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How to maximize ROI of a strategic response management platform

How to maximize ROI of a strategic response management platform

Selling & Enablement

Leading RFP teams and other responders have 16 percent higher win rates and 34 percent more revenue, according to the […]

Category: Selling & Enablement

How to maximize ROI of a strategic response management platform

How to maximize ROI of a strategic response management platform

Selling & Enablement

Leading RFP teams and other responders have 16 percent higher win rates and 34 percent more revenue, according to the Responsive 2023 Strategic Response Management Maturity Report. Of those leaders, 52 percent use strategic response management (SRM) tools like Responsive. While most organizations use SRM to increase efficiency, improve collaboration and add visibility into response processes, selling its value to budget stakeholders often comes down to good ol’ return on investment (ROI).

To quantify your prospective ROI from a SRM platform, we recommend following the advice of one of our favorite customers, Microsoft: capture, quantify and communicate.

  • Capture user numbers, time spent on the platform, most-used content and other data available through the platform’s reporting capabilities.
  • Quantify the insight by comparing new data to old data (e.g., time spent searching for content before/after SRM) and attach a dollar value based on user salary averages.
  • Communicate the results to stakeholders such as team managers who want to optimize SRM tool usage and executives who are monitoring proposal team contribution to the overall organization.

SRM is usually brought in initially to fix one specific problem (e.g., increase RFP response efficiency by 40%). In doing so, a valuable collection of your best content comes together in the Content Library. By providing access to this library to your entire organization, other SRM use cases quickly arise in InfoSec, sales, marketing, legal, product development and more.

The best part is that we have proof that this works. The following four ROI profiles from Microsoft, CAPTRUST, AppviewX, and Teradata illustrate how to successfully achieve significant ROI by leveraging an SRM platform.

Microsoft’s time saved for the field

Microsoft, a global technology leader, implemented Responsive SRM in 2019. At the time,  leaders for the Microsoft Proposal Center of Excellence wanted to be able to share proposal-ready (i.e., vetted, compliant, up-to-date, technically accurate) content with the entire company. They targeted the global sales organization specifically, to enable individual team members to build high-quality proposals based on content under constant curation by the Proposal Center of Excellence team. After a meticulous approach to implementation, Microsoft now has more than 17,000 Responsive users.

Microsoft believes in a capture-quantify-communicate model of illustrating platform value. Data captured includes use count, number of active users, win rate, dollars won and ROI. For ROI, the primary metric is time saved for the field, from which they extrapolate a dollar amount saved. 

For example, in 2022, Microsoft saved 21K hours on 63K responses through Responsive. They saved $4.2M in search time alone (these numbers don’t quantify the fact that the answers found were always correct). Time not spent searching for content can instead be dedicated to building customer relationships and pipeline.

Play Video

For more on how Microsoft calculates their SRM ROI, how SRM is used across the company and why they’re excited about AI capabilities and API integrations,
watch this video.

Key Takeaway: Calculate how much time you spend searching for proposal content before you evaluate SRM platforms. As you progress through the proof of concept and trial the search functionality, you’ll be able to figure out how much time you stand to save.

CAPTRUST’s due diligence for implementing AI

CAPTRUST, a leading investment advisory firm, initially brought in Responsive for two reasons. One, they wanted to modernize their process. It had grown cumbersome to track whether responses were accurate, compliant and current in an Excel spreadsheet. Two, as a rapidly growing firm, they needed a solution that could scale with the escalating workload and expectations.

After using Responsive for responding solely to RFPs, CAPTRUST recognized that a centralized Content Library of response-ready content was valuable to multiple teams. They now use Responsive to respond to due diligence questionnaires (DDQs) and security questionnaires. Additionally, CAPTRUST uses Responsive to issue investment management RFPs, bringing the firm’s RFP process full circle on a single platform.

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Recently, CAPTRUST was one of Responsive’s first financial services clients to add AI Assistant. This intuitive generative AI solution trains on CAPTRUST’s Content Library, which keeps the firm’s information private. Financial services firms are notoriously skeptical about using AI for fear of compromising client privacy or proprietary data. CAPTRUST’s IT team and Responsive worked hand-in-hand to make sure that AI Assistant was in compliance with all security and privacy requirements.

For more on how CAPTRUST is unifying all of its response processes on Responsive, watch this video.

Key Takeaway: Build a clean, compliant Content Library for a single use case and then grant access to that content to your whole organization. The value of your proposal-ready content and contribution to the overall success of your company will spread quickly.

AppViewX’s increased content review efficiency

AppViewX, a provider of network automation and orchestration solutions, struggled with Responsive the first time around. They weren’t fans of the legacy user experience. Eventually, their Q&A library got so clogged up that it was difficult to search efficiently. They left and tried a different solution. But not for long.

After using the other solution for a short period, AppViewX realized that Responsive provided capabilities for  assigning reviewers for content curation that were necessary for their organization, especially after the upgrades to the user experience. They returned to Responsive and worked with the customer success team to clean up their existing Q&A library while establishing automated review workflows to prevent future contamination.

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Now, with increased content review efficiency, AppViewX is winning more deals. And AI is sure to identify even more efficiencies. Deduplication of redundant content is already making a major impact and the team is looking forward to figuring out other use cases.

For more on AppViewX’s future plans with Responsive SRM, watch this video.

Key Takeaway: Disciplined curation of your content library enables SRM users to leverage greater efficiency benefits. These benefits will grow exponentially as AI use matures.

Teradata’s 4X+ faster turnaround of security questionnaires

Teradata, a leading data analytics and cloud services provider, found their SRM ROI in higher RFP response quality and increased security questionnaire efficiency.

Initially, Teradata used Responsive for RFP responses and unsolicited proposal development in support of their go-to-market organization. Theirs is a highly competitive industry in which almost every vendor is able to satisfactorily complete an RFP response. To stand out, Teradata uses Responsive to create customized, accurate and more polished responses than its competitors.

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The Teradata InfoSec team also uses Responsive to automate responses to standard security questionnaires. Auto Respond produces an immediate first draft that the InfoSec team can then customize. They have cut their response time from 40 hours to 10 hours or less for each questionnaire.

For more information on how Teradata is exploring how to expand Responsive’s function as a content repository across the organization, watch this video. 

Key Takeaway: Manage change to accelerate ROI. Communicate the value of the tool to your sales team end users. Provide reports to executive leadership to validate your team’s contributions.

These four use cases demonstrate how to maximize the ROI of an SRM platform. By automating manual tasks, centralizing content, enabling collaboration and leveraging analytics, organizations can:

  • Streamline response processes
  • Improve the quality of response deliverables
  • Enhance prospect engagement
  • Increase chances of winning new business 

Watch these videos for insight on how you can capture, quantify and communicate to illustrate the ROI of SRM.

Guide to a great RFP response process

Guide to a great RFP response process

Selling & Enablement

You may have landed on this article because your RFP response process feels disorganized, slow, and downright stressful. First off: congratulations! Many companies don’t have any RFP process in place at all!

(If you don’t have a process yet, you can get started with this guide: How to create an RFP response process.)

So you’re already at an advantage. But, of course, the goal is to build a process that is efficient, reliable, repeatable, and ready to scale up for an increasing volume of RFPs. That’s what we’ll cover in this post.

Table of contents

Why your process matters

A streamlined, repeatable process is the most reliable tool in winning RFPs at scale. 

Do you have project management software? Who is your project manager? Do you have a list of subject matter experts (SMEs) and their schedules? What about other stakeholders, such as writers and editors? These are the questions that you’ll answer as you refine your process.

RFPs are more alike than they are different. Around 80 percent of an RFP’s questions are relatively standard. For example, it’s common for an RFP to ask about company history, hiring practices, and the onboarding process. Why not have those answers ready to go or at least prepared for a quick proofread?

Creating a repeatable process establishes:

  • Whether the RFP is worth pursuing
  • Team participants
  • Timelines
  • Role definitions
  • SME engagement
  • Final evaluation

Basic components of an RFP

A typical RFP will outline the following:

  • Their budget for the project or product
  • The project’s goals
  • Common deal-breakers, such as:
    • Unsatisfactory audit findings
    • Insufficient security protocols
    • Poorly-defined procedures and policies
    • Improperly vetted subcontractors
    • Customer support concerns
    • Inability to meet the buyer’s budget or timeline
    • Not enough customer references
    • No out-of-the-box functionality
  • The most important factors
  • The RFP’s due date

The prospect may also include separate documents such as a security questionnaire, which asks about your and third-party vendors’ security protocols, or due diligence questionnaire, which asks about your company rather than your product.

