Boosting Bid Success: How AI Enhances SME Engagement and Proposal Quality

In her recent blog, Nyree McKenzie, Co-founder & CEO of Bidhive, highlights the critical role of engaging subject matter experts (SMEs) effectively to create compelling bids. However, Nyree points out that SMEs often face the challenge of balancing full-time roles with the demands of numerous ad-hoc proposal requests.

"This makes it challenging for them to contribute efficiently to the bid process," she notes. Fortunately, advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are providing bid and proposal managers with innovative ways to streamline SME engagement and enhance the overall quality of proposals.

Nyree, who will present at the Projectory Pulse Better Tenders, Bids and Proposals Virtual Summit, outlines several ways AI can revolutionise the bid process.

High-Level Summarisation of RFT Documentation

One of the most significant challenges SMEs face is navigating through extensive Request for Tender (RFT) documents to extract relevant information. According to Nyree, "Time constraints often mean that SMEs only have the capacity for a superficial review of these documents, which increases the risk of missing critical requirements." AI tools, however, offer a solution by providing high-level summaries that allow SMEs to focus on the most crucial aspects without getting bogged down in extraneous details.

She offers a practical example: "AI summarisation tools can extract key points, objectives, and requirements from RFT documents and present them in a concise report. This summary acts as a quick reference guide, helping SMEs quickly grasp the scope and priorities of the tender."

Key Theme Extraction and Discussion Guides

Generative AI can analyse RFT documents to identify key themes and topics, which can be used to create structured discussion guides. These guides help facilitate focused brainstorming sessions and interviews with SMEs, who often have limited time. Nyree emphasises that "attention can remain on essential aspects like storyboarding and win themes."

"By using generative AI tools, bid teams can identify recurring themes and critical points within RFTs," Nyree explains. "These insights can then be structured into discussion guides or outlines for strategy meetings or initial drafts, aligning the team’s approach with key messages and themes."

AI Assistance for Drafting Responses

AI also supports SMEs by generating initial drafts of proposal sections. "By crafting sophisticated AI prompts that incorporate the SMEs' expertise and unique insights, bid managers can ensure responses are both accurate and persuasive," says Nyree. This process saves time and reduces the burden on SMEs, allowing them to focus on refining content rather than starting from scratch.

As an implementation example, Nyree suggests, "AI writing tools can generate preliminary drafts based on input parameters set by SMEs. These drafts are then refined by the SMEs, ensuring the final content is precise, expert-driven, and compelling."

AI Knowledge Bases for Solution Generation

A centralised AI-powered knowledge base can be a valuable asset in the bid process, housing SMEs' thought leadership articles, solution methodologies, technical papers, and past successful bid responses. Nyree states, "AI tools can tap into this knowledge base to generate innovative solutions tailored to specific bid requirements."

She elaborates on how this can be implemented: "An AI repository of relevant technical papers and previous responses can be developed. When responding to a new RFT, the AI tool can scan this repository to suggest viable solutions and strategies, which SMEs can then review and customise accordingly."

Conclusion

Nyree concludes by stressing the importance of efficiently engaging SMEs to produce winning proposals while respecting their time and expertise. "AI tools can reduce the workload of SMEs, enabling them to focus on high-priority tasks and enhancing the overall quality of the bid," she says. From summarising complex documents to generating innovative ideas from a well-maintained knowledge base, AI-driven advancements boost both the productivity and effectiveness of the bid team. "By integrating these technologies, bid managers can create more informed, efficient, and successful bidding processes."

Nyree's final piece of advice: "Consider implementing these AI strategies in your next bid; the benefits for your team and the quality of your proposals could be substantial."