Erika Dickson

Starting the proposal outline A detailed RFP will provide: See also: Proposal start-up and logistics Instructions for how to organize the proposal The evaluation criteria that will be used to assess the proposals, or at least a description of what’s important to the customer The requirements that your proposed offering should fulfill The outline needs to reflect the structure that the customer expects and incorporate everything that the customer wants you to address. Using a compliance matrix to complete your outline 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. A compliance matrix is basically a table with rows for proposal sections and columns for RFP sections. Creating the outline and the compliance matrix go hand-in-hand. 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. 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.

When you can’t get the details to write what you want, you can still talk about things that are related in your proposal, and do it without any input. The following approaches are examples of how to do proposals, The Wrong Way. They are strategies for dealing with adverse circumstances where the best practices don’t apply. Use them inappropriately and they can cause you to lose. But if you have no choice and will otherwise be unable to submit anything, they can potentially save the day. Or at least let you submit something so that the loss isn’t entirely your fault. See also: Dealing with adversity Describe your approach to figuring out what you will do instead of what you will do. Plan to have a plan. You can position this as a plan for delivery and base the schedule on when you will figure things out after the project starts. You can describe what you intend to give them and the benefits of having it even though you don’t know how it will be achieved. You can strengthen your approach and make it sound well thought through by describing your criteria and methodology for making decisions. Talk about things instead of identifying them. Talk about how important they are. Say how committed you are to them. Talk about the benefits of having them. Just don’t say what they actually are. This is great when talking about risks, metrics, or components of things. For example, you can talk about risk mitigation, without actually identifying the risks. Or talk about how metrics are an essential part of your approach, without actually identifying the metrics you will track. In the most extreme cases, you can even talk about your approaches without actually defining them. Talk about your experience instead. Talk about how you did it for others and how you’d like to do the same for them. Just don’t say what “the same” means. Talk about the similarity of the size, scope, and complexity of those projects to theirs. You may have to skip the parts where you explain how they are similar. One nice thing about this technique is that you can claim to be experienced, even if you can’t name the projects. Just make sure that you talk about the benefits of having that experience and how you will bring them to the new customer if selected! Focus on your capabilities. When you are really stuck and don’t know enough about the customer, what the delivery process will be, or your other projects to attempt the above, then focus on your capabilities. You can be capable of delivering everything the customer requires. If you can’t say how you’ll do it, how you’ll figure out how you’ll do it, what it consists of, or when/where you’ve done it before, spend your time talking about how capable you are of doing it. Just state your compliance. If you can’t get input explaining how you will fulfill the requirements, just say that you will fulfill them. This works best for items that get a cursory checklist-mentality evaluation and for proposals where the page limitation is ridiculously short compared to the page count of the requirements you are responding to. For anything else, it can be risky. Most RFPs tell you not to simply repeat the RFP requirements within your proposal and to explain how you will fulfill them. But sometimes the customer just wants you to acknowledge that you’ll fulfill them and make them part of the contract. Your need to get the proposal submitted before your deadline should be greater than your concern about the chance you might not get away with it before you try this approach. If you do, consider lumping as many requirements together as you can into tables where you can respond to them with a single statement and avoid a lot of writing. If all else fails, talk about your intent. What would you like the outcome to be? That is what you will deliver. You can look at goals and intent at the individual requirement level, as well as the project level, or even at the organizational level. Instead of competing on what you will do, it’s competing on how much more committed you are to how things will turn out. While this is the weakest form of proposal writing, it requires the least amount of input. This approach can also be done in combination with any of the others.

A Strategic Plan, in addition to identifying markets and targets, also defines the high-level positioning for your company. Unless it gets ignored. Most proposals are conducted without any consideration of the strategic plan, and all of the positioning elements like win strategies and themes are re-invented in isolation. Sometimes people who have read the strategic plan try to keep it in mind. See also: Pre-rfp readiness reviews The list of questions, goals, and actions items that the Readiness Review methodology uses gives you a vehicle to insert positioning actions and guidance into the pursuit. The Strategic Plan should also be used as a filter to guide bid/no bid decisions. Each of the Readiness Reviews is already a bid/no bid decision point. All you need to do is add the considerations from your Strategic Plan to turn them into a filter. By inserting positioning guidance and a strategic bid decision filter, you ensure that the proposals you submit reflect your Strategic Plan. You also help ensure that your bids add up to the market position you are seeking and that you waste less effort on opportunistic bidding. This is exactly what you need in an environment with more companies chasing fewer bids that are worth less and using fewer overhead staff to do it. When you integrate strategic planning and Readiness Reviews, you get a way to track metrics related to your strategic plan and how it impacts your win rate. At each Readiness Review, each question, goal, and action item gets graded. When you insert items related to your strategic planning objectives, they get graded as well. Track the grades and analyze their impact on your win rate. You will also be able to see how many bids do or don’t support your objectives, and you will also be able to measure when they start (on time or late) and whether they trend more or less strategically over time.