Steps in the RFP response process

Establishing an effective and efficient process is easier than you might think. Responsive’s response managers have identified eight steps:

Step 1 – Go/no-go

As the number of RFPs you receive increases, so does the number of questions on each one. Instead of attempting to respond to each one, choose those that best align with your business and are winnable.

Step 2 – Have a kickoff party

Unfortunately, most kickoff parties don’t have cake, but they do define team and individual roles, responsibilities, and objectives.

Step 3 – 1st draft

Because roughly 80 percent of an RFP contains questions you’ve probably answered before—many times—let your automated system take a run at it first. Make sure the answers are correct and up-to-date.

Step 4 – 2nd draft

Consult with SMEs and other stakeholders to answer the remaining questions.

Step 5 – Review and revise

Were the questions answered accurately and completely? Were all the objectives met? Are there any misspelled words or typos? Are the responses otherwise well-written? Have you attached all relevant documents?

Step 6 – Submit

Once you’ve completed and polished the response, submit it (hopefully before it’s due). Confirm that it was received and let team members know.

Step 7 – Save and audit the responses

Every answer is potentially valuable for future RFPs. Save them in a central location that’s easily accessible to key stakeholders. Make sure you regularly audit the content in the centralized repository.

Step 8 – Postmortem

Win or lose, every response is a learning opportunity. What worked? What could have used improvement?

An example of a high-quality RFP process

A high-quality process is well-defined, efficient, and generates quality proposals for winnable RFPs. Once you’ve established a high-quality process, your team will begin to run like a well-oiled machine, you’ll increase the number of responses and hopefully win more bids.

Accruent, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company, has recently acquired several companies with highly-technical products. RFPs began arriving faster than the response team could master the new technologies. Unsurprisingly, SMEs were stretched thin.

Accruent introduced Responsive into their response process. Confident that their answers would be stored for future use in their Content Library, SMEs were much more likely to offer their expertise.

Soon, because more than 75 percent of answers came directly from the Content Library, the response team more than tripled its capacity.

RFP response process metrics

The go/no-go step is key to increasing your win rate, but knowing which RFPs to answer requires data. 

Tracking metrics should be part of your response process. Those metrics include the following:

  • Project types – How many RFPs did you answer compared to DDQs and other documents?
  • Types of wins – You should save your resources for winnable RFPs. What kinds of projects provide the highest win rates? Break types down by:
    • Vertical – Are there specific industries that are more apt to purchase your product or service?
    • Company size – Are your target customers enterprise-level or small and medium-sized businesses?
    • Product line – What is your win rate for that product?
    • Project type – Has your company successfully implemented this type of project in the past?
    • Project stage – How far do similar projects make it through the sales funnel?
    • Number of questions – Do you have the bandwidth for an RFP of that size?
    • Project value – Is it worth it for you?
  • Project scope – How much work does your current project require?
  • Completion time – How long does it take, on average, to complete a similar project? What is the shortest time on record, and what is the longest?
  • Average response rate – What percentage of incoming RFPs do you answer?
  • Resource needs – Comparing the content and moderation needs, who are the people who are best suited for the project?
  • Content needed – Read and understand the questions and determine how much content you have in your Content Library.

Once you have decided to go forward, metrics help keep you on track and tell you whether it’s worth continuing.

  • Determine workload – Break down the project into manageable deliverables which can be divided among your team.
  • Readability score – Write in a way that’s easy to understand, typically at no more than a 10th-grade level. Use tools like the Hemingway App or Flesch reading ease test to ensure readability.
  • The Probability of Win Score (PWIN) – You’ve already calculated your odds of winning based on past similar projects. Still, the PWIN examines the details of your current project for a more accurate prediction.
    • How do your answers compare to similar RFPs that you’ve won?
    • Have you answered each question?
    • Have you met all the conditions?
    • How many questions were you able to answer in the affirmative?
  • Identify content gaps – What is missing from your Content Library? What needs to be updated?
  • Determine your Content Library’s health – How many questions can you answer using the curated content in the Content Library? Aim for 40-80 percent.

For more information on response metrics, read here.

Best practices for a smarter RFP process

Turning your RFP process into an 800-horsepower revenue-generating engine takes coordination, a great pit crew (so to speak), and tools to turbocharge efficiency.

At Responsive, we receive and respond to RFPs just like you. Below are the best practices our experts swear by.

Only chase RFPs you can win

Stop wasting time on RFPs that are not a great fit. When assessing this during the go/no-go stage, ask yourself: Does your solution meet the minimum mandatory requirements for the RFP? Does your company have adequate bandwidth to take the project on? Does your price match the prospect’s budget? 

RFPs take a lot of time and effort, but not nearly as much time and effort as onboarding and supporting a customer that doesn’t fit your business or product development strategy. There are few things more frustrating than submitting and winning an RFP only to find out that you cannot follow through because it’s not a strategic fit for you or the issuer.

Encourage collaboration

A Facebook poll by Responsive found that effective collaboration was considered much more important than an efficient process. I would argue that neither is possible without the other.

Because RFPs are long, complex, and require potential input from every department, from finance to HR to IT (and more), collaboration is a critical part of an RFP response process. And because we have distributed and siloed workforces, intense competition for SMEs’ time, and tight deadlines, smart processes foster collaboration.

An RFP response system should leverage project management and communication tools to keep everyone on the same page. And because respecting your colleagues’ time is key to continued collaboration, it should also include a single source of truth knowledge management system to record answers for use on future projects.

Bring effective storytelling into your RFP responses

No one is suggesting that your RFP response should include the next great novel, but telling your organization’s story helps make your response memorable and builds trust among readers.

Your proposal’s story should include information about your company, such as why your founders created your solution, how it will meet the customer’s needs, and how you will handle their needs.

Your cover letter might highlight your company’s values and what it does to live up to them. It’s also a great idea to include testimonials from customers with similar needs.

Automate your response process

At least three-quarters of companies hope to boost their RFP response, but only around half of those companies consider increasing response staffing. That leaves one option, which is to automate their response processes.

Because most questions on an RFP are exact or near exact duplicates of former queries, you can save hours, days, or even weeks by leveraging machine learning to access those repeat question-and-answer pairs, giving you the time to address the questions that need your efforts.

Develop habits that support organizational success

Suppose you worked out or ate well today. Congratulations! Continue for a few weeks, and the next thing you know, you’ll have formed a habit that might lead to better health and longer life.

When you habitually maintain your list of SMEs and other stakeholders, as well as your Content Library’s health, those habits will pay off with faster responses, smoother collaboration, and improved morale.

Enable your sales team

Aside from your employees, a well-maintained single source of truth is your company’s greatest asset. It might contain incorporation papers, financial statements, sales reports, and product details. There’s no limit to the number of use cases.

We like to think of Responsive as a sales enablement platform. Naturally, RFPs generate tremendous revenue. Still, a well-maintained Content Library supplies relevant, customer-facing information for sales teams with a few keystrokes. Responsive’s proposal management features can help you create winning sales proposals complete with automation and reporting.

Build repeatable processes

Any improvements need to be repeatable. For example, if you bring in a contract proposal manager for a response, then be prepared to do so every time. This is a process you will cycle through for every RFP. If it works as well as it should, then you may want to carry the process over to other responses, such as security questionnaires or due diligence questionnaires (DDQs).

The role of RFP software

Chances are, your company uses CRMs and other sales enablement platforms. You probably also use communication apps and some sort of project management software. How does one make a case for more on top of what your CIO might call a bloated tech stack?

Advanced RFP software works with your tech stack, not on top of it. It should integrate with your productivity, communication, and sales enablement apps, but it should also add value on its own. Unlike a standard project management platform, RFP software is customized for proposal management.

RFP software is designed to let you respond to more requests and maximize your win rate. It may not be a specific part of your sales team, but like your top salespeople, its superpower is revenue generation.

