A winning federal proposal has many facets. They include clarity, conciseness, customer concentric, connectors to evaluation criteria, and others. Two of the most critical elements are:

• A proposal from a company that the customer wants because the company understands their problem and has a creative and practical solution.
• A clear, concise presentation that can be easily read and scored quickly. A proposal that makes clear and direct connections between the presentation and the evaluation criteria.

Clarity, conciseness, direct connections to evaluation criteria begin with a tight and detailed proposal outline. Outlines are the foundations of a good paper as you may have discovered when you received an "A" on a college paper. Likewise, effective outline is the foundation for a winning proposal.