Ingredients What is your plan for quality control and quality assurance? Who is responsible for quality oversight? What standard operating procedures will you put into place? What standards you will use to assess and improve quality? What is the role quality planning in each phase of the project? How will the customer benefit from your approach to quality? How will you perform inspection, sampling, and review? What quality records will you keep? How will you solicit and collect feedback? What surveys will you conduct? How will you use feedback to improve quality? How will you collect and document lessons learned? How will you measure success? How will you define, measure, and address defects? What indicators of quality problems will you look for and how you will monitor them? How will your quality approach reduce the cost of rework, scrap, and failure and lower operational, support inventory, and material handling costs? How will your quality approach improve response times and other performance metrics? How will you achieve continuous improvement? Approaches When it is not a separate section of the proposal, it is often included under its own heading in the Management Plan. You can incorporate formal methodologies for Quality Assurance into your response. If you do not have any expertise with methodologies such as ISO 9000, Six Sigma, or the Capability Maturity Model, you should focus on inspection and validation of performance. For example, deliverables should comply with a set of specifications, and be inspected to ensure compliance. Your proposal should identify the standards and methods for performing inspections. Sampling may be used instead of inspecting every single item, but there should be some form of oversight of quality efforts. The proposal should also address how the inspections themselves will be verified and monitored. A Quality Control Plan should, at a minimum, address: Who will inspect what? How inspections will be conducted The frequency of inspections Who will oversee quality efforts? What quality records will be kept? A typical quality plan might include self-inspections using a checklist, inspections performed by an on-site manager using a similar checklist, and periodic inspection of a random sample of completed checklists by someone outside the project to ensure compliance. Quality Plans often include their own organization charts and roles/responsibilities tables. Quality Plans also often include tables of performance standards, inspection types and frequency, and quality record keeping. Another common element of quality programs is to ensure that processes are documented and that this documentation is maintained. If possible, you should include your process documentation (or at least a summary) in your proposal, to show the customer exactly what you will do, how and when you will measure and assess it, and how you will provide quality control. If you do not have the process documentation to include in the proposal, then you should describe how you will prepare it, what it will address, which processes will be included, when it will be completed, and how it will be maintained. Version control and configuration management are also important elements of quality assurance, especially with regards to your quality program documentation. Strategies In service proposals, customers want to know that they can trust you to perform as promised. In product proposals, they want to know that there won’t be any defects. Everybody promises quality in their proposals. Your quality plan should make your promises believable. When the RFP does not require a quality plan, providing one anyway can be a competitive advantage.

Most proposal introduction paragraphs are wasted space. They are written like the writer needed to get warmed up while figuring out what to say. And yet when the customer looks at your proposal, wondering what’s in it for them, it’s the first thing they read. The introduction is not for describing yourself before presenting the proposal. Everything that you say in the introduction should be presented in support of what the customer is going to get if they accept your proposal. Questions to Answer in the Introduction What will the customer get if they accept your proposal? How does your bid relate to the evaluation criteria? Why should they select your bid instead of that of a competitor? How does your proposal relate to what matters to the customer? What does the reader need to know before they read your proposal? Who are you, why do you matter to the customer, and what do they need to know about you before they read your proposal? Why should the customer trust you? Do you meet any customer standards for special consideration, such as being a small business or a local firm? Why are you sending them a proposal? What action do you want them to take? What alternatives do you need to address? What are your key qualifications? Do you need to introduce any team members or subcontractors right from the start? Do you have any examples to cite that are so compelling they should be in the first paragraph? What other customers have you worked for and are they so compelling they should be part of the introduction? Approaches If there is an RFP with written evaluation criteria, then the customer is more interested in scoring your proposal than reading it. You should make that easy, right from the beginning. If there are only a few evaluation criteria, then you should provide a sentence summarizing what the evaluator should conclude about your submission for each of the criteria. Your introduction might be a single sentence describing what the customer will get if they accept your proposal, a sentence for each of the evaluation criteria, and a conclusion that states why they should select your bid instead of that of a competitor. If you have never had contact with the customer before, then you may need to establish your qualifications. This does not mean that the introduction should be about describing your company. Its should not be about who you are, but rather about why you matter (to the customer). If the proposal was unsolicited, or if the customer has alternatives other than accepting a proposal, then you must motivate the customer to accept your proposal, and you should do that right from the beginning. If the customer is not sufficiently motivated, they may not even read further. The best way to motivate a customer is to focus on things that really matter to them. If the customer is facing a choice between alternatives, then you may wish to position yourself as better than those alternatives right from the beginning. If your bid includes teaming partners or subcontractors, you may or may not wish to introduce them at the start of the proposal. If the teaming partners are a key reason why the customer should select you, then you should introduce them in the beginning. If they are playing a support role, but aren’t a key reason why the customer would pick you over someone else, you can introduce them later in the document. Strategies for Writing the IntroductionWhen writing the introduction, you should focus only on those things that the customer must know before they read further. It’s tempting to see everything as “important.” But the introduction is more about what comes first than what’s important. Important things might go in the second paragraph (or anywhere appropriate in the rest of the document), after they’ve been properly introduced. Recipes for a Proposal Introduction Paragraph Here are half a dozen ways you can build a proposal introduction paragraph. Each describes the question to answer or what to say in the first and last paragraph, along with what should go in between. Standard introduction: First sentence: What will the customer get if they accept your proposal? Middle: What does the reader need to know before they read your proposal? Last sentence: Why should they select your bid instead of that of a competitor? For written evaluation criteria: First sentence: What will the customer get if they accept your proposal? Middle: One sentence addressing each major evaluation critierion Last sentence: Why should they select your bid instead of that of a competitor? Giving them what they want: First sentence: What will the customer get if they accept your proposal? Second sentence: Proof that your company can fulfill the requirements or meet the specifications Third sentence: Proof that your company can deliver or be trusted Last sentence: How they will benefit from your ability or experience handling projects of similar size, scope, and complexity First contact: First sentence: Why are you sending them this proposal? Second sentence: What will the customer get if they accept your proposal? Third sentence: Who are you and why do you matter to the customer? Last sentence: What do they need to know about you before they read your proposal? Choices: First sentence: What will the customer get if they accept your proposal? Second sentence: Why it’s their best alternative Third sentence: How it will fulfill their goals Last sentence: Why you are the best one to provide it Motivation: First sentence: What will the customer get if they accept your proposal? Second sentence: Why it’s their best alternative Third sentence: What they have to do to obtain it Last sentence: Why they need to take action now

