A step-by-step guide to creating RFP responses

RFP responses determine whether you win or lose major prospective clients. Yet many organizations treat them as fill-in-the-blank exercises that barely scratch the surface of their capabilities.

An RFP response demands a strategic approach that effectively aligns your company’s strengths with the prospect’s needs and evaluation criteria.

In this guide, you’ll learn the core components of an RFP response, how to build one and how Pipedrive’s proposal software features help with the process.

What is an RFP response?

An RFP response is a company’s proposal to secure business opportunities. A company submits an RFP response to a potential client organization, directly answering all requirements and evaluation criteria outlined in a request for proposal (RFP).

Think of it as your company’s case to win a client contract. It’s also a sales tool for the submitting company and a decision-making aid for the client.

A strong RFP combines:

• Detailed answers to technical requirements

• Proof of past performance and capabilities

• Clear pricing strategy and implementation plans

• Supporting materials like resumes and case studies

Here’s what one section of an RFP response might look like:

Successful responses highlight your value, align with client goals and address their challenges.

RFP proposals require coordinated input from multiple teams – sales and marketing, technical and legal. You’ll need strong project management to align all contributors on key proposal messages and meet critical submission deadlines.

5 components of an RFP response with examples

RFP responses require careful attention to each client’s unique requirements, industry and context. While the specific format and emphasis vary across different opportunities, every proposal needs these five key components to be thorough and effective.

You can use this format as your basic RFP response template to cover all critical aspects.

Let’s explore each RFP response component in more detail with relevant examples.

1. Cover letter

A cover letter introduces your sales proposal, sets the tone and makes a strong first impression.

The cover letter should be warm, professional and focused on the evaluator’s perspective. It must address their goals, priorities and concerns directly, showing empathy for their pain points.

Keep your cover letter to one page and include the following:

• Brief company overview

• Clear statement of intent to bid

• Two to three key differentiators or benefits

• Contact information for RFP questions

• Expression of appreciation

Here’s a sample opening paragraph:

Use this part to establish credibility early while focusing on client benefits. Reference specific client or industry insights to personalize your cover letter and show an in-depth understanding of the company’s needs and concerns.

2. Executive summary

An executive summary condenses your proposal into a one- to two-page narrative. Busy decision-makers can quickly review it to assess your value proposition.

Your executive summary should highlight the client’s challenges, your proposed solution, key benefits, relevant expertise and an overview of risks, investments and timelines.

Here’s an example RFP response summary format:

When your executive summary’s key messages and themes align with the different sections of your response, you create a cohesive proposal that reinforces your value proposition throughout the document.

3. Deliverables and timelines

The deliverables and timelines section maps out exactly what you’ll provide. It directly links each deliverable to the client’s objectives to show alignment and feasibility and convinces evaluators that you have a realistic plan to achieve their objectives.

Your timeline outlines specific phases, milestones and dependencies. Break down complex deliverables into precise, measurable components that allow evaluators to track progress.

Key elements to include are:

• Project phases with start and end dates

• Major milestones and decision points

• Resource management requirements and assignments

• Dependencies between tasks

• Review and approval cycles

• Risk management buffers

Here’s a sample timeline entry:

Organizing project phases and deliverables makes it easier for evaluators to understand your approach.

Be specific about what the client receives at each stage. Avoid vague descriptions like “implementation” – instead, list concrete deliverables such as “requirements documentation” or “project schedule”.

4. Pricing details

Evaluators need to understand exactly what they’re paying for. Pricing details provide a transparent breakdown of costs and indicate to the client the value they’ll receive for their investment.

Use pricing clarity to prevent misunderstandings that could damage trust and potentially void a sales contract later.

Break down your pricing into clear categories:

• Base costs and recurring fees

• Optional add-ons or modules

• Implementation and training costs

• Support and maintenance fees

• Travel or additional expenses

Here’s a sample pricing structure:

When possible, present pricing in a table format. Include notes about volume discounts, multi-year agreements or other cost-saving opportunities, and be transparent about any assumptions or conditions affecting pricing.

For example, “support pricing assumes standard business hours (9 AM to 5 PM EST). 24/7 support available at premium rates.”

5. Social proof

Social proof includes testimonials, case studies or customer success stories to validate your expertise and build trust.

Help decision-makers overcome their concerns about selecting a new vendor by including social proof in your RFP response. When you back up your promises with concrete evidence, you prove your company can deliver the proposed outcomes reliably.

Here’s a sample case study structure:

Focus on results and metrics that matter to your current prospect. When sharing testimonials, choose examples of clients in similar industries or with comparable challenges.

Choosing the right references and managing permissions carefully shows your professionalism and attention to detail during the RFP response process.

