the proposal? Or do you struggle to define your win strategies and themes during the proposal? Do you have a bid/no bid decision, or a bid/no bid process that defines standards and has steps, goals, and criteria as well as reviews? All of these problems are made worse by an ineffective bid/no bid process. It doesn’t even have to be broken. A weakness on any one of these issues can be addressed by improving how you approach your bid/no bid decision process. Another way of saying this is that you can improve you win rate by focusing on your bid/no bid decision process. If you already have a bid/no bid process, then you might want to add, “Has it become watered down over time by people who have learned how to game the system, or by people who just want to be nice and get along rather than make tough decisions?” And, “Is it driven primarily by financial considerations, or is it driven by the need to discover what it will take to win?” A lot of people assume that a bid/no bid process boosts win rates by dropping the low probability pursuits. While this is true, the real way that the bid/no bid process boosts win rates is by making people do the right things to position the company to win. You can change the behavior of people by changing the bid/no bid process. Readiness Reviews give you a simple structure and approach to implement a bid/no bid process that is strategic and positions you to win the proposals that you do decide to bid. By paying careful attention to the bid/no bid process, you can set the stage for continuous improvement in your win rate, and do it through tiny steps instead of a major overhaul. Return to the Topic Hub for Pre RFP Pursuit, or return to the Starting Point for Discovering What It Will Take To Win.

Making effective bid decisions: Every pursuit progress review should be considered a “Bid/No Bid review.” Bid decisions should be about return on investment and not gambling. At each step, the decision should be whether to commit the resources required to get to the next decision point. You can't accurate predict your chances of winning, but you can assess whether you have met the conditions required to bid with a competitive advantage. The burden should be to justify pursuit of the opportunity, and not the other way around. The MustWin Process has many points where it makes sense to pause and consider whether it is worth continuing the pursuit. Think of them as opportunities. They also provide criteria for your consideration under other topics. Return to the Topic Hub for Pre RFP Pursuit, or return to the Starting Point for Discovering What It Will Take To Win.

Hardly any RFPs are actually wired. Even if the customer has some bias, they can usually be stolen away if they get a better offer. Think about how you buy things. Most folks will give someone they’ve done business with for a long time the benefit of the doubt, but if someone has a better product or a significantly lower price, they sometimes make a switch. This is especially true if the relationship has gone stale. You may have no way of knowing without bidding. Use of the word “wired” makes it sound like either it is or it isn’t, when in reality it’s a question of how much. We deal in odds, not in certainties. 14 signs that the odds may be stacked against you None of them are conclusive on their own, and one or more will likely be true on every bid. But if several are true they may add up to something... See also: Bid/no bid decisions Emphasis on evaluation criteria that only an incumbent will be able to get top marks in. For example experience of the staff being bid with obscure or customer specific tools. Overemphasis on the relevance of experience might be another. Emphasis on criteria that are easy to bias. Risk mitigation and quality are good examples. Prohibitions against contacting or rehiring incumbent staff. Unusual labeling of key staff. If all of the staff are considered key and resumes are required for all staff being bid it’s a bad sign. Evaluation practices that are outside the norm for that agency. If pricing is normally evaluated at 40% and on this RFP it’s being evaluated at 10% you have to wonder why. But this also requires you to know what the norms and trends are for that customer. Use of multiple evaluation criteria to address the same thing. For example, requiring that past performance projects include the staff being bid so that in essence staffing is getting counted twice (and acceptable past performance is hard to find). When combined these can make one particular element count out of proportion. Short, inflexible deadlines. On its own it doesn’t mean much, but it can favor a contractor who is expecting the bid. Ambiguity that favors an incumbent. For example, requirement to supply custom software without the requirements being defined. Scopes that aren’t defined. Deliverables that are named, but not described. Statements of Work that require you to know the customer’s undocumented standard operating procedures. So much detail that it’s overwhelming. Page limitations that make it impossible to respond to all of the requirements so that only the preferred bidder will know what to focus on and what they can skip without being branded “noncompliant.” Fixed price proposals where you don’t have enough information to know how long things will take. Unusually brief responses to questions, especially when there are only a handful of bidders or when they are unresponsive to questions they could easily answer. Unusually lengthy answers to questions, often delivered at the last minute without an extension. “Processes” specified in the RFP that can’t be mapped or flowcharted so that only someone who has experience with them can figure out how they work. Return to the Topic Hub for Pre RFP Pursuit, or return to the Starting Point for Discovering What It Will Take To Win.

