When every response can make or break a deal – or your number for the quarter – how do you lead a strategic response program to not only survive, but thrive?
Responsive recently hosted a webinar with the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) called “Behind the Curtain: Pro Tips from Proposal Stars,” where a panel of seasoned APMP-certified experts from the Responsive Professional Services team shared their insights on the expanding the role of Strategic Response Management (SRM), increasing team collaboration, and the role AI is poised to play in the years to come.
Webinar highlights include:
- Engaging with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
- Building and maintaining quality content with SMEs
- The importance of making proposals matter for everyone
- Dealing with increased RFP volume
- Embracing AI in proposal management
Keep reading for highlights from the lively discussion.
Engaging with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
Engaging SMEs is crucial for creating high-quality proposals as they possess specialized knowledge that can significantly enhance the accuracy and persuasiveness of proposal content. “The world would not go around without SMEs,” said Chris Dunne, host of the webinar and the Director of Professional Services at Responsive.
So:
- Why can it seem so hard for proposal teams to work with SMEs?
- How do you effectively engage SMEs?
- How can you pull in the executive voice that makes responses so impactful?
- And how do you keep SMEs engaged in the long run?
The panel stressed that it’s important to articulate the benefits of SME involvement upfront and quantify their contributions. This metrics-based approach ensures SMEs are continually involved and helps cultivate a collaborative atmosphere, said Susan Berger, Professional Services Consultant at Responsive.
Kimberly Bara, Onboarding Consultant at Responsive, added that it’s important to help your SMEs understand that rather than adding another task to their list, you’re helping them reduce or even eliminate the number of times that you’ll have to ask the same questions repeatedly in the future, especially taxing when those questions need an immediate response.
“And I would add to that — make it manageable,” Kimberly said. “Break it down into chunks so it’s not overwhelming for them. They’ve got this whole other job besides responding to or reviewing content for us. So just be mindful of their time and make that manageable.”
When asked how to help get your C-suite leadership to help with an RFP, Sasha Spektor, Professional Services Consultant at Responsive, said it’s crucial to communicate the value of the responses.
For example, Sasha said she got her COO involved by highlighting how a response could lead to a $2M deal and provide strategic market share in that region. This approach highlights obvious advantages and frames her request for leadership involvement as something more important than just another task on their list.
In return, leadership can strengthen proposals and responses with their expertise, help win the deal, and show an investment across the organization in an opportunity — clearly communicating the importance of the opportunity to potential partners and your own team.
When it comes to keeping SMEs engaged in the long run, Susan added, “A little recognition goes a long way, especially when you’re able to articulate their impact with reporting to back you up.”
Quick tips for engaging with SMEs and getting them involved:
- Lead with impact: Make sure SMEs know their time and investment counts
- Bring in the executive voice: Get leadership invested
- Make it manageable: Don’t overwhelm SMEs or you won’t have their continued interest
- Show how it worked: Be considerate and gracious with your SMEs, and give them recognition
Building and maintaining quality content with SMEs
Once your SMEs are invested, your next goal should be building an expansive and high-quality content library that you, your SMEs, and your organization as a whole can use to complete bids and proposals with content saved from previous responses.
So how do you build and maintain that quality content library alongside your SMEs? Kimberly suggested creating manageable systems and habits, like regular routines, to keep content relevant and up-to-date without overwhelming SMEs.
Establish clear ownership of content and break it into small, reviewable chunks. Instead of asking SMEs to answer questions from scratch, take the initiative to draft responses, possibly using AI, and then have SMEs refine them. Set up systems for content review tied to specific events, like product launches or security audits, to ensure continuous improvement.
Chris ended this section of the webinar by asking Sasha how tech plays a part in maintaining a quality content library, and if this would even be possible without technology.
“It scares me to think about doing this without technology, honestly, especially with the need for global collaboration and the increased demand of questionnaires that we’re seeing,” Sasha said.
Easy access to data can transform a company, and technology-driven efficiencies powered by automation and AI can bring immense efficiencies to all aspects of SRM.
For example, automated notifications can alert SMEs about outdated content, ensuring timely updates. Imagine a customer excellence SME receiving quarterly notifications to update Net Promoter Scores (NPS) in the content library. This automation frees up time for more strategic activities, removing the burden of manual updates from your plate.
Quick tips for creating and maintaining a high-quality content library:
- Create manageable systems: Break the process down into smaller chunks to avoid overwhelming your team when establishing your content library
- Establish clear ownership of content: Define each team members role and establish a review process
- Use AI to get the process started: Use AI to draft responses, review content, and create automated notifications for tasks
The importance of making proposals matter to everyone
Transforming the perception of proposal teams from mere support functions to integral parts of the organization involves showcasing and demonstrating the value of proposals to everyone.
