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.

Forms can fail especially in a go/no go decision because they become one more administrative step, another thing to do at a juncture when you’re stretched for time, and you will notice that they rarely surface insights that matter. That’s because they take you out of the instinctive centers of the brain and into the process centers. Process is important, but at this moment in a pursuit, not as important as good instincts. This video describes an alternative to forms and scoring.

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.

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.

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.

The Blue Team Review Exercise provides an objective evaluation of win themes developed during proposal strategy sessions. Independent reviewers assess whether the themes address key client issues, demonstrate deep understanding, and present a compelling, differentiated solution. Using a structured checklist, they examine clarity, relevance, storytelling, and the strength of supporting evidence. The process helps identify gaps, generic messaging, and missed opportunities before proposal development progresses further.