An information advantage is the most important ingredient for a winning proposal. Relationship marketing can be measured by its ability to deliver an information advantage. See also: Information advantage Most companies are exposed to plenty of information about their bids. But they don’t necessary flow it to the right places or transform it into what is needed to win. Being able to maximize the advantage you derive from the information you have is a key skill for companies that do business by winning proposals. The key is an integrated approach. Your Strategic Plan defines your markets, targets, and high-level positioning. That positioning provides guidance and acts as a filter during the Readiness Reviews of the pre-RFP phase. The Readiness Reviews, starting from lead identification, accumulate information about the opportunity, the customer, and the competitive environment, as well as about yourself. One of the ways that Readiness Reviews help you be prepared to win at RFP release is to help you consider what to offer the customer, how to position it, and what your win strategies and themes should be. This enables you to start the proposal knowing what benefits and results to build your proposal around. It also enables you to articulate what it will take to win and turn it into criteria to use during Proposal Quality Validation. One of the things that become clear is that if you base your proposal on the RFP and what people carry around in their heads, it will not be competitive against a company that starts their proposal with an information advantage. The process is not sequential. While you do want to accumulate information at each stage, you don’t necessarily obtain that information in a particular order. That is why you need to accumulate information that is related to what you need to win the proposal, and transform the data you collect into what you need to say in the proposal. It is your ability to do this that determines how successful you are at maximizing the advantage you gain from the information you are exposed to.

Ingredients What capacities are important to this project, and how did you arrive at them? What is your plan for handling the projected capacities? What is your plan for handling peak and valley work load requirements? How will you forecast workload requirements and model performance metrics? How you will achieve the necessary scalability? How you will anticipate changes in capacities and accommodate them? Approaches Capacity issues are not usually addressed under their own heading. In the Technical Approach, capacity is addressed in terms of capability to perform the Statement of Work. When capability is addressed in the Management Plan, the emphasis is generally on contingency planning, scalability, and administration of performance capacity.

Four ways to determine what it will take to win: What it will take to win will be different with each pursuit. Readiness Reviews help you collect intelligence about the customer, opportunity, and competitive environment, but you still need to assess it to determine what it will take to win. Here are four different ways to look at things to help you assess what it will take to win: See also: What it will take to win What will it take to convince the customer to select you? What motivates the customer? What matters to them? What are their preferences? How would they like the trade-offs made? What impacts their decision making? Do they trust you? What evaluation criteria and procedures do they follow? What will it take to fulfill their procurement process? If they have no budget, then there is no opportunity. The same is true if they need an approval they can’t get. Even if they have a budget and approval, their process has to result in contract terms and an acquisition strategy that are favorable to you. Customers often get delayed or even stuck as a result of difficulty completing their internal procurement procedures. They may not know how to procede. What can you do to help? It helps to know their procedures for issuing the solicitation, evaluating the proposals, and making decisions. What will it take to design, deliver, describe, and price the best offering? When you are dealing with the details related to preparing a proposal and are dealing with things as they are, sometimes people forget how important it is for the customer to want what you are proposing. Keep in mind that the right offering has to have the right price/value trade-off from the customer’s perspective. It will help if you have sufficient knowledge of the variables to be able to price it accurately. Finally, it’s not enough to have the best offering, you also have to do the best job describing it in the proposal and the customer has to have confidence that you will be able to deliver as promised. What will it take to beat the competition? Most proposals are competitive. Even if there are no other bidders, you are still competing against doing nothing. Your proposal must not only be great, it must be better than all of the others. Don’t stop at compliant, keep going beyond acceptable, fly past good, and reach beyond great in order to offer the best in all ways. Everything from your offering to the presentation in the proposal adds up to a story, and the story you tell must be more appealing to the customer than the ones that your competitors tell. Keep in mind the customer has to trust you more than your competitors for your proposal to have a chance. These four perspectives reflect the distinction between what the customer needs or wants, and what they have to do in order to make a selection. What it takes to win results from satisfying those two considerations.

Most proposal theme statements are either: See also: Themes Grandiose statements that sound like bragging and are completely unsubstantiated. Like being the largest, best-industry leader ever. Or: Bland, boring statements that the customer should pick the company submitting the proposal without explaining why. So much blah, blah, blah. Both of them are a result of trying to describe yourself in favorable terms or how you want to be seen. But they don’t provide any value to the customer or help them make their decision. They do nothing for you and can actually work against you. They come from not understanding how to articulate your message. The best way to approach writing theme statements is to give the customer information that they can use. Theme statements should focus on reasons. When you try to write a theme statement about why you are better than your competitors, instead of focusing on claiming that you are better, focus on providing reasons why you are better. Instead of saying that your offering is great, explain how it is great. When you are the customer, you don’t care if the sales person thinks their product is great. You expect them to think it is better than everyone else’s. But you ignore that and make your decision. You make your decision based on how it is great or why it is better. Your theme statements should provide that information to them. The best theme statements tell the customer what they are going to get. They don’t offer commitment, understanding, enthusiasm, flattery, promises, universal statements that apply equally to your competitors, or even attributes like quality. They don’t tell the customer what they require or patronize them by telling them who they are. The best themes offer results. They make the customer want you by telling them what they will get if they select you. If you leave out what they are going to get, then there is nothing there for them to want. The next time you are trying to formulate the message you want to deliver to the customer, focus on what the customer wants from you, instead of what you want to tell them. Theme statements should say things that matter — to the customer. Unsubstantiated claims do not matter to the customer. In fact, they get in the customer’s way when they are looking for what matters about your proposal. A good test for whether you are successful is whether you can delete the theme statements from the proposal. If you can delete the theme statements without removing something vital from the proposal, then your theme statements do not matter. If your theme statements do not matter, then there is no reason to select you. That is a strong argument for why you should write your theme statements first, before the text of your proposal. If you need the text of your proposal to articulate the reasons why the customer should select you, this means when the proposal writers started they didn’t know either.

