7 Steps to Write Winning Sam.Gov Proposals (Part 1)

Let’s be honest—writing a proposal that actually wins a government contract is one of the hardest skills to master in federal contracting.
Even for seasoned professionals, interpreting a solicitation, understanding the government’s intent, and crafting a compliant, persuasive response can feel like learning a foreign language.

That’s why I launched a seven-part video series on proposal writing for government contracts—to help you navigate each phase of the process the right way.
In this first module, we start where it all begins: reading the solicitation and understanding what the government is really asking for.

If you’ve ever downloaded a solicitation from SAM.gov and felt instantly overwhelmed by the acronyms, sections, and legalese—trust me, you’re not alone.
But once you know how to read it strategically, you’ll see a clear roadmap hiding beneath all that dense language.

Let’s break it down.

Step One: Read the Solicitation Like a Government Evaluator

Here’s the biggest mistake most small businesses make: they read the solicitation like a vendor.
They scan it for what they want to know—scope, deadlines, and pricing—and skip over the rest.

But the real key to winning is to read it like a government evaluator.

Every evaluator scores your proposal against a checklist—what’s known as the evaluation criteria. Those criteria live in Section M of the solicitation, and they tell you exactly how the government will judge you.

If you align your proposal directly with those criteria, you make the evaluator’s job easy.
If you don’t, you make them hunt for information—and you lose points.

So, before you write a single word, study Section M. Highlight every line that explains what will be evaluated, how it will be scored, and what factors matter most (technical, management, past performance, cost, etc.).
Then, build your entire proposal around that framework.

That’s how you turn your proposal from a generic pitch into a scorable, winning document.

Step Two: Master Sections L and M — The Blueprint and the Scorecard

If Section M is your scorecard, Section L is your blueprint.

Section L tells you how to organize and submit your proposal—what volumes to include, how to format them, what page limits apply, what files to upload, and in what order.

It’s not glamorous, but it’s mission-critical.
If you fail to follow these instructions exactly, you risk an automatic rejection—no matter how great your offer is.

For example, if the solicitation says 12-point Times New Roman, single-spaced, and 30 pages max, then that’s not a suggestion—it’s a rule.

When I was a contracting officer, I saw strong proposals thrown out simply because they exceeded page limits or uploaded the wrong file type.
Think about that—months of work, gone in an instant, because someone didn’t follow directions.

That’s why understanding both Sections L and M is non-negotiable.
Together, they tell you:

• How to write your proposal (L), and

• How it will be judged (M).

If you treat them as your north stars, you’ll never go wrong.

Step Three: Highlight the “Shalls,” “Musts,” and “Wills”

One of the simplest yet most powerful habits in proposal writing is to highlight every instance of “shall,” “must,” and “will” in the solicitation.

These are not suggestions—they are mandatory requirements.
If you miss even one, your proposal could be deemed non-compliant.

For example:

“The contractor shall provide quarterly progress reports.”
“The offeror must submit three past performance references.”

Each of those statements represents something you must address in your response.
Ignore it, and it’s game over.

By marking these phrases early, you’ll build a mental checklist that ensures you’re covering every single compliance requirement before you submit.

Step Four: Build a Compliance Matrix — Your Secret Weapon

If there’s one tool that separates average proposal teams from great ones, it’s the compliance matrix.

Think of it as your proposal GPS.
It maps each requirement in the solicitation (especially from Sections L and M) to exactly where that requirement is addressed in your proposal.

It might look something like this:

This simple chart serves multiple purposes:

• It ensures nothing gets missed.

• It gives your team an easy way to cross-check work.

• And it helps evaluators quickly find what they’re looking for—something they’ll silently thank you for.

When you build proposals with this level of discipline, your professionalism shows.

Step Five: Know the Difference Between RFPs and RFQs

Not all solicitations are created equal.
Before you start writing, you need to understand whether you’re responding to a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a Request for Quotation (RFQ)—because they’re very different animals.

• RFPs are governed by FAR Part 15. They require detailed proposals that address technical, management, past performance, and cost factors. Evaluations are complex, often involving multi-volume submissions and narrative justifications.

• RFQs, under FAR Part 13, are generally simpler. They’re often used for smaller procurements and focus heavily on price and quick responses.

If you approach an RFQ like a novel-length RFP, you’ll waste effort and frustrate the buyer.
If you approach an RFP like a quick quote, you’ll look unprepared and unserious.

The key is tailoring your proposal depth, structure, and tone to the type of solicitation you’re dealing with.

Step Six: Make Every Section Stand Alone

One thing that surprises many people is that different evaluators often review different sections of your proposal.

That means your technical volume might be read by one person, your management volume by another, and your past performance volume by a completely different team.

None of them are required to cross-reference the others.
So if critical information only appears in one section and not another, an evaluator might never see it.

Each section of your proposal must stand alone. It must contain everything that evaluator needs to score you accurately, even if it means repeating key information.
Clarity and completeness matter far more than brevity in this environment.

Step Seven: Compliance Is More Than Formatting—It’s a Test of Reliability

It’s easy to dismiss formatting and submission details as “admin stuff.” But from the government’s perspective, your ability to follow instructions is a measure of performance.

If you can’t follow simple submission rules, how can they trust you to follow complex contract requirements?

Compliance, formatting, and attention to detail are all silent signals of reliability.
Getting these right tells the government, “You can depend on us.”

Bonus Tip: The Proposal Starts Long Before the RFP Drops

One of the biggest secrets in government contracting is that winning starts long before the proposal is written.

By the time a solicitation hits SAM.gov, many competitors have already been engaging with agencies, shaping requirements, and researching opportunities for months—or even years.

Market research, early outreach, and positioning yourself before the release are what give you the inside track.

Proposal writing is just the final mile of a much longer race.

Bringing It All Together

Writing a government proposal isn’t just about filling in templates—it’s about strategy, precision, and compliance.

When you understand how to read a solicitation through the eyes of an evaluator, master Sections L and M, highlight the “musts” and “shalls,” and organize your response through a compliance matrix, you transform the way you compete.

Winning proposals aren’t written—they’re engineered.

It’s a disciplined process, but once you learn it, you’ll see that proposal writing isn’t just paperwork—it’s your most powerful sales tool in the federal space.

This first video lays the foundation for everything that follows in this series, where we’ll go deeper into writing the technical volume, management approach, past performance narratives, and more.

If you’re serious about selling to the government, start here.
Learn the process, build the muscle, and treat every proposal like the competitive weapon it is.

Because in federal contracting, details don’t just matter—they decide who wins.

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