Using boilerplate -- written material that can be reused in different proposals -- is a double-edged sword. It can save the day from a time and cost viewpoint and can create guffaws (and many lost evaluation points) from the proposal evaluators. Examples of boilerplate material include model management plans, corporate experience, staff resumes, and some technical materials. All successful proposal writers use boilerplate extensively but they do it cautiously.

Boilerplate has to be carefully tailored so that the requirements of the Request for Proposal are precisely addressed. Former proposal evaluators who attend our seminars universally say: "We can smell untailored boilerplate a mile away and it hurts you if we do."

The do's and don'ts of boilerplate use are:

Do

* Tailor, tailor, and then tailor some more. Even resumes and corporate experience information needs to be tailored.

* Drop it if it doesn't address RFP requirements even if it is sophisticated and impressive information.

* Use the customer information obtained during the pre-RFP sales process to tailor your proposal material.

* Cut back on boilerplate commensurate with the customer environment. For example, if subcontracting is not a major issue, then make any discussion of subcontractor management short and sweet or not discuss it at all.

Don't

* Get caught in the trap of thinking: "Let's just put it in, its close enough and we are out of time."

* Provide information that was not requested in the RFP. For example, if they didn't ask for a quality assurance plan, don't include one. They don't want to read your carefully crafted quality assurance plan and you will lose points by including it.

Creating an extensive, high-quality boilerplate library can be a powerful proposal writing tool. If done correctly, your boilerplate library will become more useful as you write more winning proposals. But don't misuse boilerplate; it can cause your proposal to go into the eliminated pile quickly.