How to Write an Executive Summary

An executive summary is the place to succinctly tell the customer exactly what you can do for them. It’s the back of the book, a movie trailer, the tasting menu. It’s the place you impress your customer into a shortlist or the place you bore them into not giving you a second glance. 

An executive summary is arguably the most important piece of your proposal. Your real decision makers will read the Executive Summary almost 100% of the time, and it’s the perfect place to tell them why you’re the best choice for them.

If you’re describing your product’s features, you’re doing it wrong. If you’re listing your company’s office locations and customer numbers, you’re also doing it wrong.

In just a page or two, you need to prove to the customer that you understand their industry, their specific business, and the major stakeholders’ focus. And then you need to turn this understanding into how your product will help them reach their goals, remove their pain points, and give them the benefits they’re specifically asking for. If you can’t do this, then you’re seriously hurting your chances of persuasively selling to the people who matter most - the decision makers.

Here’s where I tell you what to not do

Before I get into how to write a winning executive summary, let me explain what an executive summary isn’t. An executive summary isn’t a:

• product overview,
• vendor overview, 
• cover letter

If you’re describing your product’s features, you’re doing it wrong. If you’re listing your company’s office locations and customer numbers, you’re also doing it wrong. The executive summary isn’t about you, it’s about them and how you can help them. Always put the customer first; you’re only playing a supporting role to them.

Copying and pasting the same company overview as an executive summary is extremely boring to the reader - and because they’re probably a busy exec - they won’t read it unless it is a very customized document that has been clearly written and tailored for them. If you are copying and pasting your bland company info into your executive summary, you’ve lost out on a great selling opportunity, and instead you’ve convinced the important stakeholders that you’re lazy - because, quite frankly, you were being lazy.

The executive summary isn’t about you, it’s about them and how you can help them.

Luckily for you, I will show you exactly how to write an executive summary that will make a difference, so you can impress your customers and win more business.

What you need to get started

Writing a winning executive summary begins with your initial discussion with the customer and its decision-making stakeholders. 

Before I start writing an executive summary, I (or someone on the sales team) will have done their homework. Here’re the four most important things you need to have before writing a persuasive and strategic executive summary:

1. Spoken to the customer stakeholders (aka, not the project/procurement manager) about their vision, goals, pain points, and their general mindset of what they truly want out of the project.
2. Two or three customer reference stories that are similar customers in project scope, size, and industry. You’ll want to draw on these are proof points and quotes throughout the exec summary.
3. Metrics on how the customer can save time, cut costs, add efficiencies, get a return on investment, appreciate time to value, or any metric the customer really cares about and that you can provide. (hint: you won’t know what numbers truly matter unless you’ve spoken to a decision-making stakeholder.)
4. True differentiators that actually set up apart from your competitors. Do not put in differentiators that make you sound like your competitors, because then your exec summary will make you blend into the crowd instead of stand out from it.

Writing the Executive Summary

Now that you have the necessary info to write a winning executive summary, it’s time to write it. I’ve provided a general outline of what this could look like, but of course, you should tailor this to you.

General outline:

1. Introductory paragraph that proves you understand their market and their industry.
2. A paragraph that proves you understand the RFP objective, the customer’s unique pain point, and their overarching goals.
3. One or two paragraphs on how you’ll help alleviate their two major pain points.
4. A couple of paragraphs on the specific benefits they’ll get from you.
5. A paragraph on your partnership and how you’ll help them achieve success together.
6. Conclusion that reminds them how well you’ll work together in the future - and a call to action if you have one.

I have a complete and detailed executive summary on my website HERE. Feel free to copy it and make it your own. Happy bidding!

Now it’s your turn! What do you do to help make your executive summary better than the competition’s?