Erika Dickson

The number of people who get involved in preparing a proposal, even a small proposal, adds up quickly. While a large number of people will touch the proposal, fewer people will have significant assignments related to the proposal. Proposal efforts are often divided into a “Core Team” of primary staff at the heart of the effort, who are supported by all the others. Start with one Business Development Manager and one Capture Manager You need a Business Development Manager to qualify the lead, collect intelligence, and manage the customer relationship. Once the opportunity has been qualified and you know that a proposal is going to be requested, you need a Capture Manager to lead the effort to win the bid. The Business Development Manager could dual-hat as the Capture Manager, but this would mean he or she is not chasing other new leads. This is why a Business Development Manager typically hands off to someone else as the Capture Manager. The Capture Manager is often staffed with the Project Manager “to be,” often with mixed results, since they often do not have enough experience in business development. A good Capture Manager needs experience in both Business Development and Project Management. They need to understand sales and they need to be able to make accurate estimates regarding the technical solution. Add a Proposal Manager and a Process Administrator The Proposal Manager leads the proposal process and the effort to produce the proposal document. However, you want the Proposal Manager’s attention to be on the content of the proposal and not on document production or maintaining process documentation. Therefore, all MustWin efforts should also have a Process Administrator assigned to them to assist the Proposal Manager in maintaining the process documentation. Add a Production Manager and Production Support Staff One person needs to be in charge of preparing the finished copies of the proposal, and it should not be the Proposal Manager. The number of Production Support Staff depends on the size of the document to be produced. Expect to need one Production Support staff for every 75 pages of finished proposal. As it is a MustWin effort and you want it to communicate effectively, at least one of these should be a graphics designer/illustrator. And if you want to give editorial accuracy more than just lip service, you will need an editor in addition to the production staff. The Production Manager and Support Staff may have good editorial skills, but they will be too focused on document assembly to be able to read every word. The solution is an editor who can check the document as they produce it. Add Writers and Subject Matter Experts as Needed You’ll need people to define the solution/approach, write it down, and respond to each requirement of the RFP. For this, you will need subject matter experts who understand the scope of the work and writers who can capture it on paper. The number that you need depends on breadth and depth of the scope of work and the amount of information required by the RFP. For some proposals, writing the technical and management approaches will require multiple authors and subject matter experts. For small proposals, they may have a single author. It depends on the RFP. A subject matter expert may contribute a small write-up or an entire section, depending on their skills and availability. For some proposals, sections like past performance and resumes will require a dedicated author. Once the RFP is received, it should be analyzed to determine how many subject matter experts will be needed to address the topics required, and then how many authors will be needed to provide sufficient capacity. Add Reviewers as Needed The number of reviewers required will be defined in the Validation Plan for the proposal. Similar to writers, it will depend on the depth and breadth of subject matter to be reviewed, as well as the size of the proposal, and the number of items to be validated. Reviewers will typically participate on a part-time basis or full-time during the review activity. Add Corporate Support This generally includes a Contract Specialist, Pricing Specialists, and sometimes Human Resources and Facilities support. Having a Contract Specialist available is vital in government procurement. Typically only one is needed. Likewise only one Pricing Specialist is needed, unless the pricing is very complex or the number of line items is very large. These resources are generally only needed on a part-time basis. Proposals come in many shapes and sizes, so your mileage may vary. You actual staffing need will be driven by the RFP, and may not be known until its release. However, you should not wait until RFP release to identify candidates to fill the various roles.

It is important to assign staff to designated roles in order to define expectations. You may assign a person to more than one role. If you have been asked to perform a role, it is your job to object if you cannot fulfill all of the expectations. Do not accept assignments lightly. Record which people have been assigned which roles using the following table. Role Assignments Role Name(s) Contact Information Executive Sponsor Business Development Manager Capture Manager Proposal Manager Production Manager Production Support Staff Graphics Designer/ Illustrator Writers/SMEs Reviewers Contracts Specialist Pricing Specialist

Description Strategic plans are vital. But they can’t be the kind of strategic plans that sit on a shelf. Instead, they should set your staff up with what they need to know to successfully identify leads, pursue them, and grow your business. Your strategic plan should be a tool that tells your staff: What kind of capabilities and offerings to develop Who their target customers are Where to target marketing and build relationships When, where, and how teaming relationships should be part of the mix What areas they should research to select targets for prospecting What numbers they need to hit What strategic outcomes they should strive for How to embrace trends and changes When a lead is considered identified, what is required to qualify leads, and what the criteria are for bidding them How bid/no bid decisions should be made What their pursuit budgets are and how they should be allocated What differentiates your company and how it should be positioned How overhead should be managed, how internal budgets should be allocated, and the company should invest in itself How methods, approaches, tools, and procedures have strategic impact and how they should flow down What needs to be done to track progress and verify implementation of the strategic plan Most strategic plans are written annually, and often updated quarterly. If people are not using and referring to the strategic plan throughout the year, it’s a sign that the plan is not perceived as vital for them to do their jobs. It means the next one you create should be done differently so that it provides answers that people need and adds value to what they do. If you have to force people to follow the strategic plan, it’s also a sign that something’s wrong. Either there are incentives (financial or otherwise) in the environment that are pulling them in another direction, or else they have conflicting goals. People should want to follow the strategic plan because it makes them all part of the same team, because they share the same compelling vision, and because it’s in their interests. If people are doing things differently from what it says in the strategic plan, one of them is wrong. Either the strategic plan needs to be updated to reflect reality, or the decision process needs to be updated to incorporate referring to the strategic plan. The strategic plan should make it easier to get the right kind of business to build the foundation your business needs for the future. It’s not just about driving executive level mandates down to the workers. It’s about giving the workers something that will help them fulfill the executive vision. To be perceived as an asset, it needs to be useful. If you achieve that, your strategic plan won’t just sit on a shelf. Like a map or trusted guide book, people will use and refer to it constantly.

