In a competitive proposal environment—especially in the government contracting space—every word matters. Proposal evaluators are not just reading for compliance, they’re reading for value, differentiation, and confidence in your ability to perform. That’s why developing clear, compelling win themes and section themes is essential to building a persuasive proposal that resonates with your customer. What Are Win Themes? Win themes are high-level, strategic messages that communicate why your company is the best choice for the contract. They highlight your value, differentiators, and customer benefits in ways that are aligned with the customer’s stated (and unstated) priorities. A strong win theme answers this core question: Why should the customer choose us instead of someone else? Effective win themes are: Customer-focused: Emphasize benefits to the customer, not just features of your solution. Differentiating: Set you apart from competitors with clear “only we” or “first to” statements. Credible: Supported by past performance, certifications, tools, or innovations. Memorable: Reinforced consistently throughout the proposal. Developing Win Themes During your solutioning exercises, you likely completed a table that looked something like this: 

In government and commercial contracting, proposal demands can ebb and flow—but high-pressure periods are inevitable. Whether driven by shifting priorities, overlapping deadlines, or a surge of new opportunities, teams are often asked to deliver at a rapid pace with limited resources. To navigate competing priorities without overwhelming your staff, it’s essential to have intentional strategies in place that protect both performance and team well-being. Review and Prioritize the Pipeline Weekly Pipeline reviews become even more critical during the proposal busy season because tough decisions may need to be made about which opportunities to pursue. Leadership should consider the various opportunities in the pipeline, the level of readiness of the team (i.e., how much capture has been done), and the resources available to support each opportunity. Sometimes pursuing an opportunity with a low win probability can take critical resources away from an opportunity with a higher win probability. Additionally, as part of the pipeline/milestone reviews, make sure you have a bid and proposal (B&P) budget set for each opportunity being actively pursued. You should spend less time, energy, and money on low value/low profit opportunities. You never want to spend more on responding to an opportunity than you will gain from winning—unless there is a very strategic reason to do so. Finally, if your proposal team doesn’t participate in the pipeline reviews with leadership, make sure to have separate calls to review the pipeline with the proposal team so that they understand which proposals are active, as well as which proposals are coming up on the horizon. Assign out proposal leads for each opportunity so team members can understand and plan for upcoming workloads (these can always be adjusted if solicitation release dates change). When making assignments, be sure to consider any vacation times team members may have scheduled. Leverage Templates and Boilerplate When Possible Having templates ready for your team to use will save so much time and energy. You’ll want the following tools ready to use and in a place that teams can easily locate: Proposal calendars Outline/compliance matrices Kickoff decks Color team decks Writing templates Street resumes Boilerplate for common sections (e.g., management, quality, past performance, etc.) Having these templates ready will enable your team to hit the ground running. Instead of reinventing the wheel each time or searching for an old resource as a starting point, your team can focus their time on entering information into the schedule and compliance matrix templates, adjusting the writing templates to meet the formatting requirements of the solicitation, and moving forward with the proposal process smoothly and efficiently. Keep Your Team Fueled on Long Days If your team is collocated, bring in snacks to keep your team fueled during long days (granola bars, peanut butter crackers, nuts, dried fruits—and a few sweet treats like Twizzlers or mini candy bars). When teams stay in the office late to meet a critical deadline, order in pizza or have sandwiches delivered. For remote teams that are working long hours to meet deadlines, consider sending electronic food delivery certificates (e.g., DoorDash or Grubhub) to keep the team fueled and morale high. Schedule Breaks and Downtime With multiple looming deadlines and an overwhelming workload, it can be so easy to try push through a long day without any breaks. However, it has been proven that this approach can negatively affect overall output. Taking breaks is critical for maintaining productivity. Short, regular breaks can help prevent burnout, improve focus, and boost overall performance by allowing brains to rest and recharge. But the right kinds of breaks matter. Studies show that scrolling on your phone or surfing the internet can overload your brain and leave you even more depleted. Better break choices include taking a walk, doing a small chore, meditating, or chatting with a friend or coworker. Have your team aim for a five-minute break for each twenty-five minutes of work. If this seems overwhelming, remember that even breaks as short as a minute—if they are effective breaks—can improve performance and productivity. Additionally, after your teams meet a proposal submission deadline, particularly if they have been working long hours, make sure to give them some time off if the schedule allows. This will allow your team members to recharge and come back ready to tackle the next project more effectively. Bring In Extra Resources if Necessary Sometimes you might not have sufficient resources to handle all the opportunities in your pipeline. If this is the case, you may need to work with leadership to see if the B&P budget allows for bringing in consultant resources. Consultant resources may come at a higher hourly rate than your full-time team members—but they can be brought in for a short time to help meet surge demands, and then you don’t pay for them anymore once they are done with their assigned task(s). This is also generally a better option than burning out your team and then having to recruit and onboard new employees once the burnt-out team members leave. Check In with Your Team Regularly, But Keep Meetings Short It’s critical to keep a pulse on how your team is doing when stress levels are high. Check in regularly with team members to see how they are doing and whether there are any issues/roadblocks keeping them from meeting any of their deadlines. Help provide them with additional resources, if necessary, or track down information they may have been waiting on from a subject matter expert or stakeholder. But don’t flood calendars with unnecessary meetings, or overly long meetings. Check-in calls can be great—but keep them to 15 minutes or shorter. Leverage email, chat, text, and quick calls where it makes sense. Final Thoughts Managing proposal workloads effectively requires more than simply working longer hours—it requires thoughtful planning and sustainable processes. By prioritizing opportunities strategically, leveraging templates and proven tools, supporting your team’s energy and morale, and building in space for recovery, you create an environment where people can consistently perform at a high level. A well-prepared, focused, and supported team will always outperform one that is stretched too thin. When you take care of your people and streamline your approach, you position your organization for stronger results and a healthier, more resilient proposal culture over the long term.