Four benefits of hiring an external consultant to review your proposal

I often get asked why would we hire an outside reviewer? We know our technical area, we know the customer, so what do you bring to the table? Here’s a short list.

1)     No rose-colored glasses. Teams often have been immersed in the bid, revised 18 drafts, recall wording no longer included, and know too much about their own solution. External reviewers, on the other hand, judge as an evaluator would: skeptically, based only on what’s provided in writing.

2)     Real clear direction. We have all suffered from reviewers who note “awkward! Incomplete! Not compliant! Needs rethinking” without clear guidance into how to make the bid better.  But let’s be honest, those were nearly always internal reviewers. External proposal review consultants are only as good as their last engagement – and give direct, honest, insight into what it will take to win. Here at Hollywood & Associates, we usually provide a top 3 or top 10 list of issues and suggest quick fixes (or thorough specific revisions). Most consultants will happily help recover from the review if needed.

3)     Remember the voice of the customer to be compelling. A good proposal reviewer will ask for the solicitation ahead of time – to be able to check terminology and compliance. A great one will ask for your compliance matrix and a copy of the capture plan (or at least win strategy documentation). With fresh eyes, they can crosscheck compliance and weave in critical themes that make the case for your company, tying it back to agency requirements and pain points, and therefore much more compelling and competitive.

4)     Save your team time and money. Skilled reviewers target easy fixes first—clarifying compliance, fixing structure, tightening language, and improving section summaries—to maximize impact within your budget and timeline.

When the draft needs more work, they flag where a more thorough fix is worth the investment: restructuring sections, addressing a missing solution requirement, realigning to the PWS and evaluation factors, or reworking win themes. By prioritizing what is needed to actually improve the evaluators’ score, reviewers limit further rework and help focus efforts where it counts most.

Our recommendation: Save time and money by bringing in an external reviewer for rolling reviews or for:

-        your first draft review to focus on compliance and structure and

-        for your second draft review to focus on compliance and compellingness.

With a few days or a week before management signoff review, you’ll have time to fix a prioritized list of issues and make your proposal more likely to win. Less pain, higher p(win)!

Because we deliver what we promise, one satisfied long-time client walked us over to a colleague at their 2025 holiday party, sharing: “I need to introduce you to the best proposal reviewers in the business!” Hollywood & Associates is more than happy to help.

Happy holidays!