To get the conversation on this topic started, Chris asked: “How do you show that proposal teams are not just a support function, but one that actually provides tremendous value for organizations?”
Susan had two suggestions. The first tip is to begin evangelizing your knowledge library so that your stakeholders actually know it exists and how to access it. Your knowledge base is an invaluable resource of all of the organization’s most current, compelling, and compliant information, but most people likely don’t know it even exists, she said.
The second tip is to change how others see your team and proactively demonstrate your value. Take the lead in highlighting your team’s contributions and show how you’re benefiting the organization as a whole. This means quantifying and measuring the impact of your work. Then, you can clearly communicate your value to leadership and make sure to provide specific examples of how your accomplishments align with and benefit your company’s goals.
Quick tips for getting proposals to matter to everyone:
- Demonstrate initiative: Be the person on your team who gets others involved
- Create systems and clear expectations: People are more likely to become involved with systems already in place
- Design for scale and collaboration: Make it as simple and easy as possible for people to work together
Dealing with increased RFP volume
At Responsive, we hear from so many customers that they keep getting asked to do more with less. The volume of RFPs, DDQs, and other questionnaires has been consistently on the rise — with no end in sight. The proliferation of AI will likely only make this challenge greater.
So what’s the solution to dealing with this increased pressure? How can you cope with the mandate that we all have to do more with less?
Managing increased RFP volume requires strategic approaches to handle the growing demands. Implementing technology and clear-cut processes can help manage the workload. By leveraging reusable content and automating repetitive tasks, proposal teams can maintain efficiency and manage higher volumes without compromising quality.
For example, Susan said in a four-year period, she went from handling 70 requests at Responsive a year to over 500 requests a year. It’s a dramatic increase, but most of the questions are similar across all requests, so AI helps offload that dramatic increase by automating the response process and making these requests a little more manageable.
This is true in other areas of business, too. For example, AI can speed up the go/no-go process by using AI to instantly scan an RFx, assess fit, and extract useful data to help you make an informed decision.
This same quick decision process can also be used to identify the right SMEs for projects, automate project management, or simplify workflows using the expansive content library we mentioned earlier as a framework to complete a majority of projects based on previous responses saved in the library.
Quick tips to deal with the increased pressure of responding to more requests:
- Scale with a platform: Leverage a leading AI-driven solution to reduce workload by up to 70%
- Show you’re strategic: Use AI to help curate a high-quality knowledge library that you can reliably use to automatically pull in content for future proposals
- Socialize expectations: Ensure everyone across the organization understands that SRM is a direct driver of growth
Embracing AI in proposal management
AI is becoming an essential tool in proposal management, offering solutions to streamline processes and enhance efficiency. AI-driven content creation tools, automated workflows, and predictive analytics can significantly reduce the manual workload.
However, it’s crucial to ensure the underlying content is accurate and up-to-date for AI to be effective. By starting small and focusing on specific use cases, teams can gradually integrate AI and realize its full potential.
Sasha added that hesitancy and resistance to AI often stem from two main issues. First, there’s a tendency to focus only on the shiny aspects of AI, like its writing capabilities (GenAI). However, AI is much more than that.
For example, with Responsive Requirements Analysis, you can use AI to instantly parse complex government proposals, generate compliance matrices, and segment dense documents into manageable sections, enabling collaboration through automated workflows. Responsive AI also drafts initial responses to questions based on your Content Library, drawing from identical or similar Q&A pairs.
Second, many professionals are too busy to consider if there’s a better way to handle their tasks. AI isn’t a magic wand; it’s a technology that requires time to understand and implement effectively. Moving from a reactive to a strategic mindset involves identifying repetitive tasks and exploring AI solutions designed to streamline these processes.
Susan added, “You’re not going to get these incredible results if the content that it’s pulling from is poor. So accurate content is a must for AI to really be effective.”
“And then once that’s in place, AI can be a real game changer,” she said. “Then you’ll see that it’s going to expedite your content generation process with accurate responses that are in your brand voice and in line with your business goals.”
Quick tips for implementing AI to help optimize your response processes:
- Keep content up-to-date: The best AI solutions are only effective if the underlying content is accurate and current
- Think beyond GenAI: Use AI to sort through complex documents, enable collaboration through automated workflows, and automatically draft answers based on past responses
- Find the right AI-driven SRM platform: Take time to find the right solution for your team, and don’t waste time implementing a solution if you’re unsure on its value
Final thoughts
Interested in learning more? Check out the full on-demand recording of “Behind the curtain: Pro tips from proposal stars.”
