By Kate Egbabor
Each year, capable consulting firms and professional service providers invest significant time and resources into improving their proposal writing. They hire writers, purchase templates, attend workshops, and refine language, yet continue to lose competitive bids.
The problem is rarely poor writing.
More often, organizations are focusing on the wrong part of the proposal process.
In competitive procurements, proposals are not evaluated as essays or marketing documents. They are assessed against predefined criteria, compliance rules, and scoring logic. Writing matters, but it comes at the end of the process rather than the beginning.
The Misunderstanding at the Core of Proposal Failure
Many firms approach proposals as a communications exercise. They believe clarity, persuasion, and strong storytelling will determine outcomes. While these elements have value, they are not what drives scoring decisions.
What determines outcomes is alignment. Alignment with mandatory requirements. Alignment with evaluation criteria. Alignment with the buyer’s priorities. Alignment with how evaluators are instructed to score.
When this alignment is missing, even well written proposals struggle to perform.
This is why many firms experience the same pattern repeatedly. Polished submissions. Positive informal feedback. Occasional shortlisting. Few consistent wins.
Proposals Are Scored, Not Read
One of the least discussed realities of competitive bidding is that proposals are evaluated under structured scoring processes.
Evaluators are often working under time pressure and are required to follow scorecards. Their responsibility is not to reward creativity. It is to assign defensible scores that can withstand scrutiny.
As a result, proposals succeed or fail based on how clearly requirements are addressed, how easily evidence can be located and verified, how effectively risks are reduced from the evaluator’s perspective, and how confidently the evaluator can justify awarding points.
In this context, strong writing without structure becomes a disadvantage rather than a strength.
The Strategic Work Happens Before Writing Begins
Firms that win consistently do not treat proposal development as a writing task. They treat it as a strategic process.
Before drafting a single sentence, they focus on opportunity qualification, interpretation of requirements, understanding of evaluation logic, deliberate positioning, and risk management.
By the time writing begins, much of the outcome has already been shaped.
Why Templates and Reused Content Fall Short
Many organizations rely heavily on templates or recycled content from previous proposals. While this feels efficient, it often undermines competitiveness.
Every procurement is specific to its context. Evaluation criteria change. Organizational priorities shift. Risk tolerance varies.
Reusing content without rethinking strategy leads to submissions that are technically accurate but strategically misaligned.
Winning firms do not copy proposals. They rebuild them deliberately, guided by a repeatable framework rather than habit.
From Writing to Winning
Firms that succeed consistently are not better writers. They are better decision makers.
They understand that proposal success is the result of disciplined strategy, evaluation aligned structure, and clear positioning rather than wordsmithing alone.
Writing still matters, but only after the strategic thinking has been done.
Until more organizations shift their focus from how proposals sound to how they are evaluated, many capable firms will continue to lose bids they are fully qualified to deliver.
About the Author
Kate Egbabor: (Info@koteriasolutions.com), is a Canada-based consultant and founder of Koteria Business Academy, where she advises consultants and professional service firms on competitive proposal strategy. Through its flagship advisory, The Proposal Advisory™, Koteria Business Academy supports firms in developing structured, repeatable, and evaluation aligned approaches to competitive bidding across public and private sector procurements.
