Average Time Spent on RFP Response: New Benchmarks

January 26, 2026

Evie Secilmis

How long should it take to respond to an RFP? The answer varies dramatically by industry, deal size, and team maturity. Understanding these benchmarks helps you set realistic goals, identify improvement opportunities, and compete more effectively. This data-driven guide examines RFP response times across sectors and reveals what separates fast responders from the rest.

Why RFP Response Time Matters

Speed kills deals in both directions. Respond too slowly, and you miss deadlines or submit rushed, low-quality proposals. Respond efficiently, and you have time for strategic customization that wins business. The data shows that teams with faster baseline response times win more deals, not because speed itself impresses buyers, but because efficiency creates capacity for quality.

Research from proposal management professionals indicates that organizations spending less time on administrative tasks and more time on strategic response customization see win rates 15-25% higher than peers. The goal isn't just speed; it's efficiency that enables quality. When your team isn't buried in content searches and formatting, they can focus on what actually wins deals: understanding buyer needs and demonstrating unique value.

Response time also signals organizational capability to buyers. When you deliver comprehensive, accurate responses quickly, it demonstrates the operational excellence buyers want in a long-term partner. Conversely, scrambling to meet deadlines or requesting extensions raises concerns about your ability to execute after the contract is signed.

RFP Response Time Benchmarks by Industry

Response times vary significantly across industries due to differences in RFP complexity, compliance requirements, and typical deal sizes. Here's what the data shows across major sectors:

Technology and SaaS

Average response time: 15-25 hours of actual work across 2-3 weeks calendar time. Technology RFPs typically include 50-150 questions covering product capabilities, integrations, security, and implementation. Top-performing teams complete responses in 8-12 hours by leveraging content libraries and AI assistance. The security questionnaire component often adds 5-10 hours for enterprise deals.

Financial Services

Average response time: 30-50 hours across 3-4 weeks. Financial services RFPs are among the most demanding due to regulatory requirements, compliance documentation, and risk assessment sections. Due diligence questionnaires often accompany RFPs, adding significant effort. Firms with mature compliance content libraries reduce this to 20-30 hours.

Healthcare and Life Sciences

Average response time: 25-40 hours across 3-4 weeks. HIPAA compliance, clinical workflow requirements, and integration complexity drive longer timelines. Organizations with pre-approved compliance content and clinical use case documentation respond 40% faster than those building responses from scratch.

Government and Public Sector

Average response time: 40-80 hours across 4-6 weeks. Government RFPs are notoriously detailed, with strict formatting requirements and extensive compliance sections. The structured nature actually helps prepared teams: once you have compliant templates and approved content, much of the work becomes assembly rather than creation.

Professional Services

Average response time: 20-35 hours across 2-3 weeks. Professional services RFPs focus heavily on methodology, team qualifications, and case studies. The custom nature of services means more original writing per response, but smaller question counts partially offset this.

→ See how teams cut response time by 70%

Factors That Impact Response Time

RFP Complexity and Question Count

The most obvious factor is sheer volume. A 50-question RFP takes less time than a 200-question enterprise assessment. But question count alone doesn't tell the full story. Ten open-ended questions about implementation methodology may require more effort than fifty yes/no compliance checkboxes. Assess complexity by counting questions that require original writing versus those answerable from existing content.

Content Library Maturity

Teams with mature content libraries achieve 60-70% reuse rates, meaning only 30-40% of each response requires new writing. Teams without organized content essentially start from scratch each time, multiplying effort by 2-3x. The investment in building and maintaining a content library pays dividends on every subsequent RFP.

SME Availability and Collaboration

Subject matter expert bottlenecks often determine response timeline more than actual writing effort. When technical, security, or legal experts are unavailable, responses stall. High-performing teams pre-approve content for common questions, reducing SME involvement to exception handling rather than routine drafting.

Tool Capabilities

Request for proposals software dramatically impacts response time. Teams using AI-powered platforms report 50-70% time savings compared to manual processes. The right tools automate content retrieval, enable parallel collaboration, and ensure consistency without manual checking.

