Proposal Evaluation Service - FAQ

Our Proposal Evaluation service, also known as the 21-Point Proposal Check-Up, is an expert third-party review of a proposal you’ve already submitted. We assess it against 21 best practices that decide how evaluators score proposals, and show you exactly what to keep, what to change, and how to change it on your next submission.

You receive two deliverables: a detailed evaluation report and an executive-level presentation for your leadership team that highlights the most important observations and provides examples of how to put each recommendation into practice.

No. This service is only for reviewing proposals that have already been submitted. That’s deliberate: a submitted proposal shows how your team actually writes under deadline, which is where the most valuable lessons are. Every recommendation is written for your next submission, so the review prepares you for the next opportunity rather than performing an autopsy on the last one.

If you need help with a proposal you’re writing now, ask us about our Proposal Writing service.

We evaluate your proposal against our 21-point framework, organized into five categories:

• Strategy — win themes, differentiators, and whether the proposal is client-focused throughout
• Cover Letter and Executive Summary — whether the front of the document leads with the client, explains how you’ll deliver, and quantifies why it matters
• Design and Layout — cover page, table of contents, visual consistency, and the effective use of graphics
• Narrative (Style) — whether the proposal communicates at skim level, sounds authentic, and is easy to read and well written
• Narrative (Content) — project understanding, proposed solution, approach and methodology, relevant experience, team presentation, and references

For each of the 21 elements, we set out the best practice, explain what it means for your specific RFP, document what we observed in your proposal (with page references and quotes), rate the improvement opportunity, and provide specific recommendations.

No. The evaluation tells you what to change, why, and in what order; your team makes the changes on your next submission.

That said, we don’t leave you with abstract advice. The executive presentation includes before-and-after examples that rewrite selected passages from your own proposal, so your team can see exactly what each recommendation looks like in practice. Often the fix is already in your own words, just in the wrong place.

Any formal proposal submitted in response to an RFP, RFQ, RFSQ, tender or similar solicitation in the public, private or non-profit sector. Along with your proposal, we review the RFP itself, its evaluation criteria and any addenda, because how well a proposal answers the question asked is part of what we evaluate.

It’s a professionally designed report of roughly 25–30 pages. It opens with an executive summary and your Top 10 Recommendations, followed by a section for each of the five categories. Every element is laid out the same way: the best practice, what it means for your RFP, what we observed in your proposal, the improvement opportunity rating, and our recommendations.

It’s written to be used, not filed: your proposal team can work through it element by element on your next submission.

The presentation turns the report into decisions. In a one-hour session via MS Teams or a similar platform, we walk your leadership team through:

• The full 21-element scorecard at a glance
• The strengths to protect as you change anything else
• The most important focus areas, each with what we found, why it matters and what to do about it
• Before-and-after examples that rewrite passages from your own proposal, so the recommendations are concrete
• Where it applies, draft win themes and key messages built from your strongest proof points
• The few investments only leadership can authorize to make the improvements stick

You keep the slides, with full speaker notes, so the content can be reused in internal training.

It’s designed for organizations that submit formal proposals and aren’t winning as often as they should. If your win rate is under about 35%, or you’ve lost a bid you expected to win, an evaluation will show you why. It’s equally valuable when you’re winning but can’t say exactly what’s working and want to make it repeatable.

Yes. Experienced teams often benefit the most because they’ve developed habits that no one has questioned in years. An objective review surfaces blind spots and confirms the strengths worth protecting. The worst outcome of any review is “fixing” something that already works, so we name your strengths explicitly before we recommend any changes.

Yes. We routinely evaluate complex, high-stakes submissions for government, health authorities, Crown corporations and major private owners, including multi-volume, multi-discipline and alliance or collaborative-delivery bids. We read the RFP’s evaluation criteria and weightings, mandatory requirements and every addendum, so our recommendations reflect how your proposal was actually scored.

Yes. Every element in our report includes a “For this RFP” analysis that applies best practices to your specific opportunity: the owner, the delivery model, the evaluation weightings, your competitors, and any addenda that changed the rules. Recommendations are tailored to your sector and your market, not generic proposal advice.

Our deepest experience is in architecture, engineering and construction, and in professional services firms competing in procurement-heavy markets across Canada.