Helping the customer understand how to get what they need: You’ll be a more effective guide if you understand the customer’s procurement process better than they do. If you don’t influence the RFP, someone else will. Influencing the RFP can be as simple as helping them get the technical requirements right. But why not help them go further and understand what is important in making their selection? If you cannot influence the RFP, it’s a sign that you are not positioned to win. How you seek to influence the RFP depends on your circumstances. Are you an incumbent? Do you have a high-priced offering or a low-priced one? Can you exceed the requirement? How you seek to influence the RFP depends on your bid strategies. Researching an opportunity and influencing it go hand in hand. If you don’t look into the items below, you could be in for a nasty surprise if they go the wrong way. As you seek to learn more about the opportunity, it’s only natural to make recommendations at the same time. If it helps, instead of “influencing” the RFP, all you really need to do is make recommendations, provide guidance, or give feedback to the customer regarding how to conduct a procurement that will get their needs met. Here are some things to consider influencing before an RFP is released: See also: Influencing the RFP Should there even be an RFP? Depending on regulatory requirements and the customer’s rules, there might be other ways to conduct the procurement than through a written RFP. What approach to the acquisition will be the most advantageous to you while enabling the customer to comply with their rules? Number of awards. Some types of procurements lend themselves well to splitting the work up among more than one vendor. Sometimes, but not always, this is done through task order contracts. Sometimes having more than one award will help ensure you get a piece, while other times you want the door closed to potential competitors. For the customer, the decision rests on a combination of risk, competitiveness, and procurement complexity. Budget. What guidance can you provide to the customer regarding how to set their budget? The correct answer is not always “More!” Sometimes an approach (such as one your competitor favors — or far worse, your own) can be ruled out because the budget is too high or too low. Evaluation criteria. What guidance can you provide the customer regarding the most important considerations in selecting a vendor? Can you recommend criteria that match your strengths while simultaneously creating a disadvantage for your competitors? Some customers are open to discussions about what is important in making a selection, while others may not be. Award process. Can you recommend steps the customer should take to issue the RFP and make a selection? How can this process work to your advantage and your competitors’ disadvantage? Pricing structure. If you have a creative approach to pricing, you’d better make sure the RFP allows it. For example, it’s hard to bid a fixed rate for a project when the RFP requires an hourly rate. And vice versa. Depending on your circumstances, you may prefer one approach over another. You should make sure the customer shares your preference. Minimum qualifications to bid. Can you define any qualifications that would eliminate competitors while enabling you to bid? If you can’t eliminate them, maybe you can recommend changes to the evaluation criteria that would enable your qualifications to score better. Resumes. If you can name the staff you plan to bid, you should suggest that the RFP requires the resumes of the staff who will perform the work. If you cannot name the staff, then you may want to recommend that the RFP focus on qualifications and not specific individuals. Project references. Do you have excellent references? Make sure the RFP requires them and emphasizes them in the evaluation criteria. You can also make recommendations regarding how to define what experience is considered “relevant” that can work to your advantage. Scope/Specifications. Do you want the scope open-ended or tightly defined? Is there anything that you want specifically included, excluded, or not mentioned? Quantities. Do you prefer quantities to be high or low? Do you want them specified precisely or left ambiguous? Locations. Is it to your advantage to specify that the work be performed at particular locations? Are there any locations that would cause you difficulty that you would rather not be required? Trade-offs and Preferences. All projects involve trade-offs. The adage goes: “Good, cheap, or fast — pick any two.” What trade-offs work to your advantage? Can you influence either the scope/specifications or evaluation criteria to reflect the trade-offs you prefer? Risks. Are there any risks that you would like defined, not defined, or mitigated by the RFP? Platforms/Formats/Standards. Would specifying a particular platform, format, or standard work to your advantage? Resources. Could a requirement that the contractor have certain resources available work to your advantage? Site visits. Would having or not having a pre-submission site visit work to your advantage? Would making attendance a requirement to bid work to your advantage? Demonstrations. Would a requirement to conduct a pre-submission demonstration work to your advantage? Performance Bond/Insurance. Some RFPs require that the contractor have a performance bond or insurance. Would adding this requirement or raising the amounts eliminate competitors? Schedule. Do you prefer an aggressive schedule for RFP release, project start, project completion, or major milestones? Could the schedule limit the competitive field? Transition. Are their any project start-up, phase-in, or transition requirements that would work to your advantage? An incumbent will typically want little or no transition time while a non-incumbent may need it. Intellectual property. How the RFP addresses intellectual property can have a major impact on the competitive field. For example, if software developed is owned by the customer, it can cause difficulty for off-the-shelf providers. Conflict of Interest. Should a company that participated in the design of the requirements be allowed to bid on the work that fulfills those requirements or is that a conflict of interest? Adding a carefully worded conflict of interest requirement can cause difficulty for companies who have an existing relationship with the customer or who do business in multiple areas. Proposal requirements. Are there any recommendations you can make regarding the requirements for preparing and submitting the proposal? Are there any formats, page limits, or specific things to include/exclude that could work to your advantage?

When most people think about what their competitive advantages might be, they tend to focus on themselves. They ask questions like “What do we do better?” and “How can we exceed the requirements?” But they are missing a much better way to find their competitive advantages. A competitive advantage is something that will make it more likely the customer will pick you over your competitors. The best way to find a competitive advantage is to discover your customer’s preferences. When the customer follows a formal evaluation process, the best way to find a competitive advantage is to influence the criteria used during the evaluation in your favor. When the customer will award to the lowest price technically acceptable offer, the best way to find a competitive advantage is to discover exactly what they mean by technically acceptable. In every case, what drives the search for a competitive advantage is information. Instead of looking for a competitive advantage, you should look for an information advantage. When people turn inward to look for a competitive advantage, it’s often a sign that they are trying to identify their competitive advantages too late in the game. At the back-end all you have is your own resources so at that stage people tend to look inward for competitive advantages. That is why they ask the wrong questions. Developing an Information Advantage See also: Information Advantage In order to develop an information advantage, the questions they should be asking themselves include: What do we know about the customer, opportunity, and competitive environment that others might not? What can we find out about the customer’s preferences, opportunity, and competitive environment? How do we turn that knowledge into a better evaluation score? Your information advantage should be turned into a positioning advantage. It may result in you developing a better offering, or it may result in a proposal that scores better with the exact same offering. An information advantage can help you make better trade-offs in developing your offering so that you come in at a lower price. Or it could help you target the right features to better meet the customer’s needs. Or it could give your offering strength where your competitors' offerings are weak. When the RFP requires everybody to propose the exact same thing, an information advantage can enable you to show your offering in better alignment with the customer’s goals. When it’s not clear whether the evaluation will focus on price or value, an information advantage can make all the difference. Your bid process should be structured around developing your information advantage. It is far better to start early, when you can take active measures (influencing what’s in the RFP) as well as passive measures (discovering what’s in the RFP). But even when you start late, the process should drive you to make the best use of the information and knowledge that you have. Your business development, sales, capture, and proposal activities and hand-offs can all be thought of as information hand-offs and steps toward adding to what you know and converting it into what you need to say and do in order to win. The data you obtain, the reports you produce, the format you write things down in, how you assess what you’ve discovered, and what you do about it should all be done in ways that make it easy for your data to build and change into an information advantage. If your bid process is just about reports and reviews, it may not be doing everything it can to carry information forward in the best ways to turn it into an information advantage.

