Writing powerful and engaging proposals is a significant aspect of business development in the humanitarian and international development sectors. It's not just about directly responding to the evaluation criteria or requirements, but it's about crafting a narrative that allows the reader to fully immerse themselves in the scenario we're describing – the location, the people, the situation. This multi-sensory appeal helps your proposal stand out, making it more memorable among countless other submissions.
One of first things I recall learning as a new business development coordinator at Chemonics is that proposals need to be invigorated with ‘taste’ and ‘smell’ and ‘feel’.
Any seasoned proposal writer will tell you that this isn't an easy task. Your average USAID Technical Evaluation Committee member, for example, who may not always be a subject matter expert, has to go through and score potentially up to 15 proposals, each about 30 pages long, in response to the same request for proposals. And the same thing can affect a seasoned proposal writer! Eventually it can feel as if you are stuck in a loop, writing the same proposal over and over again. But, there are ways to keep things fresh and impactful.
We've shared a variety of research methods that we can use to improve proposal quality, but today I'm going to focus on how improving in-country capture efforts can help infuse proposals with that little extra spice to help them stand out!
Strengthening Your Organization's Capture Planning
We all know that while you can write a proposal never having seen or visited the context, it's going to fall flat.
Basically, we need to marry the situational context and locally-led solutions with compelling language and approaches that are responsive to donor priorities and requirements. As donors lean into advancing localization agendas, business development – which has historically been heavily led and managed by HQ-based (often US-based) teams – will also need to follow suit. As the industry continues to shift toward field centered program design and development, there are great ways that both HQ and field-based colleagues can leverage their know-how and play leadership roles in capture.
Here are a few ideas on how you can enhance your organization's capture planning:
Formulate Diverse Capture Teams
Having multiple perspectives on a problem or challenge can lead to more comprehensive solutions. Working in teams also promotes knowledge sharing, capacity building in various tasks, and the cultivation of more than one proposal 'champion’. Combining the talents of junior and senior members, HQ and local staff, and consultants can be fruitful.
Get that In-Country Presence
If possible, consider deploying your team to the location. Principal knowledge and experience that comes from having your team members on site cannot be understated. Interacting with local partners, stakeholders, and SMEs can provide a wealth of understanding, can facilitate technical and costing insights, and help in building a winning team.
Show up Virtually (if that's your only option)
If in-person presence isn't feasible, dedicate a block of time to solely focusing on capture related tasks for the opportunity in question. Engage in stakeholder meetings, recruitment, and other research related tasks.
When Covid derailed any non-mission critical travel (and even that was dicey), business development teams I worked with tried out blocking several days to a week to focus only on capture related to that opportunity – e.g., prospective partner or government stakeholder meetings, recruitment, even desk research. Again, if team work is possible, do it - advancing capture is easier when people share what they are learning in a timely way and builds momentum.
Integrate Community Input
Whenever possible, engage the intended beneficiaries in your planning. Hosting round-table discussions with local SMEs or civil society organizations can provide invaluable input on the challenges and opportunities from a local perspective.
Early Planning for Win Theme Development
Don’t wait until the solicitation is released to work through win theme development – key inputs to developing win themes are the anticipated evaluation criteria; your assessment of client needs, objectives, hot buttons, and limitations; competitive assessment; and strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) – these are all elements that you should be exploring as part of your capture planning.
In Summary
I’ll wrap up by letting y’all know that, further to our comprehensive capture management and capture travel support services, Bid Boss can help with dedicated in-country capture research and exploration. Whether your team needs direction, an extra set of business development or technical “hands,” we can help round out your team and keep everyone on track.
