SHOW
THEM THE BRICK WALL FIRST; THEN TELL THEM HOW YOU BUILT IT.
Here is a way to get a higher score on a proposal section and
win the contract for your company.
Have you ever had a proposal
section rated “unacceptable” and then gone back and reviewed the write-up to
find that you did answer the question in the bowels of your response. The evaluator did not realize that you were
building your case step by step building up to a grand climax which answered
the Government’s question. That is the prerogative of each evaluator, of course. So we must come up with a way to get our proposal section fairly rated.
Many of us have fallen into this trap of building
our case when writing a proposal section.
We spend time carefully listing the facts which we build into our
conclusion much like a brick layer builds a wall laying brick after brick until
he/she ends up with a wall. This may
work with bricklaying; but my experience indicates it is not the best way to prepare
a proposal response.
When the Government evaluator reads your response, he
or she should see the conclusion or summary first. You might also want to express that
conclusion in terms of a result or benefit you are offering the
Government. Then, afterwards, the
evaluator should see the steps by which you reached the conclusion.
If you build your case this way, you will engage the interest of the evaluator and then he/she will want to see how you laid your bricks to come up with the wall. This method will provide the evaluator with an appreciation of the value of your company.
You will stand a chance of getting a higher score and
winning the contract for your company.
