Beyond Proofreading: The Power of a Red Team Review

Success doesn’t come from simply answering an RFP—it comes from submitting a proposal that differentiates you from the competition. That’s where a red team review makes all the difference. More than a proofreading step, it’s a strategic checkpoint that evaluates your proposal through your customer’s eyes.

Teams that skip this step risk submitting bids that fail to impress. Those who do it well sharpen their message and gain a serious edge. Read on to learn how to implement a red team review that makes your proposal the undeniable choice.

The red team review is a critical quality control step—not just a checkbox—to boost your proposal’s clarity, competitiveness, and ultimately, your win rate. After most of your RFP content has been crafted, a team of fresh eyes comb through the draft with the goal of assessing the bid from the customer’s perspective, specifically focusing on messaging, viability, and compliance.

The name “red team review” comes from the proposal color team reviews system, where each round of review is given a distinct color and objective.

The blue team conducts the first review. After the decision to pursue an RFP has been made, those with insights into the opportunity, customer, and customer’s needs develop a response strategy and bid outline.

The pink team then weaves together win themes, solutions, and compliance answers into a compelling narrative. Spelling and grammar are not priorities at this point. However, most content, including data, tables, and graphics, should be compiled into a strong story.

Next, the red team provides fresh eyes to scrutinize the almost-complete proposal. Stepping into the shoes of evaluators, they assess the proposal for the “Five Cs”:

1. Coherence: The proposal should be clear, logical, and easy to follow, while staying focused on the client’s needs.
2. Completeness: The proposal should meet all RFP requirements and thoroughly address each section.
3. Compliance: The proposal should meet legal, regulatory, and privacy requirements to reduce risk for both you and the client.
4. Consistency: The proposal’s formatting, tone, and structure should be uniform and organized.
5. Correctness: The proposal should be free of typos and factual errors.

Either during or after the red team review, the green team verifies that the proposed pricing is fair, accurate, and provides sufficient budget for you to deliver on your promises.

The full proposal is then handed over to the gold team for an executive leadership review. The objective at this stage is for senior executives and managers to conduct a final check of the proposal’s readiness for submission. As the ultimate authority responsible for bid success, gold team reviewers ensure the proposal is accurate, compliant, and in alignment with overarching win themes.

Finally, eagle-eyed editors on the white team comb through the proposal one last time to catch any spelling, grammatical, and formatting errors. The proposal should be submission-ready after this final checkpoint.

Now that we know how a red team review fits into the RFP process, let’s explore why you should never skip this step.

The red team review is arguably the most important step in the proposal review process—and a powerful lever for improving your win rate.

By bringing in fresh perspectives and subject matter expertise, a well-executed red team view helps you:

• Identify the proposal’s strengths and weaknesses with objectivity
• Uncover content gaps and reinforce key win themes
• Enhance the overall persuasiveness of your message
• Catch compliance issues and correct submission errors
• Ensure the proposal aligns with the customer’s goals and evaluation criteria

Rushing through this stage can cost you the bid. Instead, treat it as a strategic opportunity to pressure-test your messaging and polish your final draft. Set yourself up for success by inviting the right reviewers to the table.

An effective red team review hinges on who’s in the room. To uncover blind spots and strengthen your proposal, you need reviewers who weren’t involved in drafting it, but deeply understand what it takes to win.

The ideal red team comprises cross-functional experts, including:

• A Red Team Leader: They keep the team aligned and on schedule. With a clear understanding of the customer’s expectations and the proposal’s goals, they facilitate productive discussions to deliver actionable, unbiased feedback.

• Customer Specialists: They bring valuable context about the customer’s goals, priorities, and pain points. Their insights help assess whether the messaging truly speaks to what matters most to the buyer.

• Subject Matter Experts (SMEs): These in-demand experts offer technical or specialized knowledge to confirm accuracy, address complex requirements, and ensure the solution is portrayed credibly and competitively. The SME role in the writing and review process is critical, so be sure to engage these talented team members early on in the process.

• Senior Leadership: Leaning on the knowledge of senior leaders from various cross-functional teams allows them to lend strategic oversight to the review process. Their leadership lens ensures alignment with company positioning, revenue goals, and the impact of the proposed solution.

• External Industry Experts: If you have established relationships with industry SMEs, you can bring them into the review process to tap into their expertise. These experts can provide a “cold read” that mimics how evaluators will experience your bid—free from assumptions, insider knowledge, or writing fatigue.

• Past Reviewers: Ensure continuity and progress. They verify that previously suggested edits have been incorporated, refining the proposal with each round of review.

When you bring together different perspectives—whether from customer specialists, SMEs or leadership—you gain a more well-rounded view of your proposal’s effectiveness. Each reviewer contributes to strengthening your submission by:

• Ensuring your value proposition is clear, compelling, and customer-focused
• Verifying that technical details are accurate, relevant, and easy to understand
• Catching jargon, fluff, or weak arguments that evaluators might penalize
• Identifying areas where the proposal could better align with the RFP or the client’s priorities

This kind of cross-functional collaboration elevates the overall quality of your bid. But to unlock the full value of a red team review, you’ll need to follow a few proven best practices.

