Themes - The Glue That Binds a Proposal Into a Cohesive, Winning Story
Themes are the thread that ties all the different proposal sections into a cohesive, winning story.
More than tone and sentence structure they are the element that create the all important "one voice".
Everybody recognizes the need to have themes but few actually use them and fewer still know how to construct good ones.
How do the consistent winners build winning proposals? What do they know that their competitors don't?
A good rule of thumb would be to have a theme for every volume or major section.
You might also consider one theme statement for each high priority requirement (Step #1 above).
Just remember the object of the theming exercise: Don't leave any doubt or question in the evaluator's mind when it comes time to grade your proposal.
When the last word is read it should be obvious that you are the only company capable of delivering the greatest return on the customer's investment.
More than tone and sentence structure they are the element that create the all important "one voice".
Everybody recognizes the need to have themes but few actually use them and fewer still know how to construct good ones.
How do the consistent winners build winning proposals? What do they know that their competitors don't?
- No Theme - No Plot
- No Plot - No Story
- No Story - No Win
- An easily identified, unambiguous understanding of the requirements
- A point of departure in comparing your proposal to those of your competitors
- Proof of consistency in your approach
- You understand the customer's requirements and the intent behind them.
- Your approach is more than the sum of the proposal parts
- All of your claims will be supported by hard, verifiable data.
- You provide the best value at the very best price.
- Identify and prioritize a list of your customer's most critical requirements.
- Identify the forces driving the requirement and its criticality
- For each requirement summarize your approach.
- Collect the fact (from every corporate unit and every teaming partner) to support/validate the approach
- Construct the theme statement from the information collected in Steps #1 - #4
A good rule of thumb would be to have a theme for every volume or major section.
You might also consider one theme statement for each high priority requirement (Step #1 above).
Just remember the object of the theming exercise: Don't leave any doubt or question in the evaluator's mind when it comes time to grade your proposal.
When the last word is read it should be obvious that you are the only company capable of delivering the greatest return on the customer's investment.