5 Best Practices to Improve Your Proposal Writing

Ashley (Kayes) Floro • February 16, 2026
man on laptop with text 5 best practices to improve proposal writing

Writing is such a critical component of the proposal process. Because writing for proposals is different than most other writing, it is important to understand how to craft proposal narrative that will resonate and score well with the evaluators. Well-crafted proposals will highlight your message and make it easy for the evaluator to follow our proposal’s logic and main points. That’s why it’s so important to take the time to develop well-written, well-structured proposal responses tailored to the customer and the evaluators. To help highlight your key messages and make your writing easier to score, map RFP requirements into your headings; make key selling points stand out with theme statements, feature and benefit tables, and callout boxes; break up the text so it’s more digestible; substantiate all claims and quantify where possible; and focus on the customer.


Map the RFP Requirements into Your Headings

Compliance is the first thing evaluators will look for. To make compliance clear, structure your response to the proposal instructions and the evaluation criteria. Next map to other requirements, as required. For example, in technical sections, it may be necessary to map to certain Statement of Work (SOW) or Performance Work Statement (PWS). To facilitate the evaluation further, include relevant Request for Proposal (RFP) references in your section heading titles (e.g., 2.0 Staffing Approach [L.2, M.2, C.3.1]). This will make it easier for the evaluators to find the requirements they’re looking for on their scoresheet.


Make Key Selling Points Stand Out

Another key proposal writing best practice is to make your key selling points stand out using theme statements with unique text, call-out boxes that stand out, feature and benefit tables that highlight strengths, and action captions that highlight the key takeaways of associated graphics. This will help the evaluators visually locate the key strengths of your approach and the resulting benefits so that they can more easily transfer those items to their scoresheets.


Theme Statements.  Theme statements set the stage for the section and grab the evaluator’s attention because they address an issue that is important to the customer. The ideal theme statement not only presents a solution feature that addresses a customer hot button, it also articulates clear, quantified benefits. I recommend including a theme statement for every first-level section and second-level subsection and formatting those themes to stand out from the rest of the text. If you theme effectively, the theme statements will show up as identified strengths in the evaluation debrief from the customer.


Feature Benefit Tables. Feature and benefit tables are another great way to help evaluators find proposal strengths. Similar to theme statements, feature and benefit tables highlight major solution features—which ideally address customer hot buttons—and articulate clear, quantified benefits. Typically, customers want things cheaper, faster, and/or better, which you might express as low cost, low risk, high quality, efficient, and/or effective. Use feature and benefit tables in each major section introduction to highlight the key elements of your approach. This could be every first-level section for shorter proposals but may be extended to each second-level subsection for longer proposals.


Callout Boxes. Using callout boxes will help your major proof points stand out for the evaluators. To make proof points even more effective, make sure to provide the “so what?” statement. For example, it’s not enough simply to state: "We have used our proven staffing process to staff programs with 3-, 7- and 14-day turnaround times, including the MNOP program, where we staffed 15 FTEs in two weeks." Ask yourself, “So what? What does this mean for my customer?” This might prompt you to add: "Leveraging this staffing process, we provide Customer ABC with low-risk task order start-up and delivery for large, small, short-term, and long-term requirements."


Action Captions.  Action captions help the reader understand the meaning of the graphic and serve to sell the approach. They are another great way to highlight the strengths of your approach. Action captions should include a key feature and customer benefit that are highlighted in the graphic.


Break Up Text with Graphics

Graphics are key to effective proposal writing and consist of visuals such as: charts, drawings, maps, photographs, tables, and callout boxes. If used correctly, graphics are compelling, easy to understand, informative, and help to communicate your message faster and more clearly than words alone. Research shows that readers recall about 10 percent of what they read only, whereas they recall nearly 70 percent of what they both read and see. Graphics can help evaluators to easily read data, understand processes, and identify patterns or potential opportunities. Graphics also serve to visually break up the text and make the narrative more digestible for the evaluators. If used properly, graphics can help you to more effectively communicate information as well as save space since they typically also receive some font size relief.


Substantiate All Claims and Quantify

To further strengthen your message, you should also aim to substantiate all claims, quantifying where possible. Unsubstantiated claims negate the credibility of the proposal response. Instead using empty words such as “high,” “numerous,” and “highly reliable,” use quantified metrics instead. For example, rather than writing, “ABC consistently received high award fees,” you might write, “ABC consistently received award fee scores between 90 and 95 percent.” By adding proof statements as evidence and backing up your claims with facts and figures, you provide the necessary proof to validate our solution with the evaluator. Quantifying your substantiation points can make your content even more credible. However, take care not to be too specific: 20% will be perceived with more confidence than 22.4%, which may raise questions of validity.