Once a request for proposals (RFP) is out, it may be too late to bid win a competitive advantage. Getting ahead of the RFP does not have to be hard, but it does take effort in advance and relationship marketing. Those that put the time and effort into getting ahead of the RFP are able to achieve an information advantage as well as a competitive advantage. See also: Pre-RFP Pursuit Recompetes. Targeting recompetes is the easiest way to get ahead of the RFP. But it can take years to pay off. The day a contract is issued, you know the date of its recompete and roughly when the new RFP will be out. You can look up all contracts that have been issued through government and private sector databases. This approach gives you time to build a relationship and collect intelligence before the new RFP is released, but requires some investment and a lot of patience. Most companies squander this opportunity. They “track” the opportunity for years and then somehow don’t have much to show for it when the RFP is released. Forecasts and budgets. Most agencies publish procurement forecasts. They don’t include everything and it can be a challenge to reconcile what’s in the forecast with what actually comes out. Budgets are similar. Not all procurements are large enough to be line items. And reconciling what’s in the budget with what comes out can be extremely difficult. If it was easy, everyone would do it. Because it’s difficult, those who do it can have a competitive advantage. Sources sought notices and Requests for Information (RFIs). These announcements come out ahead of the RFP. Barely. They usually come out about 30 days ahead, usually after all the key decisions have already been made and it’s too late to start relationship marketing or obtain an information advantage. Mostly they give you the illusion of starting ahead of the RFP. But they can give you a chance to finalize teaming arrangements and get your proposal resources lined up — if you don’t mind bidding when you’re at a disadvantage to those who knew about it before the announcement. If you are interested in a pursuit, you should definitely respond to any pre-RFP announcements. But if you are just finding out about a pursuit because of an announcement, it doesn’t really count as being ahead and you should try even harder next time. If you are trying to get ahead of the RFP by looking for announcements, you should consider any of the other approaches listed here. Draft RFPs. Sometimes the customer will release a draft RFP. The good news is you get to see it and possibly even suggest changes. But the bad news is they're already invested in the approach described in the draft and there's a good chance someone else helped them get it that far. You're coming in late, but still may be able to influence things. At the very least it will be interesting to see whether the customer accepts any suggestions you make about the draft. Actually talking to the customer every chance you get. Every chance you get to speak with the customer, whether it’s on site, in meetings, or at trade shows is a chance to be there at the moment they need information or mention something related to a procurement they are preparing for in the future. Enlist any project staff who have contact with the customer. Any project can get your foot in the door. Winning a project, no matter how small, especially if it’s at the customer’s site or includes customer face-time, is a chance to build the kind of relationship that gives you the insight you need to win more. Subcontracting. You can get added to an existing contract, if the prime sees enough value in it to persuade the customer to let them add you. They won’t do this to help a future competitor. Subcontracting may not help you get to know the customer, unless you play a customer-facing role. Network with non-competing vendors. If you can identify companies that work with the customer in areas you don’t compete in, they may be willing to share contacts and information, especially if you can help them in other areas. Social networking. Don’t expect the customer to openly discuss future procurements in a group on LinkedIn. But you might gain valuable insight just paying attention to what questions they ask and what positions they take. You might even be able to ask general questions about preferences and interests too. If you establish an online relationship in which you demonstrate that you add value, you might even be able to land a face-to-face meeting. At a minimum, it's a great way to discover potential customer contacts and the roles they plan. Databases. There are companies that track contracts and recompetes, and do a lot of the difficult forecast and budget analysis for you. They will show you opportunities they anticipate will be coming out in the future. Of course, all their other customers know about them as well. But if you are sharp you can make better use of the information available than your competitors. If you are dependent on databases for all your leads, it's a sign that you're not doing enough of the other things on this list. Content marketing. To prepare an RFP, the customer must do a lot of research to write the requirements. If you set up a resource that helps them define their requirements, understand the trade-offs involved, and facilitate what they need to do, you can proactively offer them access to it (even if you don’t know whether they are planning anything). If you make it easy for them to ask questions and follow up, who knows what you will discover.

The MustWin Process is designed so that information flows from its sources into the proposal. Along the way it gets assessed and converted into what it will take to win. That flow of information must not be broken if you want to win. Many post-RFP goals will be difficult or impossible to achieve if the Pre-RFP goals are not met first. When we coach people through the process implementation, we often see people have an epiphany when they realize that if they hadn't skipped something or done a better job of it, they would have the information they need at that moment instead of having to work around it. Part of what the MustWin Process does for you is tell you what information you need to gather and what questions you need to be able to answer. Pre-RFP Release Goals Post-RFP Release Goals Collecting the intelligence about the customer, opportunity, and competitive environment needed to win Staging the Intelligence you collected for use in the proposal Positioning your company to win Identifying your competitive advantages and win strategies Defining what it will take to win Being ready to quickly start the proposal Being able to demonstrate an understanding that goes beyond the RFP Writing to the customer’s unwritten requirements Being able to make trade-offs that reflect the customer’s preferences Defining quality criteria based on what it will take to win Building what it will take to win into the proposal from the beginning Validating every attribute of the proposal against the quality criteria, which are based on what it takes to win

The MustWin Process defines specific goals to be achieved prior to RFP release, so that when the proposal starts you will already have a competitive advantage. You must have specific goals that you seek to accomplish before the RFP is released. Otherwise, the time will likely be wasted. Here is a list of pre RFP goals recommended by the MustWin Process: See also: Information Advantage Collect intelligence about the customer, opportunity, and competition so that you will know what it will take to win Track measurable progress towards collecting the intelligence that will enable you to answer the questions the proposal writers will need answered in order to write a great proposal Develop an information advantage Grow the customer relationship Develop your win strategies and position your company to win Lay the foundation for any teaming with other companies that may be necessary to win the opportunity Identify all of the internal resources that may be able to contribute to the proposal effort Prepare for an accelerated start to the proposal Prepare people to fulfill their roles in supporting the proposal Begin to set expectations for all stakeholders The Readiness Review process provides an approach for ensuring that your goals are accomplished. Achieving your pre RFP goals is what makes achieving your post RFP goals possible to achieve. Many businesses struggle with finding out about opportunities before the RFP is released. Here are 11 ways to get ahead of the RFP. Doing so is not only critical for development an information advantage, it's also when you have the best chance to influence the RFP. We recommend implementing Readiness Reviews to bring structure to the pre-RFP phase. Without this structure, too many businesses waste the time they have before RFP release and end up unprepared when the RFP hits the street. Lead qualification is key aspect of the pre RFP process and built into the Readiness Reviews. Readiness Reviews also provide a means to achieving effective bid/no bid decisions. Guidance for Pre-RFP Activities: Responding to Requests for Information (RFI) or Sources Sought notices Checklist for responding to Draft RFPs Checklist for customer site visits Determining whether the RFP is wired for someone else The MustWin process guides you through discovering what it will take to win and using that to drive your bid and proposal strategies. Return to the Figuring Out What it Will Take to Win Starting Point.

