Stop 4 of 9 · Weekly
The RFP
The compliance matrix first, then section drafts written only from the Carrier Project, every claim carrying its source, and one clean list of questions for the sales engineer.
Nine days, forty pages, one shared engineer
An RFP is the part of this job that eats a week and rewards nobody for the effort. Wael's rule now is that the first two hours produce a compliance matrix and a no-bid recommendation, and only then does anybody write prose. Both artefacts go to his manager before the writing starts, because a no-bid signed off on Tuesday is worth more than a beautiful losing response submitted on the ninth day.
The matrix first
Attached is the RFP: [attach the RFP PDF]. Read it and return one row per requirement with the requirement number and page, the requirement in one line, our status of comply, partial or exception, and the Project file and section it comes from. Where nothing in the Project answers it, write unsourced and say who would know. Then give me four things below the table: every mandatory requirement we cannot meet, every date and deadline in the document, every submission format rule, and the requirements that are written to a specific incumbent's capability. Do not write any section prose yet. Do not produce any rate, total or price.
That last item in the list is the one that pays for the exercise. RFPs are often written from an incumbent's own datasheet, and spotting three requirements that only one carrier meets is what turns a bid decision from optimism into arithmetic.
Section drafts, sourced line by line
Once the matrix is signed off, each section is a separate job with a narrow instruction. Do not ask for the whole response in one go: it will be fluent and half of it will be unsourced.
| Section type | What the draft may use |
|---|---|
| Technical approach | Catalogue and differentiator files only |
| Service management | The SLA file, quoted verbatim, never paraphrased |
| Experience and references | Anonymised case studies, with the industry match named |
| Pricing schedule | Structure only, every figure a bracketed placeholder |
Draft section [3.4, Service management] of this RFP using only the Carrier Project files. Answer the requirement as written, in the order the requirement asks. After every claim, put the file and section it came from in brackets. Where I have no source, write the sentence you would write and mark it unsourced rather than leaving it out. Quote SLA figures verbatim from the SLA file or not at all. Maximum 600 words, in their headings, in plain sentences with no marketing adjectives. End with the list of unsourced claims as questions I can send to my sales engineer.
Here is the assembled response: [paste or attach the draft response]. Check every factual claim against the Carrier Project files and return a table: the claim, the file and section that supports it, and a verdict of supported, partial or unsupported. List the unsupported ones first. Flag separately any number that appears in the response and is not a bracketed placeholder. Do not fix anything, just show me the list.