What Should Happen Before You Start Writing a Proposal
Most proposal problems begin before anyone starts writing. When an RFP lands, the instinct is to open a blank document and move quickly. But the strongest responses are shaped first by disciplined preparation: understanding the requirements, the scoring, the evidence, and determining who owns each part of the response.
Read the Entire Solicitation: Twice
The first read is for orientation: understanding scope, timeline, and structure. The second read is for extraction: pulling out every mandatory requirement, evaluation criterion, formatting rule, and submission instruction into a working document. Requirements are often scattered across sections (instructions to offerors, statement of work, evaluation criteria) and missing one buried in an appendix can be disqualifying.
Understand How the Proposal Will Be Scored
Before writing, know exactly how evaluators will score the response. If the technical approach is weighted more heavily than past performance, your team's time and best material should go there first. Writing without this understanding often produces a proposal that's well written in the wrong places.
Assign Ownership Clearly
Every section needs a named owner, not a general sense that "the team" will handle it. Ambiguous ownership is one of the most common causes of last minute scrambling, inconsistent tone, and missed requirements.
Identify What Evidence You're Missing
Strong proposals are built on evidence (past performance data, outcome metrics, references, and certifications), not just descriptive claims. Before writing begins, take stock of what evidence you have readily available and what needs to be gathered, requested, or created. Discovering a gap here saves time later; discovering it during final review often means the section ships without support.
Build a Realistic Timeline Working Backward From the Deadline
Include time for internal review, compliance checking, and revisions, not just drafting. Many teams build a timeline that accounts only for writing and are then surprised when review and formatting eat into the final days.
Key Takeaways
Extract every requirement before drafting begins; don't rely on memory of a single read-through.
Understand the evaluation criteria so effort goes where it's scored most heavily.
Assign clear section ownership early to avoid last minute confusion.
Identify evidence gaps before writing so sections are not left thin on support.
Build the Response Before You Write
Inclusive Strategies helps proposal teams create the structure, ownership, and evidence needed before drafting begins. Lesley Crane, a former IDOA Commissioner, and Megan Lawson, former leader of Vendor Management and Supplier Performance within IDOA procurement, bring firsthand process experience to this work. Find more practical support at inclusivestrategies.co.