See also: Proposal outlines When you have completed your proposal outline, you can use the following checklist to validate it: ❏ Does the outline comply with the RFP instructions for the outline? ❏ Does the outline provide one place where the customer will expect to find the response to each and every requirement? ❏ Will it be easy for the customer to evaluate? ❏ Will it be easy to navigate? ❏ Are there any topics missing that should be added to the outline? ❏ Is there any redundancy or ambiguity regarding the topics? ❏ Does the terminology in the outline match the terminology of the RFP? ❏ When you scan the outline, does it tell your story? Return to the Topic Hub for Creating Your Proposal Outline, or return to the Starting Point for Figuring Out What to Say in Your Proposals.

When you receive a proposal, what information do you need in order to decide whether to approve it? The decision maker starts with questions and looks for answers. They don’t read your proposal. They look for answers. When you are the decision maker, your questions might include: See also: Proposal outlines What am I going to get or what will the results be? What do you want (from me)? How much is it going to cost and is it worth it? What will it take to make it happen? What could go wrong? Why should I believe you? What alternatives do I have? Now pretend that you are receiving a proposal from someone who wants you to do something, approve something, or buy something. Think about the first thing you want to read. If you weren’t expecting to receive a proposal, it might be “What do you want (from me)?” “What are you asking me to do?” or “What do I have to decide?” If you were expecting the proposal, then the first thing you'll probably want to know is “What am I going to get?” “How much better off will I be?” “Did they get it right?” or “Is it complete?” This is closely followed by “What do I have to do to get it?” “What’s it going to cost?” “Is it worth it?” and “Can I afford it?” If you agree that it’s worth it and you have the budget, you’ll want to dig deeper and find out what it will take to make it happen. At that point you start looking for things that could go wrong and will want to make sure you can trust the person or company who brought you the proposal to deliver what they promise. You’re asking yourself “Will they deliver (completely, accurately, on time, and within budget)?” and “Can I trust them?” Once the decision maker has answers to all those questions, they still need to consider whether there are alternatives. That’s when they ask questions like “What if I don’t do what they want?” “Is there another approach that better meets my needs?” “What if I pick someone else?” and “What makes this proposal the best alternative or selection?” Finally, the decision maker must be sufficiently motivated. Otherwise they might ask “What if I do nothing?” “What if I wait?” or “What if I ask someone else (for input, for a proposal, for help deciding)?” If this is what the decision maker is looking for, then your outline should provide the answers they are looking for. You can build your outline around these questions. But it's even better to use statements that summarize the answers. When you do that, your proposal headings will directly answer the questions the decision maker has in mind, before they even read the text. If you're writing a proposal in response to a written RFP that specifies how they want the proposal organized, you must follow their outline. However, the evaluator still has the same questions and they still need to find the answers in your proposal. An excellent way to exceed the RFP requirements without increasing the cost of your solution is to do a better job of answering these questions, especially the ones they forgot to ask. Even if you don’t use these questions to build your outline, you can still use them to plan the content of your proposal and use them to assess the quality of a draft. If you decide that it is better to organize your proposal headings another way (geographically, in sequence, etc.) you should still make sure that the proposal reflects the customer’s perspective and answers their questions. To win your proposal, you need to anticipate the questions that will matter the most to the decision maker and then motivate them to accept your proposal.

If there is no RFP, then it’s up to you to figure out how to organize your proposal. When there is an RFP, it sets the customer's expectations regarding how you should organize your proposal. But it may only do so at a high level, leaving you to organize things at the detail level (provided you remain compliant with the RFP). Here are some ways to organize your outline when it is up to you: See also: Proposal outlines Expectations. By far, the most important consideration in organizing your proposal is to fulfill your customer’s expectations. If you don’t know what they are, you should ask. If you can’t find out, you should guess. Questions and Answers. Q&A formats are often used because they are easy. But it’s also easy to slip into formulating questions that are based on your perspective instead of the customers’. It can also be difficult to formulate your questions consistently and to ensure that you address everything you should. Results/achievements/goals. Since the customer is most interested in what they are going to get if they select you, organizing your proposal around the results you will deliver, what will be achieved by selecting you, or goals you will fulfill can reinforce the message. This works best when there are deliverables, and not as well for on-going service or maintenance proposals. Alternatives or Recommendations. If you are providing the customer with choices, you can organize your proposal around the alternatives. Customer Concerns. If the customer is aware of issues and has concerns, you can organize your response around them. This can work well for high risk projects, or proposals where the customer may choose to do nothing instead of accept the proposal. Customer Priorities. Organizing your proposal around the customer’s priorities can make it easy to see how your proposal matches up. Graphically. Stop thinking about an outline, and draw a picture instead. Then organize your proposal around it. If you can visualize your offering, then you can make a huge leap in the customer’s perception about your proposal using this approach. Sequence. If there are steps or phases to what you are proposing, you can organize your proposal around the sequence. Calendar. If your proposal revolves around a plan that is based on the calendar, then you can organize your proposal around the dates. Work Breakdown Structure. If your offering will be based on a work breakdown structure, then it may make sense to organize the text that way too. This works best if the customer understands what a WBS is and is expecting to see one. Participants. If your proposal is about what people will do, then you can organize it around the participants. This will make it very personal, which could be a good thing or not. Resources. If your proposal is about resource allocation, then you can organize your proposal around the resources. Geographically. If your proposal covers a lot of ground (whether physical or virtual), and what will happen at each location matters, then you can organize your proposal around the locations. Hierarchy. If there is a top-down structure to what you propose (whether chain of command, logical, general to specific, or anything else), then you can organize your proposal around it. Functionally. If the proposal is about a process or doing things, then you can organize your proposal around the activities. Problem/Solution. If the proposal solves one or more problems or expects to encounter problems, then you can organize your response around them to reinforce the purpose of the proposal. And a bonus tip If you are not trying to match the wording of the RFP, then word your headings to your advantage. Don’t make them merely descriptive of the section. Use them to say something about what the evaluator is going to read. Use them to state the conclusion you want the reader to reach. Word them so that the Table of Contents tells your story. Word them so that someone who skims your proposal will know why to select you just from reading the headings.

