Cheryl Moffat

A proposal template that embeds and prompts for customer-focused writing can be an effective tool to remind your team to prepare proposals that address customer issues. But the template on its own can’t increase your win rate. You also need to monitor and manage its use to meet clearly defined, measurable quality standards.   Consider

Improving your bid decision gate discipline is one of the most effective ways to improve win rates. Improved bid/no-bid discipline can double or triple win rates, while extensive training and coaching to improve proposal quality might lead to 15 to 20 percent improvements.  But an individual’s bid recommendations are often influenced by their job function.

Evaluators have to compare different bidders’ approaches and want to know that a bidder considered all feasible alternatives. By including relative cost comparisons in your technical proposal you can justify your approach even when you are not permitted to include pricing information in this section. In a relative cost comparison, you can demonstrate how you

 …you stop looking after you find it – NOTE: evaluations are the same!! A fun Friday litmus test for your proposals – “If the evaluators stop reading your proposal before the end, will they have absorbed the ideas and information that are most important to them?” If not, reorder your content to reflect the evaluator’s