The value of a submitted proposal presents itself in many ways. Some of these are inherently clear (captured new business, improved client relationship, market expansion), while others are not always immediately evident (information gathered from internal research, market research, competitive analyses, write-ups of company policies). By capturing and storing these latter bits of information in an efficient, intuitive manner and using them to develop baselines (think “generic starter text”) for proposal content, sizable amounts of time and effort can be saved.

Knowledge and content databases are a must for companies submitting any substantial volume of proposals. If executed without care, however, these libraries of text can become problems of their own. As these tools gain traction within an organization, it becomes increasingly important for both the developers and end users of these tools to clearly define and understand the difference between “boiler plate” or “canned” text and true baseline content. For some uses, stored knowledge (the “how” of a policy) may prove more effective in establishing future content than stored text.

“Boiler plate” or “canned” text must always be maintained with care; these samples of text do not age gracefully. Company facts change, case studies become outdated, and policies are revised and replaced as a result of continuous improvement efforts. If stored proposal text is not treated similarly, its use can result in a messy sort of proposal soup, leaving you with inconsistent and even incoherent swaths of content.

Make every effort to ensure that irrelevant or time-sensitive facts are removed prior to placing the text within a content database or library for storage and reuse. And when gathering or making use of stored text, make sure the text is the most recent, most relevant content available on the topic.

Canned goods, though resilient, have shelf lives, and as with any recipe, the quality of a proposal is often made evident by the quality of the ingredients used.