Exec Summaries – the buyer’s view
Our dear friend Sheilagh Douglas-Hamilton is one of those rare folks whose career has straddled senior roles in both purchasing and proposals, with great success. She’s been back in the world of procurement for the past few years, but we still end up debating proposal issues together on a regular basis.
One recent discussion concerned the role of the Executive Summary. Sheilagh fired the following across to me the following day by email, and was happy for me to share it here:
The purpose of an Exec Summary? To blow me away so I can say, “Yes! Yes! Yes! They really do understand my business and what I want!”
A good Exec Summary “shows that not only do you understand my requirements, but why you are the one to deliver them.” It should provide “a clear, concise summary telling me at a glance, in easy to understand language, why your offering is the best.”
And here are Sheilagh’s views on the characteristics of a successful Executive Summary:
1. Beautifully written
2. Nice language – no mistakes please
3. Clear concise and compelling
4. Tells a story
5. Is short and punchy
6. Makes no more than three pitches
7. Makes me want to read the rest of the document to find out more
8. Doesn’t contradict the main body of the text!
I always find this sort of input from an experienced evaluator’s perspective really useful. How does the Exec Summary of your most recent proposal fare against her criteria
This article was written by Jon on 18 November, 2008 and filed under Purchasing insights. If you found it useful, you can with others. To receive automatic updates, subscribe to The Proposal Guys via 
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I thought readers wanted proposal responses to be to the point? Can Sheilagh elaborate on what she means by tell a story?
Hi, Shelly
I’d usually define “telling a story” to reflect the need for the document to be engaging, well-written, easy to read – and to have a clear overall message (”why us, why not the competition”). That certainly how it applies in a good Executive Summary.
Does that help?
This is entirely compatible with keeping it concise – indeed, if the proposal contributors have a clear ’story’ in mind, they’re more likely to keep material ‘to the point’ rather than hopefully throwing in anything that might possibly be of interest to the customer!
[...] while back, I posted the views of Sheilagh Douglas-Hamilton – a senior figure in the world of procurement – on the purpose of the Executive Summary.I was [...]