selling a good story is the first step toward lasting impact
You know you have the people, the skills, and the ideas to make a difference. You just need the access.
Whether you are replying to an RFI, an RFP, or a RFTOP, or maybe submitting a tender, a mini-tender, or a calldown proposal, I’ve edited winning proposals worth over $1 billion and can help.
Building blocks of proposals
Templates: Get compliant, stay compliant.
I’ll customize your branded templates (or create them, yours to keep) to meet the requirements of the specific opportunity or client, and return at the end of the proposal to finalize the formatting.
Style Guides: Internal consistency for consistent new business.
I’ll use your house style guide or develop one (again, yours to keep) so that your attention to detail becomes a hallmark of your brand.
Tables and Graphics: Visualize informational relationships.
I’ll rework dense text blocks into presentations that help a reader understand the key take-aways - even looping in graphic designers where needed.
Internal Reviews: Call out the flaws before the client ever can.
I’m experienced in Shipley-style review processes, and can work multiple passes of editing into any proposal project, complete with succinct editorial notes to reviewers.
Desktop Publication: Impress evaluators with clean files.
I’ll make sure your bookmarks are navigable, your file author is branded, your images are accessible, and stray comments are gone. First impressions matter.
Additional useful info
Limitations? Let’s chat. Maybe the final pass is all you need or have budgeted for. Schedule early so I can prep with the solicitation and run with it as soon as the writers hand it off.
The basic process is that you give me a document in Word, I edit it, and I provide back a clean version (without track changes, with queries in comments) to use and a tracked version (with track changes, with queries in comments) for reference. Subsequent revisions are made to the clean version so no one has to untangle when edits were made. This can change upon mutual agreement.
Querying is a critical part of the writer-editor relationship. If I don’t know the intended meaning, I’ll give some grammatically correct options in a comment. Writers always have the option to go a third way, but flagging that change helps me know where to focus on subsequent passes.
Languages: American English, British English, or Canadian English, with short French passages. (I’ll have to trust the writer’s grammar on other languages.)
Meetings are generally billable time for the project, so feel free to give a detailed editorial brief in place of me attending internal reviews, but realize that I may not be able to give the same nuanced guidance or suggested rewrites as a result.
AI policy: I will not upload your information, proprietary or not, to an AI tool. I do use Microsoft Office tools (e.g., spell and grammar check, accessibility checks) and Grammarly to help identify issues, and may add additional similar editorial software, but all revisions are done by hand in a manner that tries to keep clear exactly what was changed. Please disclose whether and how AI was used in the drafting process, as it changes my approach to fact-checking and querying.
Scheduling: The more timing info I have during the capture period, the better I can work with the live bid. If scheduling conflicts arise, I’ll work with you to find a solution.