Six Keys Elements of High-Quality Proposals

While customer’s impressions are shaped by compliance and responsiveness, there are other important elements of proposal quality: boilerplate, customer focus, page design, compelling story’ executive summary, and ease of evaluation. The powerful Proposal Matrix, shows how well these elements are handled in various types of proposals. However, before discussing the types of proposals, Let’s explore the quality criteria we use to assess how well crafted a proposal is.

The powerful proposal Matrix. The most powerful proposals establish standards of excellence by which other proposals are judged and found wanting.

A+ 

A- 

B 

C

D 

D- 

F 

11.  Boilerplate

Boilerplate is the amount of recycled material included in a proposal. It consists of standardized text (résumé experience lists, descriptions of previous projects policies and procedures, standard methods and approaches, equipment descriptions or specifications) and visuals. Some companies create whole sections of proposals that can be recycled from one proposal to the next. Although boilerplate makes proposal writing faster and less expensive (just plug and play, so to speak, and “viola!” you are done), it generally does not make the proposal better.

3.  Customer Focus

A poorly written proposal focuses on the seller and what is being sold, not the buyer. The worst proposals are narcissistic and self-involved- they prattle on about the seller’s experiences and capabilities as though customers will be as impressed with them as they are with themselves. The best proposals, on the other hand, link everything to the customer’s goals, needs, and requirements. They provide a problem-solving roadmap for the customer rather than an advertisement for the seller’s equipment and capabilities.

      4. Creative Page Design

Presentation is not everything, but it counts for a lot. Twenty-five years ago, when computers and proposals writers were less sophisticated, the standards for page design and format were lower. Today, anyone with a laptop and reasonable competence in Microsoft Word, Power point, and Excel (or equivalent programs ) can create outstanding page layouts and visuals. The state of the art has advanced not only in computer equipment and software but also in the average proposal writer’s knowledge of page design principles. it is inexcusable today not to bring design knowledge to bear in creating elegant proposals, with page designs that draw the reader’s eye to the right places, emphasize what is important’ and make comprehension of the offer and solution considerably easier.

5.  Compelling Story

A well-made proposal tells a compelling story of the offer and the offerer in the context of what the customer needs to succeed. It engages readers in the tale first by focusing on them and their problems and needs. Then it weaves in the seller’s solution, showing how the choices being made are the best ones, how the solution address the problem in a convincing and elegant way, how the seller has thought through all the potential barrier and alternatives, and why the seller’s solution is better than competing solutions. What makes it compelling is that the proposal answers the questions, “why us?” and why not them?”

6.  Executive Summary

In the past twenty-five years, you can trace the development of the proposal by observing the development of the executive summary. In the past, executive summaries were optional and were often blocky narratives that simply summarized the key points in the proposal. Today, an outstanding proposal includes a separate, full-color, brochure-style executive summary that is well designed, highly customer focused, and succinct in telling the story of offer. If you haven’t mastered the brochure executive summary, then you aren’t competing at the high end, and you are losing business to companies that have mastered this art.

Ease of Evaluation

6.    Finally, a powerful proposal is easy to evaluate. It is reader friendly. The customer’s evaluators have no difficulty finding what they need or understanding how your proposed solution addresses their goals, needs, and requirements. Worst proposals are relatively easy to evaluate; it is clear from glance that they aren’t complaint’ aren’t responsive, aren’t customer focused, and don’t tell a compelling story. In short, It is easy to discard them.

  On the opposite end, the best proposals are easy to evaluate because their authors have used many techniques t make the relevant information easy to find and score. Middle-of-the-road proposals are actually the most difficult to evaluate because the information is often hard to find, and evaluators have to spend a lot of time searching before they realize that some of what they need simply isn’t there.
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