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Also known as: executive synopsis,
management synopsis, executive abstract,
executive value proposition,
management summary, 
abstract,
versus executive summary,
winning theme,
proposal executive summary,
win theme,
executive summary versus abstract summary,
vs. executive summary,
letter proposal executive summary,
RFP response executive summary,
abstract vs. executive summary,
Request for Proposal executive summary, or
RFP executive summary.
Executive Summary definition: An Executive Summary is, basically, anything but a product presentation, and nothing but a sales pitch. Far more than an abstract merely presenting the rest of the proposal, it's your unique opportunity to convince the reader that your proposal provides the best value proposition: the best benefit at the lowest cost. The more technical your proposal, the more critical the executive summary is likely to be.
Given the proposal cover letter is not part of the proposal per se, the executive summary remains the most important section of your proposal. Keep in mind the executive summary is the only part of your proposal that will be read by each and any member of the decision panel, if any. More important, experience tells you in reality that it's the only part that an executive, a person who has the definitive power over the final decision, will read from your proposal.
Common misspellings: exective summary, execitive summary,
eccutive
summary,
managment summary, excutive summary, executive sumary, executive summry,
or eecutive summary.
By writing your Executive Summary first, you ensure the rest of your proposal to be aligned with the persuasive message you want to deliver.
Use the executive summary template and sample provided in your FREE RFP Letters Toolkit to create your own executive summary from a template.
This is the "executive summary vs. abstract summary" battle. All so-called experts say that you should write the executive summary like an abstract, that is, when the rest of your proposal is written. Because this part is called the summary of the whole document, logic dictates that you should write the document first in order to be able to summarize it.
And that's exactly the pitfall to avoid when writing an executive summary for your proposal: the executive summary is not an abstract. We may even say, paradoxically, that the executive summary, unlike the abstract, is not a summary, it's your value proposition, your best, unique opportunity to sell your solution!
To stand out from your competitors, read Abstract vs. Executive Summary: Discover The Main Differences.
Indeed, by doing so, you give an opportunity to people, particularly technical, who will write the rest of the document not to be aligned with your initial objective which is to focus on benefits (to be persuasive) instead of features (to be demonstrative).
At the contrary, we highly recommend you to write the executive summary first. Don't you think a well-written value proposition should be done first? Indeed, it will act as guidance for other people for writing the rest of the document and ensure a consistent winning theme. Furthermore, to be executive, the summary should be readable by non-technical people and, therefore, should not overwhelm the reader with too much technical information, if any, or too many details.
By keeping your executive summary concise and precise, you will enable the reader to seize your point quickly. An amazing consequence is that, following the rule of electricity saying that current takes the path presenting the least resistance, evaluators and decision makers, guided by their human nature advising them to save resources for later, will pick up the shortest or lightest proposal first. If it's yours, it will serve as a metric for the rest of the evaluation process. Should your message be persuasive, the reader won't find a better proposition.
Have you ever heard about Continuous Business Alignment (CBA)? It's a not-that-well-known management discipline that makes sure an organization, as a whole, is aligned to its customers' needs. More specifically, it ensures, in fact, that all services and work forces, namely employees, are focused on proper, continuous, circular alignment of processes with both their strategy (organization's mission statement) and their tactics (business goals and objectives). Use win themes as CBA tools to stay on the right track, and thus be able to hit your target.
So, a winning theme, also called win theme, is acting as a CBA tool to ensure the rest of the proposal is aligned to the strategy and tactics defined in order to better persuade the evaluation team that the proposed solution fits all, and sometimes exceeds the requirements set forth in the Request for Proposals (RFP), Invitation to Bid (ITB), or Invitation for Bids (IFB).
Winning themes ensure your writing to be aligned with both your strategy and tactics. Several win themes can and should support and substantiate your overall strategy within the same proposal. For instance, if your overall strategy is cost reduction, win themes could non exhaustively be:
As we said, you should use several of them, the ones that reflect the most your strategy.
