TArticles tagged with: proposal evaluators

50 Words and Phrases to Use in Resumes

Persuade evaluators that your candidate is best placed to perform the work and implement your solution

Customers look for candidates, who understand their work, and possess the skills to help them achieve their objectives and overcome challenges. Customers also look for candidates, who have achieved recognition from their customers and industry and who show thought leadership and innovative approaches. Resumes that merely present a laundry list of tasks the candidate has performed will not score well as compared to resumes that describe how the candidate met and exceeded the customer’s requirements. If evaluators find the technical, management, and past performance scores are tight between competitors, resumes can often become the deciding factor for the win. Using words or phrases that persuade evaluators that your candidate is best placed to perform the work and implement your solution can increase your proposal score. The next time you want to write a resume consider using one of the following 50 words and phrases to highlight your candidate’s qualifications and … Continue reading 50 Words and Phrases to Use in Resumes →

4 tips for effective proposal writing in the digital age

A 2015 Microsoft study found that digital distractions have resulted in the average person having an 8-second attention span—less than a goldfish! A 2016 Harvard Business Review (HBR) article stated that bad writing is the biggest productivity buster. Yet, we still write proposals the old-fashioned way, as if proposal evaluators have unlimited time and focus. Modernize your proposals to win in the digital age by learning from digital marketers. Here are four tips to grab the evaluator’s (short) attention with winning content. Calls to action Calls to Action or CTAs tell the reader what to do next. An effective CTA puts the right message in front of the right people at the right time. We see these techniques every day online when we read call now, find out more, or visit a store today. Of course, every CTA must have an associated benefit, such as savings or access to a … Continue reading 4 tips for effective proposal writing in the digital age →

How to increase audience engagement by varying your writing style

Varying sentence structure and length is key to maintaining reader interest

Do you ever get bored or even sleepy when reviewing a proposal? Have you ever found yourself at the bottom of a paragraph, but you can’t recall what it said? I know I have. If we feel that way, with only one proposal to read and a vested interest in improving the proposal, imagine how your customer feels. Your customer has stacks of proposals to assess. Further, many evaluators aren’t directly invested in the resulting contract; they were just assigned to help get the evaluation done. Given these conditions, it’s easy for reviewers to tune out. The last thing we want to do is provide a poorly written proposal to evaluators whose attention is already slipping. We want to avoid monotonous writing that lulls readers to sleep like the rhythm of riding a train. Instead, we should achieve a writing style with bursts of speed, exciting turns, and pauses for reflection and absorption. Two ways to engineer interest … Continue reading How to increase audience engagement by varying your writing style →

Improving the quality of proposal content with the APB writing model – Part 2

The APB method simplifies writing tasks and makes it easy for the government to evaluate your text

In the last post of the APB writing model series, I argued that training your proposal team to follow a standard writing model is the best approach for improving proposal content. In this post, I’ll introduce you to the APB writing model you should implement and describe the benefits this writing model achieves. After reading this post, you’ll be ready to transform your bids. The APB model stands for approach, process, and benefits. I liken the APB model to a police officer’s All Points Bulletin. A cop’s APB makes what they’re looking for abundantly clear so other officers won’t miss it. In the same way, your writing needs to make your strengths abundantly clear to evaluators so they won’t miss them. The APB structure gives the evaluators all the detail in an easy-to-read format so they can find and record those strengths and rate your proposal as outstanding. In addition … Continue reading Improving the quality of proposal content with the APB writing model – Part 2 →