Writing a federal proposal that scores well

A federal proposal is not read for enjoyment. It is scored by someone with a matrix, working through factors in a fixed order, often across dozens of submissions. Everything below follows from that.

Write to Section M

Section M lists the evaluation factors and their relative importance. That is the mark scheme. If past performance is weighted above technical approach, your best writing belongs in past performance — not wherever you happen to have the most to say.

Mirror the government's own language and ordering. An evaluator looking for a factor should find it under the heading they expect, not inferred from a paragraph three sections earlier.

Answer the question that was asked

The commonest weakness is a proposal that describes the company instead of the work. “We have 30 years of experience” is not a technical approach. How you will sequence the work, staff it, protect the schedule and control quality on this project is.

Make compliance easy to verify

• Follow Section L exactly: page limits, font, margins, file naming, forms.
• Use a compliance matrix mapping every requirement to where you answered it.
• Do not bury requirements in prose. If something is mandated, state it plainly.

Non-compliance is the cheapest way to lose. It costs an evaluator nothing to set a proposal aside for exceeding a page limit.

Past performance: relevant, recent, verifiable

Choose projects for similarity of scope, size and client type over impressiveness. Include contract number, value, dates and a reference who will actually answer the phone. An unverifiable reference is worth less than a smaller, checkable one.

Price and narrative should agree

If the narrative promises a crew size or a piece of equipment, the price should carry it. Evaluators notice when the technical volume describes work the price cannot fund.

Leave time for a compliance read

A final pass by someone who wrote none of it, reading only for Section L and M compliance, catches more lost points than another day of polishing. Schedule it before you schedule the writing.