Proposal Writing Tips » Proposal Evaluation

Proposal Writing: How To Increase Your Success Rate

Editor — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 22:45:47 +0000

What’s your success ratio with proposals? 25% is average. Very few get 50%. I help government agencies evaluate proposals. Most bids that come across my desk make the same errors, use the same flawed strategies and are never accepted. And the next time, they repeat the same mistake. Here are some ways to avoid this. It’s not painful, it just requires effort.

What does a Proposal Evaluator Do?

My job is to reject your proposal. I fail proposals if they miss a requirement, avoid a clause or get the figures wrong. We received 36 proposals for the last RFP. Some were over 300 pages. The less I have to review, the better.

Tip: make sure the proposals are well-bound. We scribble all over them, book-marking pages, and adding comments. Don’t use cheap papers and poor ring-binders. If they fall apart, I’m not going to re-assemble your document.

I eliminate proposals that don’t measure up. This means they fail on a technicality, are over budget, don’t agree to the deadline or have omitted to include some document.
Then I review what’s left and make a short list.
For me, evaluating a proposal is a process of elimination, not a process of selection. That happens later.
When you start your proposal, don’t focus on getting selected, instead WRITE A PROPOSAL THAT CANNOT BE ELIMINATED!

Here’s how you can do this:

Write your proposal so that the evaluator cannot reject it on a technicality.
Respond to every requirement in the Request For Proposal (RFP). This means you cannot be dis-qualified on the grounds that you were "non-responsive to the RFP."
Identify the solution. If it’s a product, name it & give the version number.
Don’t be vague. State clearly how you will do this. If possible, describe the solution in a single sentience.
Demonstrate that you have provided this expertise in a similar project.
Support you claims with case studies, white papers and other reports where you are given credit.
Provide pen portraits of your team. CVs go in the appendix.
List the benefits that your solution provides. Cross-reference these against the requirements. Itemize and prioritize each benefit.

Remember, the evaluators are looking for ways to disqualify you.

Check your proposal once, twice and three times.
Each time check for a different weakness or error. For example, once for writing errors, then for flaws in the solution and finally in the costs. You can make errors elsewhere but NEVER in the costs.

Conclusion

Write the Proposal and the Expression of Interest so that they cannot be eliminated.

Once you have this established, then drill-down into each requirements and respond from the perspective of the reader. Regardless of how good you think your proposal is, if you overlook a technicality, you’re out.

What have I missed? Let me know what you think below.

How Business Proposals Are (Really) Evaluated

Editor — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 14:45:00 +0000

If you’re new to proposal writing, either for Sales, Grants, or Government procurement, you’re chance of having your bid accepted increases when you understand how proposals are evaluated.

Business Needs Statement Checklist

How Business Proposals are Assessed

For most large-scale Request For Proposals, the proposal evaluators will create an Evaluation Grid against which they score proposals bid. Most government Request For Proposals provide an evaluation grid in the Appendix.

If the Evaluation Grid is not included with the RFP, you can assume that is will be based on the tender submission format. It is for this reason that you need to prepare your response exactly as per the submission format.

An evaluation grid is a matrix with the key criteria on one side and the weighted scores on the other.

Criteria	Weight	Score
Understanding of Requirements	2.0
Technical Capability	2.0
Proposed Solution	2.0
Project Management	1.5
Fixed Price Cost	5.0
Other Factors etc	1.0
Total

Sample Evaluation Grid

How RFP Requirements Are Scored

The evaluation team generally allocate the weight according to each respective criterion, e.g. the fixed-price costs.

However, in European Union contracts, the RFP may stipulate that most economically advantageous tender (M.E.A.T) will win the contract.

Conversely, they can also state that they are NOT bound to accept the lowest bid.

Nonetheless, you need to get the cost right. Pre-sales and business development functions should assist you in ‘guess/estimating’ where to pitch your bid.

When bidding, this should be the very first activity to undertake. Do not leave costing to the end!

Write Your Proposal To Get Higher Scores

Evaluators use different formulas to determine financial criteria, such as Value-For-Money, hidden costs and change control.