Advanced RFP software should import and export from and to nearly every format and offer standard and customizable templates. Its knowledge and document library should provide relevant stored Q&A pairs as well as required documentation with a few keystrokes. In fact, its knowledge and document library should serve as a single source of truth for the entire organization.

The software’s reporting features should go far beyond response analytics and help facilitate informed business decisions. Additionally, because RFPs come in waves, software should be scalable and instantly respond to your changing requirements.

Choosing the right RFP software for your team

I could spend hours highlighting all the RFP software features you might need, but the fact is that even you don’t know what might arrive next week and especially next year. Your ideal RFP response solution is a bespoke answer to your evolving needs.

The software should work with your existing systems to maximize revenue and efficiency. It should be designed by response managers who know the ebbs and flows of response processes.

The most important feature, however, is the designers. Is the company receptive to your questions and poised to consider adding features as requested?

Responsive’s approach to the response process

Responsive offers an end-to-end approach to RFP response. Its features include:

  • Knowledge – Store your commonly-seen questions and answers and your critical documents in a single repository.
  • Collaboration – Communicate with other stakeholders inside the platform or with your current collaboration apps.
  • Projects – Break your projects down into manageable pieces, assign tasks, and keep track right inside the app.
  • Insights – How much time and other resources are you using? How many and what kind of deals do you win? What are your strengths and weaknesses? Responsive has many standard and nearly unlimited customized reporting features.
  • Integrations – Responsive integrations work seamlessly with more than two dozen of the most popular business applications.
  • Loyal customers – Responsive is the response platform for many of the world’s most successful companies, including Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Visa, Lyft, Zoom, and hundreds more. Read more about Responsive from our customers.

Case study: A small software startup

While Responsive is the RFP response solution for large companies, most enterprise organizations have dedicated response departments. Employees for smaller companies find themselves wearing many hats, which sometimes means putting RFPs on the back burner.

Complí, a small software company located in Portland, OR, often found themselves missing deadlines for lack of time and personnel. Just a week after investing in Responsive, that changed. The company was able to respond to RFPs without holding time-consuming, in-office meetings. They were also able to complete up to 80 percent of each RFP with just one click, thanks to the Content Library.

Today, they are submitting RFPs on–time (and even early) and the entire company uses the Content Library as their single source of truth.

RFP response management process FAQs

It isn’t easy to gauge Responsive’s true value without seeing it in action. We invite you to view a demo to see how Responsive might benefit your organization. Before that, though, here are some of the most common questions we are asked:

  • What is an RFP? – A request for proposal (RFP) is a document designed to solicit multiple bids for large organizational purchases.
  • What type of information and questions are included in an RFP? – An RFP provides in-depth descriptions of the customer needs, deadlines, and so on. It might ask for company history and details, pricing, related past projects, and projected deliverables, and so on.
  • Why do organizations issue RFPs? – Organizations issue RFPs to gather pricing and service comparisons in their desired formats.
  • Who responds to RFPs? – Some organizations have dedicated response departments. Others might respond through their sales teams.
  • Why are RFPs issued? – Organizations issue RFPs when their needs are complex and want to efficiently access multiple vendors. Governmental organizations, many nonprofits, and large companies send RFPs for every purchase exceeding a certain threshold.
  • Who is responsible for the RFP budget? – According to a poll conducted by the Responsive team, 50% of companies have assigned the RFP budget to their marketing team.
  • Who is responsible for the RFP tools? – More and more often, the answer is: marketing departments. Among the vast sea of marketing technology, RFP response software sits alongside CRMs, marketing automation, and project management platforms these solutions are all tuned to help the organization deliver a strong and growing revenue stream.
  • Who owns the RFP response process? – While it’s generally a collaborative process including executives, product developers, client success managers and more, the bottom-line responsibility often falls on marketers. After all, marketers are the best at crafting messaging and ensuring brand consistency, which is essential for a strong RFP.
  • What does RFP software do? – The short version is that RFP software helps organizations win more business using fewer resources. The longer version is that it utilizes your existing applications and teams, along with customizable tools and a robust Content Library, to become a revenue-generating engine.
  • Does Responsive do more than respond to RFPs? – As a response platform, Responsive will automatically respond to up to 80 percent of a request for information (RFI), request for quote (RFQ), security questionnaire, due diligence questionnaire, and more. As a sales-enablement tool, its proposal management features and Content Library will help you drive revenue. And as a business application, its built-in and customizable analytics will provide the information needed for informed decision-making.
  • Does Responsive integrate with existing applications? – Responsive integrates with more than two dozen applications, including the most popular ones.
  • What if we need to add or subtract users? – Responsive has a best-in-class pricing model. Instead of purchasing licenses, we provide unlimited access.
  • Is Responsive secure? – Responsive has industry-leading security protocols. We are trusted by the world’s leading technology, healthcare, and financial services companies, including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Visa, Cigna, and far more.




Request for proposal executive summary: Example, template & tips

Request for proposal executive summary: Example, template & tips

Selling & Enablement

Even for the most experienced proposal manager, writing an effective request for proposal executive summary can be a challenge. After all, it needs to be concise, clear and compelling. At the same time, it must convey your deep understanding of the buyer’s unique needs while perfectly capturing how your organization helps them meet their goals and delivers value. 

Certainly, it’s no easy feat when you’re staring at a blank screen, feeling the RFP submission deadline approaching minute by minute. So, to avoid facing that pressure, I always recommend checking out a request for proposal executive summary example or two to give yourself a head start.

In this post, we’ll define an RFP executive summary (sometimes called a proposal executive summary) and share how it differs from a cover letter. Then we’ll outline best practices for writing an executive summary for an RFP as well as how to leverage RFP software to make the process faster. Finally, I’ll offer an RFP executive summary example, samples and templates for inspiration to help you get started.

Contents

Proposal executive summary basics

  • What is a proposal executive summary?
  • Why create an executive summary for a proposal?
  • Who writes the executive summary?
  • When should you write an RFP executive summary?
  • The difference between an RFP executive summary and a cover letter

How to write a proposal executive summary

  • Best practices for stand-out executive summaries

RFP executive summary examples

Proposal executive summary template

Just need the proposal executive summary template?
Download it now here.

Proposal executive summary basics

What is a proposal executive summary?

A proposal executive summary is a document that provides a high-level overview of a vendor’s bid, proposal or offer. The executive summary for a proposal is usually just a few pages long and precedes the proposal itself which is much longer and contains lots of in-depth information.

Think of it like a book jacket that includes a teaser blurb. An effective proposal executive summary helps the reader decide if they want to dig in and read more about the vendor’s offer. It contains a synopsis of the buyer’s needs and objectives as well as the vendor’s proposed solution and experience. 

The proposal executive summary may also be called an RFP executive summary, RFP executive brief, an executive summary of an RFP or an RFP response executive summary. All of these terms can be used interchangeably.

This short but powerful document also provides additional context for the buyer or decision maker to consider. The intention is to inform and persuade the executive. Most of the time, executives only read this brief instead of the whole RFP, so it has to be right on the money.

Bid Perfect, a proposal consultancy, offers this insight:

“The people who will read your executive summary will be expecting it to summarize the main, compelling elements of your bid, how it meets with their specific objectives and why they should select you as their supplier of choice above all others.”

Why create an executive summary for a proposal?

There’s no way around it, reading an RFP response isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time. Indeed, due to the in-depth nature of RFP questions and responses, it is unrealistic to expect that an executive will have time to read each 50-page proposal from front to back. Despite this, often executive stakeholders are key decision makers.

Luckily, the executive summary of a proposal provides a solution. Because it is typically contained on one or two pages, the summary enables busy stakeholders to understand the vendor’s offer and RFP response in mere minutes.

Beyond saving time, the RFP executive summary gives you the opportunity to address an executive’s concerns that may not have been covered in the RFP questions. Indeed, the reason an executive buys a solution often differs from the reasons that a production team (sales, marketing, IT, etc.) is interested.

Executive teams have big-picture, strategic goals while production teams have daily workflow improvement goals. For example, when we work with sales teams their main objective is to save time and respond to RFPs more efficiently. However, an executive is more interested in how Responsive increases win rates and revenue. 