Completing your proposal quality validation review plan Complete a copy of this form for each review you anticipate having and you will have a written proposal quality validation review plan. Each item identified on this form needs to be validated. That means that it complies with any plans, RFP, or specifications and that it possesses the attributes required to produce the desired proposal. Make a copy of this form for each review and ensure that all of your quality criteria are represented. Instructions: Please note that this is a highly focused review and should stick to the scope of the item identified. Ultimately, every key attribute will be validated to ensure we produce the desired proposal. If you notice any other issues unrelated to the one being validated, it is okay to note it; however, your notes may be redundant with or conflict with other validation efforts. What you need to know now is whether or not the item in question is valid. Proposal Quality Validation Review Form Scope of the review: Criteria to use in validation: When can the validation start (date/time)? When must it be completed (date/time)? Where/how should the validation be presented? Who will lead/perform the validation? Who else should participate and how? Deliverables expected from the review: Notes, procedures, location(s), or other instructions: Findings: Does this item reflect the proposal plans, instructions, RFP, specifications, and/or other attributes required to produce the desired proposal?  Yes. (Green)  Yes, after the attached changes are made. (Yellow)  Not yet. Proposal Manager should attach a plan for resolution. Item should be resubmitted for validation after completion. (Red) Is there anything else that should be validated? Leader’s Signature Date/Time

To facilitate your Proposal Quality Validation planning, we have prepared a set of sample quality criteria, allocated to key proposal milestones. Make sure you customize this list to reflect the specifics of the opportunity, your type of business, and the market. 1. Pre-RFP If you implement Readiness Reviews, then these items have already been validated. 1.1 The opportunity is worth pursuing 1.2 We know what evaluation criteria to anticipate 1.3 We have collected the intelligence needed to write the winning proposal 1.4 The company is properly positioned 1.5 We have a strong list of competitive advantages 1.6 Our “what it will take to win” list is complete 1.7 Our list of win strategies is complete 1.8 Our implementation of win strategies in on track 1.9 Our pre-RFP list of themes is complete 1.10 We have completed everything we can to prepare for the proposal 1.11 We are ready for RFP release 2 At RFP Release 2.1 Verification that the contents of the RFP are what you expected 2.2 Identification of changes that need to be made to your pre-RFP proposal plans 2.3 Verification that the contract type and pricing tables are what you expected 2.4 Verification that the RFP does not contain any requirements that are show stoppers (including all performance standards, service levels, contract terms, and other specifications) 2.5 Verification that you are still interested in bidding See also: PQV quality criteria 3 Before Execution of Proposal Plans 3.1 Themes that are correct and optimized against the evaluation criteria 3.2 The compliance matrix includes all response requirements 3.3 The outline incorporates all sections in the compliance matrix in the correct sequence 3.4 The Content Plan identifies everything needed to produce the right proposal, and is ready to be used as a baseline to evaluate the draft against 3.5 All graphics in the Content Plan have the primary objective identified 3.6 The schedule is the best allocation of time, and deadlines are realistic and enforceable 3.7 Assignments are correct, no one is overloaded, and everyone who can contribute is included 3.8 The Validation Plan is sufficient to meet the required quality standards 3.9 The Production Plan is RFP compliant, properly sized and scoped, and will result in the right deliverable document 3.10 The pricing model is properly structured 3.11 The Content Plan for the pricing volume accounts for all of the required items 3.12 The Proposal plans are ready to implement 4 Early Draft Completion 4.1 The draft addresses everything in the Content Plan 4.2 The draft is compliant with the RFP 4.3 The draft contains experience citations in every place relevant/possible throughout the document 4.4 The proposed approaches reflect the best cost/benefit trade-offs and the customer’s preferences. 4.5 Every opportunity has been taken to use graphics to communicate visually in every section 4.6 Pricing targets that are valid and competitive 4.7 Assumptions are being collected and tracked 5 Mature Draft Completion 5.1 All modifications/changes to the RFP have been incorporated 5.2 Nothing has changed in the document that might make it non-compliant 5.3 The draft will score well against the evaluation criteria 5.4 The draft properly implements all win strategies 5.5 The draft reflects your full customer awareness 5.6 The draft positions the company properly 5.7 The draft clearly articulates the reasons why the customer should select you 5.8 Graphics are being used to replace text instead of being redundant 5.9 The primary objective or conclusion of each graphic is clear 5.10 Everything in each graphic is appropriate for the anticipated audience 5.11 Each graphic answers all of the questions that it should 5.12 Each graphic presents the subject matter accurately 5.13 All graphics are free of errors 5.14 The document is ready for production 5.15 The pricing data is compliant, accurate, and properly structured 5.16 All ODCs and other costs are accounted for 5.17 Explanations are properly provided for any pricing data that require them 5.18 All assumptions are fully documented 5.19 The pricing is compatible with the technical/management proposals 5.20 The pricing data is competitive while meeting revenue/profit goals 6 Production 6.1 The document has been edited and proofread 6.2 The document matches the specifications of the Production Plan 6.3 The document has been assembled correctly 6.4 The document is ready to package 6.5 Packaging and labeling match the specifications of the Production Plan 6.6 The document is ready to submit 6.7 Verification that the document has been received by the customer 6.8 The pricing volume has been packaged according to the RFP instructions (often separate from the rest of the proposal) 6.9 The pricing volume has been properly assembled