Customers clearly think that price matters. They are also concerned about risk. If the price is too low, the risk goes up. What they want are the features, but what they need is compliance with the specifications and anything they are required to comply with. Your best clue as to which of these matter the most is the evaluation criteria in the RFP. Look at how they evaluate each item and how much weight they give it. Then make sure that your offering and the points of emphasis in your proposal reflect their priorities. Risk is about trust, your approach to risk mitigation, and your past performance. Trust is developed through relationship marketing, demonstrated understanding and expertise, and transparency. Trust is important because people buy from people they trust. But trust is difficult to specify or quantify in an RFP. This is the main reason why relationship marketing is so effective. So a risk averse customer will look at your approach to mitigating the risks (how well you understand what the risks are, as well as what you will do about them). They will also look at your past performance, since that is the easiest way to assess trustworthiness in an RFP. Keep in mind, when writing about risk mitigation or past performance, that the real underlying concern is trust. What your offering is, will provide, or will do matters to the customer. They’ll study your list of features because that can be itemized, but what they really want is the performance, results and benefits that result from those features. They also need compliance, both with the specifications they have written into the RFP and with any other things (laws, regulations, internal directives, etc.) that they have to comply with. When the customer assesses value, they look at the results or benefits of accepting your proposal, compared against the price. They also consider the likelihood of getting it at the price you proposed and whether you can/will deliver the benefits as described. In short, they consider whether they can trust your proposal. And they do all of this in comparison to any alternatives they may have (which can include doing nothing).

Transparency is the idea that the customer can see the status of all project components and all project data. When you operate transparently, the customer knows about problems as soon as you do, and knows everything you do about them. When you operate transparently, the customer can tell if you have kept all your promises. Transparency is about not giving yourself anywhere to hide, and making sure the customer knows it. Transparency requires that you actually do things the way you promised in the proposal. ApproachesTransparency works best on transaction based projects. It works especially well in environments where you can track metrics. Transparency requires that you give customers access to your tracking systems. While you can give customers access to paper-based tracking systems, it’s easier when you have a web portal. It also works best when tracking is in real time. It is normal to submit monthly reports to the customer that track issues. It is exceptional when you provide real-time access to the system where issues are reported, tracked, and resolved. Being exceptional is how you win. Instead of preparing reports by hand-collating the data and selectively classifying and editing the data, a transparent solution enables the customer to see the data as it comes in with no room for someone in the middle to selectively choose what and how to report. The cheap and easy way to be able to claim transparency is to give your customers access to unfiltered data. But this is sometimes just a way of hiding in plain sight and can increase the burden on the customer to oversee your performance. With a little more effort, you can quantify, classify, and label things so that you can provide data summaries and roll-ups in a quick and easy to understand online dashboard format. Think about what the customer needs to see to verify your performance and make that the first thing they see, preferably with a graphic display. Then enable them to drill down to the underlying data if they want. If you have an online system like this for managing and reporting project data, consider adding analytics features to it, not only for your use but for the customer’s as well. With analytics you can discover interesting correlations, like the ratio of problems to successes, the amount of effort consumed by problems vs. successes, the ROI for prevention efforts, the impact of adding staff on turnaround time, etc. When done right, this will give you plenty of facts to cite in future recompetes, and may also help justify contract modifications or changes to future RFPs. Sample Transparency ThemesWhen you operate transparently, you can make statements like these: You will be able to see issues as soon as we do and you will see what we are doing to resolve them as soon as we do it. It’s more difficult to operate this transparently, because it gives us no place to hide. But we think the results make it worth it. At any point that you have a question about the status, you will be able to get an immediate answer from the same source we would consult ourselves. Unlike our competitors, we will have to meet every specification and keep every promise because you will be able to see any deviations. Operating this transparently lowers the oversight burden, because you have any information you wish to look at, when you wish to look at it, and can pick and choose where to focus your attention.

Ingredients What types of training will you offer? Who are the target audiences for the training? What is the training medium: instructor-led sessions, computer-based training, exercises, or simulations, or something else? Where will training be provided? What materials/courseware will be used? How will you develop the curriculum? What certification(s) will students receive? What accreditation does your organization and/or instructors have? ApproachesDifferent goals can drive the need for training on a project. Training may be necessary for the use and adoption of specific tools, techniques, or solutions, or for more general, ongoing skills enhancement . Audiences can vary as well — training may be required for client staff, project staff, or others. When training is addressed in the Technical Approach, it is usually in the context of the particular aspect of the solution being discussed. When training is addressed in the Management Plan, the emphasis is generally on scheduling and administration of training, and training roles and responsibilities. StrategiesIf the RFP does not require training, providing it anyway can be a competitive advantage. Training is often included as an after-thought, without much detail. Even when training is required, you can add value by providing it to more audiences, in more ways, and at more locations.

Ingredients What security policies/procedures will be followed? Who is responsible for security oversight? What any physical access controls will be used and how facilities will be secured? What electronic access controls at the hardware, networking, operating system, and application levels? What levels of access are to be provided to project staff, users, and others? What Internet usage policies that you will have, and how will you enforce your usage policies? What types of vulnerabilities and attacks you anticipate? How breaches or suspicious incidents will be handled? What will you do to minimize the damage caused by a security breach? What security-related training to be provided? What security-related tools that you will use? How you will ensure compliance with security plans, policies, and procedures? How you will integrate your security plans with any that the customer may already have? How you will coordinate your security plans with any external organizations or third parties? How often security will be reviewed and plans updated? ApproachesWhen security is addressed in the Technical Approach, it is usually in the context of the particular aspect of the solution being discussed. When security is addressed in the Management Plan, the emphasis is generally on contingency plans and security roles and responsibilities. Physical security and information security are sometimes treated as completely separate disciplines, and sometimes they’re addressed together. Which approach to take, and whether to emphasize one or the other, will depend on the nature of the project and the priorities of the client. StrategiesWhat’s the cost of not having adequate security? It can be calculated…

Ingredients What safety precautions may be required on this project? Who will be responsible for ensuring safety? What is your record for ensuring safety? How you will recognize safety hazards and respond to any incidents? What safety standards or procedures will you comply with? Do you have any safety related certifications, awards, or credentials? What is the process for reporting an accident? What safety training that you will provide? What safety records will you keep? How will the customer benefit from your approach to managing safety issues? ApproachesWhen safety is addressed in the Technical Approach, it is usually in the context of the particular aspect of the solution being discussed. When safety is addressed in the Management Plan, the emphasis is generally on contingency plans and safety roles and responsibilities.