The best times are:

• After a loss you expected to win, while the bid is still fresh
• When your win rate has dipped, or after a string of tough losses
• Before a must-win pursuit, so the lessons are applied when they matter most
• When you’re building or refreshing your proposal content, templates or team, so you start from an accurate baseline

Even strong firms with excellent credentials make the same handful of mistakes:

• No explicit win themes. The firm knows why it should win, but the proposal never says so consistently. The strongest claim appears once and then disappears.
• Facts without benefits. Differentiators are listed as credentials, leaving the evaluator to work out why they matter.
• Firm-first openings. The cover letter and section openers lead with the firm, not the client and the project.
• No executive summary, or a weak one. The front of the document, where evaluators form their first impression, goes unused.
• Invisible at skim level. Evaluators skim before they read; if the win story isn’t in the headlines, callouts and captions, it’s missed.
• Unattributed proof. Testimonials and case studies are generic or anonymous, so they read as self-praise rather than third-party validation.
• Answering a different question. A response restates corporate values instead of answering what the RFP actually asked.

The report opens with your Top 10 Recommendations, ranked by impact, so your team knows where to start. Each of the 21 elements is then rated on a five-point Improvement Opportunity scale, from Significant (a structural gap) to Minor (the element is working well), so you can see at a glance where the biggest gains are.

Every recommendation begins “On your next submission…” and is specific enough to act on. The executive presentation then shows the most important recommendations in practice, using examples drawn from your own proposal.

When you’re close to a proposal, it’s hard to see it the way an evaluator does. Your team knows what it meant to say, so it reads what it intended rather than what’s on the page. An experienced outside reviewer reads it cold, the way evaluators do, and spots the gaps your team has learned to look past.

Both. The executive presentation opens with what’s working, because these are the strengths to protect as you change anything else. Throughout the report, our observations call out passages that already meet the best practice, and often the fix for a weak section is a strong passage that already exists elsewhere in your proposal.

Debriefs are valuable, but they’re usually brief, cautious and focused on scores rather than causes. Evaluators rarely tell you how to fix what they marked down, and they never tell you what they’d have rewarded if you’d included it.

Our evaluation covers all 21 elements, with page-level observations and specific recommendations. It works best alongside your debrief: share the debrief notes with us, and we’ll factor them into the evaluation.

Simply complete the form on this page. We’ll respond within one business day to confirm the Proposal Evaluation is the right fit for your goals and to answer any questions. Once you’re ready to proceed, we’ll send an invoice. After payment is confirmed, you’ll receive a brief intake survey to help us understand your goals, industry, and proposal context, along with a secure SharePoint link to upload your submitted proposal(s) and the related RFP/bid documents.

Within 10 business days, you’ll receive a detailed evaluation report, followed by an executive-level presentation to your leadership team. The presentation highlights our most important observations and recommendations, with examples showing how to put each one into practice..

Only briefly. After you complete the form, we’ll set up a short call to confirm the evaluation fits your goals and answer any questions. Everything after that, from the intake survey to uploading your documents, is handled online.

The one meeting we strongly recommend is the executive presentation at the end, held via MS Teams or a similar platform, where we walk your leadership team through the findings.

We start work right away. We review your proposal alongside the RFP, its evaluation criteria and any addenda, and read your intake survey so we know which issues matter most to you. Each of the 21 elements is assessed, rated and documented with observations and recommendations.

Within 10 business days, you’ll receive the full evaluation report. We then schedule the executive presentation with your leadership team via MS Teams or a similar platform, at a time that suits you.

Our standard turnaround is 10 business days from the day you upload your proposal and RFP documents. If you’re facing a tight deadline, such as a debrief or an upcoming bid you want to apply the lessons to, let us know when you complete the form. We’ll do our best to accommodate your timeline.

Yes. We’re happy to sign a mutual NDA before you share any documents; we can provide our standard template or sign yours. Your files are stored on secure systems, access is restricted to a small review team, and your proposal and report are never shared outside that team.

Your senior leadership team, plus the people who lead your proposals and business development. The most valuable recommendations, such as building a content library, gathering client testimonials between pursuits or setting a standard for the front of every proposal, need leadership to authorize them. When leaders hear the findings first-hand, changes happen faster.