The proposal writing process can be long, interesting but sometimes exhausting. The moment you complete the project, the review team comes in to do the editing and make sure the proposal is compliant with the requirements of the solicitation.

Spending so much time in planning, organizing and writing the content of the proposal makes it impossible to review it yourself. It’s very difficult to spot misconceptions, inconsistencies or technical mistakes. This is why proposal writing firms have review teams that are responsible for improving the quality of the product.

Proposal Review Teams

The number of review teams that evaluate a proposal depends on its complexity or the length of its pages. Generally, there are three main teams that are distinguished by colors. The most important ones are the Red team, Pink team, and Gold Team. Nevertheless, there are additional teams you can have to review your proposal in more detail including Blue team, Green team, Black Hat and, White Glove. Each of them has its purposes and objectives.

  • Blue Team is responsible to review the initial capture strategy and the capture plan that is implemented into your proposal, and the set solution.
  • Black Hat is responsible to assess your solution against your competitors’ solutions. The team uses intelligence information and predicts the strategies that your competitors will use to prepare their solutions.
  • Pink Team is the first review team that is responsible to evaluate the storyboards and mockups in order to approve the solution set and confirms that the proposal strategy used is appropriate.
  • Green Team is responsible to review the cost/price solution in order to confirm that the established price to win is the right one.
  • Red Team is the most important review team responsible to ensure that the final proposal draft, including price, is consistent with the requirements of the RFP. They have to evaluate the proposal by predicting how the decision makers will score it.
  • Gold Team evaluates and validates the final proposal and price.
  • White Team is responsible to analyze the lessons learned during the proposal development process, from capture planning to contract award.

Organizing the Red Team and the review process

The Red Team is critical for an effective content review of your proposal. Team members read the proposal and score responses addressed in each section as if they are the decision makers. It's near final review, and the last chance to make any change to your content, solution, or price.

They're responsible to make sure that the story is perfectly summarized and confirm the quality and value of all the elements of the proposal, including win themes, graphics, format, data, tables, layout, and the overall design.

Before starting the review process, make sure that the review is being made enough time prior to the submission deadline date, to provide for a window to incorporate any correction and improvement suggestions. Divide the review into separate sessions and establish particular goals for each. The team needs time to assess the entire project and determine whether there are any gaps in concepts, or requirements in order to ensure compliance with every section and requirement of the RFP.

The Red Team ensures that the proposal has all the qualities and features needed to qualify as a winner. This includes coherence, completeness, compliance, consistency, and accuracy.