Quality criteria for assessing whether a Proposal Content Plan has been completed correctly
How do you know if your Proposal Content Plan has been properly completed?
Proposal Content Plan Quality
To do its job, a Proposal Content Plan must achieve certain objectives. It is not simply a summary of what you might write or a collection of placeholders. It should be far more than a simple annotated outline. For example, it should provide instructions for writers and quality criteria for reviewing the proposal.
The following is intended to be used as a checklist both by the author of the Proposal Content Plan and by any subsequent reviewers to ensure that the content plan is correct.
- Do the proposal design, strategies, or offering need to be reconsidered?
- Do the instructions contain enough information about the approaches that will be written so that the approaches themselves can be validated?
- Do the instructions leave any gaps or RFP compliance issues?
- Do the instructions identify all of the customer/ RFP requirements that should be addressed in each section?
- Do the instructions explain how to maximize your score against the evaluation criteria?
- Do the instructions advise the writers regarding how to handle any assumptions, limits, boundaries, trade-offs, or risks in your offering?
- Do the instructions advise the writers regarding any ambiguities or problems in the RFP?
- Do the instructions provide information about the customer, opportunity, and competitive environment that goes beyond what is given in the RFP?
- Do the instructions explain where and how to add value and show insight?
- Do the instructions provide sufficient guidance for writers to get everything correct on the first draft?
- Do the instructions identify the points that should be emphasized or proven in each section?
- Do the instructions contain references to any helpful data or information that should be incorporated or consulted?
- Will the content plan produce the right proposal if followed?
- Do the instructions identify where projects, experience, proof points, or examples should be cited?
- Does the content plan also provide sufficient quality criteria so that writers and reviewers will be able to assess whether the sections have been properly completed?
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Do the quality criteria provide a sufficient definition for what proposal quality is and reflect what it will take to win this proposal?
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