Organizing your proposal in response to a government solicitation is one of the most important aspects of proposal writing, and often, one of the most difficult. On the one hand you have the desire to make your proposal flow nicely, to “tell the story” of why they should pick you. On the other, you have the proposal instructions which often appear to be a haphazardly thrown together list of topics the government has dictated that you shall tell them about. To make matters worse, the evaluation criteria sometimes do not seem to consistently reflect what the proposal instructions have required of you. What do you do?
There is only one clear rule for organizing your proposal: Make it easy for the evaluators to find the information that they are looking for. No matter how well written and readable your proposal is, if it doesn’t clearly provide the information that the government must have in order to evaluate your proposal in the areas they have specified, your proposal will be judged as deficient or weak and will not be accepted for award.
So, here’s generally how I “outline” my proposals. Using an Excel Spreadsheet (or a table developed in Word, whatever works best for you), I do the following:
- Take the Proposal Instructions describing the content that the agency particularly wants to see addressed in the Technical Volume, and break them down into individual sentences, in the order and grouping that the instructions follow. Each of those sentences is going to become a numbered Section (1.0, 2.0, etc.) or Paragraph header (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, under a Section header). Use exactly the words used in the RFP. Read each sentence carefully, and if there is more than one subject within the sentence, break the sentence down into individual subjects. These will become numbered sub-paragraph headers (1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, etc.).
- Take the Evaluation Criteria and break them down into individual sentences, in the order and grouping that is shown in the Request for Proposal (RFP). If the evaluation criteria wording exactly matches the proposal instructions, you will not need to add any additional section or paragraph headers. However, if there are sentences in the evaluation criteria that do not match the instructions, be sure and include a numbered Section or Paragraph using the evaluation criteria as the header.
- Next, go to the Performance Work Statement (PWS) or Statement of Work (SOW), and find the Requirements section. Read through each section, paragraph and sentence, and decide under which proposal header (from above) you should address that element of the PWS/SOW. Do this for all of the PWS/SOW requirements, noting in the outline under the applicable proposal header the PWS paragraph number(s) that will need to be addressed under that header.
- Go through the rest of the RFP, including delivery instructions (if applicable), special requirements, attachments and exhibits, making sure to note in your proposal outline where you will address the RFP requirement.
- Take the Proposal Instructions describing the content that the agency particularly wants to see addressed in the Past Performance Volume, and break them down into individual sentences. Repeat the rest of 1 and 2 above, but for the Past Performance Volume. To show clear “relevance” of your past performance, go through the PWS requirements, and make sure your description of the effort you performed that you are referencing uses the words from the PWS so that the evaluator can clearly see that it is similar in scope, complexity and size of effort.
- Take the Proposal Instructions describing the content that the agency particularly wants to see addressed in the Cost/Price Volume, and follow them exactly. Read the evaluation criteria thoroughly to ensure you understand how the government will evaluate your proposed price or estimated cost.
A couple of final notes:
- Unless you are restricted from doing so, always include a cover page showing at minimum the title of the Volume, RFP number, your company name, address and contact info, your proprietary information statement, and the date you submitted it.
- Include a Table of Contents in each Volume, unless you are specifically precluded from doing so. Also, include a Glossary of Acronyms in the Technical and Past Performance Volumes, unless you are otherwise prohibited from including it.
- Be sure and put your company name or logo on each page and make sure to number the pages according to the instructions. If no instructions are included regarding page numbers, make sure you number the pages consecutively in each volume, clearly showing that the proposal meets the page limits established in the RFP.
- Follow all naming conventions, font sizes and types, margins, page styles, and other proposal instructions exactly as stated in the RFP. If there appears to be conflicting information provided, ask for clarification. Be very clear and specific in identifying where the conflicting information is within the RFP when asking for clarification.
The information provided above is, of necessity, general in nature and applies only so long as the RFP instructions do not specify otherwise. Above all else, the RFP rules.