Think about executive summary as executive, then summary, as follows:
The only tradeoff you should be willing to make to this rule is: write the executive summary first, and, eventually and with parsimony, rewrite it when the proposal is done.
Your executive summary should contain your value proposition, which should be seized right away by your reader.
It is highly recommended that you to read the suggestions below in order to write a proper and successful executive summary. When you write your value proposition, use representation instead of marketing puffery or commercial fluff.
By following this executive summary format as an executive summary template for your proposal, you ensure your writing to be as persuasive as possible.
Here are some tips on how to write your executive summary, and how not to write it.
Persuasive Business ProposalsPersuasive Business Proposals also gives you valuable tools for
maximizing the clarity of your writing, editing your proposal for optimal
impact, and avoiding the six traps that can undermine even the strongest
proposals -for example relying on clichés and hype
instead of highlighting your core strengths and track record.
Read more about:
Persuasive Business Proposals
The Consultant's Guide to Proposal Writing: How to Satisfy Your Clients and Double Your IncomeIn this latest edition of his bestselling guide, Herman Holtz-the "Consultant's Consultant"-shows that the most effective means of doing this is with a strategic, well-written proposal. But that's only part of the picture. He also shows you why and how a winning proposal, when correctly used, is an indispensable tool for forging lasting relationships with clients and increasing income.
The first book devoted exclusively to this critical consulting skill, The Consultant's Guide to Proposal Writing takes you through all of the steps involved in researching, planning, designing, writing, and presenting winning proposals. Drawing upon nearly three decades of experience as a successful consultant to both government and Fortune 500 companies, Herman Holtz shares everything he knows about what clients really want to see in a proposal and how to give it to them. He also provides valuable tips on effective language and design, what information to include and what to leave out, how not to undersell or oversell yourself, and how to generate interest in additional and future services.
This Third Edition has been thoroughly updated to cover all of the important technological advances that have occurred since the last edition, as well as important new trends in the consulting markets themselves. You'll find a new chapter on how to market yourself in cyberspace via Web sites, e-mail, and other online resources, plus a new section on the latest in desktop publishing technology and how to make the most of it. This edition also features guidance for the growing numbers of consultants specializing in proposal writing, and for professional writers who would like to add proposal writing to the services they offer clients.
The Consultant's Guide to Proposal Writing, Third Edition gives you everything you need to know to simplify one of the most difficult consulting jobs-winning clients.
From America's foremost expert on consulting, a complete guide to developing winning proposals
A winning proposal is more than just a statement of proposed consulting services. An effective, well-crafted proposal is a valuable marketing tool that can:
In this updated Third Edition of America's #1 consultant's guide to proposal writing, Herman Holtz -the "Consultant's Consultant" -tells you everything you need to know to research, design, write, present, and get the most out of winning proposals. He tells you what clients are really looking for in proposals and how to give it to them. And he shows you how to:
Read more about:
The Consultant's Guide to Proposal Writing
Handbook For Writing ProposalsIn their unique nine-step proposal-writing process, the authors demonstrate how even a first-time proposal writer can create a winning proposal. Throughout the book, you'll follow a case study of a proposal-writing team in action, and chapter checklists, summaries, and samples will keep you on time, on track, and on budget. If you want to profit from every proposal you write, the Handbook for Writing Proposals will show you how. In nine easy steps, you can produce and deliver professional, polished, and profitable proposals every time.
Read more about:
Handbook For Writing Proposals
WANT
TO WRITE YOUR RFP FROM AN RFP TEMPLATE? WRITE AN EXECUTIVE SUMMARY?
Learn tips on how to write a professional, very appealing RFP from the
RFP template provided in your FREE
RFP Toolkit, 2011 Edition and let providers propose creative,
relevant, and cost-effective solutions by focusing on the end, not the means.
You will find in it lots of templates and samples of professional RFP letters, including the template allowing you to write your RFP from a template and sample. So don't wait, write your RFP from a template.
