The Idea in One Line
Use ChatGPT to generate a structured first pass (~40%) from the RFP plus your service library; your team finishes the high stakes 60% (pricing, staffing, forms, proofs) for accuracy and differentiation. This scaffold then polish split is built for public sector RFx timelines and keeps humans on the compliant, defensible details. (See Sales & Marketing Management’s mid November report focus on training for today’s B2B environment.) Sales & Marketing Management
Why 40% Now
B2B buying teams skew younger and self-serve; in 2025, Gartner found 61% of B2B buyers prefer a rep free experience, raising the bar for clear, on demand proposal content. Generative Ai adoption is now mainstream, with McKinsey reporting wide, cross function use that accelerates first draft productivity. The result: AI handles structure and boilerplate; humans lock down the facts, schedules, and differentiators. Gartner+1
The 5 Step SOP
- Parse the RFx: have the model extract scope, mandatory sections, evaluation criteria, page limits, forms, and deadlines into a RFP Skeleton.
- Map to services: build a requirement → solution → evidence matrix from your capabilities and past projects.
- Draft the 40%: Executive Summary, Technical Approach, Management Plan, schedule assumptions, and risk no pricing/resumes/legal claims.
- Human edits: PM/SMEs tune methods, metrics, and past performance; contracts attach forms/certifications and ensure Section 508 packaging.
- Validate & package: run an Ai compliance check against the Skeleton, then a human pass for page limits, naming, 508, and file format. Section508.gov+1
Guardrails & Metrics
Require source only drafting, keep versioning (v1 Ai /v2 SME /v3 Final), and ban external web content unless explicitly allowed and cited. Track time to first outline, pre submission compliance catches, SME edit hours vs. drafting, and win rate lift over 3–5 cycles; rising gen Ai productivity trends support the business case.