With that in mind, the executive summary of your proposal presents an opportunity to differentiate your organization from your competitors. It is the perfect place to express how your business helps the executive (and organization) meet their goals.

Who writes the executive summary?

Generally, the proposal manager writes the RFP executive summary. However, that is not always the case. Indeed, in small- to medium-sized businesses, sales or marketing may write the proposal executive summary.

Regardless of who is the primary writer of the executive summary, just like with the proposal, it’s a group effort.  Be sure to involve anyone who has the best knowledge of the prospect’s needs, the proposal win themes and the proposal content. Many members of your team will contribute to or review the executive summary. 

Typical creation and approval process for the proposal executive summary

  • Proposal coordinator or manager: Begins the process using an executive summary template for proposals
  • Sales, marketing or business development team: Ensures the proposal summary aligns with win themes and customer needs
  • Subject matter experts: Contributes to and verifies accuracy
  • Marketing – Polishes content and ensures brand alignment
  • Executive approver: Reviews the messaging, signs and approves the final RFP executive summary

When should you write the executive summary?

At what point in the RFP response process should the executive summary be written? Well, it depends on who you ask.

Some argue that writing the executive summary of the proposal at the beginning of your proposal timeline helps guide your messaging and process. Conversely, others recommend waiting until the end of your proposal process to create the executive summary for your RFP response. And still others believe it’s best to write the proposal summary as you go.

As you might imagine, this topic is hotly contested among proposal professionals. The difference in timing delivers different benefits:

1. Starting with the proposal executive summary

APMP teaches that writing the entire first draft of your RFP executive summary at the beginning is best. By writing the summary at the beginning, you can incorporate customer insights gained from your discussions to bid or not to bid as well as any win themes that have been identified in the capture management plan.

2. Writing the RFP executive summary as you go

Another option is building your proposal executive summary in tandem with your RFP response. Bid Perfect suggests that the executive summary of your request for proposal should be a living document. Consequently, edits are gradual and continual as the team works on the proposal: “We believe that there should be no fixed time for writing it but that we are always writing our executive summary throughout the life of the bid preparation phase.”

3. Creating the RFP executive summary as your last step

Finally, Boardroom Metrics recommends writing the RFP executive summary at the end, saying,

“… write it at the end, once all the other work has been completed on the response. That way you will have access to all the thinking that’s been done on preparing the request for proposal – thinking on the issuer, their needs and your solution.”

Ultimately, each of these approaches works and only you can decide which of the three is best for you. Consider your organization’s unique RFP response process and determine which strategy fits.

What’s the difference between an RFP executive summary and a cover letter?

At first glance, it may seem like the executive summary and an RFP cover letter are the same thing. Afterall, they both precede the full RFP response and take only one page. In addition, often, the RFP issuer doesn’t establish requirements or parameters for either document. So it’s easy to see why the two get confused. However, each document has a unique purpose and requires a different approach.

Executive summary vs. cover letter

Request for proposal executive summary

To put it simply, the executive summary is a high-level overview of your proposal. Its purpose is to enable the reader to quickly understand key elements of the proposal. Think of it as a blurb on the back of a book. Without having to read the entire thing, anyone can read the executive summary and understand the highlights of your proposal.

RFP response cover letter

On the other hand, the RFP cover letter is more like a greeting and introduction. Consequently, it can be slightly less formal than the executive summary. A great cover letter will give the reader a positive first impression of your company and encourage them to dig into your full proposal.

An effective RFP executive summary will:

  • Help a busy executive or stakeholder get up to speed
  • Predicts the benefits the customer can expect from your partnership
  • Summarize the most important parts of your proposal
  • Offer additional insight on key differentiators

A compelling cover letter will:

  • Be addressed to the evaluator(s) and set the stage for the proposal
  • Express an understanding of the business and their needs
  • Convey your desire to be a true partner and why you’re a good fit
  • Create a genuine, human connection

Despite their differences, when well written, both the executive summary and cover letter can help make your proposal more memorable. However, it is important to remember that neither document is a sales pitch about your business. Indeed, both should be customer-centric and benefit focused.

Which comes first, the proposal executive summary or cover letter?

Another common question that comes up when discussing proposal executive summaries and cover letters is which comes first when presenting your final RFP. Again, the answer to this question depends on who you ask. One easy way to decide is to ask, ‘If a decision maker only reads one of these two pages, which would you pick?’ In most cases, we believe the answer is the executive summary.

Suggested order of RFP documents

  1. Cover page
  2. Executive summary
  3. Cover letter
  4. RFP response
  5. Pricing (if not included in the RFP questions)
  6. Supporting documentation
  7. Terms and conditions

How to write an RFP executive summary

One effective strategy for writing an executive summary breaks down the content into four sections: needs, outcomes, solution and evidence. Developed by Dr. Tom Sant, the author of Persuasive Business Proposals, this approach goes by the acronym NOSE. Your executive summary should address these four areas:

  • Needs: Spell out your understanding of the prospect’s challenges
  • Outcomes: Confirm the results they expect to achieve
  • Solution: Explore how you solve the problem
  • Evidence: Build trust by sharing results from customers with similar needs

According to Dr. Sant, by organizing your executive summary to align with NOSE, you’ll address the main three questions executives ask:

  1. Does the proposed solution meet the need?
  2. Is it worth the investment of resources and time?
  3. Can they really deliver?

Many salespeople make the mistake of focusing more on “summary” than “executive.” Remember that your proposal executive summary shouldn’t be a table of contents for the RFP response. It should speak to the executive perspective.

RFP executive summary best practices

Now that you have all the basics down, let’s dig into some best practices for your request for proposal executive summary.

Make your message customer-centric

Similar to your RFP response, the focus of the executive summary should be the customer. As you write, keep them in mind. Make sure that you address their criteria, needs and goals. Hone in on the specific things they indicated are a priority and explain how your solution delivers value to those areas. 

Your message should resonate with executives and stakeholders alike. If possible, tell a memorable and influential client success story that brings your value to life. Alternatively, you can convey your strategic vision for your partnership. In addition, clearly and succinctly reiterate the key points and differentiators in your proposal.

Use the recipient’s actual name whenever possible. It makes recipients feel important and personally attended to when they see their name on the front page. Additionally, aim for a 3:1 ratio of recipient company name versus your company name.

Use dynamic verbs and active voice

Sadly, the most popular title for an executive summary is “Proposal for Prospect Company.” Use the title or subtitle as an opportunity to capture the executive’s attention. “Increasing lead-generation…,” or “Visualizing revenue forecasting…,” or “Streamlining cloud storage…” or whatever it is that your solution is going to do for them.

And, just like in your RFP responses, remember to use active voice whenever possible. This practice makes your RFP executive summary more direct and impactful.

Express empathy and understanding

Use your proposal executive summary to convey your understanding of the company’s needs — remember the ‘N’ of the NOSE approach above. Work with the  sales and business development teams to gather this information. 

As you enumerate the prospect’s objectives, limit your list to between three and five points prioritized by importance. If your list is longer you risk making later bullets seem trivial. As you articulate your understanding in the proposal executive summary, you relieve any concerns an executive approver may have as the holder of the purse strings.

Be brief

Be concise and make a big impact using as little space as possible. Review each sentence critically. Does it convey something new, relevant to the reader and memorable? The RFP executive summary isn’t the place to get into the details of every aspect of your offer. It should be easy to scan and understand. 

Remember, the reviewer is likely reading a summary from every prospective vendor trying to keep them all straight. Your brevity will not only make your executive summary more memorable, but the reviewer will appreciate it.

Leverage your knowledge library

The content library in your proposal management platform doesn’t just have to be for RFP responses. You can also store executive summary content in the same way. We all know the feeling of satisfaction when we perfectly articulate a value proposition or find a clever way to point out a differentiator. Don’t miss an opportunity to use that awesome content in your next RFP response. Use tags and categorization to save sections of text for future executive summaries. 

It’s worth noting that if you use RFP software, you can automate much of your executive summary construction. You can use a template for consistency, gather the responses you need and leverage the Responsive AI Assistant to summarize your content. 

What used to take hours, you can now accomplish in minutes. However, don’t forget to remove any customer information before saving it to your knowledge library. And just like your RFP or proposal templates, always remember to customize and review before sending.