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 the key processes, steps, or components of your solution or offering. Also add any project citations, references, or data that can enhance your response. Add instructions for the use of graphics, tables, relevance boxes, examples, etc. Add instructions regarding any assumptions, limits, boundaries, or issues that must be resolved. Add any boilerplate or re-use material that is relevant to the instructions, noting any deviations for correction. See also: Content planning box A Content Plan is built through an iterative process. With each pass, you focus on different aspects of a winning proposal. Everything that goes into a Content Plan is in the form of instructions to the proposal writers. When you are done it should read like a recipe for the proposal. When you complete the last pass, you have confidence that you have considered everything that should go into your proposal. Working Ahead or Out of Sequence is Okay When creating a Content Plan: You are encouraged to include instructions from any iteration cycle whenever they occur to you The iterative process ensures that nothing gets overlooked What matters is capturing the instructions and not necessarily the sequence followed to capture them. If you think of something that should go in your proposal or that the Proposal Writers should know, put it in when you think about (so you don’t forget to add it later). It is also okay to go back and expand prior iterations, or to combine statements from different iterations. What matters is that you arrive at clear guidance for everything that should go into the proposal.

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 say about it. Conceptualizing and validating your approach is basically an engineering problem. The solution and the writing are interdependent. Schedule management is critical since a delay or problem in one will impact the other. You can significantly mitigate the risks by validating the solution and checking it against the Content Plan prior to writing the narrative draft. See also: Content planning best practices Conceptualizing and validating your approach is basically an engineering problem. If you have already an engineering methodology, then we encourage you to use it. If you do not, then you should: Define the solution. What are you going to do in order to achieve the goals? What is your approach? Specify the solution. You need to document it so that others can collaborate. But you do not have to do this in a full narrative. We recommend using illustrations. They enable you to identify the components and annotate them where necessary. Simple hand sketches should suffice. Storyboards are a traditional approach to proposal planning that work better for planning solutions than they do for planning content. If your solution is too complex to render with a series of illustrations, then storyboards can be used to document it. If you use storyboards, then take care not to entangle solution planning with content planning. Validate the solution. Are you prepared to commit to this approach? Have all stakeholders provided input? Will it achieve the goals? Is it realistic, feasible, and efficient? Is it compliant? Is it within budget? Does it offer competitive advantages? Your validation plan for the proposal should address validating the solution separately from validating the content. Write the solution into your proposal. This can be as simple as transcribing the illustrations or storyboards into the Content Plan and then following through with the narrative. Regardless of the approach you take to planning the solution, you still need to plan how the content will be developed before you start writing. When both the solution plan and content plan have been validated, then you are ready to start writing. Many proposals have been thrown into chaos because during a late-stage review someone decided the solution was wrong. When this happens, it’s a double hit — in addition to the time you spent on the original solution, you also lose the time it took to write about it. That is why it’s critically important to validate the solution before you start writing it. In order to move forward, you must recognize that solution planning is different from content planning, and that not all proposals require solutions. When you do this, you can start using the right tool for the right job and avoid entangling the solution with the writing until after the solution has been validated.

The CapturePlanning.com MustWin Process and Content Planning are both designed with proposals based on written RFPs in mind. However, if your customer isn’t going to issue a written RFP you can still adapt the approaches. All you need to do is formally identify the customer’s requirements. See also: Creating a compliance matrix and proposal outline The challenge will be identifying the customer’s requirements. Your sales process and other customer contacts should incorporate questions designed to solicit this information from the customer. The information should be captured in written form, even if it’s done in a report prepared after the meeting or contact. As a last resort, you could define the requirements by using your best judgment based on what you know about the customer. It is a good idea to group the requirements into the following sections: Statement of Work. This section should address the customer’s requirements and specifications. Proposal Instructions. This section should address any requirements the customer may have regarding the format, organization, and procedures for submitting the proposal. Evaluation Criteria. If the customer will formally evaluate the proposal, then this section should include the criteria they will use in their assessment and selection. If they will not have a formal evaluation, this section should still identify what will be important factors in the customer’s selection decision. From these three lists, you can follow the same procedures as companies who respond to written RFPs.