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. StrategiesIn 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.

PositioningPositioning yourself is about making a comparison that establishes why you are better than either a specific alternative or all alternatives. Customers always have alternatives. What makes yours better? It depends on the customer, what you have to offer, the circumstances, and any number of additional things. To figure out how to position yourself, it helps to have an infinite sense of perspective. There are many, many ways to turn things around and different directions to look at them from. For starters, how you position “yourself” depends on what you mean. Are you positioning your: Company Team Offering Staff Self Or some other point of contact between you and the customer? The list below will help you find inspiration for different ways to position yourself. One important consideration is that before you can position yourself as better, you may need to position yourself as different. Positioning yourself as the same, only a little better, is a weak strategy. To help inspire you to find the differences that make you better, we’ve also provided a list of opposites. One way to use this list is to find a word that relates to your competition, and then be the opposite. Another way to use it is to take words from the second list and use them to modify the words from the positioning list. The goal of lists like these is not to contain every possible attribute, but to focus on the attributes that are related to your proposals. Customization to reflect the nature of your business is highly recommended. Things to position your company, self, and offering against: Competition Trends Events Capability Capacity Qualifications Performance Preferences Culture Habits Style Size Speed Efficiency Responsiveness Price Quality Experience Risk Transition Incumbency Compliance Value Scalability Sustainability ROI Methodologies Partnership Location Technology Plans Missions Goals Security Safety Assessments Readiness Training Issues Environment Deadlines Modifiers and Opposites: Past/ future High/ low Innovative/ low risk Fast/ slow Responsive/ deliberate Small/ large Specialized/ generalized Singular/ combination Best/ worst Physical/ virtual New/ established JIT/ continuous Collaborative/ independent Same/different Objective/ subjective Change/ stability Predictable/ unpredictable Traditional/ exciting Included/ excluded Formal/ informal Difficult/ easy Sufficient/ insufficient Complete/ incomplete Now/ later Clear/ complicated Flexible/ rigid Strong/ weak Strategic/ tactical Minimum/ maximum Isolated/ accessible Consensus driven/ authoritarian

Quality is an abstract concept and what matters to customers about it can vary greatly. In a proposal, quality is really about trust. The customer has to trust that you will deliver as promised. And like trust, claiming to be of top quality or being committed to it is not enough. Customers look at quality in different ways: Sometimes it’s just a check box. Do you have a Quality Control Plan? Are you ISO 9001:2000 certified? Are you CMM Level 5? When this is the case, the customer may have learned that what companies say about quality often does not matter and instead look for third-party validation through a certification process. Sometimes they want to know what you are going to do about it. What procedures do you follow? What kind of inspections do you conduct? Who is responsible for quality? Customers with this focus are really concerned about credibility of results. Sometimes they want you to quantify it. How will you measure quality? What performance specifications will you meet? In this case they are attempting to move past abstract notions of quality and get to something concrete. Sometimes they want you to tell them what your approach to it is. They leave it up to you to define it and explain what you do about it. You may have no idea what they think is important, and they probably will not be able to compare apples to apples. This is by far the most difficult circumstance to deal with. You may have to guess at what matters about quality to the customer. What you write about quality in a proposal for each of these is very different. Being certified itself does not tell a customer what you actually do to achieve quality. But following the same procedures does not make you certified, either. In general, the more detail you share regarding what you will do in your proposal and how well you quantify it is better. If you receive proposals from two firms with the same quality certifications, but one says what they will do and one doesn’t (even though their certification requires them to do the same things), the one that explains it will appear to offer more. But it’s not the mechanics of quality control or the validation of quality assurance that ultimately matters, it’s about trust. What the customer gets out of you discussing quality is confidence in whether they can trust that you will deliver as promised. When you present the mechanics of your approach to quality, you should make sure that they reinforce the customer’s need for trust. Terminology There are many different quality methodologies and standards. In proposal writing, you have to be prepared to respond to any methodologies required by the RFP. Formal quality methodologies use specific terminology (ISO, CMM, PIRP, QC/QA, etc.) that can sound like a foreign language. The customer may speak that language, or they may not. In general, it is better to use the terms, but explain things functionally in plain language. But it really depends on what quality language the customer speaks. For example, should you use Issue Resolution Process (IRP), Problem Identification and Resolution Process (PIRP), Problem Identification and Resolution (PI&R), any of the dozens of other variations we’ve seen (like the ones with the extra “P” for “Preventing” problems), or just refer functionally to preventing, identifying, and resolving problems? The answer should not be based on your preference or preferred quality methodology, but on the language that the customer uses. When in doubt, we usually use functional language and avoid jargon. We make it about what needs to be accomplished and not about the terminology. Techniques You don’t have to be certified to use a quality methodology to use the terminology and incorporate the methods into your proposed approaches. Quality methodologies provide a great way to increase the sophistication of the services that you offer. Some of the techniques to be found in various quality methodologies include: Escalation. Usually depicted as a table, with events/triggers for when an issue is taken to the next level and receives more attention and resources. Sampling and inspection. When every item can’t be checked, a certain sample can be inspected and catch when defects are increasing. Procedural verification. You can build things into your procedures that prevent, detect, and resolve defects. They don’t have to be costly or time consuming. Think in terms of checklists, approvals, and reviews. Auditing. How do you know that a company is following its quality procedures? Bring in an outside auditor to verify that your procedures are being followed. Audit trail. An audit trail is like a chain of custody for your processes. It consists of the records that demonstrate who did what and how. With an audit trail, you can know, after the fact, where a defect occurred. Even if you don’t have auditors, there is value in having an audit trail. Repeatability. Ensuring that processes are repeatable, and not just made up as you go along, is a key attribute of many quality methodologies. Quantification. Being able to measure things is critical for being able to manage them. Categorizing, classifying, and quantifying all go together. Statistical analysis may or may not be part of it. Tracking and Monitoring. Tracking on its own is nearly meaningless. But combine it with quantification and escalation, just as examples, and you get a monitoring system that is capable of preventing issues from reaching the customer’s attention. Surveys. Typically used for assessing customer satisfaction. Continuous improvement. Often claimed, rarely substantiated. However, for certain projects, especially repetitive ones, being able to credibly reduce defects, raise efficiencies, etc. over time can enable the customer to select you for your current value and realize a greater ROI over time. If you are already doing any of these things and you just haven’t put it in writing, it gives you an opportunity to add value to your proposal without adding cost. The language used by quality methodologies can help you recognize what you are already doing and explain why it matters. If you learn to use quality language to describe it, you can end up with a much more meaningful proposal, without adding anything to the cost.