Make sure it can stand alone

Write your executive summary as if the reader has limited knowledge of the original RFP or your corresponding proposals. The document should be easy to understand on its own. 

Outlining high-level benefits is key. Remember that the executive summary may be the only thing that some decision-making stakeholders read. So make sure you make it count.

Follow directions

This may seem basic, but it’s not uncommon for procurement teams to disqualify vendors that didn’t follow instructions. For example, we’ve seen some RFPs that include executive summary guidelines like page limits, topics to be covered or format. If instructions are provided, be sure that you’ve read them carefully and follow them closely — a proposal compliance matrix can help.

Proposal executive summary examples

Want to see an executive summary for an RFP example? You’re not alone. As with most writing, starting is the hardest part. If you find yourself frozen, staring at a blank page check out these RFP executive summary examples to help. 

Simple RFP executive summary example

This proposal executive summary example is one that we have used ourselves. You’ll see the approach we use when creating an executive summary for an RFP we’ve answered. The customer wanted a solution that would improve and automate their manual RFP response process, deliver value quickly and grow with them.

You’ll see in this executive summary for an RFP example that we addressed each of the customer’s needs. In addition, we touched on several of our key differentiators. To conclude, we support our statements with a proof point and a statement of what the customer can expect when they partner with us. You can jump to the next section to download this example as a template.

Proposal Executive Summary Example - Document Image - Downloadable Template Available at responsive.io

Creative extended proposal executive summary example

This imaginative RFP executive summary example plays out a sample scenario between fictional companies called “Paradocx” (the prospective vendor) and “ACME” (the buyer). If you’re familiar with Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, you may recognize a few of the themes in this example. Additionally, this example follows the NOSE approach described above. As you read along, see how the proposal identifies the needs, outcomes, solution and evidence.

Request for proposal executive summary example ACME and Paradox Creative ExampleDownload this example in PDF.

RFP executive summary template

Executive summary template for a proposal

You can download this RFP executive summary template for a proposal in Word and customize it to meet your needs. In addition, the request for proposal cover letter template provides suggestions in the comments with additional guidance so anyone can quickly create an impactful executive summary.

Request for Proposal Executive Summary Template Preview Image

Additional RFP executive summary examples and resources

The value of a proposal executive summary

We answer a lot of RFPs here at Responsive. And, we have a saying, ‘A proposal by itself is unlikely to win the deal, but a bad proposal can certainly lose it.’ The same can be said for an executive summary.

It’s been my experience that very few organizations or individuals get any training on writing effective RFP executive summaries. Hence, there’s often a lot of inconsistency from one sales person to the next — which makes it difficult to identify what’s working. That’s one area where the Responsive platform shines. With dynamic templates, simplified collaboration and content governance, you can create consistent, data-driven RFP executive summaries in minutes.

Of course, every executive summary of an RFP is a little different. But with the right process and tools, you’ll be far more likely to be successful. And, as your experience grows, expands and improves, so too will the quality of your executive summaries.

Originally published November 3, 2021 — Updated August 24, 2023

RFP best practices — Content and process tips

RFP best practices — Content and process tips

Selling & Enablement

There’s nothing more frustrating than spending hours writing, editing and collaborating with SMEs only to find out you didn’t win. Collectively, your business invests hours into each proposal. So, if your hard work isn’t paying off, it may be time to brush up on RFP response best practices.

RFP best practices can be broken down into two focus areas: content and process. Content is what your proposal says to the prospect and how you say it. The RFP process is the steps needed to create the proposal. Both are essential to create a winning proposal.

First, I’ll explore RFP content. Starting section by section, I’ll share how to achieve the goal of each element of an RFP response. Then, I’ll offer guidelines that ensure your content follows RFP response best practices as well as winning response examples.

Next, I’ll cover RFP process best practices. I’ll review the RFP response process steps and tips for how to improve. Finally, I’ll conclude by exploring common challenges that come up during the RFP response process and how to overcome them.

Table of contents

RFP best practices for content

RFP section-by-section guide

Before we get into the nitty-gritty details of each section, let’s start with the golden rule of request for proposal best practices: It’s all about the customer. In each section and in every response, keep the customer in mind. 

Remember, these incredibly busy people have a problem to solve. Therefore, if they feel like you’re wasting their time, you’ve already lost them. So, as we work through each RFP response section, remember these guidelines:

  • Stay focused on the customer’s problem and the solution you deliver.
  • Keep it short and fluff free ⁠— for the customer, the RFP isn’t an invitation for you to give a sales pitch, it’s a fact-finding mission.
  • Stick to the project scope and remove any information that isn’t immediately relevant, save the upsell for later

RFP cover letter

The goal
Make a good first impression, create a human connection and let the customer know you truly understand their problem.

How to do it
Share your enthusiasm about the prospect of being a part of their future success. Then, restate their known objectives. Finally, paint a picture of how your solution solves their problem and makes their job easier. Make it all about them.

If you’re ready to write a killer cover letter, explore more in this RFP cover letter guide.

Executive summary

The goal
Give a high-level overview, summarize the most important parts of your proposal and prove you’re qualified to meet their needs.

How to do it
Research. Do your homework to ensure your executive summary addresses the customer’s biggest concerns. Find out why they’re issuing the RFP. Did their last provider fail to deliver? Is their business growing? The more you can speak directly to their needs, the greater your chance of winning the project. 

Remember, your summary needs to provide enough information to stand alone if it’s the only piece of the proposal an executive sees. However, it also must be short enough to read in a couple minutes.

Want to see what a stand-out executive summary looks like? Check out this RFP executive summary guide for examples.

Project implementation plan and schedule

The goal
Help the buyer picture themselves as your customer and prepare them for the next steps in the buying process.

How to do it
Be specific. Your project implementation plan and schedule sets expectations. For example, establish milestones and address any concerns the customer expressed. In addition, provide a full project plan outline from purchase to go-live date. Use the RFP timeline the buyer provided and set milestones assuming a start date almost immediately after the RFP’s final selection announcement.

It is also helpful to share key contacts and staff the customer will work with from subject matter experts to project managers. Finally, include what you’ll need from their business to ensure a successful engagement. For example, current process documentation, training timelines, user roles, administrator input and so on.

Contract terms

The goal
Ensure a speedy contracting process that benefits both you and the customer.

How to do it
In this section of your request for proposal response, get your ducks in a row so the contracting process goes smoothly. For example, share what you’ll need to execute the contract and include who will be involved. Then, outline the approval process and required documentation. Consider preemptively providing your standard SIG assessment or security questionnaire as well as terms and conditions.

In addition, offer an overview of how you’ll continue to support the customer after the contract is executed. Include information about their customer success manager, any available self-service tools and who will supervise the delivery of contract terms.

If possible, provide very specific details — how often will someone check in, what will be covered and how feedback is addressed? Remember, it’s all about them. Make them feel confident that you’re in it for the long haul and prepared to be a true partner to them.

Customer references and case studies

The goal
Provide concrete, third-party evidence of the results they can expect.

How to do it
Share the positive return on investment you’ve achieved for customers similar to your prospect. Of course, don’t make them just take your word for it. Also include metrics and powerful quotes provided by happy customers. If possible, offer to connect them with a current customer for a reference call. Certainly, there’s nothing more persuasive than hearing candid feedback from a peer.

Winning RFP content tips and examples

Beyond hitting the goals for each RFP section outlined above, winning RFPs have great content. I’ve reviewed content from countless winning RFP response examples and they all have a few things in common. I’ve collected these themes and created a list of RFP best practices and examples below.

Insert the customer into your answers

Remember, it’s never about you. Your audience doesn’t care how great you are. They only care about how you can make their lives easier and improve their profitability. All of your answers should support the argument that you will make them more efficient, effective and empowered.

In addition, don’t just explain what you do, but also why it’s important. This focus will help you write an “About Us” and “Background” statement that will make prospects pay attention.

Original RFP response:
Our company improves efficiency and cost savings.

Winning RFP response example:
XYZ solution empowers ABC company to optimize efficiency and maximize savings.

Keep it simple and skimmable

Your evaluators are pressed for time. Write clearly and succinctly. Use proposal formatting to make it scannable. For example, headings, subheadings, call-outs, and bullets make your proposal more approachable. And, remember to keep it non-technical and simple so your responses can be read and understood by anyone.