5 steps to respond to an RFP

Responding to an RFP can feel overwhelming – tight deadlines, detailed requirements and multiple stakeholders pulling in different directions. Break it down into a step-by-step guide to help your team stay organized and deliver a polished, competitive proposal response on time.

Let’s explore the five key steps that guide you from initial RFP evaluation through final response submission.

1. Conduct a go/no-go analysis

A go/no-go analysis helps you decide whether pursuing an RFP opportunity is worth your organization’s time and resources. It prevents wasting effort on opportunities with low win probability.

The decision to bid involves analyzing multiple factors:

• Strategic fit with your business direction

• Current bandwidth and resource availability

• Technical capability to meet requirements

• Your relationship with the prospect

• The project’s profitability potential

Create a scoring matrix that weighs these factors based on your priorities. Rate each criterion from one to five and set a minimum threshold for proceeding.

For example:

• Strategic fit: 5

• Resource availability: 4

• Technical capability: 3

• Profitability: 4

• Average score: 4

• Minimum threshold met? Yes

• Go / No-go: Go

Consider both quantitative and qualitative factors. Quantitative factors include estimated contract value and the cost of pursuing the bid, while qualitative factors could include the political environment and available internal expertise.

Even attractive opportunities may warrant a “no-go” decision if your organization lacks bandwidth or crucial capabilities.

2. Build a cross-functional team

An effective RFP response requires diverse expertise and coordinated effort. The right mix of subject matter experts ensures your proposal comprehensively addresses all technical, operational and business requirements.

RFP response teams typically include:

Start with a kick-off meeting to align on goals and timelines. Schedule regular check-ins to track progress and build an action plan.

3. Develop a response strategy and outline

Your response strategy translates requirements into a structured plan that addresses the evaluator’s key concerns.

Organize requirements into thematic categories based on evaluator priorities, such as scalability, user adoption strategy and post-launch optimization.

Create a responsibility matrix showing which team members own specific response components using a template like this one:

Once you’ve defined responsibilities, break down your RFP response into document sections, such as past performance, technical approach and management plan.

For each section, create detailed annotations that map out your response outline.

A well-crafted response strategy ensures your team remains focused on delivering a proposal that clearly articulates your solution’s superior value.

4. Write and review content

Your content creation phase turns your response strategy into compelling, compliant proposal sections. Strong writing and thorough review processes ensure evaluators receive clear, convincing information.

When writing sections, focus on three key principles: answering requirements wholly and directly, supporting claims with specific evidence and maintaining consistent messaging across sections.

Use clear, active language that focuses on benefits rather than features. Connect every capability back to the client’s needs and objectives.

5. Edit and finalize the proposal

The editing phase refines your draft into a polished, professional final proposal that maximizes your chances of winning the bid.

The four Cs – clarity, conciseness, consistency and correctness – ensure your proposal is clear to evaluators, concise in delivery, consistent in tone and messaging and free of typos. Let’s examine each of these principles in detail.

Conduct this review with enough time to proofread and make substantial changes if needed. Use a dedicated editor or fresh reviewer who wasn’t part of the writing process.

RFP response outlines by industry

While every proposal request needs a tailored response, proposal templates can help speed up the process.

Each template below provides a framework for organizing the technical portion of your RFP response.

In industries such as construction, marketing and SaaS, RFP responses may require detailed technical narratives that provide an outline and context for their solutions and approaches. This outline typically follows the executive summary and deliverables and timelines section.

Use the recommended structure relevant to your industry to organize the technical narrative section of your RFP responses. You can adapt the outline section weightings, specific subsections and content focus based on your prospect’s requirements while maintaining a logical flow that potential clients expect.

Construction

A construction RFP response showcases your ability to complete projects safely, on time and within budget since clients will prioritize reliability and risk reduction.

Construction RFPs typically cover projects such as commercial buildings, infrastructure (bridges, roads, tunnels), healthcare facilities, educational institutions or residential developments.

Here’s a typical RFP response outline structure for a construction project:

Marketing services

A marketing services RFP response highlights your creative campaign ideas, audience engagement methods and proven business results.

Marketing RFPs often come from brands seeking full-service agency support, companies launching new products or organizations needing specialized services like digital marketing or PR campaigns.

Here’s an outline you can follow for your marketing proposal:

The response structure ensures evaluators can clearly see your creative vision – through detailed campaign concepts and mockups – and your ability to deliver measurable results.

SaaS services

A SaaS RFP response highlights your platform’s scalability, security, integration, business value and implementation expertise.

These RFPs commonly come from enterprises seeking solutions like CRM systems, HR management platforms, financial software or project management tools.

