April 13, 2017 What do you think the most important part of your is? Right off the bat, you might think it’s the technical sections or competitor differentiators. What if we told you it was actually your executive summary?

Think about it. Your executive summary is the first company info anyone reads after they skim the cover letter—and it might be the last. It’s like the book cover of your RFP, and like a book, it will be judged. Recently the RFPIO team checked out APMP’s on-demand webinar,. It was an eye-opening presentation by Dick Eassom, Vice President at SM&A and past APMP CEO, which made us rethink our own strategy with RFP response. Today we’re going to share a few takeaways from the APMP webinar.

May 29, 2018 - An RFP executive summary is not a letter to the organization who issues the RFP. Sid meijer alpha centauri mac os x download full. On the other hand, a cover letter for an RFP response is similar to any other cover letter. Think of the most common application.applying for a job.

Whether you’ve been around RFP response for a while—or you’re just taking the proposal reins at your organization—this is a rundown on what you need to know about executive summaries to win more opportunities. Why Spend Time Writing an Executive Summary? To pull together an RFP response, we know it takes a grand effort by any sized team. The turnaround for RFPs is typically a quick one, so it’s common for businesses to cut corners to save timeespecially when that deadline is Friday and you can’t bear to work another weekend. Dick Eassom shared a great analogy in the APMP webinar that can help us relate to the importance of the executive summary in our RFPs. He said this: “If you’re buying something, like a service for your house, you’re not necessarily going to pick by price.

You’re going to pick the contractor that has the lowest risk—that will get the job done well and on time.” The executive summary is an opportunity to show our organization in the best light, to demonstrate that we understand our customer’s problems and that we can solve them. It is also a way to highlight how we are better than our competitors, which is not normally something we would discuss in public or social media.

To summarize an executive summary, it’s our offer to the decision makers. The best executive summaries get to the point without the fluff, while speaking effectively to the buyer’s needs. Which Team Members Write the Executive Summary? There is a “should” and a “will” when it comes to. Meaning, there are certain team members who should handle the executive summary, but the reality is that the proposal manager will probably end up leading it. Ideally business development and sales teams should own the executive summary and be supported by SMEs, proposal teams, and senior executives. Due to the hectic schedules of sales—and the deprioritization of RFPs—this task will often be pushed off until the last minute or skipped altogether.