Responding to solicitations takes a considerable amount of time and effort. Here are some tips to ensure that your organization is focused on the opportunities that you are most likely to win.
This page reveals some tips and best practices for responding to United States Department of War (U.S. DoW) solicitations.
Before writing your bid
- Don’t respond to a “blind bid”. Responding to a bid without knowing the client has slim to none chance of winning and wastes time and money.
- Validate the problem, not just the requirement. Confirm you understand the real operational problem behind the RFP. Requirements often reflect constraints, not the underlying need. If you can’t clearly state the mission impact the client is trying to solve, your solution will be generic.
- Don’t respond to a hurried bid request. If a contracting officer asks for an expedited submission, carefully assess whether you can meet all requirements. Often, such requests are simply intended to ensure the file includes multiple bids. Instead of writing a full proposal, offer a short “no-thank-you letter” and ask for a meeting with the end user.
- Assess incumbency and transition risk early. If an incumbent exists, assess what they do well, where they are vulnerable, and how transition risk will be evaluated. If you cannot credibly explain transition continuity, your bid will be downgraded.
- Conduct a competitor analysis. Before writing your bid, analyze who your competitors are, what they offer, and where your solution is stronger. Use these to write your value propositions and strengthen your competitive position.
- Use a bid/no-bid decision framework. Before committing to the proposal, walk your team through your bid/no-bid checklist. If sales and project management cannot articulate knowledge of the client, the requirement, or your competitive advantage—do not bid.
- Confirm internal capacity and delivery realism. Before bidding, validate that proposed staff, partners, pricing, and schedules are actually available. Overcommitted key personnel and unrealistic schedules are frequent post-award failure points—and evaluators can sense this.
- Build a compliance matrix to ensure a thorough response. Map each solicitation requirement to the specific section of your proposal where it will be addressed. This will ensure that nothing is overlooked and all evaluation criteria are clearly met.
- Identify the evaluation “winner profile”. Determine whether the agency is optimizing for lowest risk, lowest price, speed, innovation, or incumbent continuity. Shape your solution to what wins, not what’s technically impressive.
Bid submission content
- Don’t miss mandatory requirements. If the RFP asks for certifications, technical data, past performance formats, pricing tables, or specific documentation, you must include them. Missing one required element can make your proposal “non-responsive.”
- Explicitly state compliance—not just imply it. Use clear compliance language such as “Compliant,” “Meets Requirement X,” or “Fully satisfies Section L.3.2.” Evaluators should never infer compliance.
- Don’t submit “boilerplate” content. Reusing generic copy that doesn’t address the DoD’s specific needs signals a lack of understanding and effort. Evaluators immediately recognize template responses.
- Follow every instruction, formatting rule exactly. Match page limits, font sizes, volume structure, resumes requested, and order of sections. If they ask for 3 past performances, submit exactly 3, not more. Even a tiny compliance error (wrong font, wrong file size, incorrect solicitation number) can eliminate a proposal.
- Neglecting compliance and security requirements. Missing cybersecurity controls, export compliance considerations, or FAR/DFARS requirements is a major red flag.
- Don’t list weak or irrelevant experiences. Listing work that doesn’t relate to the RFP, or failing to explain your role, results, and relevance, also reduces your score.
- Quantify outcomes wherever possible. Replace vague benefits with metrics (e.g., “reduced processing time by 27%,” “achieved 99.98% uptime”). Quantification strengthens credibility and scoring.
- Address risk—and mitigation—proactively. Strong proposals identify realistic risks (schedule, staffing, integration) and show mitigation plans. This signals maturity and lowers perceived execution risk.
- Demonstrate accountability and governance. Clearly show who is responsible for what, escalation paths, quality assurance, and decision authority. Weak governance descriptions often lower management scores.
Writing style and submitting your bid
- Write in clear, journalistic style. Start your first paragraph by addressing who, what, where, when, why, and how, then follow with the next paragraphs with the most important proof points in order of significance.
- Use “tell–show–prove” structure. For key requirements: Tell what you will do, show how you will do it and prove you’ve done it before. This directly supports scoring.
- Write for evaluators, not stakeholders. Evaluators are scoring against checklists under time pressure. Use headings that mirror RFP language, short paragraphs, and scannable structure—even if it feels repetitive.
- Align your writing to the evaluation criteria. Organize your content in the same order and structure as the RFP so reviewers can easily score your response. Use the agency’s exact terminology and ensure every requirement is explicitly answered—no assumptions, no hidden answers.
- Keep response simple and factual. Avoid overblown claims (“best in breed,” “world class”), fancy words, condescending words (“hints,” “as stated earlier,” “again…”), or criticizing or correcting the agency’s design or requirements.
- Eliminate ambiguity and conditional language. Avoid “may,” “can,” “typically,” or “as needed” unless explicitly allowed. Ambiguity creates scoring risk.
- Use visuals and formatting to support clarity. Include simple tables, charts, and bullets to make critical information easy to find. Avoid unnecessary graphics, colours, or marketing-style layouts. Prioritize readability and consistency so evaluators can quickly extract key points.
- Conduct a red team or independent review. Have someone not involved in writing review the proposal strictly against the evaluation criteria. Writers are often blind to gaps they unintentionally assume are “obvious.”
- Prepare for compliance-proof submission. Submit 24 hours early to avoid upload or email failures, confirm receipt.
Winning bids reduce evaluator effort, minimize perceived risk, and make compliance unmistakable.