RFPs are often ambiguous and fail to provide the information that you need. Even worse, sometimes they contradict themselves. It’s hard enough to come up with good estimates when you have all the information you need. When you need information that’s not in the RFP, sometimes you can ask questions. But sometimes you have to figure out how to make your submission based on the information that you do have. Here are some techniques for dealing with numbers when you aren’t sure how to quantify your response: Compare it to something where the quantities are known Pick numbers that you know are too high or too low, and then use words like “at least,” “more than,” “almost,” “nearly,” “close to,” etc. Use the word “average” in a way that does not imply you actually calculated it Use a metaphor If you don’t have a better source, use “in our experience,” “what we’ve seen,” “on similar projects,” or something similar Hedge by saying “approximately” or “about” Turn your lack of knowledge into a benefit by talking about your flexibility and give multiple answers Talk about the need for precision instead of the numbers Talk about the importance of the results Talk in terms of contingencies based on different values Talk about your method for calculating instead of the results of the calculation If you can’t quantify your response because you don’t have the data you need, talk about how you will get the data instead When you don’t know how you’ll calculate things or where to get the data, talk about collaboration

Circumstance So you want to tell a story in your proposal. You’ve heard that a great way to win is to tell a story that is worth repeating, captures the evaluators' attention, is memorable, and leads them to the conclusion or action you want them to take. That sounds great! But how do you do that in a proposal? How do you respond to customer requirements in such a way that you tell a story? Approaches Here are some common ways to tell a story that can be applied to proposal writing. The Case Study. Instead of telling your story about the customer, tell it about another customer with similar requirements. Case studies are a good approach to use when you don’t know the new customer well enough to speak specifically to their needs. Anecdotes and Examples. If you can’t describe an end-to-end case study, you can still share anecdotes and examples. Instead of making the story about a specific case, make it about a number of examples that feature elements that are relevant to the new customer. Tell Their Future. Make the story about what things will be like after you are done working with the customer or at some other point in the future. Make it about how much better things will be. You don’t have to describe the currently environment in detail, but you do have to describe the benefits of your offering from the customer’s perspective. What will it be like to be on the receiving end of your offering? How will the customer’s work environment change for the better? Before and After. When you do know about the customer’s current environment, you can tell a story that is a series of before and after comparisons and contrasts. Just make sure you don’t patronize or insult the customer about their current state. A Hypothetical Story. If you want to tell a case study or a before and after story, but you don’t have one that is sufficiently relevant, then just make it up. That’s what a hypothetical case is. Don’t present it as a story about a previous customer, just present it as a story about a typical customer or the kind of circumstance that’s relevant. Hypothetical stories are often used when describing contingencies (if this happens, then…). A Manifesto. A manifesto is a bold declaration of your principles and intentions. It should be compelling and inspiring. But a manifesto also tends to be about the author and not about the customer. In a bid where the odds are stacked against you, a manifesto can clearly set you apart from the competition. A manifesto is inherently polarizing — instead of promising everything to everybody, it promises something specific and may repel those who disagree. For proposals that’s a high risk strategy. But when the odds are already stacked against you, it’s just the sort of thing that can take your slim chance and turn it into a win. A Tutorial. When the customer is looking to you to provide expertise that they don’t have, you may have to teach them how to evaluate your proposal. Your story shows what’s important and explains its significance. The trick is to present it as a demonstration of your competence without patronizing the customer. The Proof. Make your case. Prove that the customer should select you. An Adventure. Is it about the destination or about the trip? On some projects, you don’t know how it’s going to turn out because part of the project is figuring that out. So how are you to work with? What kind of experience will the customer have? Will it be fun and exciting? Dangerous but under control? Boring but reliable? The calm in the middle of the storm? What kind of adventure will you have with the customer? A Mystery. Help the customer solve the problem by becoming a detective. What kind of detective are you? Are you Sherlock Holmes or are you Columbo? (I’m showing my age but you can find him on YouTube.) Make your story about how you will solve the case. A Comedy. Humor is risky. Nearly all proposals try to avoid it. That makes it a great way to differentiate yourself. If you can manage the risk. Here are some elements of storytelling that you can use regardless of the type of story you write: Value proposition. A value proposition can be an element in another kind of story, or it can be a story all by itself. Your value proposition is basically how you justify your price. Telling a story that’s all about your value proposition makes your proposal all about the price. Sometimes this is the best strategy, but most often it is not (or is a minor part of it instead of the focus). Positioning. How do you compare — to your competitors, to other alternatives, to the customer, or even to yourself (if it’s a recompete)? In a competitive environment, you need the customer to understand how you are alike and how you are different. Most importantly, you want them to know why you are better. Positioning is another strategy that can be just one part of your story or the entire focus. Plot or not? A plot is a logical series of events leading to the climax of the story. Some stories build to a conclusion. But some stories are not based on a plot. They may be descriptive, informative, observations, expressive, or otherwise non-sequential. Because proposals are goal-driven, proposal stories tend to work best when the elements reinforce each other and all lead to the same conclusion. Origins. Where did you come from? How did your offering get invented? The story about something’s origins or how it got started can be captivating. The only problem is that you must make it matter from the customer’s point of view. Who cares about you and your origins? Why do they matter? Your story should revolve around what the customer gets out of it. Descriptive. Most proposals read like a boring documentary. A descriptive story is the easiest to tell, but it’s the hardest to win with. Customers care more about results than about descriptions. Call to action. What do you want the customer to do after they read your proposal? The climax of the story in a proposal will most often be your call to action. But don’t simply make the story about nagging them to take the action you want. To make them want to take the action, you need to tell a story that they want to be a part of so that they take the initiative to take action in order to continue the story. Procedural. There are steps involved in the procurement and steps involved in delivering your offering. You need to describe those steps. An alternative to being merely descriptive is to tell a story about those steps. Is it a drama, an adventure, a mystery, or something else? It’s not about the steps. It’s about what the steps mean, what they add up to, and how they impact the customer. Telling a story instead of describing steps can help the customer see themselves as part of the process. The Surprise Ending. Creative writers love to hit you with an ending that you never expected. Don’t try this in your proposal. While you want to tell a story, proposals don’t get read like a book. They may skip the page where you reveal your brilliance. Instead, tell them the ending of the story at the beginning and make the surprising part how you get there (with a superior approach that no one else would think of, let alone try to deliver). The Scary Story. When there are risks, the customer should be concerned, even afraid. If you need to describe those risks, you might need to tell a scary story. So go ahead and tell it, just keep it credible. Why. Often what matters the most to the customer is not what you will do, but why you will do it that way. The story isn’t about the details of the offering, but the explanation — why you choose to do it that way, why it matters, and what the customer will get out of it. The Sequel. When a movie is successful, they often release a sequel to keep the story (and the revenue stream) going. Many contracts have periodic recompetes. A recompete is a sequel. So how will the characters and the story change in your sequel? If they don’t change, it will make for a boring story. The changes are what makes a sequel interesting, both at the movies and in a proposal. Another way to look at sequels is to think of the proposal as the first release and the project as the sequel. If you tell a good story in your proposal, the customer will be anxious for the sequel so they can see how it will turn out. The Remake. Movie studios love remakes because they consider them to be low risk. But how many remakes are as good or as better than the originals? In my experience, hardly any. Think about that when using boilerplate or preparing for your next recompete. The best remakes are when they reimagine the whole concept of the original and produce something that is familiar but innovative and far better produced than the original. If you are working on a remake (whether it’s a recompete, a project similar to another one from your past, more of the same type of work, recapturing work you had but lost, etc.), then consider what it will take to produce a remake that is loved as much as or more than the original, instead of one that disappoints.

