One of the most important things you can do with a capability statement is make it clear what sets you apart from everyone else. When applying for contracts with government agencies, there is a lot of competition, so you want to do everything you can to make your company stand out.

Luckily, there are a few key components of a capability statement that you can focus on to help with that. Giving a little extra attention to working on them will make your statement robust and help you stand out against other businesses.

Here are three ways you can differentiate yourself in your capability statement:

A value proposition is a sentence or two about who you are as a company, what problem you solve, and who you solve it for. That’s it! You don’t need to overwrite these to make them sound grandiose. A value proposition should be written in simple language and be straightforward.

How do you write one? Start by writing down a list of what your company is best at doing for your clients, if you don’t already have an idea. Consider what benefits or advantages you offer via your services. Take a look at the competition and figure out what you do differently or better than them. You can even reach out to current or past clients and ask for their feedback.

This is a detail often overlooked and could be the difference between your company being selected (because you made finding the information easy) versus someone who left it off. Adding your insurance holdings shows you are proactively minimizing risk.

If your work would require insurance but you have held off on purchasing it, do it now. Having this in place prior to a project and being able to include stats on your capability statement not only means there’s one less thing to get lined up when you get the contract; it also demonstrates to the government entity you want to work with that you’ve proactively minimized risk by already having insurance in place.

At minimum, you should have three professional references you can add to your capability statement. Include their names, titles, companies, and preferred contact information on your capability statement.

How do you find those references? Look at your business lines or the industries you serve, and find at least three other businesses per each one. That may sound daunting, but it can be as simple as including the ask in your process as you close out a project or service. If you enjoyed working with the company or if you are especially proud of the work done, ask if you can use them as a reference moving forward. Once you have them in place, keep track of everyone in a document.