There are three competing interests when wording headings for a proposal, and they are listed in priority order: Making it easy for the customer to find things in your proposal. Telling a story through your headings alone. Logically organizing what you have to say. Making it easy for the customer to find things in your proposal, means: See also: Proposal outlines You must give using the customer’s wording the highest priority. If they have specified an outline, use their wording exactly. When you parse headings out of a paragraph, try to preserve as much of their wording as possible. Avoid abbreviating or shortening their wording to make smaller headings. Only do it if you have to. When possible include RFP paragraph number references at the end of the heading. If possible, use the same numbering system that the customer uses and make your heading numbers match theirs. Because doing that usually results in descriptive headings that don’t tell a story, we recommend that if the RFP permits it, include a theme statement under each major heading that states the conclusion you want the customer to reach when they read that section. You have to decide whether to do this for all headings or just the major headings, and what heading level to take it down to. Sometimes you can even include the theme statements in your Table of Contents, so that the Table of Contents alone tells your story. Unfortunately, the last priority is organizing the material in a logical way. It is dangerous to try to be more logical than the RFP. The customer expects to find things in the order of the RFP and using the RFP’s terminology. When you deviate from this, you will at minimum make it hard to evaluate your proposal, and could even get your proposal thrown out for being non-compliant. After following the instructions in the RFP, in the order of the RFP, and using the same wording as the RFP, then you are free to organize the material in a way that you feel is logical. Return to the Topic Hub for Creating Your Proposal Outline, or return to the Starting Point for Figuring Out What to Say in Your Proposals.

Ambiguity in the language of the RFP can make it difficult to determine what the customer’s expectations are and how you should structure your proposal to fulfill them. Often an RFP will describe in a narrative what they want you to address in your proposal. To prepare your proposal you have to create an outline based on what they have described. You have to decide what topics should get headings and what topics should be addressed under the headings you identify. Doing this will involve making judgment calls. To help you decide, consider the following: See also: Creating a compliance matrix and proposal outline What will their evaluation forms look like? When they score your proposal, it should be based on the structure they tell you to use. So if you were writing the RFP and preparing forms for someone else to use to perform the evaluation, what fields would you have on the forms? Some of the words in the RFP will be headings on the form and some will be clarifications. You want them to be able to easily complete their forms, so you should have the same headings you envision them having. Look for words that indicate requirements. RFPs often use words like “shall, must, will, have, include, required, etc.” to indicate specific requirements. Often a paragraph can be broken down into several line items marked by these words. Be careful with lists in the RFP. Whether a list of requirements gets separate headings or one heading for the whole list depends on whether you think the customer is looking for a single collective response or whether they want to see compliance with each one individually. How can you make your compliance with the RFP more visible? You want them to see, ideally from the Table of Contents without even reading anything, that your proposal addresses everything in the RFP. Put as many keywords from the RFP in your headings as you can. Too many headings are better than too few. Documents with lots of headings are generally easier to read than documents with few headings. This is especially true for proposals, which aren’t read like a book, but rather scored by someone who probably doesn’t want to read it at all. How do you handle redundancy and overlap? Often the RFP will describe things in more than one way, with a series of words, or with layers of clarification. You will need to decide which words will go into the headings and which words should go into the narrative. If the RFP requires it, you may have to address the same subject matter in more than one place. If possible, make the context different (for example, addressing “risk mitigation” should be different in the management plan than it is in the technical approach) so that the actual redundancy is minimized. Use section cross-references. Unless the RFP says not to, then you should use something like “please see section X for more detail about…” wherever you need to. This helps eliminate redundancy. How do you handle things that are missing? Sometimes responding fully will require addressing something that they didn’t mention in the RFP, or to substantiate, clarify, justify, preserve a sequence, etc. You may need to add a heading, or try to address it under one of the existing headings in order to accommodate the topic. How many levels deep should your headings go? While you want to avoid five, six, or more levels of headings, if the RFP drives you to it then it’s acceptable. But do try to avoid going more than a level or two deeper than the RFP itself. Use unnumbered headings. If you want to give something visibility, but don’t care if it shows in the Table of Content, you can use unnumbered subheadings. How to cope with contradictions and conflicts. Sometimes an RFP will contradict itself. Some conflicts are more subtle. If you can’t resolve these by asking questions, then you’ll have to deal with them in writing. Try to avoid contradictions in the headings by moving them to the text where you can explain things in more detail. In the text you can make assumptions, offer options, promise both sides of the contradiction, or simply say that you’ll seek the client’s guidance after award. Don’t forget the unwritten requirements. If you have followed the Readiness Review methodology, then you will probably have information about the customer and the opportunity that goes beyond what is in the RFP. This information needs to figure prominently in your proposal, even though it is not mentioned in the RFP. Depending on the nature of the information, you may decide to incorporate it in the narrative response under an existing heading, or you may wish to create a heading to focus attention on it even though the heading is not mandated by the RFP.

Steps for creating a proposal outline: Create a Compliance Matrix based on the RFP. Create the outline as you parse the RFP requirements in the Compliance Matrix. Use the outline to begin Proposal Content Planning, where you figure out everything else that needs to go into your proposal in order to win. Creating the outline and the compliance matrix go hand in hand. You should start by following any instructions the RFP may contain regarding how to organize the proposal. Next, add items to the outline until you have a place for everything you need to address. Because a requirement or topic may impact the outline in multiple places, creating a compliance matrix can get complex. For example, if the customer asks you to address risk, but doesn’t provide a specific place to do it, you may need to address risk throughout the proposal in a variety of contexts (technical, management, staffing, etc.). See also: Compliance matrix Parsing the RFP for individual requirements and then using the matrix to allocate every single requirement to one or more specific proposal sections can be a daunting task ─ analogous to untangling spaghetti. Because of the vagaries of language, judgment calls may be necessary regarding where to put some items. As you complete the compliance matrix, you will modify your outline, probably many times, until you have the right balance of: Following the customer’s instructions regarding organization A rational organization of information that will answer all of the customer’s questions A clear, easy to navigate structure for the proposal document Complete compliance with all requirements An organization that is optimized against the evaluation criteria and procedures A presentation that best reflects your offering Your outline must accommodate all of the requirements and other topics you need to address in your proposal. Once the outline and compliance matrix are complete, you should validate them to ensure they can be relied upon. Instead of being a separate document, the Proposal Outline often becomes the first column of the Compliance Matrix. If you still have room on the page, you can even add a column for assignments and deadlines.