An escalation plan provides a series of levels. If the purpose of the escalation plan is to resolve problems or issues, then if an issue is not resolved at the first level, it moves to the second level, where more resources, expertise, capabilities, authority, etc., are applied to resolving the issue. If it is not resolved at the second level, it moves up to the third. It continues to move up until it reaches the highest level. The number of levels and the triggers for moving from one level to another are usually determined by the person writing the escalation plan. ApproachesIn addition to resolving problems, an escalation plan can be used to ensure that something is accomplished on schedule. If milestones are not met, additional resources can be assigned. Escalation plans can also be used for moving decisions up the chain of command, controlling expenses, rewarding good performance, etc. An escalation plan is really a way of documenting how you will make decisions. They describe when you will react and how you will react. Having an escalation plan tells the customer what you will do. They can inspire confidence and build trust by showing that you’ve anticipated things and will react in a way that is appropriate. They are also a way of saying that your reactions will be controlled, so that you won’t expend too many resources on small issues, but have a way of applying whatever resources are necessary when the circumstances merit that kind of response. Escalation plans work best when the triggers are objective and the responses are automatic. If the trigger from one level to another is a person’s action or authorization, then you don’t know for sure that the plan will be followed. You can use an escalation plan to provide authorization to staff to expend resources and act when certain criteria are met, without having to get permission. When you do this, the customer knows that your staff can react decisively to issues and the risk of a problem disappearing within the bureaucracy is much lower. Escalation plans can also be useful to generate metrics. You can see what things are happening at what level, and adjust criteria and resource allocation as necessary. Questions to Answer in an Escalation Plan When does a problem get additional attention, oversight, or resources? How long should it take to escalate an issue? Are there any circumstances or events that should trigger an escalation? Is approval or action required to initiate an escalation? How do you ensure that escalations happen? Can something significant skip steps in the escalation process? What are the criteria or considerations at each escalation step? What additional authority, resources, or capability does each escalation step bring to resolve the issue? Is escalation only for issues? What about recognition or positive circumstances? How many escalation levels should be provided? What gets it all started? Does the topmost level provide sufficient resources and authority for the customer to be confident that their issues will always be resolved? What additional information will you request and/or track at each level? How will you track, assess, and analyze the performance of the escalation system over the life of the project? Will customers be notified of each escalation step? What is the priority of your escalation system (delivery of appropriate resources, authority, expertise, speed, cost control, communications)? Sample Escalation Themes When you operate transparently, you can make statements like these: You can count on us meeting deadlines, because our approach to escalation ensures that resources are added until all goals are achieved. Our approach is efficient because additional resources (or higher levels of expertise) are only used when needed. Our staff will be able to react quickly and decisively, because our approach to escalation automatically grants authorization in advance when certain criteria are met. Our company will be responsive to your needs because our approach to escalation ensures the right people get involved at the appropriate times. Our approach to escalation ensures that no problem will ever languish while “waiting for approval.” You will get the right mix of low cost and high cost resources applied to your project because our escalation plan gets them involved at the appropriate times.

