How did we land on the colors pink, red, and gold for the primary reviews of proposal non-pricing volumes? My own research has failed to find this answer. The colors are non-intuitive. A pricing review could be called "Green" or "Silver" or "Gold" and that might make sense. Some companies call their pricing reviews "Green," but it is not a standard by which all companies subscribe.

I have a better, more intuitive idea. Let's have our color reviews match the standard color scoring used by the government: Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue. Certainly, as proposals evolve through your process, at each review stage they are in better shape. It stands to reason that our reviews follow this standard.

  • Red Team Review. This reviews storyboards and mockups to confirm solution set and to validate proposal strategy. Your proposal is in the early stages and isn't mature enough to be scored anything better than Red, or Unacceptable.
  • Yellow Team Review. This reviews the initial proposal draft to ensure that all strategic elements are being captured. At this review all proposal design elements must be locked down. Your proposal is more developed but is still missing certain critical elements and would generate a score of Yellow, or Marginal.
  • Green Team Review. This reviews the final proposal draft “including price“ to predict how the customer will score the proposal. At this review, your proposal should meet the requirements of the solicitation and show a complete knowledge of the subject matter, allowing for a score of Green, or Acceptable.
  • Blue Team Review. This review approves the final proposal and price. Your proposal should exceed many of the requirements set forth in the solicitation and show that you would perform at a consistently superior level, garnering a score of Blue, or Exceptional.

Some agencies have added Purple and Orange to bridge the gap in scoring between Green and Blue and Red and Yellow respectively. This represents a level of minutia that doesn't serve a proposal team well. Four reviews that use the standard scoring colors works nicely.

Are four reviews too many; too few? I say it's just right for a standard 30-day turnaround, but this assumes you've done the proper legwork up front and are prepared for the solicitation when it hits the street. When others start using this color review scheme, remember that you heard it here first.

If you would like to discuss this in more detail, please contact me on info@perfblue.com. Thanks!

About the Author

Drew Cotterman is the Founder and President of performanceBLUE, LLC, a professional proposal development firm. He founded the firm in 2010 after working in the proposal world for more than 20 years. He provides capture support; proposal development including management, writing, pricing, graphics, desktop publishing, and production support; process training; and employee mentoring.