Starting the proposal outline The initial proposal outline should be based on the RFP. However, a complex RFP may need a Compliance Matrix to map the requirements to the outline. Ultimately, the outline is just part of what you need in order to be ready to start writing the proposal. See also: Goal: Prepare a proposal content plan for achieving what it will take to win The outline needs to reflect the structure that the customer expects and incorporate everything that the customer wants you to address. If the RFP is complex, then to create the initial proposal outline it is a good idea to create a Compliance Matrix. A compliance matrix is a tool that helps you align the relevant requirements from the RFP with the section of the proposal where it should be addressed. Creating the outline and the compliance matrix go hand-in-hand. The compliance matrix helps you parse the RFP into your proposal outline. For each item in your proposal outline, the compliance matrix shows which RFP requirements are relevant. As you read the RFP, you discover requirements and decide where to address them within your outline. As you go along, you modify the outline until you have a place to address every requirement. The result is both your proposal outline, and a tool that shows which RFP requirements to address in each section. Here is some additional guidance How to word the headings in your proposal outline. 16 Ways to organize an RFP, without any instructions from the customer The best proposal outline is written from the customer's point of view, and how to achieve that When your compliance matrix and proposal outline are complete, make sure you validate the outline before you start using it. Here is a checklist for validating your proposal outline. Creating an outline and a compliance matrix is the first step in creating a Proposal Content Plan. Neither the outline nor the compliance matrix is sufficient on its own to describe everything that needs to go into winning a proposal. But they are a good start. The outline provides the structure, and the compliance matrix helps you understand what you need to do to be compliant with the RFP. A Proposal Content Plan takes that foundation and adds to it everything else you need in your proposal in order to win.

See also: Creating a compliance matrix and proposal outline While the instructions, evaluation criteria, and statement of work contain most of the requirements that the customer expects you to address, there may be other requirements in other sections of the RFP that need to be part of the proposal. There is no way to avoid it; you have to read the whole RFP in order to make sure that you have accounted for all of the requirements. Significant terms, conditions, and requirements that impact what you say in the proposal can hide in any section of the RFP and are sometimes mislabeled. The fourth step in building a compliance matrix is to incorporate any requirements from other sections. Do this by taking the foundation created in the first three steps, and then adding headings if needed to address the other requirements. If there is no logical place in your current outline to address the other requirements, then you need to create a place for them. For each item you add to the outline, make sure that you identify the RFP reference that drove it to be added. In order to demonstrate compliance with the RFP, you should make sure that all of the RFP requirements are accounted for in the Compliance Matrix. If the RFP includes a narrative description of the requirements, then you will need to decide whether to add new headings or add notes to make sure that your proposal is fully compliant. Navigation: Return to the previous step: Addressing the Statement of Work. Return to the Compliance Matrix topic hub. Return to the Starting Point: Figuring Out What to Say in Your Proposals.

In a US Government RFP, the Statement of Work (SOW) for what the customer wants you to do or deliver will typically be in Section C. If you do not have a Section C, you will need to look elsewhere to find what the customer wants you to propose doing or delivering. Sometimes the customer will use different terminology, and instead of calling it the “Statement of Work,” may refer to their requirements as a “Performance Work Statement” or something else. The name is unimportant. See also: Creating a compliance matrix and proposal outline The third step in building a compliance matrix is to incorporate the SOW. Do this by taking the foundation created in the first two steps, and then adding headings if needed to address the SOW. Some people find it counter-intuitive that addressing what the customer wants you to propose is the third step in building a compliance matrix, but until you have the high level structure of a document that reflects how you are going to be evaluated, you are not ready to incorporate the details of what you are going to offer. Depending on the RFP, you may find that the outline and evaluation criteria provide clear guidance regarding how to address the SOW requirements. If this is the case, you may not need to add any new headings, and can simply place the Section C/SOW references in the appropriate column, next to the corresponding outline item. However, most RFPs do not match up perfectly. If there is no logical place in your current outline to address the SOW, then you need to create a place for it. For each item you add to the outline, make sure that you identify the RFP reference that drove it to be added. In order to demonstrate compliance with the RFP, you should make sure that all of the SOW requirements are accounted for in the Compliance Matrix. If the SOW includes a narrative description of the requirements, then you will need to decide whether to add new headings or add notes to make sure that your proposal is fully compliant. Navigation: Go to the next step and address any other requirements from the RFP. Return to the previous step: Address the Evaluation Criteria. Return to the Compliance Matrix topic hub. Return to the Starting Point: Figuring Out What to Say in Your Proposals.

Having the best offering is a key part of what it takes to win. Another way to say this is that the most important ingredient in your proposal is what you are going to propose. When it comes to planning the content of your proposal, we advocate planning your offering and planning the writing of your proposal separately. When you do both at the same time, the risk compounds itself, and changes in the writing that result from a change in what you want to offer can cause a cascade effect that you might not be able to recover from. Designing your offering by writing a narrative about it is usually a poor way to approach design. So you need to think through what you are going to propose, validate it, approve it, and then integrate it into your proposal content. This is a complicated way of saying that you need to know what you are going to propose before you start writing about it. Having the best offering requires research If you think about what it takes to have the best offering, it depends a lot on research. What does the customer want? What are their preferences? How should you handle the trade-offs? Then there is the creative, innovative side of it, and the need to validate the feasibility of your approach. And let’s not forget pricing. What is the customer’s budget? Can you be innovative with the business model? How will your pricing compare with that of your competitors? Readiness Reviews provide a structured approach to getting ready to propose the best offering This is another example of why it is difficult to start a proposal after RFP release. Not only do you need to discover these answers, but you also want to influence the development of the specifications so that they are at least compatible with what you would like to offer, and preferably give you a competitive advantage. Readiness Reviews give you a structured approach to preparing for RFP release that facilitates achieving these goals. If having the best offering is the most important ingredient in your proposal, then being ready for RFP release means being ready to propose the best offering. Readiness Reviews are about getting answers to questions, and achieving goals through action items. We generally divide them into customer, opportunity, competitive environment, and self-awareness. With regards to the opportunity, it’s important to not just gather intelligence about it, but also to begin designing your offering. You need to know what your options are so that you can determine what the customer’s preferences are and influence the specifications before it’s too late. If you incorporate developing your offering into your Readiness Reviews, then when the RFP is released and you start planning the content of your proposal, you will already know what the right offering is to propose. Return to Proposal Content Plan Implementation Tips or the Proposal Content Planning Topic Hub.

