The Executive Summary is critical to the success of your response. Don’t make it an afterthought to the hours of time and effort you have put into the rest of the document. As a key philosophy for your executive summary, be sure to write about the benefits of your products or services – not the features.
Writing Style
Try to write this part of the response in a sharp and punchy manner. Keep in mind that the Executive Summary will be used by the tender assessment team to do the first cull of responses. If there are 30 or 40 responses, they will only have limited time to read each document – 2 pages for the executive summary is best, 4 pages is maximum. In many cases, the RFT will specify a maximum length.
Win-themes
In compiling your response, the Executive Summary can be a really useful tool for you and your team. It should have all the key messages that need to come through in the entire response. Our advice is to write the Executive Summary in dot-point form at a very early stage of the process and use it as a reminder of the main themes that you want the reader to get from your bid. We’ll write in our blog in more detail about win-theme’s at a later date.
A General Approach
As inspiration for writing this section, the following could be used as an outline …
Introduction paragraph – “We welcome the opportunity to respond to this RFT for the XXX …..”
Discuss your company’s credibility – track record and experience in the domain
Show your high level understanding of the requirements – show that you understand what the customer is after
Show your high level understanding of the business drivers for the work – show that you understand why the customer is asking for this product or service
Differentiate your product or service – why should you win this work? Discuss your value proposition and advantage
To conclude …
Make your Executive Summary a high priority. It is the key to capturing your reader’s attention and enticing them to go through your response in detail. It’s your opportunity to show the reader that you understand their key issues, and set the scene for the major benefits of your services or product in the context of the business drivers for the RFT process.
A Killer Executive Summary
The Executive Summary is critical to the success of your response. Don’t make it an afterthought to the hours of time and effort you have put into the rest of the document. As a key philosophy for your executive summary, be sure to write about the benefits of your products or services – not the features.
Writing Style
Try to write this part of the response in a sharp and punchy manner. Keep in mind that the Executive Summary will be used by the tender assessment team to do the first cull of responses. If there are 30 or 40 responses, they will only have limited time to read each document – 2 pages for the executive summary is best, 4 pages is maximum. In many cases, the RFT will specify a maximum length.
Win-themes
In compiling your response, the Executive Summary can be a really useful tool for you and your team. It should have all the key messages that need to come through in the entire response. Our advice is to write the Executive Summary in dot-point form at a very early stage of the process and use it as a reminder of the main themes that you want the reader to get from your bid. We’ll write in our blog in more detail about win-theme’s at a later date.
A General Approach
As inspiration for writing this section, the following could be used as an outline …
Introduction paragraph – “We welcome the opportunity to respond to this RFT for the XXX …..”
Discuss your company’s credibility – track record and experience in the domain
Show your high level understanding of the requirements – show that you understand what the customer is after
Show your high level understanding of the business drivers for the work – show that you understand why the customer is asking for this product or service
Differentiate your product or service – why should you win this work? Discuss your value proposition and advantage
To conclude …
Make your Executive Summary a high priority. It is the key to capturing your reader’s attention and enticing them to go through your response in detail. It’s your opportunity to show the reader that you understand their key issues, and set the scene for the major benefits of your services or product in the context of the business drivers for the RFT process.