More Best Practices for Questionnaire Proposals
This is a companion list to my article published in February 2025.
In 2025, I want to get back to basics to help proposal teams either implement best practices or assess the quality of their proposal processes. A few years ago (okay maybe a little more than a few), my industry colleague Anne Farro and I presented a version of this list to a PAICR conference – PAICR was an asset management proposal association that no longer exists. It was a surprise hit with attendees who were hungry for fundamentals. I think it’s appropriate to revisit and update.
More best practices:
6. Align your responses to the client’s RFP goals and evaluation criteria
At my very first conference for proposal teams, proposal evaluators from a couple of public entity retirement plans spoke to an audience of proposal professionals. Their overall message? They could tell when RFP teams simply chunked in boilerplate responses. And this wasn’t a good thing. Well-worn, standard, unoriginal content scored poorly. It didn’t matter that the words technically answered the question asked. The impression that the firm responding to the RFP was a nameless, faceless, non-entity spoke to how they would be treated as an actual client.
How do teams demonstrate that they understand a client’s needs in a proposal response? First, your writers need to read the entire RFP. Many discuss the client’s goals in a list. Some provide the evaluation criteria that will be used to score your submission. Or maybe you need to pull out what a client is looking for in a kick-off call with your sales or client servicing team.
Find ways to reflect your awareness in your responses by rearranging your content to prioritize what is important to your prospect. Bump hot buttons to the top – highlight them with headings or sub-headings. If questions aren’t asked directly about these topics, get creative. Use call-out boxes, graphics or supplemental materials like a case study to catch attention and align efforts.
Prospects and clients are trying to solve problems. Demonstrate that you understand what they are trying to solve for and that you have the solution! Take the focus off you, the provider, and put it on the positive impact that you will have on the customer.
7. Provide an executive summary that is client-centric and highlights your differentiators.
A concise executive summary is an opportunity to directly address client goals. This piece should be the answer to the “So what?” question. Demonstrate that you understand the 20% of an RFP’s questions that resonate with your prospect. The executive summary should not just capture your basic services and functions.
Executive summaries are a prime candidate for using AI to generate a first draft based on your response to the RFP. But don’t rely on AI-generated content as the end product. You want your executive summary to be compelling and impactful. Parse out your differentiators in your industry. Demonstrate a customer focus. Speak directly to how well you know what the client is trying to accomplish. Align organizational cultures and missions.
All business is relationship driven. Be a good prospective partner. Make sure that you affirm and demonstrate that you value your prospect, you desire a long-term, beneficial engagement and that you are keenly aware of their goals and plans.
Talking to current clients is different than writing for prospects who do not know you as a vendor. Rosy glasses, airy promises and idealized services may not be the reality that they have experienced IRL. For current clients, it may be time to revisit whether you have been a good provider or not. Do you need to regroup? Be honest about things that have not gone well? Make plans for future changes? Be honest, be forthcoming and demonstrate that you have heard the client’s feedback. Just being “heard” can make a difference in how the client receives your proposal.
8. Be a brand ambassador
Proposals are your organization on paper. Put your best foot forward. I’ve noticed that many teams in the asset management space have reverted to answering in the questionnaire provided by the prospect/client. So 20th century!
I recommend using a branded template as often as you can. Use company-approved logos, colors, and fonts to maintain a polished and branded look. Ensure that headers, footers, and cover pages follow the company’s style guidelines.
Pay attention to the voice of the brand. Editorial styles should be the technical foundation of your content library. AP Stylebook? Chicago Manual of Style? Oxford comma? Don’t wing it. Be consistent with what your marketing department mandates.
If your brand voice uses first person when referencing your company rather than third person, then use first person! You don’t know how many discussions I’ve had with new team members who want to change editorial standards to align with the company that they just left. Pull out your organization’s Editorial Standards and put the conversation to bed.
Your proposals should be consistent with all the other marketing materials that touch your prospects and clients – websites, emails, tear sheets, presentations, commercials. Proposals should not sit in isolation or be detached from the mothership. They are integral to how your organization engages with clients and prospects. Make sure yours capture your company’s reputation and reinforce its unique value.
9. Have a documented quality control process for submissions
The deadline is looming. You want to wrap up the submission as quickly as possible. A quick once over should suffice, right? Hardly.
Proposal teams should not rely on writers to check their own work. In a typical proposal process, the writer has spent hours looking at a document – drafting, revising, finessing. Errors can often be overlooked by the writer because they are mentally fixed. They don’t register. You need to establish an item-by-item quality checklist with specific searches, checks and compliance/regulatory requirements spelled out with a yes/no response required. Items might include:
1. Run spell check. Are there unresolved issues? Yes/No
2. Are TOC links correct? Yes/No
3. Search for placeholder language (e.g., “Company Name”) Yes/No
4. Search on “lowest fees.” Required disclosure appear? Yes/No
5. Does red text or highlighted text appear? Yes/No
Etc…
Your team’s core QC list should reflect what quality looks like to your organization. It should apply to every document – RFP/RFI/DDQ. A blend of skillful writing, solid mechanics, branding, regulatory compliance and avoiding frequently made errors.
A writer should run through the list and then a peer or a senior team member should run through the list again. This both ensures that issues have been resolved and that someone has confirmed that the issues have been resolved. Your form should have areas for both the writer and the reviewer to initial for each element of the list for documentation and audit purposes. This form should live with the archived project for as long as your organization retains records.
You may also need to develop a QC checklist based on the requirements of the proposal submission. Things to consider here are labeling requirements, packaging requirements, and attestation that the submission fulfills the requirements of the original RFP.
A documented list with cross checks may not prevent all errors, but it can help guarantee that your proposal finalization process is disciplined and thoughtful. Submission should not be panicked. The process should be calm and methodical. Once a document hits this finalization stage, all last-minute changes should be off the table. Remember that text changes may also drive changes to page numbering, graphics placement, etc. Establish a “pencils down” point, to prevent having to restart the QC process every time a new change is submitted to a “final” document.
10. Demonstrate customer service in your proposals
“How in the world do I do this in a written document?” you ask. It’s really an outcome of using other best practices. These are key elements to great customer service and how they can be used in your proposal documents:
A. Responsiveness – Answer the question asked. Address client goals directly. Demonstrate how your services meet a client’s need or solve a problem. Understand what is driving the vendor search and evaluation scoring.
B. Active Listening – Use terms out of the questions in your answers. Speak in your client’s language using jargon, terms and words from client materials such as the questionnaire or their website. Understand what is important to the prospect/client and emphasize that content. Minimize standard content that is filler or boilerplate.
C. Understanding the Customer’s Perspective – Think about the client’s reasons for putting out the RFP. Poor customer service from a prior provider? Specific product features the client needs? Your customer service or distribution teams should be able to give you insight into what is driving this specific search. Addressing those reasons tells the client that you are looking at their needs from their perspective.
D. Knowledge and Expertise – Point out anywhere your firm has specific experience/expertise/knowledgeability that other firms may not be able to offer but that can be helpful to the client. It is extremely helpful if you know who the current provider is or if this is a net new opportunity and not a “take away” opportunity. Stand out against your competitors and articulate your competitive value.
E. Professionalism – Ensure your documents are professional by using a branded template when you can. Follow a consistent quality control process with documented reviews to minimize technical mistakes and errors in your submissions. Follow your organization’s brand and editorial standard for marketing consistency.
Implementing these best practices can take your proposals to the next level. With these in place you raise your team’s minimum standards. Your writers stop thinking of just completing and submitting the response on time as the ultimate goal. Instead, the goal is a thoughtful and compelling proposal response. Winning RFPs are in sight!
