Sellers Dorsey

Company Overview

Sellers Dorsey, founded in 2000, specializes in helping healthcare organizations optimize their Medicaid services and financing. With a focus on improving access and outcomes to Medicaid services, they serve a diverse clientele, including doctor groups, hospitals, and other healthcare providers. Since 2020, the company has experienced significant growth, expanding from 111 to approximately 250 employees.

Their evolution reflects the growing complexity of the healthcare landscape, particularly in Medicaid services. As Director of Proposal Management Kurt Runco explains, “We help anyone who is participating in Medicaid to improve the access, outcomes, and quality of their program.” This mission has become increasingly critical as healthcare organizations face mounting challenges in providing effective and accessible care while maintaining financial sustainability.

The Challenge

Sellers Dorsey’s proposal management team faced multiple challenges in their RFP response process, each presenting unique obstacles to efficient and effective proposal development:

Limited Bandwidth and Resource Constraints

At a high level, the team struggled with:

• Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) had difficulty balancing proposal contributions with their primary job functions
• The proposal team could only handle a limited number of simultaneous RFPs
• SMEs typically needed 3-5 business days to complete their sections
• Team members frequently worked late nights leading up to deadlines

Subject Matter Experts found themselves caught in an impossible balancing act between their day-to-day responsibilities and proposal requirements. As Kurt describes, “We were wasting time because we’d give people 3-5 business days to complete their sections – but they’d be swamped with their ‘day jobs’ and would often work late the night or two before the content deadline. It’s just human nature.”

The proposal team, while skilled in management and compliance, felt helpless in their ability to effectively support the process. “We’d offer our Proposal Writer to help, but people would end up working so late at the last minute, we couldn’t do much.”

This resource strain had a cascading effect on the organization’s ability to pursue opportunities. In some cases, the team had to cut corners to get multiple compliant documents delivered simultaneously.

Strategy Limitations

Key challenges included:

• Limited ability to incorporate win themes and strategic components
• Difficulty in creating differentiated content

The quality challenges stemmed from a fundamental disconnect between expertise and execution. As Kurt notes, “We were struggling to complete compliant proposals such that we couldn’t add enough compelling content.”

Process Inefficiencies

Core process challenges included:

• Heavy reliance on manual, time-consuming processes
• Difficulty accessing and utilizing the most current content across proposals
• Limited ability to scale operations effectively
• Insufficient focus on strategy and compelling content

The inefficiencies in their process created a waterfall of challenges that affected every aspect of proposal development. Kurt likens the proposal manager’s role to “often feeling like a doctor trained in diagnosis but not treatment,” able to identify content issues but unable to do much considering one’s non-SME background. The manual nature of their processes created bottlenecks at every stage.

The Solution

Sellers Dorsey implemented RohanRFP, an AI-powered proposal automation solution, to transform their proposal development process. The implementation represented a technological transformation and a fundamental shift in how the team approached proposal development.

Streamlined Content Creation

Key features implemented:

• Automated generation of first drafts
• AI-powered technical writing capabilities
• Rapid response capability for urgent requests

The transformation in content creation was immediate and dramatic. Kurt recalls the moment of realization: “I came in the next day, and I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I’m now someone who can not only just manage proposals, but I can contribute content.’” This shift from pure management to active contribution marked a fundamental change in the team’s capabilities.

The system’s ability to generate high-quality first drafts proved particularly valuable. Kurt provides a compelling example: “I just got asked last Friday at 4:10 for a list of high-level descriptions of project member roles from Executive Sponsor on down… Twenty minutes later, I had descriptions of a dozen roles and shot them over. Understand, previously, I (or my Writer) would have had to spend a couple of hours writing those up by hand.”,

Strategic Process Redesign

Implementation included:

• Restructured workflow to include a Strategy Phase
• New review phases, including initial content and narrative structure validation
• Integration of win themes and executive summaries
• Enhanced collaboration between teams

The process redesign went far beyond simple automation. The team implemented a comprehensive new approach prioritizing strategic thinking and quality enhancement. “We have finally added a strategy component to our proposal process that is doable and repeatable,” Kurt notes, highlighting a key breakthrough in their capabilities.

The new process introduced dedicated strategy sessions early in the proposal development cycle. As Kurt describes, “We’re now including an executive summary of the features and the benefits table, which we were not doing previously.” This strategic focus was made possible by the time saved in content generation.

In addition to content improvements, the team also added a process for getting graphics created. Starting with a mature draft from the get-go, the team is able to not only review for graphics but also have RohanRFP create graphic idea “scripts” for the designer to use as a starting point.

Team Optimization

Key organizational changes:

• Redefined roles to maximize efficiency and versatility
• Enhanced collaboration between proposal managers and SMEs
• Created specialized content creation team

“The line between ‘writer’ and ‘manager’ has blurred into content creator/manager,” explains Kurt, “such that anyone on the team can now create content.” The result is that projects are divided between two main content creation phases: a) strategy and compliance and b) technical content.

