ProposalTech RFP Response: How to Save Hours And Your Sanity

If you’re a proposal manager working in health insurance, a ProposalTech RFP response is likely a regular part of your day. Brokers and third-party administrators (TPAs) use ProposalTech to issue RFPs and RFIs on behalf of their clients. That means you’re navigating the platform for a significant portion of your workload—sometimes handling dozens of RFPs a year.

While ProposalTech is helpful for distributing and collecting responses, it’s not designed to make your job easier. Tasks like answering repetitive questions, meeting strict formatting requirements, and managing deadlines can quickly eat up hours. It’s frustrating because much of the time you spend is wasted on manual, low-value work.

For example, McKinsey research shows that knowledge workers spend 28% of their time managing email and searching for information. The same problem applies here—ProposalTech lacks advanced tools for reusing content, tracking progress, or automating repetitive tasks.

This post is here to help. By understanding ProposalTech’s quirks and applying a few smart strategies, you can save time on your next RFP. We’ll cover:

1. How to organize your workflow before starting in ProposalTech.
2. Why drafting and formatting outside the platform can reduce errors.
3. How automation tools can help you eliminate manual tasks.

ProposalTech doesn’t have to be a time sink. With the right approach, you can respond faster, submit with confidence, and take back hours of your day.

1. Understand ProposalTech’s Limitations (and Work Around Them)

ProposalTech is a solid platform for issuing and managing RFPs, but it has limitations that can make responding time-consuming for proposal teams. Understanding these limitations is the first step toward building an efficient process.

Rigid Formatting Rules

The ProposalTech RFP response interface enforces strict character limits and formatting requirements for responses. If your answer is even slightly over the limit, you’ll get an error message. The platform also doesn’t handle advanced formatting well—bullets, tables, and headings often require manual adjustments.

• Workaround: Draft your answers in Word or another text editor where you can check formatting and character limits before pasting them into ProposalTech.

No Built-In Collaboration Features

The ProposalTech RFP response solution doesn’t include tools for assigning tasks, tracking progress, or managing reviews. This makes it difficult to coordinate with team members, especially on large RFPs.

• Workaround: Use a shared project management tool, like Trello or Asana, to track assignments, deadlines, and progress. Create a shared tracker for tasks and questions that need multiple contributors.

Repetitive Question Handling

Many RFPs on ProposalTech include repeated or similar questions across different sections. However, the platform doesn’t provide a way to reuse answers efficiently. Each response has to be entered manually, even if you’ve answered it before.

• Workaround: Build a content library with pre-approved answers to common questions. Organize it by topic and tag responses so you can quickly find and reuse content.

Limited Visibility into Submission Progress

ProposalTech doesn’t provide a clear dashboard to track how much of the RFP is complete or what’s still outstanding. You often have to navigate manually through each section to check for missing responses.

• Workaround: Create your own progress tracker in Excel or Google Sheets. List every section or question, assign it to a team member, and track completion status.

Strict Submission Deadlines

ProposalTech enforces hard submission deadlines, meaning you can’t submit even a minute late. If your team is still scrambling to finalize responses as the clock runs out, you risk missing the deadline entirely.

• Workaround: Set an internal deadline at least 24 hours before the official due date. Use that extra time to review responses, check formatting, and ensure the submission is error-free.

By understanding these limitations and creating workarounds, you can minimize the inefficiencies that ProposalTech introduces. It’s not about changing the platform—it’s about changing how you approach it. With the right process, even a rigid system like ProposalTech can be manageable.

2. Build an Efficient Pre-Response Process

A disorganized approach to a ProposalTech RFP response can waste hours and lead to mistakes. By setting up a clear pre-response process, you can save time, keep your team aligned, and ensure your responses are accurate and complete. Here’s how to get started:

Step 1: Hold a Kickoff Meeting

Before anyone begins drafting, schedule a short meeting to align the team. This step ensures everyone understands their roles, responsibilities, and deadlines.