Having a Production Plan helps to anticipate issues ahead of time and to ensure that production will go smoothly. It also serves as a handy reference for answering questions about how the final proposal will be produced. The Proposal Manager should work with the Production Manager to complete the Production Plan. Due Date: Shipment/Delivery Date: Delivery method: Hand carried FedEx Email: Website upload. Url: Other: Delivery Address: Packaging/labelling requirements: Electronic copy specifications (media, formats, etc.): Hardcopy Requirements Volume # of originals # of copies # internal Binder Type/Size/Color Page Limit Formatting Requirements Formatting RFP requirements Margins: Heading fonts: Body text fonts: Graphics/table fonts:: Line spacing: Header: Footer: Cover text: Other formatting:

Win strategies and themes provide the customer with a reason to select you. If you do not communicate them to your writers, the proposal will not be written to substantiate them. You should distribute a copy of your win strategies and themes that you want your writers to substantiate. You can use this form to help identify them. See also: Bid strategies and proposal themes You should prepare a list of theme statements before the RFP is released so that your plans reflect your win strategies. Once the proposal is released, you should prepare a new list to allocate your theme statements to the RFP and proposal outline and see whether you have any gaps (both in themes and in win strategies). Having this list will make planning your content easier, because when you need to insert your themes you will already know what they are. You can approach writing theme statements from several different directions. By the proposal outline so that your theme statements provide full coverage of the RFP, are related to each other, and establish a hierarchy from the highest level to the lowest level. By the topic so that your theme statements address what matters. See “Topics for Themes” for suggestions. By the RFP so that your theme statements can be scored and reflect the customer’s requirements and evaluation criteria. By competitor or type of competitor so that you can articulate why they should pick you instead of them.

It takes more than just good wording for themes to be effective. See also: Themes Do they add up to a winning evaluation score? For your proposal to win, it must achieve the winning score. Your themes should not only be scoreable, but should achieve a winning score. They should reflect the wording of the evaluation criteria and should reflect what it takes to get a winning score instead of an unsubstantiated statement about being the best solution for the customer’s needs. Do they reflect your competitive advantages? You should never seek to bid on a level playing field. Bidding with a competitive advantage is the secret to consistently winning. Do your themes demonstrate that you have a competitive advantage? Are they written from the customer’s point of view? Nobody likes to hear a salesperson talk about themselves. Instead of describing your company or even your offering, your theme statements should describe what the customer will get, what the result will be, or how they will benefit from what you are proposing. Are they substantiated? Due to the need to keep them short, theme statements may not substantiate their claims. But the proposal text that follows should. You want the customer to understand why they should select you simply by reading your theme statements. But you want them to immediately see, without having to look very hard, that your proposal backs up your claims. Do they give the customer a reason to select you over all of your potential competitors? It’s not enough to have reasons why the customer should select you. The customer must have reasons to select you over your competitors. Your theme statements should make it clear why you are a better choice.

Attributes of good themes: Does it reflect a result or benefit to the customer instead of an attribute of your offering? Does it matter? Is it believable? Does it address what the customer wants? Does it discriminate you from your competition? Does it reflect the conclusion you want the reader to reach? Can it be scored? See also: Bid strategies and proposal themes Bad Themes: Do not pass the “So what?” test Matter to the writer, but not to the evaluator Are impossible or not true except in the most legalistic ways Are true for everybody bidding or are universally true Are not credible Do not relate to the evaluation criteria Are simply tacked on at the end instead of an integrated part of your story