How Top Teams Achieve Faster Response Times

1. Invest in Content Infrastructure

Elite teams treat their content library as a strategic asset. They assign ownership for each content area, establish review cycles to keep information current, and tag content for easy retrieval. This upfront investment reduces per-RFP effort dramatically. A well-maintained library of 500-1,000 pre-approved responses covers 60-80% of typical RFP questions.

2. Implement Tiered Review Processes

Not every question needs executive review. Top teams categorize questions by risk and complexity, routing only high-stakes items to senior reviewers. Standard questions use pre-approved content with minimal oversight. This reduces bottlenecks while maintaining quality where it matters most.

3. Leverage AI for First Drafts

AI-powered drafting transforms the response process. Instead of starting with blank pages, teams begin with AI-generated first drafts based on their approved content. Human effort shifts from writing to reviewing and refining, cutting time by 50% or more while often improving quality through consistent use of best content.

4. Parallelize Work Streams

Sequential processes create unnecessary delays. When one person drafts while others wait, response time extends unnecessarily. Modern collaboration tools enable multiple team members to work simultaneously on different sections, compressing calendar time even when total effort remains similar.

5. Establish Go/No-Go Discipline

Paradoxically, saying no to some RFPs improves response time on others. When teams pursue every opportunity regardless of fit, resources spread thin and quality suffers across the board. Disciplined qualification ensures your best effort goes toward winnable opportunities.

→ Book a demo to improve your response metrics

Measuring and Improving Your Response Time

You can't improve what you don't measure. Track these metrics to understand your current state and identify improvement opportunities:

Total hours per RFP measures actual effort invested. Track time by phase: planning, drafting, review, and finalization. This reveals where effort concentrates and where improvements will have the most impact. Most teams find that content search and initial drafting consume 60-70% of total time, making these phases prime targets for automation.

Calendar time from receipt to submission shows end-to-end cycle time including delays and handoffs. Even if actual work hours are reasonable, long calendar times suggest bottlenecks, availability issues, or process inefficiencies worth addressing.

Content reuse rate indicates library maturity. Calculate the percentage of response content that comes from pre-approved sources versus new writing. Rates below 50% suggest significant opportunity to build your library. Rates above 70% indicate a mature operation.

SME time per RFP reveals expert bottlenecks. If subject matter experts spend hours on every RFP, your content library likely lacks approved answers for their domains. Building that content frees experts for higher-value work.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's a good target for RFP response time?

For most technology and professional services RFPs, target 10-15 hours of actual work time. Enterprise and government RFPs with extensive compliance requirements may require 20-30 hours. If you're consistently above these benchmarks, there's significant room for improvement through better content management and tooling.

How much can AI reduce response time?

Organizations implementing AI-powered RFP tools report 50-70% reductions in response time. The impact depends on content library quality and RFP complexity. AI excels at matching questions to existing content and generating first drafts, which typically consume the majority of manual effort.

Does faster response time improve win rates?

Indirectly, yes. Speed itself doesn't impress buyers, but the efficiency that enables speed creates capacity for quality. Teams that spend less time on administrative work can invest more in strategic customization, competitive positioning, and executive summaries that actually influence decisions.

How do we benchmark against competitors?

Direct competitor benchmarking is difficult since response times aren't public. Focus on your own improvement trajectory and industry benchmarks. If you're completing responses significantly faster than timelines buyers provide, you're likely competitive. Use recovered time for quality improvements rather than earlier submission.

What's the ROI of reducing response time?

Calculate ROI by multiplying hours saved per RFP by your team's blended hourly cost, then by annual RFP volume. A team handling 50 RFPs annually that saves 10 hours each at $100/hour recovers $50,000 in capacity. Additional value comes from handling more opportunities and improving win rates through better quality.

Taking Action on Response Time

Improving RFP response time requires investment in content, process, and tools. Start by measuring your current state to establish baselines. Identify the biggest time sinks through phase-level tracking. Then address root causes systematically: build content libraries, streamline reviews, and implement appropriate technology.

The teams that respond efficiently to RFPs gain compound advantages. They handle more opportunities without adding headcount. They have time for the customization that wins competitive deals. And they demonstrate operational excellence that buyers value in long-term partners.

→ See how Iris helps teams respond faster

Share this post