The Facts, Just the Facts

Do evaluators of federal proposals love reading proposals? Generally not; would you? Assignment to a proposal evaluation team requires work in addition to evaluators' day-to-day responsibilities. They find reading and scoring many large proposals on the same subject painful. So reduce their pain and increase your evaluation scores.

  • Stop trying to sell them with generalizations about your vast capabilities and experience. Don't use the phrases "world class", "uniquely qualified", and "our collective experience exceeds..." Don't spread qualifications information throughout the proposal. Let the project experience summaries in the Past Experience chapter stand for themselves.
  • Give them facts, not fluff, and prove every point you make.
  • Don't parrot back requirements information from the Request for Proposal (RFP). Just tell them precisely how you will meet or exceed the requirements.
  • Keep content short and to the point. Anticipate what they want to hear and say it simply with as few words as possible.
  • Beware of material that seems to drone on and on and repeat the same point.
  • Don't force your content to fill up to the page limit; just make sure you talk to each and every requirement and present that many pages.
  • Don't contribute information not asked for in the RFP just to impress the evaluators.
  • Try to write content that is unique to your company.

In summary, make you proposal short, sweet, and to the point. Make the evaluators happy with brevity and conciseness and let them get back to their favorite TV show.


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