How Professional Proofreading Gives RFP Responses a Competitive Advantage

Responding to a Request for Proposal (RFP) is a lucrative business development activity with a high return on investment for the winning bidder. In these competitive bidding situations, companies are looking for the vendor with the best fit and solution.

To create a winning RFP response, you must provide effective issue resolution, present your proposal with clarity and persuade the review committee you are the best choice. There are very few sales situations in which the quality of communication can make such a big difference to the outcome.

When the stakes are high, The Red Stairs’ editors and proofreaders bring invaluable skills and fresh eyes to the document development process. We ensure your materials are well executed, error-free, and showcase your expertise to its best advantage.

That capability is now delivered through Proofing Experts, our standalone brand dedicated to human proofreading and editing for high-stakes business documents.

The Proofing Experts team understands the nuances, pressure, and language of sales and marketing and is uniquely positioned to support sales leaders and business development teams. We help ensure the accuracy, clarity, and correctness of the documents that directly influence confidence, credibility and revenue.

This work builds on decades of experience supporting complex proposals, RFPs and sales-critical materials where precision is non-negotiable

RFP responses require significant senior investment

Producing a coherent and effective RFP response is time-consuming and often challenging.

Depending on the size of the business opportunity, a response may require company executives to make a significant time commitment. Each internal stakeholder needs to read and assess the requirements and then collaborate to develop a meaningful solution.

Multiple RFP authors increase the risk of errors and misunderstandings

While working as a team can help get the work done quickly, multiple authors pose a heightened risk of inconsistencies and mistakes creeping into the document.

Unintended changes in writing style, word choice, or approach can distract a prospective client from your solution, especially if they lead to ambiguity.

Even your company name – spelled out in full by one stakeholder and as an acronym by another – could introduce a level of uncertainty or confusion into the mind of your target reader.

On top of that, errors and inconsistencies make you look careless, out of control and unable to collaborate.

The Red Stairs’ RFP editors and proofreaders elevate your bid response

Our skilled editors and proofreaders have the close reading and persuasive copywriting skills to enhance your RFP response documents and give you the best chance of winning the deal.

While we always check spelling and grammar, we also make sure you use a consistent style, smooth out awkward wording and sentences, make sure you’ve answered the questions, check your arguments and solutions are easy to understand and so much more.

Hallmarks of a well-executed RFP bid.

• Have a clear and unambiguous writing style
• Avoid spelling and grammar errors
• Use capital letters appropriately
• Employ names, terminology and graphic design elements consistently
• Maintain a consistent style throughout to reinforce the feeling that you’ve presented a coordinated and consistent solution
• Present straightforward and easy-to-follow arguments and sentences
• Avoid pomposity by using plain language that is free of unnecessarily big words, jargon and redundancies
• Ensure mechanical accuracy so that page numbers and section titles are sequential, picture captions match images and logos and other design elements comply with your brand standards.

Getting RFP proofreading and editing help

The Red Stairs helps clients create polished and accurate RFP responses for their existing and prospective clients.

We can work alongside your authors to guide their work and we are equally happy making edits in WORD or PDFs. Turnaround time depends on the scope of the job, the depth of work required and your timeframe.

 

FAQ: Proofreading RFPs