• What to cover:
  • Assign sections or questions to team members based on their expertise.
  • Set internal deadlines for first drafts, reviews, and the final submission.
  • Identify any areas that need input from subject matter experts (SMEs).
• Pro Tip: Use this meeting to flag potential challenges, like complex questions or missing data, so you can address them early.

Step 2: Gather Reusable Content

A significant portion of RFP questions will likely overlap with previous ones you’ve answered. Preparing reusable content upfront can save hours of drafting time.

• Steps to take:
  • Search your content library for pre-approved answers to common questions (e.g., compliance, pricing, or company background).
  • Organize these answers by category and tag them for easy retrieval.
  • If your team doesn’t have a content library, start building one now—it’ll pay off in future RFPs.
• Tool Tip: Consider using an AI-driven tool like Fastbreak RFP to help search and suggest the most relevant answers.

Step 3: Create a Progress Tracker

A ProposalTech RFP response doesn’t give you a clear way to see what’s complete and what’s outstanding, so you need to track progress externally.

• How to set it up:
  • Use a shared spreadsheet or project management tool like Trello or Asana.
  • List every question or section in the RFP, assign it to a team member, and add columns for deadlines and status updates.
  • Update the tracker in real time to keep everyone on the same page.

Step 4: Plan for Review Cycles

Don’t wait until the last minute to review your team’s work. Build review cycles into your process to catch errors and make improvements early.

• Steps to follow:
  • Schedule at least two review cycles: one for content accuracy and one for formatting and final checks.
  • Assign a reviewer to verify that all questions are answered completely and correctly.
  • Use a checklist to ensure nothing gets missed during reviews.

Step 5: Communicate Expectations Clearly

Make sure everyone on the team knows what’s expected of them and has the resources they need to succeed.

• What to share:
  • Deadlines for their assigned sections.
  • Guidelines for formatting and character limits.
  • Where to find reusable content or additional resources.
• Pro Tip: Keep communication open through tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams to quickly address questions or roadblocks as they come up.

Why This Works

A solid pre-response process eliminates unnecessary delays and ensures your team is organized from the start. By assigning clear roles, gathering content upfront, and tracking progress, you can save hours on every RFP. It’s not about working harder—it’s about working smarter.

With your process in place, you’ll be ready to tackle your RFP ProposalTech response efficiently, leaving more time to focus on crafting strong, winning responses.

3. Save Time with Drafting and Formatting Outside ProposalTech

ProposalTech’s interface can be clunky and slow when it comes to drafting and formatting responses. Working directly in the platform often leads to wasted time, errors, and frustration. A more efficient approach is to draft and format your responses outside ProposalTech first, then transfer them into the platform once they’re ready. Here’s how to do it:

Draft Responses in a Flexible Tool

ProposalTech’s text fields aren’t ideal for writing or editing. Drafting in a tool like Microsoft Word or Google Docs gives you more flexibility and control.

Steps to take:

• Copy each RFP question into your document and draft your response underneath it.
• Use tools like word count and spell check to ensure accuracy.
• Highlight placeholders or sections that need SME input to avoid forgetting them later.

Pro Tip: Create templates for common question types, so you’re not starting from scratch every time.

Use Character Count Tools to Save Time

The ProposalTech RFP response interface enforces strict character limits for many questions. Adjusting responses to meet these limits inside the platform can be time-consuming.

What to do:

• Check character counts in your drafting tool as you write. Most word processors have a “word/character count” feature.
• Trim responses upfront to avoid errors when copying them into ProposalTech.

Pro Tip: Focus on clarity and conciseness. Remove fluff and redundant phrases to keep answers short and to the point.

Format for Readability Before Pasting

ProposalTech’s formatting options are limited, so it’s important to format your responses before transferring them.

How to format effectively:

• Use headings and bullet points to break up long paragraphs.
• Add line breaks between sections for better readability.
• Avoid overly complex formatting (like tables) that won’t translate well into ProposalTech.

