Insights Blog

APMP Certification: A selfish and selfless act

Are you considering APMP certification? Perhaps you’re already certified at the Foundation level but are wondering if you should pursue Practitioner or even Professional accreditation. Capture and proposal professionals often ponder whether certification benefits them as well as those around them. Research shows that getting certified benefits you (selfish reasons) as well as your colleagues (selfless considerations). Here are the reasons why. Five selfish reasons First and foremost, take care of yourself. Certification benefits you as follows: Get hired faster. Employment studies demonstrate that job applicants with certifications are more attractive to recruiters and employers, and thus are likely to more quickly succeed in getting a job offer. Certification is a great way to differentiate yourself from competing applicants, whether you’re applying as an employee or 1099 consultant. Advance more quickly. Research also shows that certified employees advance quickly within their companies, earning promotions at a more rapid pace in … Continue reading APMP Certification: A selfish and selfless act →

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Is your proposal’s executive summary worth the bother?

A lot of times the answer is No

This article was originally published February 10, 2021 on WashingtonTechnology.com True or false? The executive summary convinces the decision maker to award your company the contract. In the world of federal proposals, it is most likely false. Why? Because according to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), Government Source Selection Evaluation Board (SSEB) officials must score and rate your proposal based solely on the evaluation factors and subfactors. If the executive summary is not identified in the evaluation criteria, it cannot be the basis for scoring. Government proposal evaluators may only read content tied to their assigned evaluation factor(s). Therefore, they may never read the executive summary. But what about the final decision-maker, the Source Selection Authority (SSA)? Won’t he or she act favorably upon reading a compelling executive summary? The answer is, not necessarily. Even if the SSA reads the executive summary, they cannot use it as the basis for … Continue reading Is your proposal’s executive summary worth the bother? →

How readable is your proposal?

The level of readability affects how well your offer is understood

What does readability mean? Readability is a measure of how easy it is to understand a piece of writing. When writing a proposal, the level of readability affects how well your offer is understood by the reader. Best practices for readable writing include the use of a clear, easy-to-read style, active rather than passive voice, use of common words, and avoiding jargon. The Plain Language Guide recommends simple words and short sentences of no more than 15–20 words, and paragraphs that average 3–5 sentences. Check your readability in MS Word One tool you can use to assess the readability of your writing is the readability scoring feature of Microsoft (MS) Word. To turn it on, go to File > Options > Proofing, and select Show readability statistics under spelling and grammar (Figure 1). After you run a spelling and grammar check, the readability statistics in Figure 2 are produced. … Continue reading How readable is your proposal? →