Checklist for moving your proposal score from Green to Blue

Checklist for moving your proposal score from Green to Blue

Step 1: Understand the scoring criteria

• Understand how the government is prioritizing the scores and what criteria carries more weight.
• Understand the meaning of the language that the government is using to score your proposal in terms of your understanding and approach and potential strengths, weaknesses, significant weaknesses, and deficiencies.
• Understand the granularity of the scoring scale and how might it impact your score.

Step 2: Maximize your Strengths across all evaluated criteria

• Create a Strength budget to verify whether you have one more Strengths across every evaluated criteria and that these Strengths exceed the government’s requirements.
• Verify the customer values the Strengths you are bidding.
• Verify the Strengths support your value proposition and are not neutralized by another bidder.

Step 3: Increase your Confidence Rating (if scored)

• Describe how your solution produces successful mission outcomes, while minimizing risk.
• Identify potential or actual risks and provide primary and secondary plans to mitigate them.
• Describe how your approach proactively detects, mitigates, and communicates risk status.

Step 4: Conduct independent review and verification

• Develop a scorecard for reviewing your proposal like one that the government uses.
• Select reviewers who know the customer well to score the proposal, as well as third-party independent consultants who can provide an independent review of your Strengths.
• Hold multiple reviews pre- and post-RFP release to help increase your score.

Use the findings from steps 1, 2, 3, and 4 to improve your score, and for more information refer to our 10 Steps to Creating High-scoring Proposals book, which is available by clicking on this link.

By Brenda Crist, Vice President at Lohfeld Consulting Group, MPA, CPP APMP Fellow

Lohfeld Consulting Group has proven results specializing in helping companies create winning captures and proposals.
As the premier capture and proposal services consulting firm focused exclusively on government markets, we provide expert assistance to government contractors in Capture Planning and Strategy, Proposal Management and Writing, Capture and Proposal Process and Infrastructure, and Training. In the last 3 years, we’ve supported over 550 proposals winning more than $170B for our clients—including the Top 10 government contractors. Lohfeld Consulting Group is your “go-to” capture and proposal source! Start winning by contacting us at www.lohfeldconsulting.com and join us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

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