SBIR Proposal Writing Basics: Be Compelling

Gail & Jim Greenwood, Greenwood Consulting Group, Inc.  

Copyright © 2005by Greenwood Consulting Group, Inc.

Suppose an SBIR/STTR agency is considering two Phase I proposals, but can only afford to fund one of them.  The first one says “we have a great answer to an urgent problem and can implement it while being a complete commercialization success.”  The second one says “well, if you are willing to give us the money, I guess we’d be willing to do the work.”  Which one do you think the agency will fund? 

The answer seems obvious, but then why do we see so many Phase I proposals that fail to make a compelling case for the agency to fund the project?

Maybe it is because you expect the reviewer to figure out the compelling attributes hidden within the 25 pages of technical details.  WRONG.  You can’t play hard to get with a harried reviewer who seldom has time to dig through your proposal trying to figure out its importance.

Maybe it is because you think it is illegal, immoral, or high carb to be compelling in the proposal.  WRONG AGAIN.  This is a proposal, a sales document—not a professional paper being considered for journal publication.

Maybe you can’t think of any compelling reasons for the project to be funded by the agency.  Then why are you proposing it?  Agencies want to fund good proposals with significant outcomes and you want to work on meaningful projects with commercial potential, so don’t propose dull, uninteresting projects.  

Maybe you don’t realize you are in competition for SBIR/STTR awards.  On average, only about one out of every six Phase I SBIR proposals gets funded and some topics have much lower odds.  If everyone else has made a compelling case for their project, your ho-hum proposal hasn’t got a chance.

Maybe you don’t realize that most agencies that make SBIR/STTR awards as grants (National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and Dept of Agriculture) fund “good ideas,” and therefore you have to convince them that your good idea is “gooder” than all the other SBIR/STTR proposals they receive.  Making a compelling case for your project helps a reviewer decide this.

“Ah,” you say, “but I’m applying to an agency that makes its SBIR/STTR awards as contracts, and therefore they already tell me in the topic why it is important.  I don’t have to make a compelling case for something they already say they need.”  Once again, you are WRONG.  Even when a contract agency (like Dept of Defense, NASA, Dept of Commerce, Dept of Transportation, EPA, or Dept of Homeland Security) indicates the importance of the problem in the solicitation topic description, you need to indicate in your proposal that you understand it is important, appreciate the need to solve it, and grasp the urgency of the situation.

Bottom line is that you have to make a compelling case for your SBIR/STTR proposal to maximize its chances of success.  We’ve focused on Phase I in this article, but this is also true of Phase II where competition is a lot stiffer.  If you don’t make a compelling case, you risk your proposal being passed over for one  in which the writer helps the reviewer understand why his or her project MUST be done.