Blog
Apr 25, 2018
Four Tips to Make Your Proposal Introduction Stand Out
by Kevin A. Switaj
To quote a song in the classic film The Sound of Music, bid writing needs to “start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.” A good introduction to a proposal section can make the difference between winning and losing a bid. A strong opening catches the reader’s attention and makes him/her more likely to focus on what follows. It also conveys a deep knowledge and appreciation of the buyer’s needs and teases an answer. A poor opening, or no opening at all, can alienate the reader. It makes the benefits and strengths described in the section harder to grasp.
While proposal introductions are critical to success, they also can be the hardest part of the proposal to write. Making a clear, concise statement that provides a strong opening message and tone is a struggle for even an experienced proposal writer. Keeping the following four focal points in mind can enable writers to develop quality openings to their sections.
tip 1: start with the client
As I mentioned in my previous post, the client needs to be the focus of every proposal. Accordingly, each section should begin by demonstrating an understanding of who they are. The introduction should start with an overview of the issues, challenges, and opportunities related to that specific section. What keeps the client up at night? What are their main concerns? What are the technical, management, and/or staffing issues and opportunities?
The strongest introductions happen on projects where the bid team has done thorough capture. However, it is possible to include critical information even without in-depth capture. Doing some research online on the agency, department, and personnel can go a long way. Items like strategic plans and other documentation can point to client needs and issues. Capture and proposal managers must work with their teams to make this key information available.
tip 2: do not use “we understand”
The introduction is the place in the proposal to make clear your knowledge of the client’s environment, issues, hot buttons, and success factors. When discussing this type of content, most proposal writers default to saying “Company X understands that….” Proposals should avoid this terminology at all costs. Stating “we understand” adds no value. Instead, the proposal needs to show that knowledge clearly.
There are two main reasons to avoid using the specific phrase “we understand” in proposal introductions. First, it makes the proposal about you and not the client – a violation of the central rule of proposals. Secondly, and more fundamentally, it is unnecessary. By its very nature, anything in your proposal is rooted in your understanding. Therefore, you do not need to state it.
In sum, the introduction needs to demonstrate an understanding without using that specific terminology. To do so, make sure you speak definitively. For example, “Client X requires a partner who maintains a 99.995% uptime for all servers. Falling below that percentage risks central systems being unavailable to key stakeholders. In addition, the global nature of the workforce means up-time is critical to end users providing their mission-critical support.” All of this is, at its core, an understanding of client need and environment. However, writing it as a declaration of fact rightly focuses attention on the client and not the Offeror.
tip 3: use the end of the introduction as a bridge to your solution
Introductions should put the client at ease in two fundamental ways. First, it should show a clear understanding of the client’s needs and environment, as discussed in point 2. Secondly, it provides a glimpse into how the Offeror will provide the right solution.
I use the last sentence of the introductory paragraph to show how my solution provides the right answer to their needs. This is the critical piece of the introduction, and often the hardest one to write. It needs to show a high-level approach that directly solves the issues addressed in the rest of the introduction.
I normally accomplish this by asking my technical experts to give me a one sentence summary of our approach for that section. I then can take that basic explanation to craft the introduction’s conclusion. For example, to continue the example from Section 2, “Company ABC’s technical approach combines highly qualified personnel experienced in maintaining similar server configurations with proven tools to proactively monitor system health and threats.”
tip 4: be short
As with all proposal sections, introductions need to be written with page count and available space in mind. I endeavor to limit introductions to no more than four lines. I have found that amount of space strikes the right balance between the necessary amount of detail to put the evaluator’s mind at ease while not eating up too much space. It is, as we all know, harder to write less but being succinct is the key final piece of a great introduction.
conclusion
Starting off on the right foot is critical to any good proposal and proposal section. These four tips should help you, and your team, put together a strong introduction that connects with evaluators. Then, the rest of the section can focus on detailing the strengths throughout the rest of the section.