The 7 Cs of Proposal Writing Success
It is becoming common knowledge that proposals are scored, not read. But as a writer, you may be compelled to tell the story in your proposal narrative. You may even get internal reviewers who lament over the fact that your proposal just isn’t telling the story well. However, in all my years of working in proposals, I have never seen evaluation points allocated for telling the story well. So my advice focuses on how to write so that your narrative scores well, applying what I call the Seven Cs : Compliant Customer-Focused Compelling Credible Concise Clear Consistent 1. Compliant. First and foremost, your response must be compliant. Structure your response to the Proposal Instructions (typically Section L) and the Evaluation Criteria (typically Section M). Next map to other requirements, as required. For example, in technical sections, it may be necessary to map to certain Statement of Work (SOW) areas (typically Section C). To facilitate evaluation, consider includin