In proposal writing, resumes stand out as a key element of your value proposition. They highlight which personnel meet or exceed the requirements of the RFP and offer specific experience that demonstrate your ability to provide a winning solution.
But proposal writers often create resumes without understanding the solution, and proposal reviewers spend little time reviewing the final product. Here are four tips to help maximize the resumes in your proposals:
- It is important to decide who will write the resumes. A cost-effective approach would be to have the proposed candidate prepare the first draft of the resume, and then have a technical writer format and fill in the gaps where necessary.
- A uniform format helps standardize the process of crafting resumes and helps evaluators navigate them. Each company should develop a format that fits the proposal requirements, usually with traditional sections such as a summary paragraph, education, jobs, and specific skills/certifications.
- Resume writers should tailor the summary paragraph of each resume to the evaluation factors of the RFP. This approach will allow the evaluator to clearly identify the quality of each proposed candidate, as well as highlight any deficiencies in the resume that writers can use to get more up-to-date information or to replace for a better candidate. Writers should also address the RFP requirements within each job they list.
- If the proposed candidate does not possess the required qualifications, you should first look to find a more qualified candidate. You should NOT look to obscure deficiencies by carefully including or excluding certain words. Proposal writers should always develop clear, responsive, and well-formatted resumes.
OST Global Solutions is a professional business development consulting firm. Our capture and proposal consultants have helped our clients win more than $25 billion in funded contracts. We can provide capture and proposal teams to develop a complete, winning proposal, or we can provide consultants on a case-by-case basis to fill gaps on your business development team. Our services include capture management, proposal management, orals coaching, proposal writing, graphics support, editing, desktop publishing, and cost volume development.
Reach out to us to discuss how we can help you win your next bid.
Upcoming Bid & Proposal Academy Classes
Writing Persuasive Government Proposals
OST Global Solutions 7361 Calhoun Place, Suite 560, Rockville, MD, United StatesThis proposal writing course shows how to develop compliant and highly persuasive proposal sections in half the time, to increase your Government proposals' win probability. Learn to outline within the proposal sections for compliance and responsiveness, brainstorm as a group and individually to develop proposal section content, infuse proper structure and flow into your sections, and implement the correct writing process. Learn proposal persuasion techniques.
Proposal Editing Workshop
OST Global Solutions 7361 Calhoun Place, Suite 560, Rockville, MD, United StatesThis class teaches how to edit Government proposals while working with a proposal team. Not another English grammar class, this course teaches proposal-specific professional editing skills to improve your proposals' Pwin.
Competitive Analysis: Black Hat & Price to Win (PTW)
OST Global Solutions 7361 Calhoun Place, Suite 560, Rockville, MD, United StatesThis training covers Black Hat and Price to Win (PTW) analyses that are the backbone of the competitive analysis, and are indispensable in the highly competitive world of winning Government proposals. Master the techniques for identifying competitors; using sources for quantitative and qualitative information; organizing Black Hat sessions; devising competitors’ approach; performing SWOT analysis; postulating competitors’ win strategies; following a disciplined PTW development process; performing labor rate analysis; and more.
