The Pursuit of Perfection: Editing Your Proposal 221 What Evaluators Like and What They Hate A few years ago, we conducted a survey of people who make their living evaluating proposals for the federal government. We wanted to know the things they like to see in proposals and the things that they hate. Here are some findings from that survey: What They Like: 1. They like proposals that follow the directions in the RFP. 2. They like compliance matrices. A compliance matrix saves them time and indicates you've been thorough. 3. They like proposals that clearly identify the vendor's differentia- tors and indicate why those differentiators matter. 4. They like section summaries. 5. They like well-organized and consistent proposals. They believe a professional-looking document shows good project manage- ment and thoroughness. 6. They like to have the contract deliverables clearly labeled. That shows you understand what you must deliver and are commit- ted in writing to doing it. 7. They like resumes that are clearly tailored to the specific project being quoted. 8. They like supplementary technical data that was not called for in the proposal, as long as it is relevant. What They Hate: 1. They hate proposals that are wordy. 2. They hate poor-quality proposals--unreadable graphics, spell- ing mistakes, typos, poor photocopying, and so forth. 3. They hate proposals that are weak or vague in responding to the RFP requirements. 4. They hate proposals that take a poor or unproven approach to solving the problem. 5. They hate proposals that have inherent deficiencies--missed re- quirements, inaccurate data. 6. They hate proposals that offer alternate or optional solutions that were never requested. A Proposal Writer's Checklist Here's a checklist you can use to determine if your proposal is "good enough." It covers the major points we've talked about in this book. If American Management Association www.amanet.org