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How to Write an RFP Response (Government, Private Sector, Grant, etc.) - YouTube
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While this video is illustrated using a
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grant example these steps will actually
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work for all types of RFP responses. This
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includes government or private sector
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RFPs and grant RFPs. You can use the same
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steps. The only difference is which
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templates you select to build your
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document with. In the end, in all these
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situations, you are creating a Word
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document made up of a number of
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different chapters. In this video we're
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going to show you how to respond to a
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grant proposal using Proposal Kit. This
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is usually creating a Word document that
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matches all of the information required
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in the grant application. This is going
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to apply to any kind of grants whether
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it's a government grant, local, national,
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federal, state. It'll also apply to any
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grant you're applying for such as to
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private organizations. One of the main
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differences between responding to a
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grant and just doing a freeform proposal
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such as selling a product or service is
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you usually have instructions you have
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to follow. So in this example we're going
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to assume we've got a grant application
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for an energy efficiency project. Now
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we're going to illustrate this with our
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Energy #9 Proposal Pack just so
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you can see some color and design in the
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documents. Usually grants, especially if
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they are government ones, are going to use a
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very conservative proposal usually using
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our plain design Proposal Pack called
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Proposal Pack for Any Business where you
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don't want a lot of extra fancy
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graphics and you're not going to get any
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points scored for that anyway. So how you
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usually start is you'll take your grant
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application information. And this will be
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a document given to you. It's up to you
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to go through the grant application and
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pick out all the things they want you to
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talk about. And then it's up to you to
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put together a document for your
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response. And this is where Proposal
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Kit comes in
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because it can let you quickly assemble
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a custom Word document for you to fill
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in the blanks where our Proposal Pack
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will have all the structure of the
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document, all your major chapters, that
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will match the information requested in
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the RFP instructions. So we've taken this
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grant application and we've highlighted
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keywords in the document to remind us of
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the chapters and types of information we
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want to put in the proposal. And we'll
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match these keywords to actual chapters
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in the Proposal Kit. And this is how
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we're going to assemble a custom Word
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document to match this particular RFP.
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Now because you have thousands of
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chapter templates in the Proposal Pack
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you'll be able to find matches to just
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about any information that you're asked
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to provide. So using the Proposal Kit
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we'll start a Document Project.
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Click the Pick Documents button and this
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is where we're going to check off all the
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chapters that match what's in the RFP. So
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we'll check off some common chapters
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like a Cover Letter, Title Page, Table of
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Contents, an Executive Summary and then
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we'll start looking through the RFP
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instructions to see what kind of things
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they're asking for. Now this one they
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want to know our experience, service
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territories. And we get into the details
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like project cost, benefits, budgets, your
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methodology and so on.
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So these are the key phrases of
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information that we're going to match to
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chapters in the Proposal Pack. So we can
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see right off we already have a
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Benefits page. We have a Budget. Now we're
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looking at the Top 40 most common
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chapters here. So once we start getting
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into more specialized chapters such as
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an implementation plan, strategies,
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methodologies and so on we're going to have
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to start searching for those chapters. So
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we'll search for an implementation plan,
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maybe a design page,
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methodologies and so on. And we're doing
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partial keyword searches here to make
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sure we hit the chapters as best
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possible. So we'll do a search for these
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four chapters and we're just going to go
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through the RFP and start adding
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chapters as we find them. So we can see
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in the Proposal Pack we have an
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Implementation Plan, we have a Project
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Methods, we have a Design page, we have a
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Strategy page, we have a Methodology page.
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So a lot of these common phrases and
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keywords you'll match straight to
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chapters in the Proposal Pack.
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We'll add these to our project and you
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can see we're building up this list of
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chapters. Another thing this particular
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RFP asks for an assessment of the impact
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your proposal will have on in this case
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reducing air emissions. Well maybe we can
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search for some chapters that will cover
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an impact statement so let's just search
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for the word impact and maybe a
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reduction page.
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You'll see we have an Environmental
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Impact or we could use the Impact
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Statement. Either one will work
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and there's actually a Reductions page.
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So we can add these two. Where programs
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are offered, that could be say the
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Service Area. Cost and benefits they want
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to hear, the sources, a time frame.
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So we're going to use this Service Area to
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cover this one. Where programs are
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offered topic, sources, we've got a
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chapter for that.
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For costs and benefits we've got a
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Cost/Benefit Analysis page. Now you see
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we didn't find Timeframe. There's not a
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chapter titled exactly that in the
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Proposal Pack. But there are many others,
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like we could do a Timeline or a
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Schedule. If we scroll down this
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particular RFP, well they do want to see
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a Timeline, Schedule of Events, Milestones.
