Build a compliance matrix

A compliance matrix is a table of everything the solicitation asks for, and where your response answers it. Build it right after you decide to bid. It keeps your team on the same page and catches the small misses that get offers rejected.

What goes in it

One row for each:

• Instruction: what to submit and how. Page limits, fonts, file names, volumes and the email subject line.
• Requirement: each "shall" or "must" in the work statement.
• Evaluation factor: each thing the buyer says it will judge, such as the technical approach, past performance or price.
• Form or certification: each form to fill in, sign or attach.
• Date: the question deadline, any site visit, and the due date and time zone.

Columns that work

Keep the matrix in a spreadsheet or in your pursuit checklist. Update it whenever an amendment arrives.

How to build it

1. Start with the instructions and the evaluation. In a formal RFP these are Sections L and M. In commercial buys they are often FAR 52.212-1 and 52.212-2, plus an addendum.
2. Add each requirement from the work statement.
3. Add the forms, certifications and attachments.
4. Add each amendment and what it changed.

Outline your response from it

Build your response outline straight from the matrix:

• Use the buyer's section order and numbering for your headings.
• Answer each evaluation factor where an evaluator expects to find it.
• Do not copy the buyer's sentences. Mirror their headings, then answer in your own words. See Write answers that show how.

Never start from a blank page. Set up the cover page, headers, required forms and section headings first. Then fill them in.

Check it before you submit

Walk the matrix row by row:

• Is each row answered where you said it would be?
• Are page limits and file rules met?
• Is each form complete, signed and attached?
• Is each amendment acknowledged?

Scale it to the bid

A short quote may need ten rows. A large proposal may need hundreds. For a large bid, add review steps: one person checks the outline against the instructions, another reads the draft the way an evaluator would, and a final check covers price, forms and signatures.

In Victavio

Each pursuit in your pipeline has a checklist. Add your matrix rows as checklist items, assign owners and mark them done. Your team sees the progress in the activity feed.