The Curse of the Copy-Paste Past Performance: Lessons in Tailoring Past Performance in Proposals
- Admin
- Oct 8
- 5 min read
Chaos Unfolds: The Copy-Paste Catastrophe
It began with a most suspicious sentence from Jordan:
"Past Performance Volume Uploaded!"
The Teams notification blinked innocently next to Jordan's name.
Alex looked up from her meticulously color-coded tracker and narrowed her eyes. "That was...fast."
Riley, the Contracts Lead and unofficially compliance enforcer, responded with a simple emoji: 🤔.
Maya, who was elbows-deep in pricing spreadsheets, muttered, "Nothing good ever starts with Jordan being ahead of schedule."
She wasn't wrong.
When Riley opened Jordan's so-called "final" draft, her stomach sank. The formatting was perfect. The grammar? Flawless. The confidence? Radiating from every line.
The content? A complete mismatch.
Because Jordan, in his infinite optimism, had resurrected an ancient past performance — a project so outdated it might as well have come from a previous fiscal era.
The RFP called for federal healthcare cloud migrations completed within the last three years. Jordan’s example? A 2018 state IT data center project with no cloud, no healthcare, and no relevance.
The ghost of past performance had returned — and it hadn’t aged well.
Conflict Builds: The Copy-Paste Chronicles
Two days earlier, during the Pink Team debrief, Jordan had confidently declared the past performance section was “locked and loaded.”
“I’ve got this one,” he’d said confidently. “We’ll just refresh one of our strongest examples. It’s practically done already.”
Priya, the Technical Lead, leaned closer to her webcam. “You mean the state IT project? The one from… five years ago?”
Jordan shrugged. “Timeless quality. Like Shakespeare.”
Riley cut in dryly. “Shakespeare didn’t have to meet Section L, M, or C requirements.”
Jordan grinned. "And yet, he still scored the win."
Alex didn't laugh. "Just make sure it aligns with the RFP's past performance requirements: same customer type, same scope, recent completion, and measurable results."
Jordan nodded. "Of course. Consider it done."
Fast forward to Thursday afternoon, when Riley finally reviewed the entire past performance volume — and discovered the truth.
She scrolled through three polished pages… then stopped cold.
“This literally says on-premises data centers across multiple counties. The RFP is for cloud migration for a federal agency.”
Alex rubbed her temples. “Jordan. Please tell me you didn’t just copy-paste.”
Jordan hesitated. “It’s more of a… strategic repurposing.”
Priya groaned. “You mean Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V.”
Jordan smiled sheepishly. “Creative efficiency.”
The Curse Takes Hold
By Thursday evening, the full scale of the disaster had come to light.
Not only had Jordan’s cursed section slipped through earlier reviews — it had been referenced in multiple volumes. The Executive Summary proudly highlighted “our 2018 statewide modernization success.” The compliance matrix linked to it. Even a pricing note referenced obsolete labor categories.
Riley’s eyes widened as she traced the contagion. “It’s spread.”
Maya looked up from her Excel sheet. “Spread? Like a virus?”
“Like a template,” Riley replied grimly. “Everything it touched now carries outdated data.”
Alex’s voice came through tight. “Okay. Damage control mode. We’re replacing the past performance, updating the references, and scrubbing all traces of 2018.”
Sam, the Capture Manager, unmuted just long enough to make it worse.
“Well… maybe the evaluators won’t notice?”
The silence that followed could’ve frozen Wi-Fi.
Alex stared straight into the camera. “Sam. Their literal job is to notice.”
Sam replied with a single thumbs-up emoji — his trademark act of surrender.
Breaking the Copy-Paste Curse
Thursday. 8:15 p.m.
Alex was still online. Her once-organized past performance tracker had turned into a forensic investigation of what was real, what was reused, and what was from 2018.
The team regrouped in a Teams chat thread titled “PAST PERFORMANCE – EMERGENCY FIX 🔥.”
Priya [8:17 PM]: Just found a recent federal healthcare cloud migration we can use. Wrapped last year. Has metrics and a CPAR Rating.
Riley [8:18 PM]: Perfect. Meets requirements and within scope. Let’s swap it in ASAP.
Jordan [8:18 PM]: But the old one had better adjectives 😅
Riley [8:19 PM]: Adjectives don’t score points, Jordan.
Alex [8:20 PM]: Okay. New plan — • Replace outdated project • Align metrics to the RFP • Update compliance matrix • Verify cross-volume references • Maya, check if pricing ties back to the old project
Maya [8:21 PM]: On it. Deleting anything that says 2018 😬
Jordan [8:22 PM]: Fine, fine. The new one does have stronger metrics. I’ll rewrite the summary now.
Priya [8:24 PM]: Thank you! I’ll double-check the tech details.
Riley [8:25 PM]: I’ll verify compliance alignment once your update’s in.
Typing bubbles blinked. Files flew. Edits piled up.
By Friday 11:43 p.m., Alex uploaded the new draft: PastPerformance_v7_FINAL_FINAL_really_FINAL.docx
The curse was broken. Or so they thought.
11:58 PM — Chris joined the thread.
Chris: Back in ’98, we once reused a Navy project in an Air Force proposal. Evaluator circled it and wrote “Wrong branch.” True story.
Alex: Chris. Please don’t.
Chris: We didn’t win, but we learned valuable lessons about proofreading!
Alex: Goodnight, Chris.
Friday Morning Recovery
The next morning, Alex logged in to find the team’s group chat filled with GIFs and emojis.
Priya: 🎉 Red Team-ready!
Jordan: Ctrl + C has left the chat.
Maya: Coffee IV secured.
Riley: Compliance restored.
Sam reacted with a thumbs-up emoji — which no one acknowledged.
Alex smiled for the first time in 72 hours.
They’d beaten the copy-paste curse. For now.
Lessons Learned: Best Practices for Tailoring Past Performance in Proposals
Copy-paste can save time, but it can also summon chaos. Every proposal team reuses content — the key is to tailor before you reuse.
Here’s how to avoid Jordan’s mistake:
1. Relevance Beats Reuse
Always match the project to the RFP’s scope, customer type, and timeframe. If it’s not relevant, it’s not helping.
2. Keep Your Content Fresh
Update metrics, outcomes, technologies, and dates before reusing. “Completed last year” shouldn’t link to a project from 2018.
3. Curate a Past Performance Library
Build a library of validated, current examples tagged by agency, scope, and solution type. Assign an owner to keep it updated quarterly.
4. Verify Before You Paste
Run a quick compliance check before inserting reused text. Does it meet Sections L , M, and C? Does it use the same terminology as the RFP?
5. Train Writers to Think Like Evaluators
Creative storytelling is great — but only if it’s accurate. Teach writers to balance narrative flow with compliance precision.
6. Review Cross-Volume Dependencies
Don’t let one outdated section infect the entire proposal. A single reused paragraph can trigger mismatched data across pricing, summaries, and compliance matrices.
Next Week: Portal Panic
Will Maya’s pricing file upload correctly? Will Dev emerge from the digital shadows with his mysterious second login? Will Alex finally sleep?
Find out in next week’s episode: “The Upload That Almost Wasn’t (A Portal Panic Story).”
Got your own copy-paste horror story?
Share it below. Bonus points if it involves last-minute rewrites, outdated metrics, or an executive who says, “Just reuse what we did last time.”
👉 We’ll feature the best (and worst) in a future Mock RFP Tales post.
Mock RFP Tales: Because every proposal has a story — and some are written twice.
Comments