The following list of potential themes is intended to provide inspiration. Each theme below is followed by an example. However, details and substantiation are what separate an empty claim from a persuasive statement. Use the words below for inspiration, but make sure you include the specifics of their environment and your solution and how it will benefit your customer so that your themes will really stand out. The following list provides 101 Win Themes for Every Occasion: What customers want See also: Themes Small, nimble. Because we are small, we are more nimble and better able to adapt to your changing environment. Innovative. Our approach ensures the constant consideration of innovative solutions. Not distracted by mergers and acquisitions. Because we are privately owned, we are not distracted by the mergers and acquisitions that limit our competitors’ responsiveness. Efficiency. Our approach reduces lifecycle Risk costs because it is more efficient. Responsive. Our issue tracking system will enable us to respond quickly to your requests and ensure that none of them “fall through the cracks.” Lower cost. By taking advantage of technology, we can meet the production schedule using less staff and lower the total project cost. Reliability. Our proven reliability means that you can count on us to deliver continuity of operations no matter what the circumstances. Seamless. Our solution will integrate into your technical environment seamlessly. Exceeds the requirement. We exceed the minimum requirements of the RFP in several significant ways. Best value. Our solution balances up-front investment against long-term operating costs to achieve the best Sustainability. By minimizing maintenance and resource requirements, our solution will be sustainable in the field. Scalability. The scalability inherent in our approach will enable us to respond to peaks and valleys in the workload. Meet or exceed performance standards/SLA. Our approach meets or exceeds all required performance standards. Positive return on investment. By approaching project costs as investments, we not only deliver the best return on investment, but we can quantify that return for our customers. Quick return on investment. Our approach emphasizes a rapid return on investment to minimize the financial risk to the customer. Builds a foundation for the future. Our platform not only meets the current requirements, but it puts in place a foundation that you will be able to capitalize on in the future. Trust Award winning. The industry awards we have received recognize the quality of our offering. Financially sound. We are financially sound and our access to ample credit ensures our ability to support this project with any resources required. Can offer financing. Our financial strength enables us to offer attractive credit terms to our customers. Audited. Our financial strength is demonstrated by a series of external audits without qualification going back many years. Licensed/Bonded. Because we are fully licensed and bonded, you can trust us to perform. Licensing terms. Our licensing terms offer you several advantages over those of our competition. Faster Performance. Our approach improves performance by increasing the speed of the process. Implementation. Our approach will produce benefits for you faster by completing the implementation sooner. Transition. Because our resources are immediately available, we can accomplish the transition faster. Transition Themes Retain institutional knowledge. We will maintain critical institutional knowledge by retaining the incumbent staffing. No disruption. Because our staff is already trained and in place, we can complete the project start-up without any disruption to our client. Ready on Day 1. We will be ready on Day 1 of the contract to provide service and meet all performance standards. Positioning Best combination. We offer the best combination of experience and innovation. Mission support. Our experience enables us to focus on helping you achieve your mission and not just on meeting contractual requirements. Most realistic. Our staffing, schedules, estimates, and pricing all reflect a realistic approach that you can count on. Organization Clear lines of communication. Our emphasis on clear lines of communication ensures responsiveness. Well defined roles and responsibilities. Our management approach reflects well defined roles and responsibilities which deliver maximum efficiency while ensuring that all critical functions are fully covered. Flattened organization. By keeping our organization flat, we keep decision making as close as possible to the project. Direct access to executives. Our executives are always available via telephone or in person to address project needs. Rapid problem escalation. Our management approach formally addresses problem escalation to ensure that issues are promptly and thoroughly resolved. Mitigated. Our approach mitigates project risks. Identified. Our approach formally identifies and tracks project risks to ensure that trade-offs and decisions are made in an informed manner. Shared. Our approach shares risk so that all parties have an incentive to participate in mitigating the risks. Anticipated. Our experience enables us to anticipate risks and prevent negative outcomes. Demonstrated/proven Capability. Our capability to deliver the services you need is proven through past performance. History. We bring a proven history of delivering on time and within budget. Track record. We bring a proven track record that demonstrates our quality. Experience This customer. Our experience in your environment will enable us to provide better service. Location. Our experience with this location will enable us to recruit and deploy resources far more efficiently. Technology. Our experience with this delicate technology will enable us to avoid the potential problems. Our business/teaming partners. Our prior relationship with our business partners ensures that we can work together to meet your needs. Management. Because our management is experienced, they will understand your needs and be able to anticipate problems. Alignment with their: Plans. Our approach to this project aligns with your plans for the future. Mission. Our approach aligns with your mission. Goals. Our schedule aligns with your goals for this project. Staffing Already named/hired. All of the staff we propose to use are already hired and are named in our proposal. In place/ready to start. All of the staff we propose are in place and ready to start immediately. Qualified/trained/certified. Our staff are fully qualified, trained, and certified. Incentivized staff. Our staff are incentivized to meet project goals. Client review. We review all major staffing decisions with you. Security Physical security. We will provide the critical physical security you need for your staff and facility to remain safe. Information assurance. Our approach addresses information assurance and the security of your IT infrastructure. Fault-tolerant. Because our proposed system is fault-tolerant, it will remain operational even if a part fails. Continuity of operations. Our approach will deliver continuity of operations, even if a disaster should occur. Safety. By focusing on safety, our approach avoids unexpected delays, and costs. Quality Independence. Our quality manager operates independently, and does not report to the project manager. ISO/CMM. Because our management and quality processes are ISO certified, they can be relied upon. Assessment/Surveillance. Our approach to overseeing quality includes tracking performance metrics and sampling. Testing and validation. Our emphasis on testing and validation ensures you of a reliable system. Audit trails. Our approach provides a clear audit trail to help clarify the circumstances should a problem occur. Feedback. Our approach seeks out and incorporates your feedback to ensure you have a voice in how the project unfolds. Lessons learned. By documenting and incorporating lessons learned, we ensure that valuable experience is retained. Continuous improvement. Our approach includes specific action items designed to achieve continuous improvement. Metrics and measurements. By capturing metrics and measurements data, we create a repository of performance data with multiple benefits for our customer. Change management. Our process for change management is careful and controlled to ensure that new versions do not introduce new problems. Partnership The customer will be included and involved. We form a partnership with our customers that ensures their participation and keeps them in the loop with regards to project events. We will shift the burden from the customer to us. Our approach enables you to shift effort to us so that you can focus on other goals. Methodologies Formal. Because we follow formal methodologies, our performance is more reliable. Documented. We will not waste your time inventing new procedures because ours already exist and are fully documented. Repeatable. Because our procedures are documented and repeatable, they are followed consistently. Certified. Because our methodologies are certified, they are more reliable. Platforms Off-the-shelf. Our approach lowers cost by using off-the-shelf components. Proprietary. Our in-house proprietary software provides advanced decision support. Open. Our use of open solutions is more reliable and cost effective than approaches that depend on proprietary platforms. Standards-based/compliant. Our approach is fully compliant with applicable standards. Training Already trained. Because our staff are already trained, they will face no learning curve, and will be able to get to work immediately. Ongoing. Our approach to training is ongoing and not just occasionally offered. Technology refresh. Our approach to training ensures that our staff remain current with changes in technology. Client staff. Client staff will be invited to participate in our training sessions. Support Ongoing. Our support will be ongoing, available for the life of the project. Quick. Our approach to support emphasizes quick response. Thorough. Our support managers will ensure that all issues are thoroughly resolved. Capacity. Our approach to providing support ensures that we have the capacity to respond to all requests. Self-service. We will make our support resources available to those who want to help themselves without going through the help desk. On-site/off-site. Our approach addresses the need for support to be provided onsite. Issue tracking. We fully track all requests for support in order to measure responsiveness and ensure thorough resolution. Abundance of Resources. We have an abundance of resources available to support this project. Experience. Our abundance of experience in this area ensures our ability to deliver managers and staff who understand your needs. Staff. The size of our staffing pool ensures that we can quickly fill any open positions on this project. Skills/knowledge/ability. Our experience gives us an abundance of relevant skills and knowledge for this project. Plans Detailed/Comprehensive. Our detailed and comprehensive plans ensure our readiness. Flexible. Our plans are flexible and able to adapt. All contingencies addressed. By explicitly addressing potential contingencies, we ensure our ability to respond quickly. Environmental issues Reduced waste. Our approach reduces the amount of waste and improves efficiency. Use of recycled materials. Our approach is more environmentally friendly because we make heavy use of recycled materials.