Here are some things you can communicate visually using graphics: Arrangements Components Parts Lists Alignment Direction Contacts Collage Limits Boundaries Foundation Comparisons Relationships Hierarchies Ratios Matrices Tables Associations Change Sequence Process/Steps Construction Conversion Initiation Transition Completion Answers Who What Where How When Why Data Visualization Diagrams Blueprints Maps Data Charts Concepts Support Reduction Increase Improvement Togetherness Separation Inside/Outside Trust Risk Security Quality Abundance Time Speed Before/After Duration Actions/Verbs Metaphors (Like or As) Here are some types of charts and graphics that are often relevant to proposals: Area Chart Background Bar Chart Before and After Bridge Graphic Bubble Chart Building Block Graphic Calendar Candlestick Chart Chain Graphic Circle Charts Collage Conveyor Belt Graphic Cross Section Diagram Cutaway Diagram Dashboard Graphic DNA Graphic Dome Graphic Fishbone Graphic Floor Plan Funnel Graphic Gantt Chart Gauge Graphic Gear Graphic Icon and Symbol Illustration Line Chart Looping Graphic Map Graphic Network Diagram Organization Chart Peg Graphic Pie Chart Pipe Graphic Point Chart Process Diagram Puzzle Graphic Pyramid Graphic Radar Chart Risk Matrix Road Graphic Scale Graphic Spiral Development Graphic Stacked Diagram Stair Graphic Step by Step Graphic Table Temple Graphic Timeline Vee Diagram Venn Diagram Waterfall Graphic

Planning graphics: There is a difference between specifying a graphic and drawing it. You don’t have to be able to draw in order to identify and specify graphics. Graphics should be identified and specified as part of your Content Planning efforts. Graphics can be created from written instructions in a Content Plan, or can be created first and used to drive the instructions for what needs to be written. It is a best practice to use graphics to drive the text. Visual communication is more efficient and memorable than narrative. Instead of setting a target like “One graphic for every three pages” (which encourages people to make up graphics that don’t add value), your content planning and validation planning should include looking for every opportunity to communicate visually. Anything that is complex or contains a discriminator can be shown graphically. Any process, approach, relationship, sequence, or comparison is a potential graphic. You should note in the Content Plan every place where you could have a graphic, even if you don’t know what that graphic is (yet). Then, for each graphic, identify the: See also: Content planning best practices Primary objective. What is the goal of the graphic? What should the reader conclude after viewing it? What benefit will your audience receive? What problems does your graphic solve? Audience. Who will the reader be? What do you anticipate their background will be? Will the reader be a manager or a worker? Will they be technical or have some other subject matter expertise? Will they be military or private sector? What other attributes might be relevant? Questions that the graphic should answer. What questions will need to be answered to achieve the primary objective? Subject matter. Answer the questions. If these are not known when the Content Plan is developed, then you should add instructions for the section author to complete them. Your goal is to track all of the graphics that need to be created, enable graphics to be written about even before they are fully rendered, and to provide a set of instructions for the illustrator(s). When writing to graphics, you should not describe what is in the graphic in a way that is redundant. Graphics should stand on their own and replace text. When referring to the graphic, you should state the conclusion/primary objective that the graphic demonstrates, substantiates, or illustrates. Don’t forget that tables can be graphics too. Tables can make showing RFP compliance easier. In many cases you can look at an RFP requirement and determine that a table is the best way to present it. Why not put an empty table into the Content Plan as a placeholder for the Proposal Writers to complete? If you plan to use Feature/Benefits tables, you can also put placeholders into your Content Plan for them. In addition to illustrations and tables, you should also consider the use of visual enhancements such as navigation and scoring aids. These can include: Relevance boxes. Links the proposal section to the RFP requirements that it addresses. Sometimes this is done by citing the RFP paragraph number, heading, and/or requirement. Sometimes it is done by citing keywords from the RFP that are relevant. Pull quotes. A box highlighting a statement, story, or example. Typically rendered with large type in order to make it stand out on the page and bring it to the evaluator’s attention. Examples of relevance boxes:

Don't use it without making sure it's fully optimized to win: If you think checking all of these will be time-consuming, you are right. Ask yourself which you can do without. This is why using boilerplate can take longer than writing what you need from scratch. See also: Reuse When using boilerplate or re-using past documents, make sure that you: ❏ Update the customer, project, and other names ❏ Ensure that any dates or numbers mentioned are accurate ❏ Check that it is fully RFP compliant and in the right sequence ❏ Add or delete relevant topics ❏ Edit it to use the same terminology as the current customer/RFP ❏ Validate that it reflects the approaches being proposed ❏ Validate that any trade-offs made previously(e.g. cost/performance) are still appropriate ❏ Emphasize the benefits that matter to this particular customer ❏ Research the previous bid strategies and evaluation criteria so you can undo anything no longer applicable to the current circumstances ❏ Substantiate the right win strategies and themes for this particular bid ❏ Optimize it against this particular evaluation criteria ❏ Ensure that any examples cited are relevant and up to date ❏ Has anything changed since the previous proposal for your company, projects, staff, technology, processes, etc. that should be incorporated? ❏ Ensure that it reflects your full awareness of the customer ❏ Check whether it includes any assumptions and if they are still relevant Return to Proposal Content Plan Implementation Tips or the Proposal Content Planning Topic Hub.