Staffing each role – from RFP receipt to delivery of Pink Team – requires two proposal staff and a handful or less of SMEs. One person manages the strategy phase, and the other manages the technical content creation, including meeting with SMEs to help generate better prompts and confirm the generated text. “These two people, with a modicum of input from SMEs, can deliver a better Pink Team draft than our previous Red Team drafts,” Kurt explains.

The Impact

The implementation of RohanRFP delivered transformative results across multiple dimensions of the proposal process:

Dramatic Time Savings

Measurable improvements include:

• Reduced SME involvement from 3-5 business days to 3-5 hours
• Faster first draft completion
• Accelerated review cycles
• Rapid response capability for urgent requests

The time savings achieved were nothing short of revolutionary. Kurt emphasizes the scale of this change: “For full-fledged RFx proposals that end up being 50-100 pages, we’re averaging 3-5 hours of SME involvement in the first draft. Let me repeat that: 3-5 HOURS of SME involvement. Previously, that was 3-5 business DAYS.”

The efficiency gains had cascading benefits throughout the organization. SMEs could maintain focus on their primary responsibilities while still contributing effectively to proposals. The proposal team could handle more opportunities simultaneously, and the overall process became more predictable and manageable.

Enhanced Quality and Strategy

Improvements in quality included:

• Successfully implemented a comprehensive strategy phase
• Added executive summaries with features and benefits tables
• Made proposals more compelling
• Increased consistency in messaging across proposals

“The proposals we’ve done since we started using RohanRFP are the best ones we’ve written in the four years I’ve been here,” Kurt states emphatically. By virtue of having a more mature first draft, the team is now starting to use Pink Team for more of a Red Team review and then use Red Team for a mock scoring exercise.

Increased Team Capability and Morale

Key improvements include:

• Expanded capacity to handle multiple proposals
• Eliminated late-night work sessions
• Reduced process-related stress
• Enhanced team confidence and capabilities

The impact on team morale and capabilities was transformative. The elimination of last-minute scrambles and late-night work sessions had an immediate positive effect. As Kurt emphasizes, “People are more relaxed on these calls. Nobody’s being asked to go write starting with a big blank page anymore.”

The increased capabilities fundamentally changed how team members viewed their roles. “I keep telling people that RohanRFP changed my job overnight – literally,” Kurt explains. With the ability to handle multiple simultaneous proposals and respond to urgent requests more efficiently, the atmosphere shifted from tense and high-pressure to one of confidence and collaboration.

Improved Workflow Efficiency

The proposal process benefited from significant efficiency gains, including streamlined workflows, enhanced collaboration, and better resource utilization. “Instead of waiting 3-5 days for a first draft, we are doing a review in 2-3 days of a draft that is practically 100% complete and better written than our usual drafts,”Kurt explains. This efficiency gain allowed for additional review cycles and quality improvements that were previously impossible due to time constraints.

The new workflow significantly improved collaboration between proposal managers and subject matter experts. By eliminating the stress of starting from scratch, team interactions became more efficient. The team no longer needed to sift through past proposals for relevant material; they could quickly generate and tailor responses with ease, enabling them to focus on delivering high-quality, customized content.

Significantly Increased Proposal Team Value

Whereas the proposal team was previously focused primarily on the organization and management of all the tasks as is customary, they now see themselves in a different light. As Kurt observes, “We went from being a team who can ‘just’ manage a proposal for you and maybe provide some content to get you started a little to being a team of pseudo-SMEs who can produce usable technical content.”

Overnight, we all became incredibly more productive and therefore more valuable to our company. As I now like to say to our teams, “We can give you a complete Red Team-quality draft right up front, including the technical content. Oh, and we’ll still throw in all the proposal management stuff for free.”

Looking Ahead

“I can’t tell you how pleased I am with our process at the moment. That anxiety you have about getting a good first draft created is gone,” explains Kurt. “It’s simply stunning to have such a mature draft 3-5 days post RFP receipt.”

Kurt and team are looking for ways to leverage the time-saving gains that RohanRFP affords them. “We’re not using all this saved time to sit on our hands,” per Kurt, “We’re looking for ways to use this new time to further polish and refine.”

Sellers Dorsey’s future plans include:

• Re-engineering of color reviews to add a mock scoring exercise
• Incorporating more graphics into their proposals
• Extending tool access to more team members
• Supporting company growth and acquisition strategies

The organization’s growth trajectory underscores the importance of these improvements. With the recent acquisition of a data visualization company and an employee base that has grown from 100 to 250 since 2020, Sellers Dorsey is well-positioned for continued expansion.

RohanRFP’s implementation has made it easier to scale the proposal team’s output alongside the company’s growth. As Kurt summarizes, “I feel like my profession has just been absolutely positively revolutionized. It’s incredible.”

“The proposals we’ve done since we started using RohanRFP are the best ones we’ve written in the four years I’ve worked at Sellers Dorsey.”

– Kurt Runco, Director of Proposal Management