Achieve Your Proposal Management Goals with XaitPorter

Your bids and proposals don’t have to be frustrating, time-consuming logistical projects that stretch your resources thin and your patience threadbare. Your time-strapped expert resources can deliver quality content on time. Your executive reviewers can share concise feedback that strengthens your bid. Your proposal team can skip the repetitious re-formatting and buy more time for more bids. With the right proposal tools. 

That’s where XaitPorter comes in. XaitPorter is a proposal and document management software that empowers teams to produce compliant, complete, and compelling bids and proposals 70% faster, no matter how complex. XaitPorter helps teams by:

• Eliminating repetitive efforts: Instead of spending time reformatting content for review and submission, your proposal is automatically review- and submission-ready at all times. 
• Saving valuable time: Instead of waiting to work, teams write and review together, in parallel, collaborating on the accurate and innovative content you need to score big with evaluators – and saving time to invest in more bids.
• Scaling for volume: Instead of spending time on coordination and other logistical headaches that drive bottlenecks and delays, your team saves time to invest in bidding on more opportunities.

Content Development Complexity Simplified

Bids and proposals are complex documents. Customer problems are complicated, compounded by emotion, and there is rarely just one right solution. Requirements are very specific, each with their own dependencies. The proposal deliverable itself is complex; multiple volumes with a high number of pages, sections, narratives, tables and figures, that must comply with formatting rules. 

How does XaitPorter streamline this critical, yet complex, time-consuming and cost-laden, process?

• Co-authoring. The wait to work is eliminated. Everyone on your team accesses the same proposal documents, based on granular permissions, when it is convenient for them. Everyone writes together, in parallel, optimizing their time – without worrying about version control.  
• Agile process. Also gone are the “pens down for review” events that bring your process to a screeching halt – and steal time away from writing. Instead, experts and reviewers collaborate real time, expediting completed sections and saving time for more complex requirements. 

• Review and comment. As a result, reviews are more productive; comments and replies are shared real-time as conversations within documents. Reviewers see each other’s comments, debate and come to consensus on more concise feedback experts can use without question or clarification. 
• Configuration management. Throughout development, content changes are tracked down to the user, date and edit. Now you can backtrack any edit to any place in time, without losing a keystroke. And without having to accept/reject hundreds of comments at a time.
• Content Library. When it comes to leveraging content, the frustrating email, share drive and hard drive search is over. Based on your intent, the most relevant content is quickly surfaced and inserted for tailoring. At the same time, it’s easy to maintain fresh and vital content for reuse with expert assignments and expiry dates. 
• Layout templates. Never reformat another proposal. By separating the writing layer from the layout layer, your proposals are automatically formatted to your requirements. No more floating images. No more document crashes. Just review- and submission-ready documents, every time. 

“For the executives, we’ve bought them more time to consider the strategy, weigh the risk and the return. That’s a big win. That’s buy-in.”

Team Management Complexity Simplified

Your proposal must comply and respond to all requirements. It must be clear, concise and easy to read and understand. It must also be compelling; persuading evaluators and decision-makers to agree with your solution. You can’t do that without your experts. Experts with their own full-time jobs, competing deadlines and shifting priorities. 

How does XaitPorter streamline this urgent, yet complex, time-consuming and cost-laden, process?

• Task assignments. The search for task assignments and documents is over. Specific document tasks are assigned to specific experts, so they quickly understand precisely what is expected of them. They receive a link directly to the document, so they easily understand exactly where their piece of the content puzzle fits.
• Deadlines. Combined with tasks, specific deadlines put the team on equal footing without searching email for the proposal plan. Everyone on the team knows exactly what is due by when. And everyone knows how a content delay on their part will impact interdependent content. 
• Personalized dashboards. Personalized dashboards automatically centralize tasks, deadlines, team and content activity. Experts consult their dashboard, sort by urgency and click directly to the assigned document. No more searching for calendars or working on the wrong document. Just top-of-mind tasks and in-sync, accountable teams.

• Automatic workflow. Workflow frees your team from the process questions and guesswork that slow down your progress. With each step, from writing to review, to revisions and approval, your process automatically advances with seamless hand-offs that keep everyone on the same page, saving precious time.  
• Team visibility. Stop wondering who is working and if they’re done. Granular permissions and team management tools keep your proposal manager’s finger on the pulse of team productivity. Now they can better gauge progress and quickly step in to avoid bottlenecks that cause delays.  
• Content visibility. At the same time, content management tools keep your proposal manager’s finger on the pulse of content status. If we keep writing at this rate, will we make the next milestone? Or do I need to reassign these tasks? Instead of wondering, your proposal manager has the information they need to weigh and manage issues before they impact the schedule.