Original RFP response:
With XYZ solution, which optimizes internal and external collaboration and communication processes, automates RFP management, improves workflows and empowers reporting, our current customers like ABC Company are able to not only respond to complicated RFPs,  security questionnaires and due diligence questionnaires for a comprehensive proposal management experience.

Winning RFP response example:
ABC Company will leverage XYZ solution to:

    • Improve internal and external collaboration
    • Automate complex RFPs
    • Manage workflows and view reports
    • Respond RFPs and questionnaires
    • Centralize procurement and proposal functions

Include visualizations

Charts and graphs quickly convey a more powerful message than a spreadsheet full of data. Use visualizations to help customers better understand your projected impact on their business.

Original RFP response:
XYZ solution’s customer submitted 83 proposals in 2018. More than twice the number completed by their competitors.

RFP response best practices | Spreadsheet Illustration

Winning RFP response example:
XYZ solution’s customer submitted 83 proposals in 2018. More than twice the number completed by their competitors.

RFP best practices | Chart Illustration

Review, revise then review again

Typos, style inconsistencies and abrupt changes in grammatical tense or tone can be incredibly distracting for your reader. Consequently, it’s important to review your responses and make sure they all work together and sound consistent.

In fact, try reading your responses out loud. It will help you catch a ton of errors or awkwardness that spell check won’t. A blog from Proposal Reflections offers five things to watch for (and remove) from your proposals including: long sentences, passive voice, empty words, nominalizations and incorrect words. Follow these guidelines to make your content stronger, more concise and more persuasive. The post also offers this example:

Original RFP response:
Our COTS solution saves the Government time and money.

Winning RFP response example:
Our COTS solution provides the Government with life-cycle savings of $250,000 in software development costs.

Note: The Responsive platform’s leading response management software includes a GPT assistant that leverages the latest AI tools to optimize your RFP responses for readability, comprehension, simplicity, passive voice and more. Learn more here: Responsive integrates GPT.

RFP response process best practices

Every RFP response process follows the same basic steps:

  1. Review RFP: Understand the customer’s requirements, objectives, goals, key deadlines and evaluation criteria.
  2. Assess suitability: Evaluate your organization’s capacity, align your expertise with customer needs and determine project alignment with business goals.
  3. Assemble the response team: Identify key contributors and stakeholders, assign roles and determine responsibilities.
  4. Develop a win strategy: Analyze competitively the landscape, define your differentiators and establish a project plan.
  5. Build your proposal: Gather past answers, collaborate with SMEs to create new responses and customize your proposal content.
  6. Write executive summary: Introduce your company, highlight your value proposition and offer an overview of your strengths.
  7. Review, proofread and submit: Ensure compliance with RFP requirements, review for accuracy and clarity and submit prior to the deadline.

How to improve your RFP response process

Perfection is unattainable. There’s always room for improvement, even within teams who have tightly refined their RFP process. For example, a highly-skilled and efficient two-person team can respond to one or two RFPs per quarter when working manually. However, after implementing RFP response best practices and RFP software, the same team can successfully respond to 16 simultaneous RFPs in the same time frame. Hopefully these tips will help you achieve the same kind of results.

Only answer RFPs you can win

One of the most important (and most neglected) RFP response best practices is the qualification or a bid or no-bid decision step. Far too many teams answer every RFP that comes their way. Unfortunately, that means spending time answering long shots and RFPs you’re not qualified for, while potentially missing or neglecting better opportunities.

RFP qualification considerations

What was your level of involvement prior to the RFP being issued?
If you’re just hearing about the opportunity thanks to the RFP, your chances may be slim. Indeed, odds are definitely better when sales or presales has developed a relationship with the prospect. Alternatively, you may have already responded to a request for information (RFI), which is also a good sign.

Is your solution a fit?
At minimum, it needs to meet the mandatory requirements. Everyone’s agile. Everyone’s flexible. Issuers already know that. Accordingly, you need to be able to prove that you have a tried and true solution.

Does your price match the prospect’s budget?
Of course there’s always give and take when it comes to pricing. However, don’t let that distract you from carefully evaluating the opportunity in terms of dollars and cents. The issuer expects your bid to include everything they need within their budget. So, can you do it and still make the project profitable? 

Is it a strategic fit?
RFPs take a lot of time and effort. But, onboarding and supporting a customer that doesn’t align with your business or product development strategy takes more. There are few things more frustrating than submitting and winning an RFP only to find out that the partnership isn’t a strategic fit for you or the issuer.

Do you have bandwidth?
Too often, this consideration gets pushed to the side. It’s completely understandable to want to respond to more RFPs.

In fact, we found that 72% of companies plan to respond to more RFPs year-over-year. But, simply responding doesn’t mean your team has the time and attention required to write a winning RFP response. Don’t sacrifice quality for quantity. 

Create a content library

If you have to dig through emails, past RFP responses and documents to find answers to questions you’ve seen over and over again, it’s time for a new approach. After all, once you’ve curated and perfected your content using the tips above, you’ll want to use it as often as possible. Indeed, it saves so much time, building an RFP content library is a cornerstone RFP response best practice.

Your content database should be the single source of truth for building RFP responses that are efficient, consistent and accurate. To start, gather content from past proposals. Then, update it to ensure it is flexible enough to be easily customized or used in its generic form. It should all have a consistent voice to reduce editing and review time.

An RFP content library needs a structure that helps with searching. You can organize RFP content using tags, collections and custom fields. Additionally, it’s helpful to organize content to match the structure of the RFPs you receive. What sections do you always see? 

Common RFP sections
  • Company overview
  • Experience and staff biographies
  • Features, functionality and differentiators
  • Training, implementation, delivery and support
  • Security and data policies
  • Case studies and customer results or references
  • Reports, terms and policies

If you’re not using RFP software, organizing your files and documents this way will help reduce the need to chase down or recreate content for every new RFP.

Know your team (and their strengths)

Stakeholders and subject matter experts (SMEs) within your organization are essential to creating compelling content. But, getting in touch with the right people at the right time may be a challenge — especially if they don’t know who you are or what you do. Building relationships is an important part of curating an efficient and effective RFP process.

The better you know your resources, the better your response will be. Get to know the people behind the proposal. Keep track of each person’s area of expertise, preferences and availability — and then respect it. 

RFP software integrates with many apps and channels. So you can approach busy SMEs in the way that works best for them. For example, maybe you have an SME who hates writing. Call them up. As they talk you through the answer, you record it and save it to the content library. Putting in the legwork to build relationships with your resources will pay off at crunch time.

Create a project plan

While RFPs are a team sport, they need a captain. Someone has to own the process to hold contributors accountable to ensure you meet your deadline. If you have a full-time proposal manager they’ll take charge. If not, the process will likely be managed by a sales or marketing team member. Regardless, you need a plan to get everyone on the same page.

Initiate a kickoff meeting for each RFP that includes all key team members. During this session, you’ll discuss your timeline, roles and responsibilities, win strategy, expectations and next steps. Surface any scheduling conflicts, content gap concerns or issues with deadlines to avoid surprises. 

Then, as you progress through your plan, regularly share progress updates, changes and dependencies to improve team visibility. 

Repeat, review, optimize and expand

The great part about adopting RFP best practices is that they’re designed to be repeatable. As you implement improvements it’s also important to review results. As you become more efficient, you’ll find more ways to identify gaps, tighten communications, anticipate outcomes and ensure success. 

Additionally, once you’ve mastered RFP best practices, you can get even more value by applying them to other routine information requests. For example, these principles can be applied to RFIs, requests for quotations (RFQs), security questionnaires and due diligence questionnaires (DDQs).

Common RFP response roadblocks and how to overcome them

Even when you meticulously follow RFP best practices, the process may not be smooth. Here are some issues proposal teams frequently encounter and how to overcome them.

The customer isn’t asking the right questions.

The challenge
The customer missed something key in their RFP. Unfortunately, the gap in information makes it difficult for you to win or might result in the customer selecting an incomplete solution that’s not in their best interest. Either way, it’s worth mentioning. But how do you tactfully make sure the customer has all the information they need without being a bother?

