All glossary terms
Shipley Proposal Process

Four-Box

A proposal-writing structure that organizes a section into four parts: an opening summary, an introduction, the body, and a closing summary.

Related terms

Color Team Reviews
Structured proposal review process (Shipley methodology). Teams include Blue, Pink, Red, Gold, White Glove, Green, and Black Hat.
Compliance Checklist
A tool that captures every requirement in a solicitation that the proposal must address, used to verify nothing has been missed before submission.
Compliance Matrix
A mapping of all RFP requirements to the proposal outline, ensuring every requirement is addressed.
Compliance vs. Responsiveness
Compliance = meeting stated requirements. Responsiveness = going beyond to address the spirit and intent.
Customer Concerns / Hot Buttons
Issues, problems, or pain points the government customer is experiencing. Capture teams identify these to shape solutions.
Customer Focus
A writing and communication approach that is directly organized around the customer's stated needs, issues, and the benefits they will receive, rather than a company's own internal capabilities.
Customer-Focused Proposal
A proposal addressing the customer's stated problem and showing how your solution meets their specific goals.
Debrief
Post-award meeting with the customer to obtain evaluation feedback. Critical for lessons learned.
Discriminator
A feature of your proposal that sets your team apart from competitors AND is desired by the customer.
Elevator Speech
Concise 30-60 second persuasive summary of your offering for capture, BD, and oral presentations.
Executive Summary
Customer-focused summary of the essential proposal contents — not an introduction.
Four-Box
A proposal-writing structure that organizes a section into four parts: an opening summary, an introduction, the body, and a closing summary.