Common Objections to Proposal Management Software

Still on the fence? Despite the significant time-saving, revenue-driving benefits of proposal management software, you and your business have concerns. Here are three common objections and why your competition is evolving their tactics now.  

Objection #1 We don’t have the budget

The cost of another software platform seems like it can always be avoided. Can’t we use something we already have? Your goal is to demonstrate how proposal management software is unique, and worth the investment now. 

You manage a unique team of cross-functional experts. When your team is out of sync, hairline cracks begin to appear in your process. Under pressure, these cracks grow, creating gaps between what is required and what is delivered. At a certain point this risk becomes an opportunity cost for your business; how much time and money are you already spending on trying to get your team on the same page and working together? 

Proposal management software minimizes your logistical team coordination. Now you and your team have more time to focus on what you are actually being evaluated on; compliant and compelling content. 

Bottom line, the first proposal bid you win past your standard rate of production will be more than enough to pay for the software. 

Significant Outcome: By cutting the time spent on each proposal in half, XaitPorter helps Franklin Energy respond to 65% more bids with the same level of resources.

Objection #2 The status quo is just fine

Resistance to change comes in many forms. What’s wrong with the way we’re doing it now? How much better can it actually be? Your goal is to demonstrate how proposal management software will make producing winning proposals faster, while making everyone’s lives easier.  

When your team spends more time thinking about the process than working on their tasks, they have less time to execute. Every task, deadline, content piece and strategy detail they must search for takes time away from completing their task. Every miscommunication causes a bottleneck, or worse, compliance issues. Every email bypasses security protocols, putting your, and your customer’s, sensitive and confidential information at risk. Meanwhile, your proposal manager lacks the information necessary to thwart bottlenecks before they become delays. This is the status quo, and it’s frustrating your team and derailing your revenue goals. 

Proposal management software makes your business more efficient by focusing your team on proposal execution, not proposal logistics. Now your team has everything they need to securely and quickly collaborate and hit their deadlines every time.  

Bottom line, proposal management software is a pathway your competition has already taken for scaling and growing their business.

Significant Outcome: According to APMP’s 2023 RFP Trends & Benchmarks report, “those using software submit 34 more RFPs annually.”

Objection #3 It won’t support our unique process

You established your proposal process to avoid the missteps and miscommunications that can easily derail this crucial step in your sales process. Over time, however, additional steps and bad habits have crept in, causing friction that slows down your process, and your team. Your goal is to demonstrate how proposal management software will streamline your process, not change it. 

You tailored your process for your business. Yet, as your team writes, formatting gets overwritten and cluttered, forcing repetitive re-formatting tasks that force your experts offline. Each “pens down” review brings your writing process to a screeching halt. Every confusing or misleading review comment delays revisions. Every underperforming expert is a looming bottleneck you can’t see and a delay you can’t mitigate – until it’s a last-minute sprint to deliver on time.

The right proposal management software supports and streamlines your process, whether you’re working on large, complex bids or small, rapid-turnarounds. Now your team is working smarter, not harder. While your process better flexes to meet the demand for volume. 

Bottom line, the right proposal management software is designed to streamline while remaining agile. So as your business grows, you flex and scale to meet the demands for growth. 

Significant Outcome: XaitPorter helps teams deliver complex proposals 70% faster without sacrificing quality.

In Conclusion

It doesn’t matter if you’re a growing small business or a large enterprise. Any friction that stalls or stymies your proposal process, blocks your revenue goals. It increases rework, delays progress and wears down your team.

Your bids and proposals don’t have to be the frustrating, time-consuming logistical nightmares they are today. That’s the status quo, and not at all conducive to growth. 

Streamline your proposal process with XaitPorter, and realize the benefits:

• Save valuable time for compliance and quality content that drives evaluator reviews and decisions.
• Better leverage your experts and their expertise across more bids and proposals without the bottlenecks and delays that threaten your deadline. 
• Never reformat another proposal again, ever.
• Scale for volume, and take on more bids and proposals with ease, without adding resources. 

Reach out today and learn why XaitPorter is the game-changing proposal management software you’re searching for.

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