You have thequalifications.We do the writing.
soqwriters.com is the dedicated writing bench of the BD-AEC proposal network. Send us your resumes, your project history, and the solicitation, and we produce the whole qualifications package: SOQ narrative, tailored resumes, and project sheets, formatted and ready to submit. Your team stays on billable work while we handle the writing and production. It’s done-for-you SOQ writing, built around the criteria the agency will actually score.
A BD-AEC service · Proposal development inside a business development practice
Where AEC pursuits go wrong
A qualifications package fails in production, not in the field. The work is strong; the SOQ that describes it is recycled, generic, and written for no one in particular. These are the production gaps we close.
Recycled from the last one
The package gets copied off the last submittal, so it answers a solicitation that closed months ago instead of the one on the table.
Resumes bury the relevant work
A reviewer scores what they can find. When the experience that matters sits three bullets down, it never gets counted.
Project sheets miss the scope
Past work is listed, but nothing ties it to the scope being procured, so strong projects read as filler.
Formatting drifts across the team
Every sub sends material in a different template, and the teaming package looks like it was stitched together in a parking lot.
No time to produce it
The people who should write the SOQ are billing on projects, so it gets thrown together the night before it’s due.
The package reads generic
Swap the logo and it could belong to any firm on the shortlist. Nothing in it tells the agency why to pick you.
Assembled, not written
Old files get stapled together and called a package, and no one rewrote a word of it for this pursuit.
A proposal is never free
A professional AEC proposal commonly consumes 50 to 100 hours across leadership, technical, marketing, design, and administrative resources. That time bills to overhead instead of a client, and it comes out of exactly the people you most need on projects.
Per pursuit, produced in house
A proposal is never free when it is produced internally.
| Resource | Hours | Burdened rate | Illustrative cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Principal / seller-doer | 8 to 15 | $225 to $350 | $1,800 to $5,250 |
| Project manager / technical lead | 10 to 20 | $125 to $175 | $1,250 to $3,500 |
| Marketing / proposal coordinator | 20 to 35 | $75 to $110 | $1,500 to $3,850 |
| Graphic design and production | 6 to 15 | $80 to $125 | $480 to $1,875 |
| Executive review and admin support | 6 to 13 | $50 to $400 | $700 to $2,560 |
| Total | 50 to 98 | — | $5,730 to $17,035 |
Illustrative fully burdened cost, including compensation, benefits, payroll expense, overhead, software, and indirect resources. Actual hours vary by pursuit.
A qualifications package wins when every resume and every project sheet is written for how the agency scores, not for how the firm files its records. Get the writing right and the shortlist takes care of itself.
What a winning submission actually needs
A compliance matrix maps every requirement to a response. This is the one that decides most selections: the gap between how a firm usually submits and how a pursuit should be run.
Written for this solicitation
Resumes rebuilt around the criteria
Project sheets mapped to the scope
One voice across the whole team
Produced as one designed package
Proofed against the scoring criteria
Written while your team stays billable
The full scope, one shop
Six ways we put a qualifications package together. Hand us the whole thing or the single piece your team can’t get to. It’s all writing and production, built for AEC firms and the public owners that shortlist them.
Qualifications Packages
The complete SOQ, written and produced end to end: narrative, resumes, project sheets, and org chart, delivered as one package ready to submit.
Public Agency SOQs
Qualifications written to a public owner’s exact format, from a DOT letter of interest to a municipal SOQ, mapped to the stated evaluation criteria.
Teaming Packages
One coherent package across prime and subs. We gather everyone’s material and rewrite it into a single voice and format instead of a stack of mismatched files.
Consultant Qualifications
Qualifications for the individual consultants and specialty firms on a team, written so each sub’s role and relevant experience are obvious to the reviewer.
Resume Development
Project-specific resumes that lead with the experience the criteria reward, so the right work is the first thing an evaluator sees.
Project Sheets
Relevant-project sheets that connect each past project to the scope being procured, with the role, outcome, and reference an agency looks for.
Not on the list?
If it touches a pursuit, it's in scope. Tell us what the solicitation needs.
One strategic standard. Two levels of finish.
Every engagement is built around responsiveness, persuasive content, and a submission-ready final document. What changes between the two is how far the production goes.
Professional
Word-based production
- Best fit
- Straightforward SOQs, on-call selections, qualifications packages, and time-sensitive pursuits.
- Production
- A polished Microsoft Word layout, delivered as a submission-ready PDF.
- Compliance matrix and pursuit strategy
- Writing, editing, and QA/QC
- Resumes and project descriptions
- Photographs, tables, and basic graphics
Timing
Available at every schedule tier, subject to capacity.
Reviews
Two review cycles
Signature
Creative production
- Best fit
- High-value, highly competitive, brand-defining, or shortlist-critical pursuits.
- Production
- Custom Adobe InDesign production by our creative team.
- Everything in Professional
- Custom visual concept and information design
- Infographics, diagrams, and image treatment
- Agency-level production quality
Timing
Best with 30 or more days. Generally available at 15 or more days.
Reviews
Content and design reviews
The production level changes. The strategic discipline does not.
Engage early
The best time to prepare for a proposal is before the opportunity is released.
Options and cost both reflect the time available to do the work responsibly. Engaging early preserves every production format, a full review cycle, and the most flexible footing. It is also why a reusable foundation, a case study library, current resumes, and a project image library built before the RFP posts, pays for itself across every pursuit that follows.
What a foundation builds
- Case study library
- Resume development
- Personnel and project image library
- Reusable marketing materials
How a pursuit runs
A production process for qualifications packages, run to the submission deadline. You hand off the raw material once; from there you always know what we’re writing, what we still need, and where the package stands.
