RFP Cover Letter: The Dos and Don’ts

An RFP cover letter follows standard business letter format on one page, in whatever font and size the solicitation requires for the rest of the response. It carries your letterhead, the date you submitted, the issuer's name and address, a named salutation, three or four short paragraphs, a complimentary close, a signature and your contact details. Where the solicitation states formatting rules, those rules apply to this page too - the cover letter is part of the submission, not a preamble to it.

What Format Should an RFP Cover Letter Follow?

1. Letterhead. Your logo and company details at the top. This is the one place a little brand color is welcome in an otherwise black-and-white submission.
2. Date. The date you are submitting, not the date you drafted it. Recycled letters routinely go out carrying a date from a previous bid.
3. Issuer block. Organization name, department, and mailing address, exactly as the solicitation gives them.
4. Reference line. The solicitation number and title. Procurement offices run several at once, and this is how yours gets filed correctly.
5. Salutation. "Dear" plus the named contact and their title. Never "To Whom It May Concern."
6. Body. Three or four short paragraphs. White space is doing work here - a solid block of text signals that reading it will be effortful.
7. Close and signature. A complimentary close, a real signature, your typed name and title, then phone and email.

What Font and Size Should You Use?

Whatever the solicitation specifies for the response. Most issuers state a font and a minimum size - often something like 11 or 12 point in a standard serif or sans-serif face - and those rules cover the whole submission including this page. Matching them is a compliance question rather than a style preference. Where nothing is specified, use a clear professional face at 11 or 12 point with standard one-inch margins. Avoid decorative, script and handwriting-style faces entirely, and resist shrinking the type to fit more in: if the letter does not fit at the required size, the letter is too long.

How Long Should It Be?

One page, and comfortably one page rather than one page achieved by narrowing the margins. The evaluator is about to read a long document and compare it against several others, so every paragraph here delays the substance. If the solicitation states a cover letter length, that governs. If you cannot get under a page, the usual cause is that the letter has started answering scored questions, which belong in the sections where evaluators will look for them - our guide to what to include in a cover letter covers where the line falls.

Should the Cover Letter Be Signed by Hand?

Sign it somehow, and follow the solicitation on how. Many public solicitations require a wet signature on specific forms and accept electronic signatures elsewhere; some portals accept a typed name as an electronic signature by their own terms and conditions. An unsigned cover letter is not usually a disqualifier the way an unsigned certification is, but it reads as unfinished. If you are submitting a PDF, a scanned or digital signature is standard. Check the submission instructions for which forms specifically require wet ink, because that requirement usually attaches to certifications and affidavits rather than to the letter, and discovering it late is how a submission misses a deadline.

Should It Repeat the Executive Summary?

No, and the two are easy to collapse into each other. The cover letter is a business letter about the relationship - who you are, that you are bidding, that you match. The executive summary is part of the proposal and is often scored. Our guide to the difference between the two covers which content belongs where, and writing the executive summary itself covers the harder of the two documents.

Where Does the Cover Letter Go in the Package?

First, unless the solicitation says otherwise - and sometimes it does. Some issuers specify an exact order of contents, with a required form or a table of contents ahead of any narrative, and a few exclude cover letters from the page count while others include them. Read the submission checklist and follow the stated order exactly, even where it seems odd. If the response is uploaded in separate files, check whether the cover letter belongs in the technical volume, the administrative volume or on its own, since filing it in the wrong volume can mean the evaluator who reads it is not the one you wrote it for.

What Formatting Mistakes Show Up Most?

Get the Formatting Rules Before You Draft

Every formatting decision above is answered somewhere in the solicitation, so read the submission section first and draft second. Find open opportunities on Bid Banana.