Executive summary
The executive summary is the proposal's opening argument: a short, customer-focused synthesis of why your offer wins — their priorities, your discriminators, and the proof — written for the decision-maker who may read nothing else.
The executive summary is the most-read and worst-written section of most proposals: teams draft it first as a company introduction, when it should be written last as a decision brief. The working formula opens with the customer's situation in their own vocabulary, states your win themes with evidence, addresses the risk the buyer actually fears (transition, adoption, schedule), and closes with commitment — with the customer's name appearing more often than yours. Evaluators may not score it directly, but it frames every section that follows; senior reviewers on the buyer's side often read only it and the price. One page per hundred pages of proposal is a serviceable length heuristic.
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