TArticles tagged with: Strengths

Checklist for moving your proposal score from Green to Blue

Follow these steps to improve your score

Checklist for moving your proposal score from Green to Blue Step 1: Understand the scoring criteria Understand how the government is prioritizing the scores and what criteria carries more weight. Understand the meaning of the language that the government is using to score your proposal in terms of your understanding and approach and potential strengths, weaknesses, significant weaknesses, and deficiencies. Understand the granularity of the scoring scale and how might it impact your score. Step 2: Maximize your Strengths across all evaluated criteria Create a Strength budget to verify whether you have one more Strengths across every evaluated criteria and that these Strengths exceed the government’s requirements. Verify the customer values the Strengths you are bidding. Verify the Strengths support your value proposition and are not neutralized by another bidder. Step 3: Increase your Confidence Rating (if scored) Describe how your solution produces successful mission outcomes, while minimizing risk. Identify … Continue reading Checklist for moving your proposal score from Green to Blue →

50 Words and phrases that call attention to your benefits, strengths, and discriminators

Helps the customer recognize them and can help raise your proposal score

Calling out your benefits, Strengths, and discriminators helps the customer recognize them and can help raise your proposal score. You can call out benefits, Strengths, and discriminators using icons, graphics, tables, words, and phrases. Consider using any of the following 50 words or phrases to call attention to the benefits, Strengths, and discriminators in your proposal. Words Advantage Benefit Differentiator Discriminator Eclipse Exceed (requirements, service levels, acceptable quality levels) Excel Exclusive Go beyond Greater than High (confidence, marks, recruitment, retention, value) Low (risk, cost) Master More than Only Outclass (outdo, outshine, outstrip, outweigh) Over Pass Significant Singular Strength Surpass Top Transcend Unique Phrases Before using one of these phrases, connect it to a user requirement, quantify or qualify the phrase, and follow it with a proof point from your experience. A benefit of our approach is [fill in the blank] A differentiator of our approach is [fill in the blank] … Continue reading 50 Words and phrases that call attention to your benefits, strengths, and discriminators →

How does the government evaluate a proposal PWS?

Developing a comprehensive and effective PWS is a great way to show the government that you understand the work

Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 37.602 gives the Federal Government the freedom to decide if the acquiring agency or the bidder prepares the Performance Work Statement (PWS). When the offeror prepares and submits the PWS as part of its technical proposal, often the evaluation criteria give the Source Selection Evaluation Board (SSEB) quite a bit of leeway in evaluating the work statement. The PWS evaluation factor may use subjective words such as “exceptional understanding” and “a comprehensive and effective PWS.” What does this really mean? In a best value trade-off, government evaluators review the PWS for Strengths, Weaknesses, Deficiencies, and Risks to determine the overall score or rating. When the RFP requests that the bidder write the PWS in response to a Statement of Objectives (SOO), bidders must use these performance objectives to craft the tasks, subtasks, deliverables or work products, and performance standards. How to achieve Strengths Strengths have merit … Continue reading How does the government evaluate a proposal PWS? →

Six tips for better content reuse

Determine whether it contributes to increased proposal wins both in percentage and in volume

Proposal content reuse at its best improves productivity and make the most of your bid and proposal (B&P) resources. Every company reuses proposal content, whether they have a formal content reuse strategy with tools, technology, and dedicated writers or individuals who reuse their own latest and greatest nuggets independently—or they are somewhere in between. As with any aspect of the proposal life cycle, successful bidders must plan, measure results, and continuously improve. Yet, all too often, companies fail to examine whether their formal and/or informal reuse processes result in content that gets the job done. The best way to measure if content reuse works is to determine whether it contributes to increased proposal wins both in percentage and in volume. Even if content reuse saves time, it doesn’t necessarily increase PWin. Content is an expression of your company Content articulates what your company is, what it does or has done, … Continue reading Six tips for better content reuse →