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We have a Milestones chapter, Schedule of
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Events and a Timeline too. Add those. You
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can see we're up to 20 pages for this
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proposal. Grants can get very long very
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quickly, especially if it's a government
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proposal. They also want to know about
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maintaining records for the project,
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reporting, evaluation, being in compliance
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with applicable laws and regulations. So
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we're going to add some chapters to
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cover those things too.
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So we're going to use a Records
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Management topic, an Evaluation topic and
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a Reporting topic.
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We can also use this drop down here to
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find more chapters that might be grant
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related. Since we're doing an RFP
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response we'll pick this RFP response
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category. You'll see these checklists
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change to chapters that are more
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tailored for RFPs. So we're going to
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check a Compliance Plan and an RFP
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Cross-Reference. The RFP Cross-Reference
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is a good one to add to any grant
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proposal because that's where you can
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create a table cross-referencing all the
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chapters in your proposal to the
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information that's being requested in
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the RFP. This makes it easier for the
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people evaluating your response to find
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information in your proposal response.
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We're also going to add a Bid/No-Bid
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Checklist and a Grant Proposal
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Development Checklist. These are just
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extra checklists that are good for
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grants because it will give you a
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checklist to go through. And you can
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customize these checklists or come up
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with your own bid/no-bid responses.
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This is just to help you in evaluating
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the creation of your response and
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whether you should or shouldn't respond.
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And now that we have selected all of our
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chapters we can reorder these and put
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them in a different order. Anything in
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this side of the screen will just be
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extra documents copied into your project
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folder there for you to work with while
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you are working on your assembled
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document. So now that we've selected all
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of our chapters
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we'll make sure we have the Company Data.
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I'll fill in the Client Data.
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And now we've filled in the Client Data.
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Now that we have the Company Data, Client
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Data filled in, we have all the templates
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selected that'll get built into the
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document we're ready to save the project.
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And this will build our Word document.
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Okay now the Wizard is finished
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generating our RFP response document. And
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we've used one of the Expert level
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features which will link dynamically
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cells in the cost spreadsheets and
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schedules into the Word document. So
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you'll see when we pick the
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Implementation Plan we can actually do
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our plans and dates in the spreadsheet
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and those totals and line items will be
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updated automatically in the Word
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document. We've got a Timeline calculator
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the Cost/Benefit Analysis calculator, our
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Budget calculator and so on. You'll also
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see our Grant Proposal Development
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Checklist document has been created. We
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can customize that as needed to help us
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fill in and finish the proposal and
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the Bid/No-Bid Checklist, same thing.
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You can just use this as you see fit. The
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final assembled document you'll see
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here's our Cover Letter. Our energy design
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theme. This is the Energy #9. Now
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the visual design theme, we have hundreds
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of design themes you can pick from. We
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have a plain design theme and we have
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options for you to create your own
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visual design theme branding it with
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your own graphics, your own fonts, colors,
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your own logo and so on. So all the
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visual options are completely
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customizable. You'll see the Table of
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Contents has been generated. All those
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chapters we checked off are in the Table
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of Contents, headers and footers are all
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created, chapter headers, bullet points. We
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have tables. Our Milestones or
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Implementation Plan. Now you'll see these
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are actual linked cells from the
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spreadsheet. So if we update the
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spreadsheet these line items and numbers
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and dates will change
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in the document. That's part of that
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Expert level feature where we can
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dynamically link cells in a spreadsheet
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to the Word document. So see we have a 36
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page document already created,
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structurally complete and ready for us
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to start filling in the actual details
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for the response.
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So this is one of the big benefits to
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the Proposal Kit system where you can
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create five, ten, thirty, a hundred page
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Word document customized
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to the situation you need in just
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minutes. So think of how long it would
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take you to do this manually with a
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blank Word document.
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Creating a 30 page outline like this
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this could take days where the Wizard
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can do it in minutes. So now all we have
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to do is actually fill in the details of
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this document with our own information
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and then we'll follow the instructions
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in the RFP on how to submit it. Generally
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RFPs are going to be in a Word or PDF
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format. This is a big benefit to the
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Proposal Kit system is that it is Word
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based. You're generally going to have to
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do a Word format saved and delivered
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as a PDF. Another big benefit to the
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Proposal Kit system is there are
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countless resources on how to create
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your proposals, how to actually do the
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writing, how to do the details of your
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proposal and anything you learn
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elsewhere such as other videos, websites,
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books and so on you can apply to when
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you're filling in this generated
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template that you've customized using
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Proposal Kit. And that's the basics of
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how to generate a custom template to
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respond to an RFP using Proposal Kit. Let
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us know what you think in the comments
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below and click subscribe to keep up on
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the latest proposal writing tips with
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Proposal Kit.
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