Circumstance What are you going to offer to beat your competition? Sometimes the RFP forces you to bid the exact same thing as everyone else. Or so it seems. The customer wants to be able to compare apples to apples when they have to make a selection. However, you need to stand out from the other bidders in order to get selected. Approaches So what should you bid? It seems that you only have two choices: Offer the same thing as your competitors or offer something different. But is that really true? What about offering the customer the same thing as your competitors, only: Developed or delivered in a different way? Producing better results? With more reliability? With more credibility based solely on a better proposal? With more future options? With more growth potential? With more flexibility? Delivered faster? Better integrated? With better after sales support? With a better warranty or guarantee? With more accountability or transparency? With better risk mitigation? With a better attitude or friendlier service? In a way that is more convenient? In more sizes or better quantities? If you do offer the same thing, you must meet the competition head on and overpower them with a much better offering. Or underprice them. If you are required to bid the exact same thing as your competitors, it may not be possible to have a better offering. It’s easier, not to mention more profitable, to be different. This is another place where you can apply the “who, what, where, how, when, and why” approach that we recommend for proposal writing. Think about how to differentiate your offer by changing: Who participates in or benefits from the projec What you do or deliver Where you work, produce, deliver, or support your offering How you work, produce, deliver, or support your offering When you work, produce, deliver, or support your offering Why you approach it the way you do and what the results will be for the customer If you can’t change it, then identify it, make it clearer, or just better describe the results for the customer or how they will benefit from it. That alone can set you apart and make you a more attractive source. When you offer exactly the same thing as everyone else, you compete on price. When you offer something different, you compete on value. When you offer the same thing, only you do it in a different way, you gain the ability to offer them something better, without increasing your price. If the RFP is so specific that you can’t have a better offering, then you can still be a better source. In fact, other than price, there might not be anything else for the customer to consider. The customer is looking for differences, so make them clear. Give the customer a clear choice, even if it’s for the same deliverable. No matter how hard the RFP tries to force you into bidding the same thing as everyone else, you can always be different. In fact, you have to be different in order to be better. You must learn to want to be unusual. If you can’t achieve that, you can’t be exceptional. But it all starts with offering the customer a difference. The question is whether it's a difference that matters to the evaluators. In choosing how to be different, what matters to the evaluators should be your most important consideration.

Ingredients What deliverables will you produce? What is the benefit to the customer for each? What specific requirements will each deliverable meet? How will you manage the production of deliverables? What standards will you use to evaluate the quality of deliverables? What is your schedule for delivery? What is the review/acceptance process for each deliverable? What media will be used for the deliverables? Can you provide samples of the deliverables? Approaches Most projects include reports and documentation and some include products or physical deliverables. How deliverables will be scheduled and produced, and how you’ll provide quality assurance should be addressed in the Management Plan. Consider providing a table listing deliverables, the frequency/schedule, and benefits to the client. You may also wish to describe deliverable quality standards and metrics. If possible, you should provide samples of deliverables. If the deliverable is a large document, at least provide the Table of Contents. If the deliverable is a tangible product or object, provide a photograph and/or specifications.

Ingredients What types of customer support do you think will be necessary? How will you provide this support? What capacity will be required for providing support? What support will provide on-site and what support will you provide off-site? What is your approach to issue tracking? What will your standards for response time be and how you will meet them? How will you manage issue escalation? What are your support policies and procedures? Will you use any systems or tools to enhance the support you provide? Approaches Projects that have a specific help desk requirement will often include it in the Statement of Work, to be addressed in the Technical Approach. However, customer support can be a topic for the Management Plan as well, especially in the context of issue tracking and escalation. Technical details, such as the use of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms and techniques, can be useful for your customer support response. However, in the Management Plan, you should focus on the functionality and benefits to the customer, as opposed to the features of the technology. Strategies If the RFP does not specifically require customer support, it may be a competitive advantage if you provide it anyway.

Ingredients What are your back-up and recovery plans? Which team members are responsible for continuity management? What are your recovery priorities? How you will coordinate your continuity plans with external organizations and third parties? What are your plans for facility relocation? What training will you provide to ensure that staff know what to do in an emergency? How will you test your back-up and recovery plans? How will you protect any vital records? How often will continuity plans will be reviewed and updated? Approaches Individual sections of the Technical Approach may address back-ups and various contingency alternatives. A continuity plan, which can be part of the Management Plan or a completely separate section, describes these precautions at the project –level; it details how the project as a whole would continue operations in the event of an emergency. A continuity plan should address plans and procedures for back-ups, relocation, and the implementation of contingency alternatives. A continuity plan should include re-organization and re-constitution of project staffing, back-up recovery and system re-deployment, and relocation. It should address roles and responsibilities, contingency plans, training of project staff, and testing of recovery procedures.

Circumstance In a competitive market, you can sometimes gain an advantage by introducing change that disrupts your competitor’s strategies. It is easy, especially when bidding against an RFP, for everyone to do what is expected of them. It only makes sense to join them when you are confident you can outscore them that way. If you are not, or you are the under dog, you need to rearrange the competitive playing field to put you on top. Here are some ways to do that. Approaches Challenge the best practices. If everybody competing follows the “best practices” then you need to be even better to win. Or at least be different. Maybe the “best practices” are out of date. Maybe you can do better and ghost your competition at the same time. Give them more. Better specifications, metrics, procedures, involvement, reach, capabilities, resources, speed, quality, risk mitigation, knowledge, results, proof, detail, accountability, transparency, etc. Giving them more does not have to cost more. Sometimes it just means being more thoughtful about what you are doing and taking the time to explain it better. Start early. You can start before winning the award. Obviously you don’t want to spend a lot of money when you are at risk of losing, but you can identify things that you are able to do without incurring a lot of cost. Do those things immediately so that you can include the results in your proposal. Some examples might include recruiting, design, prototyping, research, sourcing, testing, validation, etc. If you're pursuing an opportunity to develop software, you can squash the competition submitting not just paper, but a prototype as part of your proposal. Or if you're planning to use software on a project, you can set up a demo server so the customer can see the software during evaluation. Better yet, allow them to start using it to plan the project start-up before award. If you can get them using your services, you not only cement your relationship, you make it so the customer doesn’t want to give up your services by selecting someone else. Change the tone. You can propose the exact same thing and be more friendly, wise, interesting, conversational, collaborative, humorous, careful, knowledgeable, practical, clear, confident, accessible, credible, trustworthy, etc. Don’t hide behind business-speak. Don’t sound the same as your competitors. Sound better. Sound like someone they’d like to work with. Change the focus. Focus the customer on what matters. Change what the procurement is about. Then be the best at delivering it. You do not have to change your actual offering to achieve this. You can change the context, results, priorities, trade-offs, concerns, etc. This has the effect of changing how the evaluation criteria are interpreted. Change the metrics. How is success defined and measured. If it isn’t, then start (and this becomes your discriminator). If success is defined and measured, then change the numbers. Raise the bar by tightening the numbers. Track more metrics. Provide better analytics. Turn metrics into improved results. Leave your competitors inferior. Go where your competition does not. Expand the scope of the project to areas your competitors don't cover. Offer tools they don't support. Use techniques they don't offer. Provide a demonstration or a trial service that the customer didn't ask for. Provide additional information online. Provide options. Provide related capabilities. Disrupt the business or delivery model. Get clever regarding what you charge for and what you don’t. Change how deliverables are delivered. Or supported. Change the contractual terms. Offer a warranty or guarantee that is amazing. Offer a fixed price instead of an hourly rate. Offer upsell options. Or volume discounts. Introduce the Internet to a material world. Or introduce bricks and mortar to a virtual world. Obsolete your competitors. Convert your weaknesses into strengths. Trade-offs always have two sides. If your weaknesses are the result of a trade-off, there's a reason that your weaknesses are better than the alternative. Position your weaknesses as an advantage. If you're inexperienced, you're also new, fresh, innovative, and unshackled. If you can’t afford something, then you've found a way to lower costs. See how it works? Deflect and redirect. If you have a problem, redefine it. Better yet, turn it into an advantage. Reinterpret. Spin. Position problems to minimize their impact. Position competitors' strengths so that they do not matter. Position your strengths as their weaknesses. Play verbal Aikido. Attack. Tell the customer what’s wrong with your competitors. Name names. Generate fear, uncertainty, and doubt. It’s not libel if it’s true. Be honest. If your competitors dabble in the dark arts and practice some of the more aggressive strategies listed above, then one way to counter them is with honesty. Over the top honesty. Don’t hide behind business-speak. Just tell the simple truth. Make sure everything is provable and transparent. Be credible. Let the customer see status information in real time. Give them the same information you have access to. Nobody wants a vendor they can’t trust. So give them one they can. Using some or all of these strategies is much better (and more fun!) than the same old boring RFP compliance that everyone else is doing. You'll win more contracts and leave your competitors wondering what happened. Why fight fair?