Pro Tip: Test a sample response in ProposalTech early to see how formatting carries over. Adjust your drafting style accordingly.

Create a Checklist for Copying and Pasting

Transferring responses into ProposalTech can introduce errors if you’re not careful. A simple checklist helps ensure nothing gets missed.

Include steps like:

• Verify the question matches the response before pasting.
• Check formatting after pasting to ensure alignment and readability.
• Double-check that attachments or supplementary documents are uploaded for the correct sections.

Pro Tip: Have one person on your team do a final quality check in ProposalTech before submission.

Streamline with Automation Tools

If drafting and formatting still feel like a bottleneck, consider using tools that provide ProposalTech automation to speed things up.

What automation can do:

• Suggest pre-drafted answers from your content library that are already optimized for character limits.
• Flag formatting issues or incomplete responses before you copy them into ProposalTech.

Example: Fastbreak RFP can auto-format responses and adapt them for ProposalTech’s strict requirements, saving even more time.

Why This Works

Drafting and formatting outside ProposalTech reduces errors, speeds up the process, and gives you more control over the final product. It also ensures your responses are polished and professional before they hit the platform.

With a simple workflow like this, you can minimize time spent fighting ProposalTech’s limitations and focus on creating responses that stand out.

4. Reduce Manual Tasks on a ProposalTech RFP Response

Manual work is one of the biggest time sinks in a ProposalTech RFP response. Copying and pasting answers, formatting responses, and fixing errors can add hours to the process. Automation tools can eliminate many of these tasks, giving your team more time to focus on crafting high-quality proposals.

Here’s how automation can help:

Automate Content Retrieval

Finding and reusing answers for recurring questions is a repetitive but necessary part of every ProposalTech RFP response. Automation tools streamline this process by searching your content library and suggesting the best-fit responses.

How it works:

• AI tools match ProposalTech questions with pre-approved answers, even if the wording is slightly different.
• Relevant content is retrieved instantly, saving you from manually searching through old documents or spreadsheets.

Example: For a compliance question like “Describe your HIPAA protocols,” the tool can immediately pull your most up-to-date response.

Optimize Formatting Automatically

ProposalTech’s formatting requirements can be tedious to manage manually, especially with character limits and input fields. Automation tools handle this for you.

What they do:

• Trim or summarize responses to meet character limits while preserving key details.
• Automatically format answers with consistent headings, bullet points, and line breaks.
• Flag responses that exceed character counts before they’re entered into ProposalTech.

Why it matters: This ensures your responses are ready to go without spending hours on manual adjustments.

Flag Errors Before Submission

Errors like incomplete answers, missing attachments, or placeholders (e.g., “[Insert Name Here]”) can hurt your proposal’s score. Automation tools act as a built-in safety net to catch these issues.

How they help:

• Scan for missing fields or unanswered questions.
• Verify that all required attachments are included.
• Highlight inconsistent terminology or placeholders that need to be filled.

Pro Tip: Use these pre-submission checks to catch mistakes early, reducing the need for last-minute corrections.

Handle Multi-Part Questions More Efficiently

A ProposalTech RFP response often includes multi-part or nested questions that require detailed answers. Manually breaking these down and aligning responses can be time-consuming. Automation tools simplify this process.

5. Create a ProposalTech RFP Response Pre-Submission Checklist

ProposalTech’s strict submission deadlines and rigid formatting rules leave little room for error. A pre-submission checklist helps ensure your responses are complete, accurate, and compliant before you hit “submit.” By taking a systematic approach, you can catch mistakes early and avoid unnecessary stress.

Here’s how to build an effective pre-submission checklist:

A. Verify All Questions Are Answered

Incomplete responses can hurt your chances of winning an RFP. Make sure every question has been addressed.

