Faster Proposal Writing: Better Bio & Reference Tracking


Faster Proposal Writing: Better Bio and Reference Tracking

Writing effective proposals is all about putting your company’s best foot forward.

Sounds simple enough … until you add in the ridiculous deadlines, the hard-to-understand requests for proposals (RFPs), and the fact that the information you need always seems to be hidden in password-protected spreadsheets that no one has access to.

(Learn how RFP360 can help you quickly create effective proposals … without the headache.)

Fortunately, there are ways to simplify the proposal process. Below, we’ll cover  the secret of faster proposal writing — including bio and reference tracking.

Organize proposal content

The best way to streamline proposal writing is to establish a single cloud-based, centralized location to store your crucial information.

Tools like DropBox, Google Drive, or Box (compare them here) can get you started, but if you want the best results, consider trying RFP response software.

Software designed specifically to help the proposal process will not only house your information, but also help you build on it. It creates living documents that change and evolve with you.

That way, when you update your product or service offering, you can ensure your proposal content reflects those changes.

Better bio tracking

Another crucial component of writing the best proposals possible is finding team bios and references when you need them.

The easiest way to do this is to store them individually. In Google Drive/Box/Dropbox, you’ll simply allocate each team their own dedicated document or folder.

If you’re using RFP software, you’ll create unique tags. Tags allow you to mark each document with key terms that help you search for and identify them later.

Helpful tags could include:

  • Market segment
  • Industry
  • Geographic locale

As an added benefit, dynamic RFP software will  allow you to see how many times the reference was used and in which proposals.

So what does all this mean?

Storing and organizing proposal content is key to creating the RFP responses you need to win more business. If your team can’t find up-to-date information or subject matter experts (SMEs) are answering the same questions over and over, it may be time to rethink your RFP response system.

How RFP360 can help

RFP360 makes it easy to store, organize, and leverage past proposal content to create winning RFP responses in less time.

“RFP360 has really helped us handle dramatic influxes,” Technolutions Chief of Staff Laura Gardner. “For example, at one point last year, we had 12 RFPs due in one month, and we were able to submit responses to all of them.”

Learn how RFP360 could streamline proposals at your organization.

As RFP360’s marketing director, Barri is responsible for the strategy and execution of branding, content marketing, and demand generation activities. She has more than five years’ experience in marketing leadership for high-growth software companies. Her goals include turning RFP360 into a household name and eating a hotdog at every baseball stadium in the United States.

 


Graham McConnell

Graham lives in the B2B marketing space. He dabbles in writing, usually about digital marketing, but has other interests like the Portland Trail Blazers, the Portland Timbers, sci-fi films, video games and of course, response management.

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