From Chasing SMEs to Chasing Wins: (legal) Steroids for Proposal Teams

Every proposal team knows the pain of chasing down subject matter experts (SMEs). Whether it's waiting for a technical input, clarifying boilerplate language, or looping in a late-stage reviewer, SMEs can become the bottleneck that turns a winning strategy into a rushed submission.

In fact, in a recent industry poll, over one-third (34%) of proposal professionals cited SME unavailability as the primary reason proposals miss deadlines. When teams are forced into a reactive scramble,  the result is predictable: burnout, lost time, and missed opportunities.

AI Isn’t Replacing SMEs. It’s Replacing the Chase.

We’ve heard countless times from our customers and proposal industry veterans

"If we can reduce that chunk of time where people are just plugging questions and answers in and doing search one by one, then we can focus much more time on the strategy."

That’s exactly what AI is designed to do.

Modern, proposal-specific AI tools like McCarren can:

• Leverage your company’s content library of past proposals, templates, and SME-vetted answers
• Suggest relevant and approved content instantly based on the question or section
• Auto-draft boilerplate sections that used to take hours of SME time
• Ensure RFP compliance is built-in, not added last-minute

Instead of pinging SMEs for every input, teams can now auto-fill 80% of most drafts with pre-approved, high-quality responses. Those responses resonate with buyers, highlighting custom win-themes that McCarren helps generate. The SMEs step in later, when their expertise truly matters. This also leads to quicker turn around time and higher overall team morale.

The Results? More Output. Better Strategy.

When you remove the need to chase SMEs, you unlock:

• Faster turnaround times: what once took days now takes minutes
• More proposals out the door: teams can respond to more opportunities without burning out
• Higher quality content: with more time to refine messaging, align tone, and tailor strategy
• Enhanced team moral: Proposal professionals can do their job, not herd cats, and SMEs are pinged less
• Improved win rates: teams aren’t just submitting more—they’re submitting better

This isn’t about working harder. It’s about working smarter with AI-powered workflows that understand your company intimately, reduce proposal development timelines, and eliminate repetitive tasks.

Built to Win, Not (just) Write

McCarren is purpose-built for federal and SLED proposal teams. By combining company-specific AI with a secure content library and automation features like compliance matrix generation and content reusability, McCarren helps:

• Reduce reliance on SMEs for repeat content
• Auto-generate context-aware proposal drafts that maintain full RFP compliance
• Insert high-quality, formatted content from your knowledge base instantly

Instead of chasing inputs, proposal teams spend more time crafting compelling narratives, differentiating solutions, and ultimately chasing wins.

Want to put your proposal team on performance-enhancing AI?

Discover how McCarren helps you work faster, reduce human error, and improve win rates—without chasing SMEs.