Steps to follow:

• Review each section in ProposalTech to confirm nothing is left blank.
• Cross-check against your progress tracker to ensure all assigned tasks are marked complete.

Pro Tip: Use the “review” or “preview” mode in ProposalTech to spot any missing answers.

B. Check Formatting and Character Limits

ProposalTech enforces specific formatting requirements that can lead to submission errors if not followed.

What to check:

• Ensure responses fit within character limits.
• Confirm consistent use of headings, bullet points, and line breaks.
• Avoid advanced formatting (like tables) that ProposalTech doesn’t support well.

Pro Tip: Test a few responses in ProposalTech early in the process to understand how formatting will appear.

C. Review Attachments and Supporting Documents

Many RFPs require attachments such as compliance documents, pricing tables, or case studies. Missing an attachment could disqualify your proposal.

Steps to take:

• Compile all required documents before submission.
• Match each attachment to its corresponding question or section in ProposalTech.
• Double-check that uploaded files are the correct version and accessible.

Pro Tip: Use clear file names that align with the RFP requirements (e.g., “HIPAA_Compliance_Document.pdf”).

D. Conduct a Final Quality Check

Small errors like typos or placeholders can leave a bad impression. A final quality review ensures your responses are polished.

What to look for:

• Typos, grammar mistakes, or incomplete sentences.
• Consistent terminology across all sections.
• Placeholder text (e.g., “[Insert Name Here]”) that hasn’t been updated.

Pro Tip: Have someone who didn’t draft the responses perform this review—they’ll spot issues you might miss.

E. Test the Submission Process Early

Technical issues can derail even the most prepared team. Testing the submission process ensures you don’t run into surprises at the last minute.

Steps to follow:

• Attempt a draft submission to confirm the platform accepts your files and responses.
• Check for any error messages or warnings from ProposalTech.
• Ensure all team members have access to the system and know how to navigate it.

F. Submit Early to Avoid Deadline Stress

ProposalTech enforces hard deadlines, and missing one by even a minute means your proposal won’t be accepted. Avoid this risk by submitting early.

What to do:

• Set an internal deadline at least 24 hours before the official due date.
• Use the extra time to handle last-minute adjustments or technical issues.

Pro Tip: Submit a draft version a few hours ahead of your internal deadline to confirm everything is in order.

Why This Works

A pre-submission checklist helps you catch errors, avoid delays, and ensure your proposal meets all requirements. By following these steps, you’ll approach every submission with confidence, knowing your team hasn’t overlooked anything important.

ProposalTech’s deadlines don’t leave much room for mistakes. A solid checklist ensures you stay ahead, reducing stress and increasing your chances of success.

Conclusion: Turn ProposalTech Into a Time-Saving Tool

ProposalTech may not always feel like the easiest platform to work with, but with the right approach, it can become a tool that saves your team time instead of wasting it. The key is to work smarter by building efficient workflows, using automation tools, and planning ahead to avoid unnecessary delays and errors.

Here’s what we covered:

1. Understanding ProposalTech’s limitations and developing workarounds.
2. Setting up an efficient pre-response process to keep your team aligned and organized.
3. Drafting and formatting responses outside ProposalTech to save time and reduce frustration.
4. Leveraging automation tools to handle repetitive tasks and ensure accuracy.
5. Using a pre-submission checklist to catch errors and avoid last-minute stress.

By combining these strategies, you can transform how your team approaches a ProposalTech RFP response. You’ll spend less time on manual tasks, reduce errors, and meet deadlines with confidence.

What’s next?

If you haven’t already, start implementing these steps one at a time. Focus on small improvements, like building a content library or setting internal deadlines, and scale up as your team gets comfortable. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll see results.

Final Thought

Responding to RFPs doesn’t have to be a race against the clock. With a few process changes and the right tools—like automation platforms designed for proposal management—you can take control of your workflow, save hours on every RFP, and produce better results.

ProposalTech might not be perfect, but with the right approach, you can make it work for you.