For this reason, you need to outline your costs very clearly.

Any attempt to disguise costs, e.g. bury them inside the terms and conditions, will raise suspicions and erode any trust between the bidder and the evaluators.

Conclusion

These points must be examined in depth to ensure your grant application or business proposal is heading in the right direction. For new proposal writers, it can be very difficult to see your bids rejected, when you know that the price is good value for money and the team is qualified.

In the next article, I will show you how to address this and position your Proposal in the eyes of the funding agency.

About the Author: Ivan Walsh provides business proposal writing tips, tutorials, and templates on the Proposal Writing Course every week. Get his free proposal writing newsletter here.

Request For Proposals: Writing the Format Section

7 Request For Proposal Evaluation Guidelines

Editor — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 11:41:00 +0000

Your success as a Proposal Manager depends on your ability to respond to Request For Proposal documents, understand the procurement process, write compelling responses, and coordinate your team during the writing process. However, even with the best will in the world, unless you have guidelines, templates and checklists in place, you may jeopardize your own efforts, especially if you overlook one key requirement in the bid document. Here’s how to avoid this.

Request For Proposal Evaluation Guidelines

Unless you organize the Proposal development process, your success as a Proposal Manager will be severely under-minded.

One way to avoid this is to create easy to use checklists that your Proposal writing team can follow. And, more important, help automate the writing process as much as possible.

You can start on this by creating Action Plans that itemize the key steps, actions, and action owners so everyone on the team understands their role. Here’s a list of the items you need to capture:

1. Proposal – Selection

How to identify, review and select Request For Proposals.

Sales Manager schedules meeting to review new Request For Proposals.
Sales Manager & Bid Manager decides which Request For Proposal to bid for.
Review selected tenders in advance of Monday meeting.

2. Proposal – Meeting

How to schedule, assign and plan Request For Proposals responses.

Sales team organize meeting.
Review last week’s proposals, highlight issues, and plan week ahead.
Discuss Proposal Team members and who will write each bid document.
Contact staff members required to contribute to the tender, e.g. Developer.
Agree date for proposal to be completed, e.g. 48 hours before submission date.
Update the Proposal spreadsheet on the Intranet.
Take and share meeting minutes

3. Proposal – Team Actions

How to organize the bid team for each Request For Proposal.

Read the RFP before starting any writing.
Clarify any points that are unclear with the RFP issuer
Circulate the replies to team members.
Notify Project Coordinator if resources are required and/or impact existing schedules
Notify Proposal Owner of major issues, i.e. schedule conflicts

4. Proposal – Draft Stage

How to write, edit, and gather information for each Request For Proposal.

Use the Business Proposals template.
Confirm financial details with Finance Dept.
Confirm resumes with Human Resource Dept.
Team members return completed sections to Proposal Author for compilation.

5. Proposal – Review Stage

How to proof, review, edit each draft document.

Proposal Author circulates compiled Draft 0.1 to team members.
Team members review draft copies.
Proposal Author collates next draft.

6. Proposal – Quality Assurance

How to test, proof, and circulate the draft Proposal.

Send Draft to Proposal Manager 24 hours before deadline. Late documents cannot be fully checked.
Proposal Manager checks Draft documents. Resolve queries with contributors.
Proposal Manager returns Final Draft to Proposal Author.

7. Proposal – Production

How to print, proof, and product the draft Proposal, especially if you need a hardcopy.

Proposal Manager prints required number of hardcopies.
Inform Proposal Manager in advance
Proposal Manager checks quality of final print.
Prepare labels for large envelopes.
Create CD-ROMs with company logo.
Include cover letter from Sales Manager

and in case we forget, here’s number eight.

8. Proposal – Post Production

How to archive, share, and prepare status reports on the Proposal.

Proposal Manager files ‘Final Draft’ on shared drive.
File supporting proposal documents in a sub-folder for reference.
Update team members at Monday Meeting.

What have we missed?

About the Author: Ivan Walsh provides business proposal writing tips, tutorials, and templates on the Proposal Writing Course every week. Get his free proposal writing newsletter here.