For example, a retail chain might need an inventory management solution that connects with its point-of-sale systems.

You can use this software proposal structure for your technical outline:

Include a clear pricing model that outlines subscription tiers, implementation costs and any volume-based discounts. Emphasize the advantages of total cost of ownership compared to legacy systems.

For example, the client company might spend $250,000 yearly on server maintenance, IT staff and upgrades. With your cloud-based solution, which includes maintenance and updates in the subscription fee, this could drop to $150,000.

How to track your RFP responses in Pipedrive

While primarily a CRM tool, Pipedrive offers features that can support your team’s RFP response workflow by helping you track, organize and optimize your proposal development process.

Follow these steps to use Pipedrive to manage your RFP responses:

Set up the RFP pipeline

Build your pipeline in Pipedrive by creating custom stages such as:

• RFP received

• Under review

• Drafting response

• Response submitted

• Follow-up

• Awarded/lost

Use Pipedrive’s Kanban view to visualize your RFP workflow. Each opportunity is represented as a card that moves across stages as it progresses.

Pipeline management in Pipedrive helps you monitor and manage every opportunity from initial discovery – when you first receive and evaluate an RFP to determine if it’s worth pursuing – through final submission.

By visualizing your RFP workflow, you can track progress, identify bottlenecks and ensure no tasks fall through the cracks.

Track RFPs as deals

Use Pipedrive’s deal-tracking features to monitor RFPs and get a real-time view of your response workload and progress.

Adding basic deal information such as the RFP title, issuing organization and estimated contract value creates a foundation for tracking each opportunity.

Team members tagged on the deal receive automatic notifications when assigned tasks or activities, ensuring everyone stays coordinated. Moving deals through pipeline stages provides a visual progression highlighting which RFPs need immediate attention.

Use custom fields for RFP details

Custom fields in Pipedrive can help you track vital RFP information consistently across all opportunities.

Set up fields for:

• Submission deadlines to ensure visibility on every deal

• RFP document links to provide quick access to source materials

• Issuer contact details to streamline communication

• Budget and project value to prioritize opportunities and allocate resources

• Required deliverables as a checklist to ensure no component gets overlooked

For example, a deal in Pipedrive might display fields like “Submission Deadline: March 15,” “Issuer Contact: John Smith” and “Budget: $1M,” providing an at-a-glance summary of key details.

By using custom fields, you can maintain a centralized source of truth for RFP details.
Structured data also makes reporting easier. You can generate insights into proposal win rates, response times and project values to refine your sales strategy.

For example, you might discover you win 75% of proposals in the $100k–250k range, but only 20% of deals larger than that. You can invest more resources in mid-sized opportunities while improving your value proposition for enterprise-level proposals.

Assign activities

Each activity in Pipedrive represents a scheduled task or action item required to complete your proposal – from initial reviews to final submissions.

The visual dashboard below shows upcoming and overdue tasks at a glance.

Tracking these activities ensures your team meets all critical RFP requirements. More importantly, it helps coordinate the many team members working on responses.

Pipedrive simplifies this RFP response process by letting you create and assign specific activities for contacts, organizations and deals. When working on RFP responses, you can schedule activities like:

• Technical requirement reviews with your product team

• Pricing discussions with finance stakeholders

• Drafting reviews with key decision-makers

• Final compliance checks before submission

Each activity includes deadlines, assignments and notes to keep everyone accountable.

Use Smart Docs to draft, track and automate follow-ups

Sales teams need a reliable system for managing multiple RFP responses, deadlines and requirements. Smart Docs, Pipedrive’s document management feature, streamlines this process by centralizing document creation and tracking.

When a new business opportunity arrives, use Smart Docs to create response documents, track versions and monitor progress – all from within your CRM.

Smart Docs features that help you stay on top of deadlines include:

• Document status tracking, showing exactly where each RFP response stands

• Automated reminders to alert team members of upcoming due dates

• Activity logs that capture all interactions and updates

• Version control preventing duplicate work or outdated submissions

Smart Docs creates a clear audit trail, tracks document performance and helps identify which response approaches lead to wins.

With Smart Docs, pipeline reviews become more meaningful as you can easily spot documentation bottlenecks like delayed reviews or approvals. Also, you can allocate writing and editing resources based on real-time document status.

RFP response FAQs

Final thoughts

Creating winning proposals demands a coordinated effort from your entire proposal team. Each response is your chance to stand out by showing how your expertise solves the prospective client’s unique challenges.

A systematic approach using proven proposal templates helps your team maintain consistency across all RFP responses with standardized processes everyone can follow.

Pipedrive helps you streamline the different aspects of your RFP response workflow, from initial tracking to document management.