How to prepare a proposal for a project.

What a proposal for a project has to do

When an organization issues an RFP, it asks every respondent the same questions in the same order. Evaluators score each proposal against the criteria the RFP sets out. The strongest responses are rarely the longest. They answer every requirement, follow every instruction, and make the evaluator's job easy.

Whether you are answering a city, a state agency, a university, or a private company, the principle is the same: the RFP defines what a complete answer looks like.

How evaluators score a proposal

Most public RFPs publish their evaluation criteria and the weight given to each one, such as approach, experience, staffing, and price. Evaluators usually score each section separately, often with a score sheet, and they score only what they can find. A strong qualification buried in an appendix the RFP never asked for may earn nothing.

Organize your response so that each scoring factor has an obvious home, use the RFP's own words in your headings, and give evaluators a short guide that points to where each factor is answered.

The parts of a complete proposal

Every RFP is different, but most proposal packages include the following. Always follow the order and headings the RFP requests.

Cover letter

A short, signed letter that names the solicitation, confirms your organization's intent to respond, and identifies the person evaluators can contact.

Executive summary

One to two pages that state your understanding of the need and the essence of your response. Many evaluators read it first.

Understanding of the requirement

Evidence that you have read the RFP closely: the issuer's goals, constraints, and the outcomes the project must deliver.

Technical approach

How the work will be done, step by step, mapped to the scope of work in the RFP.

Management and staffing

Who will do the work, how the team is organized, and how quality, schedule, and risk will be managed.

Experience and past performance

Relevant projects your organization has completed, described accurately and with permission where references are named.

Pricing narrative

The explanation that accompanies your price: assumptions, what is included, and how costs relate to the work.

Required forms and certifications

Every form, signature, and attachment the RFP lists. Missing one can make a proposal non-responsive.

Compliance matrix

A table that traces each requirement in the RFP to the page of your proposal that answers it.

Plan the schedule backward from the deadline

Start with the submission deadline and work back. Leave at least a day for submission itself, since upload portals fail and couriers run late. Before that, allow time for signatures, final formatting, a full review of the complete draft, and one round of revisions. Whatever remains is your writing time.

Mark the question deadline as well. Most RFPs close the question period well before proposals are due, and any exception to the contract terms usually has to be raised by then.

Writing the executive summary

Write the executive summary after the strategy is settled, not before. Open with the buyer's goals in their own terms, then state how your response meets each one. Keep it to the facts that matter most to the scoring: what you will deliver, how, by when, and why your organization is a safe choice.

Avoid general claims that any respondent could make. A specific figure, a comparable project, or a clear commitment does more than a paragraph of adjectives.

Read the RFP contract terms early

Many RFPs include a sample agreement or a list of RFP contract terms, such as insurance requirements, payment terms, and reporting obligations. Read them before you decide to respond. Your response should not promise anything those terms would prevent, and questions or exceptions usually need to be raised within the RFP's question period. Contract terms should be reviewed by your own counsel.

Use the question period

Most RFPs allow written questions until a set date. Use it. Ask about anything that affects how you would price or staff the work, any requirement that seems to conflict with another, and any contract term you cannot accept. Keep questions specific and neutral, since the answers are usually published to every respondent.

Read the published answers as carefully as the RFP itself. They often change page limits, dates, or requirements, and an answer can carry the same weight as an amendment.

Writing about past performance

Choose projects that resemble the work in the RFP in size, scope, and type of client. For each one, state what the client needed, what your organization did, and what changed as a result, with figures where you have them. Confirm that every reference has agreed to be named and expects the call.

If the RFP provides a form for references or project descriptions, use it exactly as provided.

Proposals for RFP finance opportunities

RFP finance solicitations, for accounting, audit, banking, investment, or other financial services, tend to be precise about qualifications, independence, and pricing structure. A clear pricing narrative and an exact match between the response and the requested fee schedule matter as much as the technical approach.

Common reasons proposals are rejected

Some proposals are set aside before anyone scores them. The usual causes are simple:

• Arriving after the deadline, even by minutes
• A missing signature, form, or acknowledgment of an amendment
• Ignoring page limits or the required file format
• Placing pricing in the technical volume when the RFP asked for it separately
• Failing to show a mandatory qualification

Every one of these can be prevented with a checklist and a second reader.

Why templates and generators fall short

A proposal generator or template can help you start, but it cannot read the RFP for you. Generic language does not answer specific requirements, and evaluators recognize boilerplate. A responsive proposal is written for one solicitation and one evaluator.

Preparing for proposal defense

After submission, evaluators may ask clarifying questions, invite an interview, or request an oral presentation, sometimes called a proposal defense. Prepare for it while you write: keep each claim supportable, note the points your team should be ready to explain, and make sure the people named in the proposal know what it says.

Before you submit

• Every requirement in the compliance matrix is answered
• Page limits, fonts, and margins follow the RFP
• All amendments are acknowledged
• Required forms are complete and signed
• Pricing matches the narrative and the RFP contract terms
• File names and formats match the submission instructions
• Someone outside the writing team has read the final version
• The proposal is submitted before the deadline, with confirmation saved

A fuller, printable version of this list is available as an RFP compliance checklist (PDF).

When to work with a proposal company

Some organizations prepare every proposal internally. Others engage a proposal company when the deadline is short, the RFP is complex, or the opportunity matters too much to leave to spare hours.

Otter International Proposals provides RFP proposal writing services and RFP response services for organizations that have received an RFP invitation or a proposal invitation. We can act as your proposal analyst, your RFP proposal writer, or your RFP response writer, and we can prepare complete proposal packages or support a single stage of the work.

Still deciding whether to respond? Our bid decision scorecard (PDF) can help structure that conversation.

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