It's FREE!
"Write your RFP from an RFP
template."
- Pascal PERRY
by Project on Government Oversight (POGO)
Podcast: How Bad Performance Can Be Good for Business in Government Contracting
POGO's Scott Amey dishes out a post-mortem on a recent Commission on Wartime Contracting hearing--at which he testified--on contractor accountability..
POGO Provides Post-hearing Supplemental Materials to the Commission on Wartime Contracting
Pursuant to the Commission on Wartime Contracting's (Commission) request that the record for the hearing held on February 28, 2011, "Ensuring contractor accountability: Past performance and suspensions and debarments," be supplemented within thirty days, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) provides the following information. Specifically, POGO believes the Commission should recommend that the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS) be expanded in scope and that the Department of Defense's (DoD) revolving door database of senior level acquisition officials be made publicly available.[2].
Solution: How the Government Can Stop Doing Business With Risky Contractors
It is very hard for the federal government to have a successful criminal or civil prosecution of their contractors and it is the hardest to do with the Department of Defense (DoD). In January, the DoD created a stir when it released its Report to Congress on Contracting Fraud, which examined the extent to which the Pentagon awarded contracts to companies that defrauded the government. The report found that, from Fiscal Year 2007 to Fiscal Year (FY) 2009, the DoD awarded almost $270 billion in contracts to 91 contractors found liable in civil fraud cases, and $682 million to 30 contractors convicted of criminal fraud. .
U.S.Government Rarely Suspends or Debars Those Responsible for Billions in Tax Dollars Lost to Fraud, Waste, Abuse in War Zones
Tens of billions of dollars are being lost to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan because of a toothless U.S. contracting system so reliant on a handful of major contractors that it rarely suspends or desbars them, even when those companies have committed serious offenses, according to the Project On Government Oversight's (POGO) testimony today before a independent, federal commission..
Commercial Item Exceptions Must be Eliminated From New Suspension and Debarment Rule
The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) provides the following public comment to FAR Case 2009-036, "Federal Acquisition Regulation; Uniform Suspension and Debarment Requirement" (75 Fed. Reg. 77739, December 13, 2010). The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (the Councils) issued an interim rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement section 815 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 (P.L. 111-84), which extends the restriction on contracting to subcontractors at any tier that have been suspended or debarred, with certain exceptions for commercial item and commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) item acquisition contracts..
Should Debarred Contractors Be Allowed to Build Military Aircraft?
Today, POGO submitted a public comment about a new rule limiting the ability of suspended or debarred contractors to do business with the federal government. The rule prohibits prime contractors from subcontracting with any entity that has been suspended, debarred, or proposed for debarment..
Pentagon Cuts Back Contract Audits, Opens Door for Contractor Overpayments
Under the guise of eliminating overlap, the Pentagon last month sharply reduced oversight of defense contracts, according to memos obtained by the Project On Government Oversight (POGO). The changes, which give some of the duties of the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) to the less aggressive Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA), were outlined in a January memo signed by Shay Assad, the director of Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy. DCAA staff were informed of the changes in a Jan. 31 memo from DCAA Director Patrick Fitzgerald..
Testimony of POGO's Nick Schwellenbach on "Improving Federal Contract Auditing"
We believe that there should be an independent Federal Contract Audit Agency (FCAA), as long as it is done right. This isn't a new idea: it is an idea that has been batted around since at least the 1980s, when DCAA whistleblower George Spanton exposed serious problems at DCAA. .
Federal Government Needs Strong, Independent Auditor to Oversee Billions in Contract Spending, POGO Tells Senate Panel
The responsibility of auditing the hundreds of billions of dollars spent each year on defense and civilian contracts should fall to a single, independent agency that is outside of the Pentagon's chain of command, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) told a U.S. Senate panel today..
Last Modified: Tuesday, March 22, 2011 1:05:58 PM
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