Carl Dickson

<p> The number of proposal reviews you should have is driven by what you need to validate and not by a set number of reviews or how many times you think you can get people’s attention. Once you know what you need to review, then you can decide how to schedule them. This exercise helps you decide how many proposal reviews to have and how many people should participate based on your proposal quality critieria. </p>

<p> A dozen versions of the same paragraph, with more than 50 things done wrong and how to correct them. </p>

<p> This is the electronic version of the tutorial we publish. It addresses:<br> It also includes and a sample to show how the pieces come together. </p> <ul><br><li> Writing different types of Executive Summaries </li> <li> Why an Executive Summary might not actually contain a summary </li> <li> How to introduce yourself in writing </li> <li> Multiple strategies for preparing to write an Executive Summary </li> <li> How to incorporate your win strategies into writing the Executive Summary </li> <li> Advice for how to format your Executive Summary </li> <li> How to be persuasive in writing </li> <li> 22 questions that you should answer in your Executive Summary </li> </ul>

<p> Information gathered pre-RFP must be assessed and become part of proposal content planning for it to reliable find its way into the proposal document. Creating the items described in this exercise can help you streamline and integrate these efforts. </p>

<p> In between collecting proposal input and the outline/compliance matrix is the kickoff meeting. The kickoff meeting is an opportunity to integrate efforts and get everyone on the same page. </p>

<p> The customer’s key concerns are often unspoken. While the RFP will ask you to describe your qualifications, it often won’t say that they are asking for your qualifications so they can determine whether they should trust you. When you realize this, you can write about your qualifications in the context of proving that you are trustworthy. Talking directly to the customer’s concerns gives the customer more of what they are really looking for and raises the apparent value of your proposal. </p>