Proposal writerson call when yourteam is underwater.
rfpwriters.com is the on-call writing bench of BD-AEC, Scott Mann’s proposal practice for architecture, engineering, and construction firms. When too many RFPs land at once, a principal is drafting at midnight, or a proposal is in trouble days before it’s due, you plug in professional writers, managers, and reviewers who already work AEC selections. Take the whole proposal off your plate or hand off the one piece your team can’t reach. You keep running projects, we run the pursuit.
A BD-AEC service · Proposal development inside a business development practice
Where AEC pursuits go wrong
You don’t have a talent problem, you have a capacity problem. When three strong RFPs land in the same two weeks, the proposal gets written by whoever is least busy, which is rarely who should be writing it. These are the pressures a writing bench is built to absorb.
Too many RFPs at once
Three good solicitations post the same week and your team can seriously answer one of them.
Principals writing at midnight
Your most billable people burn nights on narrative instead of the projects that actually pay for it.
A draft in trouble
It’s days to the deadline, the draft is a mess, and nobody in-house has the hours to rescue it.
No in-house proposal role
Nobody owns pursuits, so every proposal is a fire drill run off the side of someone’s desk.
Inconsistent quality
A different overloaded person writes each submission, so no two read alike and none read like your best.
The deadline is slipping
The clock is running, the sections aren’t moving, and the submission is about to go out weak or late.
Your proposal lead is out
The one person who writes your proposals left or is on leave, and the pipeline didn’t pause to wait.
A proposal is never free
A professional AEC proposal commonly consumes 50 to 100 hours across leadership, technical, marketing, design, and administrative resources. That time bills to overhead instead of a client, and it comes out of exactly the people you most need on projects.
Per pursuit, produced in house
A proposal is never free when it is produced internally.
| Resource | Hours | Burdened rate | Illustrative cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Principal / seller-doer | 8 to 15 | $225 to $350 | $1,800 to $5,250 |
| Project manager / technical lead | 10 to 20 | $125 to $175 | $1,250 to $3,500 |
| Marketing / proposal coordinator | 20 to 35 | $75 to $110 | $1,500 to $3,850 |
| Graphic design and production | 6 to 15 | $80 to $125 | $480 to $1,875 |
| Executive review and admin support | 6 to 13 | $50 to $400 | $700 to $2,560 |
| Total | 50 to 98 | — | $5,730 to $17,035 |
Illustrative fully burdened cost, including compensation, benefits, payroll expense, overhead, software, and indirect resources. Actual hours vary by pursuit.
Once the strategy is set, most proposals are won or lost in the writing. A professional bench turns a rough draft into the submission an evaluator remembers, and it does it on your deadline instead of in spite of it.
What a winning submission actually needs
A compliance matrix maps every requirement to a response. This is the one that decides most selections: the gap between how a firm usually submits and how a pursuit should be run.
A writer free this week
Surge capacity on demand
A recovery team for a draft in trouble
Real AEC selection experience
One consistent voice across authors
Compliance held to the letter
Delivered on your deadline
The full scope, one shop
Plug in exactly what the pursuit needs. Hand off the whole proposal or the single piece your team can’t reach, from a full outsourced write to a last-minute recovery. Every writer here works AEC selections and nothing else.
Proposal Outsourcing
Hand us the whole proposal. We plan, write, and produce it end to end while your team stays on billable work.
Proposal Consultants
An experienced proposal consultant embedded in your pursuit to guide strategy, structure, and every section to submission.
Proposal Managers
A proposal manager for hire who owns the schedule, the compliance matrix, and every deadline, so your pursuit finally has a driver.
Proposal Reviews
An independent read against the evaluation criteria, with a marked-up copy and a punch list of what to fix before it ships.
Proposal Editing
Line editing that makes an uneven draft read in one confident voice, sharpens the argument, and holds every page limit.
Proposal Recovery
A draft in trouble with the clock running. We step in, triage what’s broken, and get it submission-ready by the deadline.
Proposal Planning
Compliance matrix, annotated outline, and a production schedule worked backward from the due date before the writing starts.
Not on the list?
If it touches a pursuit, it's in scope. Tell us what the solicitation needs.
One strategic standard. Two levels of finish.
Every engagement is built around responsiveness, persuasive content, and a submission-ready final document. What changes between the two is how far the production goes.
Professional
Word-based production
- Best fit
- Straightforward SOQs, on-call selections, qualifications packages, and time-sensitive pursuits.
- Production
- A polished Microsoft Word layout, delivered as a submission-ready PDF.
- Compliance matrix and pursuit strategy
- Writing, editing, and QA/QC
- Resumes and project descriptions
- Photographs, tables, and basic graphics
Timing
Available at every schedule tier, subject to capacity.
Reviews
Two review cycles
Signature
Creative production
- Best fit
- High-value, highly competitive, brand-defining, or shortlist-critical pursuits.
- Production
- Custom Adobe InDesign production by our creative team.
- Everything in Professional
- Custom visual concept and information design
- Infographics, diagrams, and image treatment
- Agency-level production quality
Timing
Best with 30 or more days. Generally available at 15 or more days.
Reviews
Content and design reviews
The production level changes. The strategic discipline does not.
Engage early
The best time to prepare for a proposal is before the opportunity is released.
Options and cost both reflect the time available to do the work responsibly. Engaging early preserves every production format, a full review cycle, and the most flexible footing. It is also why a reusable foundation, a case study library, current resumes, and a project image library built before the RFP posts, pays for itself across every pursuit that follows.