Focus on the Customer

When we write proposals, we tend to tout our team and our solution. We tell the customer how great we are and describe the terrific solution we are delivering. However, this is not a customer-focused approach. Instead, proposals should be about how the customer’s needs are met by our solution and the benefits the customer receives. Bottom line: the focus should be on the customer, not us.


Put Them First—Literally.  One of the easiest ways to make your proposal content more customer focused is to put them first—literally. Instead of saying, “Team ABC’s solution delivers a low-risk transition,” flip the construction and write, “Customer A receives a low-risk transition with our comprehensive transition approach.” The two sentences convey the same overall message, but by putting the customer first in the sentence, you shift the focus onto what the customer is receiving rather than what you are delivering.


Use Their Name More Than Yours.  Another easy way to make your proposal content more customer focused is to use the customer’s name more frequently than your company or team name. Try this quick test. Hit Ctrl-F and search for the number of times you mention your company and/or team name. Then search for the number of times you mention the customer’s name. You should aim to mention the customer’s name more times than yours. If you find that you have mentioned the customer far less frequently, revise your text to focus more on the customer and the benefits they will receive by choosing your solution.


Speak Their Language. Be sure to use the customer’s terminology and lexicon in your proposal to gain their confidence. By knowing your customer and speaking their language, you demonstrate that you understand them and begin to establish trust. What’s more, your customer evaluators often do key word searches to find what’s important to them in your proposal. Make sure all sections include key words from the instructions, evaluation criteria, and the SOW/PWS.


Final Thoughts

Poorly-written proposals can obscure your message and make it difficult for evaluators to follow your proposal’s logic and main points. If we’re sloppy and careless in our proposal presentation, the customer can only assume that you will be similarly careless and sloppy in your contract delivery. Following these proposal best practices can help you to present our ideas clearly and comprehensively, in a way that can be easily understood and scored by the evaluators. In addition to making your proposal easier to score, strong writing can contribute to your company’s credibility in the eyes of the evaluator—which can certainly help improve your chances of winning overall.



Originally published at Proposal Reflections.

From Submission to Success: How Lessons Learned Drive Better Proposals

By Ashley (Kayes) Floro, CPP APMP • March 30, 2026
When was the last time your team truly examined why you won—or lost—a proposal? Every submission your team makes, win or lose, contains a roadmap for doing better next time. Yet many organizations treat each proposal as a standalone event, moving quickly from one bid to the next without pausing to reflect on what worked, what didn't, and why. This is a costly mistake. A structured lessons learned program, built into every stage of the business development lifecycle, is one of the most powerful tools a company can use to sharpen its competitive edge. Conducting Lessons Learned Conducting lessons learned after each proposal submission is a critical part of the business development lifecycle. It helps companies understand where they are excelling and where they need to improve. To ensure the experience is fresh in everyone's mind, each member of the proposal team should document their impressions — both positive and negative — within the first week after submission. Sample questions to consider include: Was the proposal development schedule reasonable and realistic? Why or why not? Were there any bottlenecks or major issues? If so, what were they, and how could they be mitigated in the future? Did the team work well together? If not, how could team dynamics have been improved? How effective was communication among the team? What went well? What could have been improved? Did any unexpected problems occur during proposal development? If so, how could they be mitigated going forward? Did the team stay within its B&P budget? If not, what could have been done differently? What worked best during the capture and proposal effort? What areas require improvement? A practical way to gather and analyze this feedback is to send a survey to each team member using an automated tool, which makes it easier to collate and compare responses. After Action Report Once the results are in, the Proposal Manager should review the feedback and prepare an After Action Report that details lessons learned and recommended next steps. This report should be shared with the full proposal team to ensure that insights are carried forward into future efforts. Lessons Learned Session Additionally, after contract award is announced, the team should conduct a formal Lessons Learned Session to document and discuss observations, findings, and conclusions — win or lose. By understanding where the team encountered roadblocks, and where the customer found gaps in the response, the team can address those issues and strengthen both the process and the final product on future efforts. Equally important: identify what the team is doing well and make sure those practices are preserved and repeated. Analyzing Trends and Updating Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) Conducting lessons learned after each proposal is valuable, but the benefit compounds when you step back and look at the bigger picture. On an annual basis, review your After Action Reports and lessons learned debriefs as a body of work, and analyze them for recurring themes and patterns. As the year wraps up, whether you follow a corporate fiscal year or the calendar year, ask yourself: What challenges keep surfacing? Where does the team consistently perform well? Sharing these trends with your team creates a culture of transparency and accountability, and helps focus improvement efforts where they matter most. More importantly, translate those findings into action by updating your business development and proposal SOPs. If internal feedback shows the team is consistently scrambling during production, adjust your SOPs to launch the production process earlier. If customer debriefs repeatedly cite a lack of customer understanding, take a hard look at your capture process and strengthen your call plan execution. Continuously refining your processes in response to real data is one of the clearest paths to improved performance—and more wins. Final Thoughts Every organization in this industry wants to win more, and win rates are often cited as the headline measure of a business development organization's health. While they are a useful starting point, win rates alone don't tell the whole story. Too many variables influence any single outcome. What matters more is building the discipline to learn from every effort, regardless of the result. A consistent lessons learned program, paired with annual trend analysis and a willingness to update your processes, creates a feedback loop that makes your team sharper over time. The companies that win consistently aren't just the ones with the best writers or the biggest budgets, they're the ones that treat every proposal, win or lose, as an opportunity to get better.