Work through the roadblock
Procurement professionals are skilled at finding the best vendor for a project. However, they’re likely not an expert in the nuance of your particular industry, good or service. Instead, they use stakeholder requirements to customize an existing RFP template. 

This process often leaves gaps in knowledge and results in an incomplete RFP. It also puts you in a tough position of trying to explain additional value you deliver that the customer doesn’t understand and didn’t ask about.

Typically, at the beginning of the RFP timeline, there’s a period to allow for vendor questions. This is a good time to raise the concern. Simply include it in your questions. For example, you can ask: “Have you considered unaddressed factor? Is that an area of need for ABC Company?” Alternatively, you could say, “Many of our customers ask about unaddressed factor, would you like us to include information about how XYZ solution solves this challenge?

Time consuming back-and-forth with subject matter experts

The challenge
One of the hardest parts of creating a request for proposal response is coordinating with your subject matter experts (SMEs). They’re usually very busy people. And, while they’re experts in their field, they likely all have a different writing style. So, how do you make RFP responses from a dozen different sources look consistent and sound cohesive?

Work through the roadblock
Most SMEs are just as excited about winning new business as you are, but they can’t read your mind. Unfortunately, they won’t know intuitively what to cover just by reading the RFP question. 

So, it’s an RFP best practice to be clear about what you need. SMEs are usually happy to provide answers that cover customer hot buttons, written in the company’s preferred proposal format ⁠— they just need to know what that is. It’s usually as simple as providing your SMEs with a company style guide for faster editing.

In addition, make sure you search your RFP content library before asking an SME to weigh in on a question. There’s nothing more frustrating and alienating to a busy SME than answering the same question over and over again. If you find an applicable knowledge record, send the response for review. After all, updating or customizing a response is a lot faster than writing from scratch. Certainly, this is a situation where RFP software that centralizes internal collaboration is an advantage.

SMEs are a key part of your proposal team. So, bring them into the fold and make the importance of their role clear. Include SMEs in proposal kickoff meetings, regular content updates and annual process reviews. Even if they can’t make every meeting, putting in the effort to keep them involved will help them feel invested.

The RFP clearly favors a specific vendor

The challenge
You recognize your competitor’s language in the RFP. It seems like they are the incumbent vendor or are heavily favored. You suspect their capture management team helped craft the RFP. To have a fighting chance, you’ll need to overcome an unfair preference with education and awareness.

Work through the roadblock
Some RFPs aren’t fair. That’s the unfortunate truth. You know your competitors and for the most part, everyone uses the same tactics to try to win new business. For example, we all know how much easier it is to write a winning RFP response when your team helped craft the RFP itself.

If you notice the RFP favors a specific approach or if phrasing is overly specific, that’s a good indication of an outside influence. Use your competitive intelligence to counteract their preconceived notions. Without naming the competitor, explain why your product or approach better addresses their needs.

Alternatively, just ask. Reach out to the RFP contact and look for more background information. Is there an incumbent vendor? If so, why has the project gone back out to RFP? What would sway the decision maker, or what is the competitor lacking that would make the decision easy? Ultimately, addressing the lack of transparency head-on will help you make a well-informed bid or no-bid decision.

The RFP response has a quick turnaround

The challenge
In the world of RFPs, time is typically your biggest adversary. Your proposal timeline can only be compressed so much while still maintaining RFP response best practices and manually completing the RFP makes submitting responses on time difficult.

Work through the roadblock
One of the best ways to fast-track your proposal process is to invest in RFP response software. Not only will it automate your responses by suggesting answers to previously asked questions, but it will also empower you to:

  • Search and find past proposal content
  • See who wrote the content and when it was written
  • Review the revision history
  • Verify when the content was last reviewed and updated
  • Check how often it’s been used

Too many teams spend all their time writing answers but never save or organize them. If your team can’t find and reuse past RFP responses, collaborate on content and easily see team responsibilities and next steps, you’ll end up constantly reinventing the wheel.

Final thoughts

Ultimately, RFP best practices help everyone involved in the sales and proposal process work toward a singular goal ⁠— to win new business. And, for proposal professionals, there is no greater feeling than hearing that your team submitted a winning RFP response.

By following these winning RFP response best practices you’ll start to see all of your writing, editing, collaborating and waiting pay off.

Proposal automation guide: Benefits, uses, tips & software

Proposal automation guide: Benefits, uses, tips & software

Selling & Enablement

For most bid and proposal professionals, working through the steps of answering RFPs is second nature. Unfortunately, for those using manual processes, much of that work is tedious, repetitive and time consuming. Indeed, you may be all too familiar with the ctrl+f, ctrl+x and ctrl+v loop of working in Word and spreadsheets. Luckily, with proposal automation solutions, you can make the process faster and easier. Not to mention, you’ll be able to give those well-worn keyboard shortcuts a rest.

Powered by rapidly-advancing AI technology, the number of bid and proposal management tasks that can be partially or entirely automated continues to grow. For organizations looking to speed up sales cycles, work lean and increase win rates, proposal automation  delivers a lot of value. Fortunately, RFP response software is purpose-built for managing RFP responses, bids and proposals — and it’s increasingly impactful, adaptable, accessible and affordable.

Understandably, the prospect of increasing automation may not excite you. In fact, it may raise uncomfortable questions. For example, you might wonder if your job is at stake, if it actually saves time and if it’s really worth it. In this post, I’ll strive to explore each of these concerns about proposal automation and more.

To start, we’ll begin with the definition of proposal automation as well as how it works. Then, we’ll cover which steps in your proposal process can be automated and how human input is still required. Next, you’ll learn the three primary benefits of automation. I’ll also share a quick buyer’s guide for proposal automation software. And finally, I’ll share a few ways your team can prepare now for proposal automation in the future.

What is proposal automation?

Proposal automation is the use of technology to perform actions in the proposal process with reduced human intervention. Sometimes called bid automation, the term refers to the actions that technology performs automatically according to established rules.

Proposal management software includes  automation capabilities designed for the RFP and proposal process. It can assist with proposal completion, formatting, workflow tasks and content management.

How does it work?

Certainly, proposal managers don’t need to understand the engineering and code that makes proposal automation solutions work. However, a basic grasp of the concepts and logic behind automation is helpful. With this knowledge, users understand how to maximize automation’s value. And, they can troubleshoot if needed.

With origins in manufacturing lines, automation has come a long way in the last few decades. While technology continues to push the boundaries of automation, the basic motivations remain the same.

Whether automation is moving car parts from one assembly line to another, or transferring information from a content library to a proposal draft, the goal is to reduce the human effort required to complete tasks.

Proposal automation example 

Generally, automation works using if/then logic. For example, in the proposal process, you may want to send a reminder to your subject matter experts (SMEs).

So, the logic for that task could be stated as:
If SMEs have not approved their assigned questions by three days prior to the due date, then send a reminder email to their inbox.

In this case, the ‘if’ part of the statement defines the required conditions that must be met for automation to occur and the ‘then’ of the statement is the action that is triggered.

Each piece of automation requires several key pieces of data. For the simple automation in this example to work, the system needs to recognize and pull together all of the following data:

  • Users designated as SMEs
  • Which SMEs are assigned
  • Status of their questions (draft, in progress or approved)
  • Today’s date relative to the due date
  • SME email addresses for the notification
  • The notification text to be sent

When you understand that each element of the if/then statement is a piece of data, it’s easier to see the possibilities for new automations.

Beyond workflow automations like the example above, proposal and RFP response tools also use artificial intelligence, machine learning and natural language processing to expand and improve proposal automation capabilities.

Proposal automation uses and limitations

Just like other sales technologies, AI and proposal automation are tools that must be directed and used by humans. Certainly, it can save your team a lot of time, but it definitely won’t be able to replace you. Proposal expert Ashley Kayes, addressed the potential of automating proposals in a recent post on her Proposal Reflections blog saying,

“Will automation tools and AI eventually replace all of us and independently write the proposals for our companies? I think most of us agree that this will never happen in our lifetimes. However, I do believe that enhanced versions of these AI and proposal automation tools will ultimately empower our proposal teams to focus our efforts on tailoring content to meet the needs of individual customers and other critical tasks.”