Circumstance If your goal is to provide reasons for the customer to select you (what themes are supposed to provide), then maybe you should think less about your strengths and what you offer, and think more about what matters to the customer... Approaches What is the nature of your offering? Is a commodity (whether a product or a service? Or is it a unique or specialty offering, like a customized product, professional service, or solution/integration? What will the type of contract or contract vehicle be? This could be fixed price, an hourly rate, or some other variant. It could be a government contract (any of the various kinds) or a commercial contract. The strategies for winning one type of contract can be very different from another. What is the competitive environment? Your bid strategies depend on the nature of the competitive environment. Are you the only bidder or is it competitive? Are there a few competitors that you can identify or an unknown number of competitors? Is the competitive field regulated or open? How will you position your company against the competition? How are you different from any potential competitors? Why are you a better choice for the customer? What makes your offering special? Does it have to do with the specifications or performance? Or the results it will produce or the benefits it will deliver? How is it innovative? How is it different from what your competitors will propose? Is there anything special in the way the offering will be delivered or implemented, or in how the contract will be fulfilled? What are your pricing strategies? Will you emphasize price or deemphasize it in favor of something else? Is there anything special about your pricing model or the options that you offer? Is there a difference in the short term or long term impact? Are there any promotions, discounts, or anything else that the customer should consider? Are there any incentives or penalties that could impact pricing or performance? Are there any pricing related contractual considerations such as bonding or insurance that makes your offering exceptional? What are your strategies and messages regarding value? What are the customer’s evaluation criteria? Did they put them in the RFP? Do they have an official, point scored, and documented evaluation process. Will they follow it? What do you need to say to get the top score? What do you know about the customer? In particular, do you know their preferences regarding what they wish to procure, how they wish to procure it, their desired results, and what they want in a vendor or to see in a proposal? Do you have any insights into their true needs? What do you know about their spoken and unspoken goals? What can you do help them fulfill those goals? What is the nature of your relationship? What do you want it to be? What is special about your company and/or team? Being qualified is not exceptional. But what is exceptional about your qualifications? What about your capabilities is valuable to the customer? How is your experience relevant? What successes have you had? Do you have any references or testimonials you can provide? What resources do you have? What quantities can you cite? What are the relationships between your resources, locations, specifications, results, etc., and the customer’s needs? How can you translate them into percentages, ratios, or statements that having meaning to the customer? Can you make them part of your win strategies or story? Quantifying things brings credibility, and doing a ton of research to boil it all down into a simple sound bite can absolutely be worth it. What special concerns should you address? This can range from topics like risk, quality, or environmental considerations to other qualities that can impact the customer’s decision. Now based on your circumstances, considerations, and decisions, what do you need to communicate to your customer? What is your story? But even more important, what does it add up to? Does it give the customer reasons to want to select your proposal? Does it give the evaluators what they need to justify selecting you? When they tell their bosses who they want to award the contract to, what are they going to say to explain their selection? What they say is your story. And if you don’t tell it, they’ll make one up for you.

When you get a proposal assignment, consider: Are you capable of performing the assigned task? It does no good to accept an assignment if you are unable to complete it. If you are not confident that you can complete the assignment on time and with quality sufficient to help win the proposal, then you need to speak to the Executive Sponsor or Proposal Manager. It is better to let people down while they have time to replace you than it is to accept the assignment and then be unable to complete it on time and per the specifications. Do you have the skills, background, and knowledge? Technical staff may not have sufficient writing skills to complete their assignment, even if they have the right technical knowledge. And vice versa. A common solution is to pair a writer up with a Subject Matter Expert. When an assignment is botched, it is often because the person assigned was not up to the task and didn’t realize it until it was too late. One way to mitigate this is with frequent progress checks. People don’t always like to admit their limitations. Do you have the availability/capacity? People who are capable tend to be in demand and may not have the time for something else. Even if you may have the best of intentions, it can lead to late and/or incomplete assignments. You should work with the Executive Sponsor to free up the key people and make sure that the MustWin proposal is given the priority it deserves. Do you have what you need to complete the assignment? If any resources or information are needed to complete the assignment, you need to identify them and notify the proposal manager early enough in the process so that they can be provided. Once you accept an assignment, here are some things you can do to ensure success: Provide progress updates early and frequently. Don’t wait until an assignment is complete before you let people see it. Get input (especially on approaches) and collaborate early to make sure you are going down the right path. Quantify progress. Progress should be quantified three ways: 1) How much time is left, 2) How many items in the Content Plan have you addressed, and 3) if your section has been reviewed/validated. Using a red, yellow, green scale may help. Self-review. The Content Plan provides you with the same tools that reviewers will use to validate your sections. Use them to assess whether what you have written fulfills all of the goals and requirements. When you submit your assignment it may not be “complete.” Assignments must be validated. All assignments should be validated per the Validation Plan for the proposal. This will involve checking compliance with RFP requirements and verifying that what was written matches what was specified in the Content Plan. Assignments must be complete. An incomplete assignment is usually the result of the author running out of time or not having the information required to respond to all the requirements. Frequent progress checks help mitigate both issues. Corrections. Sometimes a section will be given to another author or SME to contribute to, correct, or complete. Sometimes you will get additional guidance and be the one responsible for making the changes.