Six Strategies to Tackle Tight Page Limitations

By Ashley (Kayes) Floro, CPP APMP • March 25, 2026
Tight page limitations are continuing to be a challenge as contracting officers streamline their acquisition processes. When faced with tight page restrictions, we often find ourselves struggling with trimming five pages of material into two pages of allocated space. However, sometimes the content we are working with is so long because it is simply overly wordy. In this article, I present six tricks for eliminating waste. 1. Use Active Voice With active voice, the subject of the sentence comes first and performs the action in the sentence. Active voice is more straightforward and concise than passive voice. It typically results in shorter, sharper sentences. So not only does it take up less real estate, it flows better and is easier to understand. Passive: It was decided by the Program Manager to streamline the program. Active, Strong Verb: The Program Manager streamlined the program. 2. Eliminate Redundancies Remove redundancies that take up extra space and don’t add value. I present some examples below.
icons demonstrating how to write clearly

Write Clearly: Why “More” Isn’t Always Better

By Ashley (Kayes) Floro, CPP APMP • March 23, 2026
In the world of proposal development, there’s a persistent misconception that longer writing signals deeper thinking. Teams sometimes feel pressure to fill pages, add more qualifiers, or expand explanations in hopes that additional words will make their message more persuasive. However, the opposite is often true. Clear writing is powerful because it makes it easy for the reader to understand, evaluate, and remember your message. The goal should be clarity, not volume. The most effective writers know that concise, direct language carries more impact than dense paragraphs and complicated phrasing. In this article, we present seven practical tips to help you write more clearly and effectively. 1. Break Up Long Sentences and Paragraphs Long sentences are one of the most common causes of unclear writing. When a sentence stretches beyond 25–30 words, it is easy for readers to lose track of the main point. Instead of packing multiple ideas into a single sentence, break them into shorter, focused statements. Each sentence should communicate one main idea. Example Less clear: Our team will implement a comprehensive data management framework designed to enhance reporting capabilities while also improving accessibility for users across multiple departments. Clearer: Our team will implement a comprehensive data management framework. This approach improves reporting and makes data more accessible across departments. Shorter sentences reduce cognitive load and help readers absorb information quickly. Similarly, large blocks of text can overwhelm readers. Each paragraph should focus on a single idea or topic. If a paragraph begins to cover multiple points, consider splitting it. Shorter paragraphs make it easier for readers to scan and process information. 2. Avoid Nominalizations Nominalizations occur when verbs are turned into nouns, often ending in -tion, -ment, or -ance. While they are sometimes necessary, they can make writing more abstract and wordier. Whenever possible, convert nominalizations back into strong verbs. Example Wordy: The implementation of the solution will result in the improvement of operational efficiency. Clearer: Implementing the solution will improve operational efficiency. Strong verbs make writing more direct and easier to understand. 3. Choose Strong, Specific Verbs Weak verbs like make, do, provide, conduct, or perform typically require additional words to explain what is happening. Strong verbs communicate action more clearly and concisely. Example Weak: Our team will conduct an analysis of system performance. Stronger: Our team will analyze system performance. Replacing weak verb phrases with precise verbs makes writing sharper and more confident. 4. Remove Unnecessary Words Many phrases in proposal writing add length without adding meaning. Words like very, really, quite, and in order to clutter your sentences. Look for opportunities to tighten phrasing. Examples In order to → To Due to the fact that → Because At this point in time → Now The goal isn’t to eliminate detail, it’s to eliminate filler. 5. Use Active Voice When Possible Active voice makes it clear who is responsible for an action and typically produces shorter sentences. Passive voice can be useful in certain situations, but overuse can make writing vague and indirect. Example Passive: The report will be completed by the team next week. Active: The team will complete the report next week. Active voice improves clarity and accountability. 6. Use Lists When Appropriate When presenting multiple related items—steps, benefits, features, or requirements—lists can improve readability. Lists allow readers to quickly understand key points without digging through dense paragraphs. They also highlight structure and make complex information easier to follow. Final Thoughts When readers can quickly understand your message, they are far more likely to absorb your ideas and act on them. Remember: strong writing isn’t measured by how many words you use. It’s measured by how clearly those words communicate your message.