The person writing the draft Summary should work with the Proposal Manager to make sure that the points made in the draft Summary are distributed throughout the proposal outline. The Executive Summary should be revised several times during proposal development and re-circulated among the proposal writing team. Selling points should be refined in the proposal as it is written and then rewritten in the Executive Summary and vice versa.

Writing a convincing Executive Summary is an art. The Summary provides you with a unique opportunity to succinctly outline your case for why your company should be chosen. In fact, it may be the only part of your proposal read by the customer's senior management and the only part read by all of the evaluators. Yet many firms don't understand the significance of this critical section. A poorly-written summary immediately erects a barrier to winning. Conversely, an exciting, captivating summary sets the stage for victory. Most importantly, an Executive Summary is what the evaluators and your potential customer read first. A good one should:

• Be brief, terse and designed to hold the reader's attention
• Provide the reader with an introduction to your company
• Focus on the salient features of your proposal and your company's capabilities
• Present the critical aspects of your solution
• Present the innovative features of your solution and the beneficial outcomes your solution will provide to the customer
• Explain what distinguishes your proposal from the rest

Circulating the Executive Summary to members of the proposal team and company management and soliciting comments is likely to improve the final document. It may even demonstrate to management that it should be more involved in the proposal effort.