Configuration management is required to maintain control of the proposal in spite of changes to the files by multiple people The CapturePlanning.com MustWin Process does not require specific configuration management procedures to be followed. The procedures we provide are intended for those who do not have any existing configuration management procedures. If you have existing configuration management procedures, you are encouraged to continue using them. A proposal has a lot of moving parts. The solution you are proposing can change. Multiply the number of authors by the number of files contributed by each. The contents of those many files are often constantly changing. The assignments of people to proposal sections and consequently files change from time to time. Even the requirement itself can change with a cascading effect on every part of the proposal that it touches. Configuration management is required to maintain control of the proposal in spite of all the changes. These changes happen throughout the proposal, but have the greatest affect in the later stages of development, as you approach final production. One overlooked file version conflict during final production can ruin a perfectly good proposal. There are software solutions for file/document management, but lack of software is no excuse for not tracking versions and maintaining configuration control. Automated approaches to document and configuration management can always be emulated using completely manual methods. Likewise, having software does not free you from the burden of diligence. No software approach alone will ensure configuration management. It requires the voluntary efforts of participants. People have to accept it and follow it constantly. Whether manual or automated, a configuration management system can be strict and burdensome, or convenient but tolerant of risk. You must decide what balance to strike for your particular proposal. You may also choose to implement different levels of configuration management at different stages of the proposal.

A Content Plan enables writing to become a process of elimination instead of an open-ended exercise. With the MustWin Process, authors don’t start with a blank page. Instead you start from a Content Plan that has already been validated to ensure that it includes all of the ingredients that should go into your section. All you have to do is follow the recipe. The Content Plan contains instructions for what to write. Authors simply replace the instructions with what needs to be written. Writing becomes a process of elimination instead of an open-ended exercise. The Content Plan provides the recipe that will guide the preparation of the proposal. Once validated, the Content Plan also becomes a blueprint, as well as a baseline your drafts will be reviewed against. Do not change the headings without consulting the Proposal Manager because they are defined by the RFP and have been validated. Even if they are awkward or could be better organized, you should leave them the way they are. If they are redundant, you should either carefully consider the context (sometimes the same thing can be presented differently in different contexts) or refer the reader to the other section. You may (unless otherwise instructed) add subheadings. You may (unless otherwise instructed) organize the individual requirements under the headings in a way that makes the most sense. Your goals should be to: Comply with the RFP requirements Score high against any published evaluation criteria Provide the information the customer needs to make a selection Articulate why the customer should select you Substantiate the reasons why the customer should select you It is also a good idea to identify any graphics that could help communicate what you are presenting in your sections. See the Graphics topic for an easy approach to doing this.

Production consists of the final assembly of the document, both electronic and hard copy. Because most submissions require binding and multiple copies, reproduction and assembly are also required. Production ends with the packaging and delivery of the finished proposals. Ideally, final production should not start until after the writing is complete and there are no more changes to be made to the document. While some changes may be accommodated after production starts, it makes the completion of the proposal a bit like trying to hit a moving target and adds to the risk of proposal failure. While some formatting may take place during the development of the proposal, there are usually some formatting steps that cannot take place until after the writing and related changes are complete. In addition, there are activities such as Table of Contents generation and the assembly of sections and attachments into volumes that take place during final production. Because there are so many opportunities for simple assembly mistakes to happen, quality assurance and configuration management are important aspects of production. Comparing the finished proposal to the Production Plan is a firm requirement. In addition, the use of checklists is encouraged to ensure that everything is double checked after it is produced. If simply reading a large proposal can take most of a day, then consider what a detailed proofreading editorial cycle will require. Typically, final production will require anywhere from 1-5 days depending on the size and complexity of the proposal. When deadlines slip and the time allocated to final production is reduced, the first thing that typically happens is that quality assurance is reduced or skipped. This should not be allowed to happen on a MustWin proposal.

Your opinion of style is not the one that matters This varies according to the expectations of the customer. The MustWin Process only addresses style where it is relevant to achieving this goal. It is important to find out if style matters to the evaluator, because when it does, you need to follow it precisely. Most of the time, the customer will not be concerned with style. If the customer has no style preference that you are aware of, you should write in the style that you feel most comfortable with. It is more important to get your message across than it is to make some kind of “impression.” Much like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, you’ve got to say everything that needs to be said to win before you can afford to give much attention to the style in which you have said it. Style matters when you have multiple authors and you don’t want the proposal to sound like it was written by multiple people. However, the only way to achieve this is at the back end, during final production. Unless you have well trained, experienced authors, you’ll be lucky to get the content out of them — asking them to also think about style is probably asking too much. If style matters, either to you, your company, or your customer, you need to make sure you arrive at final production with enough time for one or more editorial cycles. The Proposal Manager is responsible for making the judgment calls regarding how to balance style with other competing priorities and for instructing the authors/production staff regarding what to do about it. Debates about style tend to degrade into competing opinions and do not help move the proposal forward. If you have a question about style or wish to participate in the decision, discuss it with the Proposal Manager. Then let the Proposal Manager decide and move things forward.