For most regional engineering firms, the day-to-day pursuit document is not a federal SF330 - it is a municipal Statement of Qualifications. Cities, counties, and local public agencies use SOQs to shortlist design firms under Qualifications-Based Selection. This guide covers how those SOQs are actually scored and how to build one that maps your team to the published criteria.
Start with the RFQ criteria, not your firm brochure
Before writing, pull the evaluation criteria and any stated weights or order of importance from the RFQ. Typical municipal factors include professional qualifications of key staff, specialized experience on similar work, capacity and schedule, past performance, and knowledge of the locality. Build the SOQ to those factors - not to a generic capabilities deck.
Choose projects for relevance, not prestige
Evaluators reward projects that look like the one being procured - same facility type, comparable scale, similar funding or agency context - over trophy projects that are simply large. For each example, state the relevance in plain language: what matched, who from your proposed team worked on it, and what outcome matters to this owner.
Put the right people on the page
Name the people who will actually lead the work, and make their resumes prove the same experience the criteria ask for. Wherever possible, those people should also appear on the example projects you feature. A disconnect between named staff and project sheets is one of the fastest ways to lose points under QBS.
SOQ vs. SF330 vs. proposal
An SOQ is the general qualifications package used across public and private RFQs. An SF330 is the standardized federal A-E form under the Brooks Act. A full proposal adds technical approach and usually price. Many state and local pursuits use a free-form SOQ; federal A-E work (and some agencies that mirror federal practice) require the SF330. When the solicitation names a form, use that form - do not substitute a marketing brochure.
| Document | Format | Includes price? | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| SOQ | Firm-controlled | Usually no | State/local RFQs under QBS |
| SF330 | Standardized federal form | No | Federal A-E selection (Brooks Act) |
| Proposal | Solicitation-defined | Usually yes | RFPs; shortlisted-firm submissions |
For the fuller breakdown, see SOQ vs. proposal and the reusable SOQ template and example structure.
Built for municipal pursuits
Flodoc reads the RFQ, matches your staff and past projects to each criterion, and assembles the SOQ in a built-in editor so your team reviews instead of rebuilds. See municipal & public works solutions.
Order the SOQ the way it will be scored
Evaluators score against a list, usually in a set order of importance. Make their job easy by structuring the SOQ in that same order, with headings that echo the published criteria. When the scorer reaches 'specialized experience,' the section labeled specialized experience should be right there, answering directly. Forcing an evaluator to hunt across a generic capabilities brochure for the point they need to score is how strong firms quietly lose to better-organized ones.
Write project sheets that prove relevance
The project experience section usually carries the most weight, and a project sheet either earns those points or wastes a page. For each featured project, give the evaluator what they need to judge similarity: client and location, scope and size, your firm's actual role, the key people from your proposed team who worked on it, the schedule and budget outcome, and a plain sentence on why it is relevant to this pursuit. Resist listing trophy projects that are large but dissimilar - a smaller project that mirrors this scope of work outscores a famous one that does not.
Use the cover letter to frame the win theme
A cover letter is not a formality. In a page or less it should name the single strongest reason your team fits this specific project - the win theme - and signal that you understood the RFQ. Everything after it should reinforce that theme. If your letter could be pasted onto any other pursuit with the names swapped, it is not doing its job.
Prepare for the shortlist and interview early
Under QBS, the SOQ often just gets you shortlisted; the interview can decide the ranking. The teams that win treat the two as one story - the people featured in the SOQ are the people in the interview room, presenting the same relevant projects. Line up your interview team while writing the SOQ, not after the shortlist is announced, so the narrative stays consistent from paper to presentation.
Run one review pass against the criteria
Before submitting, score your own SOQ the way the board will: go criterion by criterion and ask whether each is clearly and specifically answered, whether the strongest evidence is in the most-weighted sections, and whether every mandatory form and page limit is satisfied. This final pass catches the gaps that cost shortlist spots - and it is far cheaper to fix them the day before than to lose over them.
Show capacity, not just capability
Owners want to know the work will actually get done on schedule, not just that your firm has done similar work before. When the criteria mention capacity or current workload, address it directly: who is available, how the team is staffed for this schedule, and how you manage concurrent commitments. A firm that is clearly capable but visibly overextended loses to one that shows it has the bandwidth to deliver.
Localize with specifics
Knowledge of the locality is a common evaluation factor, and it is easy to claim and hard to fake. Rather than asserting you 'know the area,' show it: relevant local projects, familiarity with the specific agency's standards and permitting, and staff who have worked in the jurisdiction. Specific, verifiable local knowledge reads as lower risk to an owner who has to live with the results.
Common SOQ mistakes that cost shortlist spots
- Generic project sheets with no explicit relevance to this RFQ
- Key personnel who do not appear on the featured projects
- Ignoring locality, capacity, or workload criteria that the agency published
- Exceeding page limits or skipping required forms and certifications
- Including price or fee when the solicitation is qualifications-only
Assemble from firm knowledge, then tailor
Firms that win consistently keep staff bios and past projects current as institutional knowledge, then map them to each RFQ on demand. Flodoc keeps that library structured and tracks requirement coverage so the last pass strengthens weak criteria instead of hunting for gaps.