1) Place the primary focus on what the product does or what the service achieves.
This is, in part, the standard “benefits vs features” advice . . . but not entirely.
You must still explain the feature, but focus first on the impact (or the “what” it is that the product or service achieves). Focus secondarily on the “how”.
You can then place the more technical information necessary to explain the “how”, in the context of the “what”, which you’ve already explained.
2) Lead with the primary benefit as it relates to the client-specific problem or objective.
If the business development personnel, and then the bid strategist, have all done their part, then by the time you receive your brief the most pressing condition your company’s product or service has to alleviate will, by now, be clear.
Lead with this.
Depending on the limitations, and any expectations, of the end-submission format, you might employ this in the Executive Summary headline (making sure you frame it from a client-centric, not a supplier-centric, angle).
NB: This suggestion depends on the content of your Executive Summary, but one would reasonably expect the primary benefit of your product or service – as it relates to the procurement in question – to be outlined and extrapolated on in the bid’s key front piece.
3) Employ some form of visual to reinforce the linkage between the feature, the function and the benefit.
But . . . don’t endeavour to make this a substitute for written explanations in the body copy, or comprehensive written answers to specific questions in the client’s EOI/RFP/RFT.
And don’t produce an exhaustive list of features that turns your response into a product brochure.
4) Be extra diligent in making your copy readable and consumable for the non-technical evaluator.
For example, in each section of your response, get the primary point up front – right there in your introductory paragraph. And make paragraphs short.
Also, if there’s no format restriction that prevents it, use key message-reinforcing subheadings.
