Define Your Win Themes
Your win themes comprise the core of your “sales pitch” for why your team and your project plan are best suited to meet the goals of the FOA with unique benefits and lasting value for the investment. As such, you need to take the time to define and refine them before you begin work on the response. All messaging in the response should emphasize these themes while addressing the needs outlined in the FOA. To help highlight what sets your team apart, consider the following questions:
Who else is pursuing this opportunity? One facet of being able to highlight what makes your team unique is knowing how your team compares to other responding teams. Attend any “office hours” webinars or similar opportunities to ask questions and note the other organizations that attend and the nature of their questions. Knowing more about the other applicants can help you define your strengths.
What do you do best? Consider the abilities and experience of your team members in light of the requirements of the funding opportunity. What unique ability does each member bring to the project? Is there a specific role for each member to play and why are they suited to that role? What are they the most qualified to execute that work?
What are the advantages of your proposed approach? Remember that other teams will write proposals stating that they will complete the required work. To distinguish your team, consider what benefits your proposed approach will provide that others will not. These benefits can be societal and technical or provide attending technical benefits outside the scope of the specific project (e.g., ratepayers benefit from the project in improvements to two services from one project).
