Customer storyConsulting / Advisory proposals
Kobe cuts first-draft work by 67%
A six-person bid team brings past engagements, delivery methods, and expert input into one response — cutting first-draft work from 24 hours to 8.
Inside Kobe
Advisory proposals
- less first-draft work
- 67%
- 24 → 8 team hours per proposal
- review rounds instead of 4
- 2
- From first review to approved response
- proposals in the pilot
- 5
- An eight-week evaluation
01 / The starting point
The expertise existed. Finding it took the first three days
6 proposal contributors
Advisory proposals
Every new RFP sent Kobe’s proposal lead back through old decks, project examples, and methodology documents. Partners had to help find the material before they could review the proposal.
Reusing an answer also meant checking its limits. Did the six-week timeline cover the same scope? Was the client example cleared for use? Those questions kept returning during review.
About Kobe
An advisory firm responding to operations and transformation RFPs. Its proposal team works with practice leads to build a different delivery plan for each buyer.
Before
Start by searching old proposal decks
With Savix
Start with current reference material and a sourced draft
Before
Ask partners to fill missing sections
With Savix
Ask partners to resolve specific delivery decisions
Before
Four rounds of document review
With Savix
Two rounds focused on the approach and commitments
02 / Working with Savix
A working draft before the partner review
Kobe started with a deliberately small knowledge collection: current delivery methods, permitted engagement summaries, team profiles, and approved Q&A.
- STEP 01
Put reusable material in one place
The proposal lead uploaded the reference documents and removed superseded versions before drafting. Each practice lead checked the material for their area, including which client examples could be reused.
- STEP 02
Draft around the buyer’s questions
Savix extracted the requirements and drafted responses from that collection. The team could inspect the source quotes beside an answer instead of tracking down the original deck in a separate search.
- STEP 03
Give partners the decisions that need them
The proposal lead assigned delivery, staffing, and commercial questions to the relevant reviewers. Partners adjusted the approach and confirmed commitments; the team exported the reviewed response for final submission formatting.
What made the difference
Partner time moved from finding the previous answer to deciding what this client actually needed
03 / One answer, from source to review
See the difference in an answer
The source sets the limits. The reviewer confirms what the team can commit to.
The buyer asks
Can you complete the assessment across all business units within six weeks?
Company source
The standard six-week assessment covers one business unit. Multi-unit engagements require a separately agreed schedule.
Assessment methodology · Scope and scheduling
Reviewed response
Our standard assessment takes six weeks for a single business unit. We will agree the sequence and overall timeline for a multi-unit assessment during scoping.
Review owner: Delivery partner
04 / The results
Sixteen hours back before the first review
Across the five pilot proposals, average first-draft effort fell from 24 to 8 team hours. The response still needed expert review, but the first meeting began with a populated draft, supporting material, and a shorter list of questions to resolve.
The number of review rounds fell from four to two. Instead of circulating a document to discover missing inputs, the proposal lead could direct each unresolved answer to its owner. The time saved went into the client-specific delivery plan and commercial narrative.
team hours · 5 proposals over 8 weeks
How these results were measured
Average contributor hours for research and first-draft writing across five comparable proposals, before and during an eight-week pilot. Excludes setup, partner review, and final design.
Take this into your next response
Build the first knowledge collection around the next proposal, rather than trying to organize every file the firm has ever produced.