We expect that AI capabilities and proposal automation will continue to advance in the future. In fact, at Responsive we’re constantly evaluating emerging AI and creating new ways to automate tedious steps of responses of all kinds including proposals, RFPs, RFIs, RFQs, DDQs, security questionnaires and so on.

When considering investing in proposal automation software it’s important to understand that these tools are not a replacement for people. They only work in partnership with users. However, when applied thoughtfully by skilled users, strategic response management software has the potential to cut your response time in half.

Examples of how proposal automation partners with people

Automating proposals effectively means balancing AI’s ability to perform mundane tasks with the need for human input and interpretation. Here you’ll find a list of ways you can use automation as well as short explanations of how users must provide input for the best results.

– Bid selectively and ensure compliance –

Automation can: Analyze and organize requirements

When receiving long-form RFPs and customer requests, it can be difficult to identify each individual requirement you must to meet. Fortunately, proposal automation can sift through the text of any request and create a list of requirements you can review at a glance.

With a clear list of the customer’s needs, you can more confidently decide if the opportunity is a fit for your company. Then, you can also use this list of requirements to ensure that the RFP responses and proposals will meet the customer’s guidelines and expectations.

Users must: Review and confirm the analysis

In this use case, proposal automation works by searching for keywords like shall, may, should, must and more to gather requirements. It does a good job of listing individual requirements, but a human must always verify the output for any requirements that didn’t use one of the established keywords.

– Find content and answers faster –

Automation can: Identify repeat questions and suggest answers

One of the most impressive and valuable features of RFP automation software is the ability to import an RFP and automatically review it for repeat questions. Not only will automation identify the questions you have encountered before, but it will also suggest relevant answers from your content library. So, you no longer have to search through endless emails and old proposals to find the right answers.

When considering investing in proposal automation software, it is important to understand how each automation tool works to find relevant answers. Some systems use exact match searches, while others leverage AI, machine learning and natural language processing to find synonyms and related knowledge records.

Users must: Select the right answer with context in mind

While AI can suggest the best answer and offer alternative options, it can’t yet fully understand the nuance and context for the request. So, it’s essential to have a human review the options. Certainly, it still saves time by providing you with all of the relevant choices, but final selection should be done by a proposal professional.

– Help write and edit responses –

Automation can: Create a first draft or revise an answer

Staring at a blank screen can be a roadblock for SMEs, so offering a first draft can help get them started — AI can help with that. In addition, if you get their response back and it’s a little too long and technical, AI can help with that too. With the GPT assistant in Responsive, you can leverage AI to create response drafts, expand short answers, transition from passive to active voice, improve readability, shift from technical jargon to plain speech and more.

Users must: Review, customize and fact check

Outputs from the GPT assistant sound more like a human than ever, but don’t be fooled. AI cannot create content tailored to your organization. Because GPT is trained using general information like internet content and books, it doesn’t know your brand’s proprietary information, competitive advantages, messaging, tone or style preferences.

Users must still infuse responses with compelling win themes, create a consistent style and update automated responses to ensure accuracy and effectiveness.

– Keep your content library clean –

Automation can: Identify potential answer duplicates

As you answer more RFPs, create proposals and leverage your response solution, your content library will grow. Naturally over the course of time, you’ll respond to variations of the same question over and over. Then, if you’re not careful to review, prune and consolidate similar responses the library can grow out of control and become difficult to navigate effectively.

Fortunately, AI can help you manage the content by identifying similar question and answer pairs. The system can then flag the content for potential deduplication.

Users must: Review duplicates and make the final call

Typically, duplications are created when an answer has been customized to fit a particular customer or situation. AI can identify the similarities to other responses, but it can’t decide which answer is the best option to keep for future use. Users must provide input to combine, edit and optimize the responses before deleting duplicates.

– Improve SME collaboration –

Automation can: Send reminders and schedule reviews

We all know that as the proposal coordinator, you spend a significant amount of time wrangling answers and approvals from various subject matter experts and stakeholders. Often, this means countless emails, follow-up calls, chat messages and reminders. And managing that communication via email is cumbersome and risky. Fortunately, all of these activities are centralized in automated proposal software.

As you work through the proposal, SMEs receive notifications when you assign them questions, request reviews, send reminders and secure final approval. In addition to avoiding sending these communications manually, the platform also retains a record so you can review the process if questions arise.

Users must: Manage assignments, responsibilities and settings

Proposal automation isn’t able to identify who plays which role in the response process without your help. Indeed, for large organizations, the number of variables that determine who contributes to a proposal or RFP make it far too complex for a computer to understand. However, for you, it’s a simple matter of matching sections and questions to the relevant users.

– Keep momentum moving to meet deadlines –

Automation can: Track real-time progress

When your boss wants an update on how the proposal is coming together, automation has an immediate answer. Rather than reaching out to every contributor and finding out the status of their work and compiling a report that will be out of date before you can even send it, proposal automation software enables you to see real-time visualizations of each project.

Users must: Interpret and optimize

While dashboards and reports are much easier to create and view in proposal software, they lack the context and big-picture view you provide. The real-time information can help you identify bottlenecks, but it won’t be able to determine why they’re happening or how to fix them. There’s simply no replacement for the strategy and process insight you provide.

– Surface data insights –

Automation can: Gather data and schedule maintenance

Curious how often subject matter experts make adjustments to answers from previous proposals? Wondering when the last time was someone reviewed your compliance content?

Proposal automation tools collect this information as well as other helpful response metadata. In addition, you can set up periodic, automatic review cycles to prompt SMEs to verify and refresh the content they’re responsible for.

Users must: Review and optimize

Proposal automation can only provide you with the information it finds in your content library, it can’t verify if that information is still true and accurate. In addition, it can’t warn you that one of your answers has a bullet point that isn’t relevant to the customer or refers to a contact that has since left the company. Indeed, when it comes to avoiding embarrassing moments like that and ensuring you’re using timely responses, there is no replacement for your careful review.

Additionally, users must determine how often content should be reviewed and who should review it to minimize risk.

The 3 biggest benefits of proposal automation

At the end of the day to be truly worth it, proposal automation must deliver value to the bottom line. There are three primary benefits to consider.

1. Enhanced efficiency

Automation saves time (a lot of time). RFP responses are an investment, so as efficiency increases, so does profit. When you leverage automation, you spend significantly less time finding information, sending reminder emails and verifying responses. In the time you save, you can take on more strategic, higher-value projects.

For example, Crownpeak leverages proposal automation to complete the majority of their responses:

“Today we’re filling out 80% of an RFP with Auto Respond. But next time we get an RFP, that percentage might be 81%. The more answers we put in the library, and the more RFPs we respond to, the more accurate Auto Respond becomes,” -Paul Taylor, Vice President of Solutions Engineering at Crownpeak

2. More consistent processes

Automating proposals using an established, repeatable process in a centralized location provides much needed organization and clarity. Manual responses often involve information that’s shared through email, spreadsheets, calls and more ⁠— this siloed knowledge increases the risk that your proposals contain inaccurate or inconsistent responses.

3. Data capture and analytics

Each RFP and corresponding proposal contains a wealth of data. Indeed, data collected from automated processes enables organizations to calculate proposal software ROI. In addition, RFP data analysis uncovers avenues for process improvements, pricing optimization, sales messaging refinement and more.

Proposal automation software buyer’s guide

Finding the right proposal automation solution for your organization can deliver tremendous value. So, here are a few things to discuss with your team before making a purchase.

Essential proposal automation software features

  • Centralized content library: How is information saved, organized and reviewed? Is the library easy to navigate and use for power users and occasional SME contributors alike?
  • Response automation: When you upload an RFP or request, does the platform suggest relevant answers automatically?
  • Request import: Are requests quick and easy to upload? Does the software consistently identify sections and questions?
  • Project management tools: How can proposal managers track their projects, engage collaborators and ensure on-time delivery?
  • Integrations: How will the proposal automation solution integrate with existing processes and sales technologies?
  • Data analysis: Does the platform capture key metadata, have helpful reporting capabilities and detailed audits for transparency and risk management?
  • Document tools: Does the platform offer tools for e-signature, document library management, embedded media and attachments?

Additional considerations

  • Solution updates and enhancements: Does the platform keep you ahead of trends and give you a competitive advantage with regular releases designed to improve your process?
  • