The more specific, qualified and quantified your answer to an EOI or RFP question, the more convincing it is, and the greater the scope for the evaluator to award you points against the selection criteria.
Conversely, the more generalised your answer, the more vague it appears and the less opportunity you offer the evaluator to tick his or her boxes.
Specificity is an indicator of substance and truthfulness. Generality and vagaries are an indicator of evasiveness and lack of substance.
After completing your section of the EOI / RFP / RFT response, read aloud the question you are endeavouring to answer. Now imagine you are the evaluator. Put yourself into the “mind space” you feel the client parties were in when they formulated the question. Remind yourself of everything you have learned through your research into the client’s world and current project or contract needs. Take your time to switch roles in your mind.
Now, (slowly) read aloud your response the question being asked. Read it right through the first time, pressing on past the instances in which you feel you could make improvement. Then read it aloud a second time, stopping at those “improvement opportunities” and making them. Continue reading it aloud until you are satisfied that you have provided as much client-centred specificity as you reasonably can.
