Proposal Strategy

This article explores the critical skill of saying “no” to consulting projects—a challenge many firms face as they mature. While instinct and experience often guide senior leaders, newer consultants benefit from a more structured approach. The article presents a four-part evaluation framework: two “go” considerations (risk assessment and client quality) and two “get” considerations (internal capacity and probability of winning).

A good win theme facilitates a decision-making process in the client’s mind. That decision might be to entrust you with a project that could define someone’s career. It might involve working side-by-side with your project manager for two years, or inviting your team into their office space for six months. Whatever the case, the client is making a high-stakes choice—and your job is to help them feel confident in it. This 10 step process helps you do it comprehensively and persuasively.

In a detailed conversation, John Velick shares how he uses ChatGPT to streamline proposal development. By creating dedicated project spaces, training the AI on their brand and projects, and uploading documents like CVs, RFPs, and technical reports, they’re able to generate strong first drafts for everything from project understanding sections to risk management frameworks. AI also helps with rewriting, email drafting, summarizing massive background reports, and spotting gaps in compliance with RFP requirements.

Writing the methodology section of a proposal often stalls because teams start cold and alone. Storyboarding fixes that. Borrowed from the film industry, it gives proposal teams a visual, collaborative way to map tasks, issues, objectives, and deliverables before anyone begins writing. Twennie’s Rapid Fire Methodology applies this approach to jumpstart sections in just a few hours, replacing confusion with alignment and turning writing into a frictionless final step.

Rapid Fire Methodology Storyboarding brings proposal contributors together for a focused session in which, in just 2 to 3 hours, you’ll generate all the content needed to build a strong work plan — content that normally takes days or weeks to collect. You can also extend this exercise to storyboard your entire proposal. This video focuses on the work plan portion and uses recognized best practices for proposal strategy, while throwing in some helpful hints for running an effective storyboarding session. Look for related units on this exercise under the topic, Proposal Management.

A good win theme facilitates a decision-making process in the client’s mind. That decision might be to entrust you with a project that could define their career. It might involve working side-by-side with your project manager for two years or inviting your team into their office space for six months. Whatever the case, the client is making a high-stakes choice and your job is to help them feel confident in it. This 10 step process helps you do it comprehensively and persuasively.

This video introduces the essential skill of analyzing an RFP before proposal writing begins. It explains why risk language should be reviewed first, especially clauses that expand consultant liability, and how that analysis supports an early go/no go decision. It then shows how different team members should focus on the parts of the RFP most relevant to their roles, from mandatory criteria to scope, formatting rules, and submission logistics.

Years of experience may suggest expertise, but clients are often more persuaded by direct evidence of achievement. This video explains how organizations can collect and manage quantifiable evidence such as project counts, construction value, delivery performance, client satisfaction, specialized expertise, and measurable outcomes. It explores practical methods for gathering data from project records, closeout reviews, client feedback, and operational systems without overburdening technical staff.

Rapid Fire Methodology Storyboarding brings proposal contributors together for a focused session in which, in just 2 to 3 hours, you’ll generate all the content needed to build a strong work plan — content that normally takes days or weeks to collect. You can also extend this exercise to storyboard your entire proposal. This video focuses on the work plan portion and uses recognized best practices for proposal strategy, while throwing in some helpful hints for running an effective storyboarding session. Look for related units on this exercise under the topic, Proposal Management.

Every consulting firm experiences proposal losing streaks. This video explains how to respond productively by managing team morale, conducting effective client debriefs, analyzing proposal weaknesses, preserving lessons learned, and avoiding defensive reactions. It introduces Twennie's Backlog Recovery Workshop, proposal funeral exercise, and recovery prompt set to help teams extract valuable intelligence from every loss.

Discover how to build your own Proposal Evaluation AI Companion using Twennie's Proposal Win Strategy Evaluator. This video shows how to train ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Claude, Gemini, and other AI platforms to review proposals using a structured, repeatable methodology. You'll learn how to create a reusable AI assistant, upload supporting documents that improve evaluation quality, and conduct disciplined proposal reviews before making revisions.

After completing this prompt set, your team will be more familiar with the terms associated with win themes and Blue Team Reviews (impartial reviews for evaluating the strength of your win themes before committing them to writing in the proposal.) They will be more comfortable talking about client expectations and in particular, their emotions. They’ll be quicker with answers during win theme strategy sessions and will know what’s expected of them during a proposal development process.

A proposal losing streak doesn't have to become a long-term setback. This prompt set guides you through 20 practical activities designed to rebuild backlog by thinking like business developers. Participants identify new opportunities, reconnect with clients, attend industry events with purpose, capture valuable market intelligence, and become more selective about which pursuits deserve proposal effort. Along the way, you'll develop repeatable systems for relationship management, opportunity qualification, follow-up, and strategic decision-making.

The 10 Steps to a Win Theme exercise helps proposal teams build a stronger win strategy by moving through a structured sequence of client and project analysis. The team examines what the client values, what makes the project unique, what could go wrong, and what success looks like before defining solution features, client benefits, relevant experience, and quantified proof. The exercise ends by turning those insights into win themes that can shape headings, callouts, graphics, and executive summary content.

Proposal losses become valuable when teams learn from them together. This facilitated workshop guides participants through a structured review of recent pursuits, proposal debriefs, client relationships, and pursuit decisions to uncover recurring patterns that affect proposal success. Using collaborative analysis, discussion, and practical planning, teams identify improvements to future submissions, prioritize client follow-up opportunities, strengthen business development strategies, and assign recovery actions.

Proposal losing streaks happen to every consulting firm, but they don't have to become long-term setbacks. This workbook provides practical tools to help teams analyze proposal losses, conduct effective client debriefs, facilitate backlog recovery workshops, capture institutional knowledge, strengthen client relationships, increase business development activity, attend industry events strategically, and qualify pursuits more carefully.

The Proposal Win Strategy AI Companion Template teaches ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, Gemini, and other AI platforms how to conduct disciplined proposal evaluations using Twennie's Ten Steps to a Win Theme methodology. Rather than rewriting proposals, it guides AI through a structured review of client understanding, project insight, critical success factors, competitive differentiation, evidence, and proposal storytelling.