Differences between cover letters and executive summaries in RFPs.
Most RFPs provide an opportunity for a law firm to include a cover letter and an executive summary. In some cases, due to the way the RFP is formatted the law firm often has to merge these two pieces into one. Particularly with RFPs that are issued via online portals that use excel documents, you sometimes may not have the flexibility to include both. However when you are able to include both, the below article by RFPIO is a great resource template on what to focus on in each.
For legal marketers responding to RFPs, the executive summary, in my opinion, is the most important part of your response. This is the piece that really needs to be jointly drafted by the leading partner on the team and the BD member. This piece should be able to stand alone as an answer to the question, “Why should we hire your law firm?” The body and data in the RFP response should all support the themes in your executive summary. Lawyers like to work off samples/templates. BD members should have a strong template to work off that allows the lawyer guidiance as to how to incorporate the firm’s vallue proposition into the template and be customized to the opportunity.
The full article can be reached by clicking here. While the article’s target audience is broader then the legal industry, I think many of the general principles apply across most industries.
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