Responding to RFP’s

Over the years, I've been on the recipient end of many a request for proposal (RFP).  Like many sales professionals, early in my career this created excitement and a flurry of activity on my part, caused late nights, missed dinners and visions of endless revenue.  I learned, as many have, that when an RFP is distributed, it's sent to many possible suppliers.  By definition, the odds of any one firm winning are not great, unless that firm has stacked the odds in their favor.

That was an important lesson.  Today when I receive an RFP I still respond, only not with a proposal. I follow a process destined to obtain access to the executives involved with the decision so that I can understand the problem they are trying to solve.  This allows me to probe deeper into the root causes, with the hope that I can help the executives more fully understand the problem, its impact and its urgency. Naturally I'd like to bias this understanding toward the solution I hope to ultimately propose, but only if I can do so honestly and with integrity.

Of course this is an approach that we teach in the CustomerCentric Selling workshop.  Even though I'm happy that I learned this lesson early in my career, I'm surprised at how many people haven't, and find themselves in constant response mode, but still with a low batting average.  In business, it's important to try and stack the odds in your favor as much as possible, and if you can't use the RFP process to re-engineer the buying process, your odds are improved if you decline to respond and focus your energies on more promising opportunities.

6 Responses to "Responding to RFP's"

1. Dave Cooke Says:
   March 13th, 2008 at 7:08 pm

   Right on the mark. I still have clients today who are caught up in the exciting cycle of chasing RFP's. I have gotten them to develop a rule that essentially states "if you haven't met with the decision makers enough to form a strategy, we cannot commit the resources." Why chase after a 'jump ball' when their are real opportunities to close. Good call.

2. John E Flannery Says:
   March 13th, 2008 at 9:12 pm

   Prior to joining the CCS Affiliate network, I worked for a large wireless carrier in North America. In the corporate headquarters, there was a team of 10-12 individuals in a group called \

3. Richard Boardman Says:
   March 14th, 2008 at 4:14 am

   I agree with you, but I'd also observe that organisations that do enter into the RFP process can improve their odds of winning based on how they approach the process. I'm an independent CRM consultant so we get to see a lot of RFP responses and the overall quality is generally pretty poor. Organisations can do a lot to increase their chances by standing out from the crowd through simple actions like candidly answering the questions asked, not resorting to boiler-plate, taking the time to differentiate their offering, building relations with the potential customer through asking relevent questions, etc etc. I think a lot of organisations bidding on RFP's figure they have a long shot of winning and that defines how much effort they put into the process. With RFP's I think it's a case of if you decide to go, go hard.

4. David Tomkins Says:
   March 14th, 2008 at 5:52 am

   We have a problem here in the UK FSI market created by credit crunch - two of my customers have had external spending freezes for 3 months, and they have seen the best way to "mark time" is to issue an RFP - sometimes RFP hell is unavoidable!

5. Brian MUrphy Says:
   March 18th, 2008 at 6:26 am

   I fully agree in this concept however I do not subscribe to absolutes in sales. The important component is knowledge of the prospects needs. I currently lead a sales team that focuses a lot on government contracting. In this industry, whether a sick form of revenge syndrome or simply not knowing another way, RFP's are commonly in practice and involve a relatively impenetrable process where rigid approaches do not work and attempting to break the process is viewed as being hard to work with. So, there needs to be some measure of balance in approaching RFP responses. Again, the key component is knowledge of the prospects needs. The second major component is developing a process whereby the organization stops, takes an objective view of the probability of success and determines the best path forward. The CCS process step's most valuable tool in this regard is the letter to key players stating why the response my deviate from their process. IF that contains relevant content that hits the mark against business needs, it will lead to success.

6. Nick Moreno Says:
   September 28th, 2008 at 6:39 pm

   So true!
   Time is money. You need to know when and how to walk away from from an RFP stacked against you!
   Nick