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 great proposal. When you make all the changes needed to customize it, you may find that re-using files does not save time and may actually introduce problems. In fact, improperly using boilerplate or even failing to thoroughly optimize it for the current proposal can cost you the bid. Whether it makes sense to use boilerplate in your proposals primarily depends on: The type of offering. If you are proposing a unique or engineered solution, you may not be able to employ re-use material effectively. Even if you are responding to similar requests, the number of edits required to adapt it may exceed the time it would have taken to write it in the first place. If you are proposing a product or a commoditized service, you may be able to employ re-use material effectively, if your customers’ concerns are also consistent. The consistency of RFPs. If your RFPs are very consistent, you may be able to use re-use material effectively. If your proposals don’t have a written RFP, then whether you can effectively employ re-use material will depend on the consistency of your customers’ concerns and evaluation processes. In addition, the following concerns can also impact whether or not using boilerplate works in your environment. See also: Content planning best practices The consistency of customer concerns and evaluation. Even if you are proposing the same thing, if your customers have different concerns or follow different evaluation processes, you will need to customize your response to reflect this. Since your proposal should show how your offering responds to the customer’s concerns, a difference in customer concerns can totally change the context and how you describe your offering. The strength of your writers. If you have weak writers, you may want to rely more on re-use material. Instead of training and guiding them through the process of creating winning proposal copy, it may be easier to write something good once and then re-use it often. However, this can be dangerous. Even if you provide detailed checklists and guidance, if the writers are weak to begin with, you may find that you are submitting proposals that are not customized and your win rate will suffer. The value of the bid. If the value of the bid will not cover a proposal customized to win, you may need to recycle your proposals. But then you should adjust your proposal process accordingly, because you are in a business where volume is critical. The evaluation criteria. If the evaluation criteria ignores value, then customizing around your value proposition is not needed. If the evaluation criteria focuses on price (i.e. Low Price Technically Acceptable), there is no point in customization beyond RFP compliance. The opposite of each of these is also true. When you look at the nature of your offering and the RFP, you can actually see where boilerplate might be applicable. This model shows us that: Boilerplate works best when you are offering the same services/products on every bid and the RFP is the same each time. Boilerplate requires time-consuming edits when you offer different services/products on every bid and the RFPs are different each time. In between these are two conditions where boilerplate may or may not be a good solution: When you offer the same services/products on every bid, but the RFP is different each time. When you offer different services/products on every bid, but the format, structure, and content of the RFP is the same each time. Another consideration is the strength of your writers. If you have weak writers, you may want to rely more on re-use material. However, this can be dangerous. Even if you provide detailed checklists and guidance, if the writers are weak to begin with, you may find that you are submitting proposals that are not customized and your win rate will suffer. The most important thing to remember when re-using proposal content is that there is a big difference between being similar and being the same. Most of your offerings and most of your RFPs will be similar. They may be about similar things. But unless they ask for exactly the same things, in the same order, using the same terminology, and evaluate them against the same criteria, the response will have to be different. The amount of that difference is what determines whether boilerplate helps or hurts. The Content Planning process will make it very clear whether the boilerplate meets your needs because it gives you a set of specifications you can compare the boilerplate against. After you copy the boilerplate into your Content Plan, you should note any deviations in the content from the instructions that are already there. Then you should add new instructions for how to correct them. If the goal is to win, you should be prepared to throw away the re-use material and write what you need to win. Having a comprehensive Content Plan will accelerate the writing even more than having the re-use material (once you consider how much time it will take to modify it).

See also: Content Planning Best Practices If you use the format for Proposal Recipes that we recommend, they can be easily integrated with your Content Plans. The recipes include a list of questions to answer and approaches and strategies you can take. Not only do recipes do a better job of inspiring and accelerating than recycling proposal narratives, but they also integrate with the planning process better. The questions to be answered can be dropped directly into your Content Plans. The approaches and strategies can be used to create instructions for the authors. Not all of the questions will be applicable to every proposal, so the person preparing the plan should either select the relevant ones, or instruct for the author to consider which questions are relevant as part of the writing. Using recipes can greatly accelerate things and increase the level of detail in your plans, and do it in a way that is safer than recycling narratives. By increasing the level of detail, you provide more inspiration to the authors and produce a more detailed, better quality proposal.

A few small things can make a big difference in the quality of proposal writing. And you can insert instructions and reminders into the Content Plan to help achieve them. For example, you can insert instructions into the Content Plan to: See also: Content planning best practices Make sure that the section starts with a statement about what the customer will get or receive as a result of awarding the contract to you. Write from the customer’s perspective, with the emphasis on results. Avoid describing yourself, and starting or making sentences about our company or team. Put descriptions of us or what we’ll do into a context about what matters to the customer. Start and end with something that matters to the customer. Make sure every sentence passes the “So What?” test. When addressing requirements, make sure that you address “who, what, where, how, when, and why.” Dropping a line or two like these into your Content Plan can make a huge difference, especially since the reviewers will see it when they evaluate the draft proposal. You can also provide other forms of guidance: If you want your proposal to tell a story, then explain your story to the authors and advise them how to incorporate it into their section. You can also guide them regarding what to put into the narrative, and what should go elsewhere. For example, you can separate simple facts and put them into a text box so that the narrative focuses on your story. You can even drop in text boxes as placeholders where you know they will be needed.

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 See also: Creating a proposal content plan If you skip some of the iterations, your plan will be not be as thorough, but will still add value. See the topic in the Knowledgebase titled “Scalability and Schedule Issues” to see how Content Planning was designed to degrade gracefully, and enable you to make the trade-off between thoroughness of planning and maximizing the time available for writing. Convert the steps into a checklist You may not need to do the iterations one at a time in sequence. Instead, think of them as a checklist. Once you’ve created the outline and allocated the RFP requirements, you can do all of the iterations at the same time: Create the shell Add the RFP requirements Add win strategies, themes, and evaluation criteria Add (customer, opportunity, and competitive) intelligence Add your solution and references Add graphics and tables Add assumptions, limits, and issues Add boilerplate Heading by heading you can think through and add the instructions all at once. The second approach works best on small proposals. When the page count is small, you don’t need separate passes for each topic. When the page count is large, doing it in separate passes help you stay focused and create commonality across proposal sections. If you spend about 15 minutes a page doing the planning, then for a 25-page proposal you can have a plan done in a day. At the end of the day you review it to ensure that you’ve accounted for everything that needs to go into the proposal and that it reflects what it will take to win. Having the content plan ensures that the writers know what is expected of them, and gives you a baseline that will accelerate the review of the draft proposal.