Five Common Proposal Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Winning new business in today’s competitive market, whether in the commercial or government space, depends on the strength of your proposals. Even highly capable organizations lose out when their submissions are generic, unclear, or non-compliant.
Proposals that read like a generic product or service description fail to stand out among competitors. Maybe you have cut and paste boilerplate content and simply changed the customer’s name. Maybe you have had AI generate your proposal content but failed to tailor it. Maybe you simply know nothing about the customer because the capture effort fell flat. Maybe this was a pop-up solicitation that leadership insisted on bidding. Maybe you just didn’t have enough time to produce something stronger.
The good news? Most proposal failures stem from a handful of common mistakes that can be avoided with the right strategies. This article explores those pitfalls and provides practical guidance to help you write proposals that stand out, speak directly to the customers’ needs, and maximize your chances of success.
Mistake 1: Incomplete Capture Plan and No Customer Understanding
At the heart of every successful proposal is a deep understanding of the customer. When your proposal speaks directly to your customer’s pain points and priorities, it becomes a solution that resonates. Most often, this customer understanding will come from the person nurturing the relationship with the customer—the capture manager. However, sometimes, for one reason or another, we have a missing or incomplete capture plan—and nobody on our team can shed light on what keeps our customer up at night.
If you find yourself in this situation, one powerful shortcut you can use is generative artificial intelligence (AI). You can use AI tools like ChatGPT to analyze the customer’s issues and hot buttons so you can tailor your messaging with speed and precision. Just upload the solicitation to the AI tool (as long as it isn’t marked confidential, CUI, or something similar), and then include a prompt like the following: “What are the key issues and hot buttons that concern this customer?” The tool will quickly and effectively pull out tangible hot buttons and issues present in the solicitation that you can write to in your response.
You can take this a step further and have the AI tool draft some messaging or positioning points. Though these will be somewhat high-level, and may include solution elements you need to validate, they will be a good start, and you’ll get them quickly. After you get your list of messaging or positioning points, you’ll want to validate any solution elements with your team. Then, add necessary specifics to take them from generic to compelling.
Here’s an example:
ChatGPT may come up with the following messaging point: Our implementation methodology with rapid prototyping and continuous customer feedback reduces risk and accelerates delivery timelines.
To take this from generic to compelling, you’ll want to add specifics and metrics: Our low-risk approach cuts delivery timelines in half with our proprietary Agile-based implementation methodology, which drives rapid prototyping and incorporates continuous customer feedback.
Mistake 2: You’re Not Articulating Your Value
Once you have a baseline customer understanding, you should take time to develop strong win themes—concise, compelling messages that explain why your offer is the best choice. Emphasize what makes your solution unique and how it directly benefits the customer. Win themes should:
- Reflect the customer’s top priorities
- Highlight your differentiators
- Be repeated consistently throughout the proposal to reinforce your value
For example, a win theme might be: “Our proven technology reduces operational downtime by 30%, helping achieve uninterrupted service delivery.” Once developed, reinforce these themes consistently throughout the proposal.
You can read more about developing strong win themes and section themes here.
Mistake 3: Your Proposal is Full of Unsubstantiated Claims
To go beyond the generic and cookie cutter, you’ll also want to support your claims with evidence, such as case studies, metrics, past performance, testimonials, certifications, or pilot results. For example, after indicating that our advanced analytics enable the customer’s team to make faster, data-driven decisions that improve efficiency and reduce costs by 30%, we might include a proof statement of where we have achieved this success in the past: “For example, on XYZ contract, our advanced analytics enabled the customer to cut decision times in half and resulted in cost savings of $15 million.”
By adding proof statements as evidence and backing up our claims with facts and figures, we provide the necessary proof to substantiate our solution with the evaluator. Quantifying our proof points will make our content even more credible. Additionally, demonstrating past success reduces the perception of risk and helps the customer gain confidence in your capabilities, especially when you tie your capabilities back to positive outcomes for the customer.
Mistake 4: Overloading with Jargon and Technical Terms
Subject matter experts sometimes write proposals using internal jargon or overly technical language that evaluators may not understand. If this is the case, you’ll want to take time to rewrite their inputs in clear, concise, and customer-focused language. Ensure your proposal tells a story that resonates with both technical and non-technical readers.
Remember, evaluators often review dozens of submissions under tight deadlines, so complex wording, jargon, or filler language can slow them down—or worse, obscure your key messages. Every sentence should be easy to understand and tied directly to the customer’s priorities.
But being concise doesn’t mean oversimplifying. It means distilling your ideas into their most impactful form. Replace long-winded explanations with direct statements and eliminate buzzwords that don’t add substance. For example, instead of saying, “Our innovative, cutting-edge, next-generation platform leverages advanced synergies to optimize mission outcomes,” you might write, “Our platform improves mission performance by reducing downtime by 50% and streamlining workflows.”
Some tips for clear writing include:
- Use plain language: Write as though you’re explaining to a smart colleague outside your industry.
- Cut redundancy: If you’ve already made a point, don’t repeat it unless you’re reinforcing a win theme.
- Prioritize active voice: “We deliver results” is stronger and clearer than “Results are delivered by our team.”
- Use short sentences with strong verbs: Keep sentences focused and avoid unnecessary modifiers.
- Test readability: Read your proposal out loud to catch errors or awkward sounding sentences, and use the tools built into your word processing program to check sentence length and grade-level clarity.
Concise, clear writing respects the evaluator’s time and ensures your strengths stand out without distraction. When every word adds value, your proposal communicates confidence, professionalism, and customer focus.
Mistake 5: Missing or Buried Compliance Elements
Proposals that fail to meet mandatory requirements or submission formats risk rejection or disqualification regardless of content quality. To avoid this mistake, create a compliance matrix early in the process to track all requirements. Include compliance as a key focus during color team reviews and consider assigning a specific reviewer to cross-read for compliance. Create a proposal production checklist that includes major compliance elements, and verify page limits, font size, document format, attachments, and signatures before submitting. Make sure to submit the proposal following the exact method required (e.g., online portal, email, hand delivery, courier, etc.).
Additionally, to help make sure that evaluators can find all the required information, we also want to make sure our proposal is easy to score. Structure your response to the proposal instructions and the evaluation criteria. Next map in other requirements, as required. To facilitate evaluation, consider including relevant solicitation references in your section heading titles. Additionally, evaluators often do key word searches to find what’s important to them. Make sure all sections include key words from the instructions, evaluation criteria, and the statement of work/performance work statement. To make your proposal narrative even more evaluator-friendly, leverage feature and benefit tables and highlight proof points using callout boxes.
Final Thoughts
Strong proposals don’t happen by accident, they’re the result of planning, discipline, and a clear focus on the customer. By avoiding common mistakes like generic content, jargon, missing compliance elements, or weak themes, you can transform your proposal from a basic response into a persuasive, customer-centered solution. Every submission is an opportunity not just to compete, but to build credibility and strengthen relationships. Approach each one as a chance to prove your value—and win with confidence.
Senior Consultant and President
Proptimal Solutions, LLC
proptimalsolutions.com
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