All glossary terms
Shipley Proposal Process

Theme Statement

A short, written statement at the start of a major proposal section that ties the section's content to a customer benefit and the proposal's win strategy.

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.