What a foundation builds
- Case study library
- Resume development
- Personnel and project image library
- Reusable marketing materials
How a pursuit runs
You bring us in and we plug into your pursuit, not the other way around. Here’s how an outside writing team gets up to speed and delivers on your deadline without slowing your people down.
- 1
Scope Call
We start with a call on the solicitation, the due date, and what your team can and can’t cover. You get the scope and the price in writing before we begin.
- 2
Kickoff & Access
We plug in fast. Past proposals, resumes, project data, and templates, so we work inside your files and your firm’s voice instead of around them.
- 3
Proposal Planning
We build the compliance matrix and an annotated outline, so every requirement maps to a section and an owner before a word is drafted.
- 4
Drafting
Our writers draft the sections you hand off and interview your engineers, so the technical narrative reads like your firm wrote it.
- 5
Graphics & Design
Org charts, schedules, and project sheets, laid out so an evaluator sees your strengths without digging for them.
- 6
Review & Red Team
An independent pass against the evaluation criteria, plus the recovery work when a draft lands in rough shape close to the deadline.
- 7
Production & Submission
Final formatting, packaging, and on-time delivery, physical or electronic, to the letter of the submission instructions.
Owners we write for
We write for the full design and construction market, and we know how each of these owners scores a submission. The engineering disciplines below link through to BD-AEC’s market pages.
More than a proposal writer
A generalist freelancer can turn a phrase, but they can’t tell an SF330 from an RFQ or write like an engineer under a page limit. Every writer on this bench works AEC pursuits and nothing else, which is the difference between filling pages and making a shortlist.
Business Development
This bench sits inside a business development practice, so we write toward winning the work, not just finishing the document.
Proposal Strategy
We carry win themes and discriminators through every section a freelancer would fill with boilerplate.
Technical Writing
We interview your engineers and turn dense expertise into narrative a non-technical evaluator follows on the first read.
Industry Experience
AEC only. We already know how public owners and private clients shortlist design and construction firms, so there’s no ramp-up on your dime.
Capture Planning
When there’s runway before the RFP drops, we help position the pursuit so the writing starts from ahead instead of behind.
Relationship Development
We write like a partner who knows your firm, because a bench you bring back learns your work, your people, and your voice.
Most of the score is qualitative. We build the proposal to win the parts that are not price.
Straight answers
How much does proposal writing cost?
It depends on the scope and the deadline. A single review or edit is a small fixed fee, a full outsourced proposal with graphics is priced by effort, and a rush recovery carries a deadline premium. We put the scope and price in writing before you commit, so you never get a surprise invoice.
Can you write an entire proposal for us?
Yes, and it’s the most common reason firms call. We take the whole thing: planning, writing, graphics, review, and production, with a proposal manager running the schedule. You give us the technical substance and your team stays on projects.
Can we hire a proposal manager for a single pursuit?
Absolutely. You can bring in a proposal manager for one pursuit without adding headcount. They own the compliance matrix, the schedule, and the assignments, then hand it all back the day you submit.
Our proposal is in trouble and due soon. Can you help?
Yes, recovery is a core service. Send us the draft and the solicitation, we’ll triage what’s broken on a quick scope call, and we’ll get it compliant and submission-ready by the deadline. The sooner you reach out, the more we can save.
Can you review or edit a draft we already wrote?
Yes. We run independent reviews and line edits on drafts your team produced. You get a marked-up copy against the evaluation criteria, a punch list of fixes, and an edit that makes an uneven draft read in one voice inside the page limit.
Do you write proposals for engineering firms?
Yes. Civil, structural, transportation, geotechnical, MEP, environmental, and water firms are the core of our work. We interview your engineers and turn their expertise into a compliant, persuasive proposal. If the pursuit is a statement of qualifications, our sister sites aec-soq.com and soqwriters.com go deep on SOQs and SF330s.
How fast can you start?
Usually within a day. Scott Mann responds within one business day, we scope the work on a quick call, and once the scope is signed we can be drafting the same week. For a recovery with the clock running, reach out the moment you know you’re in trouble.
Tools we bring to every pursuit
The writing and production tools we bring to every engagement. Ask for any of them on a scope call and we’ll run it against your live pursuit.
Proposal Triage Checklist
The fast diagnostic we run on a draft in trouble to decide what gets fixed first with the clock running.
Compliance Matrix Template
Map every requirement to a section, an owner, and a page count before the first sentence is written.
Section Outline Kit
Annotated outlines that tell each writer what a section has to prove and exactly how much room it gets.
One-Voice Style Sheet
The style rules that make a proposal written by several hands read like a single confident author.
Production Schedule Template
A calendar planned backward from the due date, with pink, red, and gold review dates built in.
Writer Handoff Brief
The one-page brief that gets an outside writer up to speed on your pursuit in an afternoon, not a week.
Ask for any of these on a discovery call. Request one →
§ Contact
Have a pursuit on the clock?
Send us the solicitation and your deadline. Scott Mann responds within one business day with a straight read on the pursuit, a go/no-go take, and what a winning submission needs.
Discovery call
A straight read on the pursuit and whether we should chase it.
Proposal assessment
A compliance and win-strategy review of a draft you already have.
Opportunity review
A go/no-go on a specific solicitation, scored before you commit.
Request a proposal assessment
AEC firms only. We'll never share your details.
One shop, seven front doors
rfpwriters.com is the on-call writing bench of the BD-AEC proposal network. When you need capacity fast, start here. When a pursuit needs a specialist, the sites below go deep on one kind of submission, and every one of them runs through the same writers.
AEC markets on bd-aec.com