Three pillars of successful proposal production partnerships
- Lizette Naranjo
- Jan 14
- 4 min read
Before becoming a consultant, I was Pursuits Manager at a mid-sized architecture firm in Washington, DC. By my second year, I knew just about every sector leader’s working style—who preferred emails over meetings, who needed placeholders in early drafts to grasp the vision, and who needed a little more hand-holding when it came to internal deadlines. It all became second nature because I worked alongside them every day. I saw them at lunch, caught up during happy hours, and learned their rhythms without even realizing it. I knew who needed that final draft before heading out for school pick-up, and who was an early riser expecting it in their inbox at 6 a.m.
What surprised me most was how different the learning curve feels when you are supporting a team from the outside, especially when bandwidth is already stretched thin. Just like it took time to learn my colleagues’ working styles, it takes time to learn each client’s as well. But as a proposal production partner, I don't have the luxury of a year to onboard. Clients need us to get up to speed as quickly and efficiently as possible. For those looking to explore a consultant partner, here's a glimpse into my approach to making external support work.
Clarity is a contact sport
Because I get limited face time with clients, I make sure to ask as many questions upfront as possible to understand how they work.
When do you log off for the day?
Are your heads-down hours in the morning or in the evening?
Do calendar reminders help you stay on track for internal deadlines?
Do you prefer communicating via Teams or email?
All the small, internal conversations you’d normally have organically now need to happen intentionally and up front. I’ve compiled a list of standard questions to review at kickoff meetings to make sure I get it right. It’s especially useful for clients who have me working across sectors and geographies, as I might be partnering with a new team on each pursuit. Asking early prevents late-night scrambles and last-minute reviews. The sooner I understand how my client team works, the smoother everything runs for them and for me.
Own your expertise
Sometimes a client engagement comes with a marketing liaison. Other times, I’m handed an RFP and immediately off to the races on my own. Either way, I’ve found that most internal teams don’t need more ideas; they need someone to confidently carry the process. Schedule the kickoff. Set draft deadlines. Book review sessions. Lock in interview rehearsals early. This structure keeps the pursuit on track and gives firm leaders clearer review windows with fewer fire drills at the eleventh hour.
This kind of proactive scheduling protects both quality and sanity, and relies on experience to get it right. We’ve all lived through deadlines where the project team changed at the last minute, the final draft was nowhere close to final, and everyone ended up pulling late nights simply because internal deadlines weren’t defined or enforced. As a pursuit leader, it’s my job to plan for the unexpected and understand the time it takes to craft a thoughtful response. Standing strong in that hard-earned knowledge helps operational leaders—who are also running projects and teams—avoid underestimating the effort and pushing drafting duty to the last minute. It’s not just about reinforcing best practices. It’s why clients have hired us in the first place.
Organization is everything
At one point, I was juggling three client laptops—my desk looked like a security checkpoint. Jumping between devices while managing multiple deadlines can be chaos. But maintaining a tight workflow makes everything feel lighter, even when the workload is not.
Platforms like Microsoft Planner are lifesavers. I don’t just create a task that says “Client X RFP due Friday.” I break it down into smaller steps with actual deadlines—yes, more deadlines—to keep myself and the client team on track. These types of tools also make progress visible to the entire team, which matters more than most people realize in high-pressure seasons. The more organized you are, the fewer fire drills everyone deals with. I learned this the hard way early in my career when a missed assumption led to a scramble no one enjoyed. It only takes one of those moments to realize how much smoother things run when expectations are clearly defined and transparently communicated. After almost a decade leading pursuits, I don’t leave anything to assumption. And my deliverables and my stress level are better for it.
Transitioning from internal support to external consulting has been an adjustment, but one that keeps my work interesting. Some clients I meet with weekly—I know their dog’s name and their coffee order. Others I connect with monthly and see at industry events. Either way, I’m still building rapport and honing processes just like I did as an internal partner. The difference now is that I’m doing it across many teams at once, each with its own pressures, priorities, and pace. I must admit, I love the variety. Regardless of a firm’s size or resources, my job as a production specialist is simple: make my clients’ lives easier and give precious time back to overloaded teams.
If you’re interested in learning more about how a pursuit production partner can lighten the load for your firm, we’d love to hear from you. We specialize in partnering with marketing teams to release the pressure valve—taking ownership of deadlines and deliverables from custom quals requests to must-win pursuits. Sound like a dream come true? Let’s talk.