Themes come from many sources, all of which depend on having the right information. These include what you know about: The opportunity The customer The competitive environment Yourself and your offering The RFP The following table can help point you in the right direction to identify themes for your proposal: Source Consider Topics Like: Opportunity Intelligence What are their real goals for the procurement? What is the real scope? What is the potential for project growth/shrinkage? What are the risks? What unwritten requirements do they have? Customer Intelligence How well does the customer understand their needs? What are their preferences? What is their tolerance for risk? Competitive Intelligence How should you position against the competition? What are your strengths/weaknesses? Yourself What are the results, benefits, and strengths of your offering? How will the customer benefit from your company’s strengths? The RFP How well do you fulfill the qualifications and requirements? How do you exceed the RFP’s requirements? What should you emphasize/deemphasize? How should you position yourself against the evaluation criteria?

Proposal themes are how you implement your win strategies in writing. They articulate the reasons why the evaluation should select you. See also: Bid strategies and proposal themes In your final proposal, themes can take many forms. They can be headings and subheadings, go in text boxes, be part of the text, or be captions for graphics. In a sense, the entire proposal can be thought of as one big theme statement. How you present them is determined by the design of your proposal template. In order to be effective, your themes must be substantiated. Your proposal should be built around its themes. You should not write the proposal and then try to add themes. The MustWin Process guides you through collecting the intelligence to determine what it will take to win, put it in writing, and use it as criteria to measure the proposal against. This will put you into position, with the information you need, to prepare your theme statements. If you do not know your themes or will be developing your theme statements collaboratively, then insert place holders in your Content Plan and use these topics to help the team at the appropriate time.

Tracking team member data If you are bidding as a team or have subcontractors, you need to track the flow of documents and information. This table identifies many of the most common items that need to be tracked. Make a copy for each team member or subcontractor. Item Due Date(s) Notes Non-disclosure agreement Teaming agreement Resource requirements/ contributions Questions regarding the RFP Logo Corporate description Contact list Project Descriptions Resumes Writing assignments Review participation Pricing Certifications/ Representations Others

The goal of the Competitive Assessment in the MustWin Process is to capture the information needed to write the proposal. In the proposal you will need to describe the role of teaming partners and the benefits to the customer for having them. You will also need to position your company and offering against those of your competitors. The proposal must articulate the reasons why the customer should select you, as opposed to any of your competitors. Use this table to collect the information needed to articulate those messages. Company Strengths/Reasons for Teaming Weaknesses/Issues Status of Relationship/ Paperwork Action Items

The Proposal Manager is responsible for tasking people with proposal assignments and tracking them through to fulfillment. The Proposal Manager makes the assignments. The Capture Manager is responsible for making sure there are enough resources available to complete the assignments. See also: Assignments Proposal assignments can take different forms. Develop the approach that will be proposed. Develop the content plan or other supporting documents. Write an RFP compliance response. Write to convert the Content Plan into proposal narrative. Prepare ready-to-submit proposal copy. Add something to a response. Support the production, by transforming the proposal content into its final form for submission. Review a section of the proposal to validate one or more items from the Validation Plan. Perform action items related to developing, producing, or submitting the proposal. The Proposal Manager must make the expectations for each assignment clear. This includes providing the deadline and describing any processes or steps required. Proposal assignment planning often starts early as part of budgeting and forecasting efforts. Specific assignments are usually based on the proposal outline. As the development of the proposal progresses, the Proposal Manager should update assignments and reset expectations as needed.

Creating and implementing the proposal schedule: The Proposal Manager is in charge of creating and implementing the proposal schedule. The Capture Manager is responsible for identifying the resources required. You can present your proposal schedule using whatever format (calendar, gantt chart, PowerPoint, etc.) you prefer. But first you need to determine what should go on your schedule. Within the MustWin Process we designate several plans, including Logistics and Production, Quality, and Content. We also include a Collaboration and Coordination Plan for departments that will contribute to the proposal, such as Human Resources, Accounting/Finance, Supply Chain, etc. These plans are where you determine things like review dates, contribution deadlines, etc. For each of these plans, we recommend having a validation review to ensure the plans are sufficient. You can create the shell for your schedule, but you need to complete and validate these plans to complete the detailed schedule. Task/Milestone Date/Time Bid/No Bid Meeting Kickoff Meeting Bidders Conference/Site Visit (if any) Review to Validate Proposal Logistics and Production Plan Dates to Implement Proposal Logistics and Production Plan Review to Validate Proposal Collaboration and Coordination Plans (HR, Pricing, Supply Chain, etc.) Dates to Implement Proposal Collaboration and Coordination Plans (HR, Pricing, Supply Chain, etc.) Review to Validate Proposal Quality Plan Dates to Implement Proposal Quality Plan Review to Validate Compliance Matrix Review to Validate Proposal Content Plan Progress Reviews Completion of First Draft Completion of Revisions Submission Approval Submission Anticipated Award Estimated Project Start