You can bring out the full potential of the red team by being mindful of how you structure the team’s collaboration, what questions you ask, and ways to proactively address common challenges.

A well-run review doesn’t just happen—it requires thoughtful planning, clear communication, and a shared understanding of goals. Here’s how to structure your red team review for maximum impact:

1. Orient the team: Ensure all reviewers understand their roles, responsibilities, and the purpose of the review. Set expectations on what they’ll review, how much time they’ll have, the goals of the review, and how feedback will be collected. Provide all relevant documents to support the process, including the RFP, the near-complete proposal, checklists, proposal compliance matrix, and evaluation forms.
2. Review independently: Give reviewers sufficient time to thoroughly read through the materials and assess the proposal’s clarity, competitiveness, and compliance.
3. Discuss feedback: Schedule a time for red team members to discuss their thoughts and reach a consensus on how to address gaps, inconsistencies, and weaknesses. Actionable feedback and comments should be documented in writing for the proposal team.
4. Debrief with the proposal team: Host a post-review meeting for red team members and the proposal team to prioritize issues, clarify feedback, and align on changes that need to be made.

A clear review structure outlines how the red team will operate, but you still need to ask the right questions to guide reviewers on what to look for.

Red team reviews are most valuable when reviewers offer more than surface-level comments. Use these guiding questions to collect feedback that’ll truly elevate your bid:

• If you were the evaluator, would this proposal win you over?
• Does the proposal clearly convey how we will meet the customer’s needs?
• Is the value proposition compelling and easy to understand?
• Are our differentiators persuasive and backed by evidence?
• Are all compliance requirements met? Have we responded to every section?
• Is the tone appropriate and consistent throughout the proposal?

Now you know how to organize a red team review and what questions to ask. However, you should be aware of common pitfalls, so you can catch them before it’s too late.

Even seasoned proposal teams benefit from reminders about common mistakes. Read on to learn how you can turn potential setbacks into winning review strategies.

🙅🏽‍♀️ Mistake #1: Treating the review as a proofreading exercise.

✅ What to do instead: Focus on evaluating the proposal’s win probability. Save final copyediting for the white team review.

🙅🏽‍♀️ Mistake #2: Skimming the proposal too quickly.

✅ What to do instead: Read the proposal aloud to catch interruptions to the proposal’s flow and logic

🙅🏽‍♀️ Mistake #3: Providing vague feedback like “needs work” or “unclear.”

✅ What to do instead: Be specific about what’s missing or how to improve the proposal.

🙅🏽‍♀️ Mistake #4: Failing to set review objectives.

✅ What to do instead: Set clear expectations for reviewers so they know how to focus their efforts.

🙅🏽‍♀️ Mistake #5: Overloading reviewers with too much work.

✅ What to do instead: Assign a manageable number of pages or sections to each person so they won’t miss problems due to fatigue or rushed work.

🙅🏽‍♀️ Mistake #6: Selecting time-strapped team members.

✅ What to do instead: Invite team members who can realistically participate in this high-commitment review process.

🙅🏽‍♀️ Mistake #7: Not including fresh eyes.

✅ What to do instead: Invite team members who have not been involved in writing. Fresh perspectives increase objectivity.

🙅🏽‍♀️ Mistake #8: Not designating a red team leader.

✅ What to do instead: Name a red team leader who will mediate conflicting feedback and consolidate suggestions.

🙅🏽‍♀️ Mistake #9: Skipping the debrief.

✅ What to do instead: Ensure the proposal manager and capture manager meet with the red team to receive feedback and align on edits to be made.

🙅🏽‍♀️ Mistake #10: Not scheduling enough time.

✅ What to do instead: Schedule the red team review well in advance, with enough time for reviewers to provide detailed feedback and writers to incorporate changes.

There are many systems to keep your reviewers on track, from simple workback plans to review matrices. RFP response software can help your cross-functional contributors collaborate in one platform and streamline the review process. This will help teammates avoid overlapping responsibilities and duplicating efforts, as well as monitor progress, assign questions, nudge reviewers, and set clear deadlines to keep your team on track.

If you implement all these best practices, you’ll collect meaningful feedback to improve your bid. Now the baton passes back to the proposal team to implement the necessary changes.

Once the red team review is complete, it’s time to prioritize the feedback based on impact, feasibility, and alignment with the proposal’s goals. Proposal managers should document all reviewer input—whether submitted via forms, tracked documents, or meeting notes—and collaborate with the core team to determine which changes to implement.

Not every suggestion will make the final cut, especially when facing tight deadlines or scope limitations. Teams must strike a balance between incorporating valuable insights and staying on track. The key is to focus on changes that strengthen the proposal’s clarity, compliance, and persuasiveness without derailing the submission timeline.

If your win rate isn’t where you want it to be, it’s time for a stronger quality control system before you hit submit. A well-structured, purpose-driven red team review ensures your proposals are polished, persuasive, and primed to win.

By involving the right mix of cross-functional experts, guiding them with strategic questions, and following a clear review framework, you’ll transform feedback into a competitive advantage. This process elevates your submissions from merely adequate to truly exceptional: focused on the customer, rich in depth, and ready to clinch the deal.