- 1
Kickoff
We read the solicitation the way an evaluator will, and confirm the required format, the scoring criteria, the page limits, and the due date before anyone writes a word.
- 2
Material Intake
You hand off the raw material: current resumes, the project history, references, and any past SOQs. We take it from there and chase down whatever is missing.
- 3
Criteria Mapping
Every scoring factor gets matched to the content that answers it. This crosswalk tells us which projects, people, and proof points the package has to lead with.
- 4
Resume Writing
We rewrite each resume around the experience the criteria reward, so a reviewer sees the relevant work first instead of a career history in reverse order.
- 5
Project Sheets
We write the relevant-project sheets, tying each past project to the scope being procured, with role, outcome, and reference stated the way the agency asked for them.
- 6
Package Production
We write the qualifications narrative, set consistent formatting across every resume and sheet, and produce the full package as one designed document, not a pile of PDFs.
- 7
Review & Delivery
We proof the whole package against the scoring criteria one last time, fix anything that drifts, and hand it back formatted and ready to submit on time.
Owners we write for
Most SOQs go to public owners, and each one scores qualifications its own way. We write for the agencies and markets below, and we know what each one expects a qualifications package to prove.
More than a proposal writer
A proposal writer cleans up your draft. A dedicated SOQ bench writes the package from your raw material and knows, section by section, how a public owner will score it. That’s the difference between an SOQ that gets filed and one that gets shortlisted.
Business Development
This bench sits inside a BD practice, so we write qualifications the way work is actually won, not the way a form gets filled out.
Proposal Strategy
We know which discriminators a qualifications package should lead with, and we write every section to carry them through.
Technical Writing
Clean, specific writing that turns a pile of resumes and project history into a package a reviewer can score quickly.
Industry Experience
AEC only. We’ve written qualifications for the disciplines and public owners that dominate this market, so we know what a strong SOQ looks like.
Capture Planning
Bring us in early and we’ll tell you what to gather and document now, so the package has real proof to write from later.
Relationship Development
A qualifications package reads better when the owner already knows your firm. We write it to confirm what your relationships have already established.
Most of the score is qualitative. We build the proposal to win the parts that are not price.
Straight answers
How much does SOQ writing cost?
It depends on the package and the deadline, but a standalone SOQ is usually a fixed fee we quote up front, in writing, before you commit. A larger teaming package with a dozen resumes and project sheets is priced by the work involved. Either way, you’ll have the number before we start.
Can you write an entire qualifications package?
Yes, and that’s the most common request. You hand off your resumes, project history, and the solicitation, and we produce the whole package: the qualifications narrative, the resumes, the project sheets, and the org chart, formatted and ready to submit. Your team stays on billable work while we do the writing.
Do you write the resumes and project sheets too?
Yes, that’s the core of the job. We rewrite each resume to lead with the experience the criteria reward, and we write project sheets that tie your past work to the exact scope being procured. Those two pieces carry most of the score, so we don’t treat them as an afterthought.
Can you handle a teaming or consultant package?
Yes. We collect material from the prime and every sub, then rewrite all of it into one voice, one format, and one story. Instead of a stack of files that clearly came from five different firms, the reviewer gets a package that reads like a single team.
Do you follow a public agency’s required format?
Always. Public owners are strict about format, and a package that ignores the required structure can get set aside before it’s ever scored. We write to the exact SOQ format the agency asks for. If the pursuit runs on a federal SF330 and you want help with the QBS strategy behind it, that’s where aec-soq.com focuses.
What is your turnaround on an SOQ?
It depends on the size of the package and how complete your raw material is, but SOQs run on tight public deadlines and we’re built for that. Get us the material and the solicitation early, and we’ll give you a production schedule that lands the finished package before the due date with room to review.
Can you review an SOQ we already wrote?
Yes. Send us the draft and the solicitation, and we’ll mark it up against the scoring criteria: what’s missing, what buries the relevant work, and what to rewrite before it goes out. If you need a full RFP response rather than a qualifications package, aec-proposals.com covers the whole submission.
Tools we bring to every pursuit
The production tools we write from on every SOQ. Ask for any of them on a call and we’ll walk through it against your next qualifications package.
Project Sheet Template
The layout we use so every relevant-project sheet leads with role, scope match, outcome, and reference.
Resume Criteria Map
A one-page guide for rebuilding a resume around the experience a given solicitation actually rewards.
Teaming Package Checklist
What to collect from the prime and every sub so the whole qualifications package comes together in one voice.
Package Formatting Standard
The formatting rules that keep resumes, project sheets, and narrative reading like one designed document.
Criteria Crosswalk
The worksheet that maps every scoring factor in a solicitation to the content that has to answer it.
Qualifications Intake Form
The intake sheet that captures your raw material up front, so writing starts without a dozen follow-up emails.
Ask for any of these on a discovery call. Request one →
§ Contact
Have a pursuit on the clock?
Send us the solicitation and your deadline. Scott Mann responds within one business day with a straight read on the pursuit, a go/no-go take, and what a winning submission needs.
Discovery call
A straight read on the pursuit and whether we should chase it.
Proposal assessment
A compliance and win-strategy review of a draft you already have.
Opportunity review
A go/no-go on a specific solicitation, scored before you commit.
Request a proposal assessment
AEC firms only. We'll never share your details.
One shop, seven front doors
soqwriters.com is the SOQ writing bench of the BD-AEC proposal network. When a pursuit needs more than a qualifications package, the sibling sites below cover the rest of it.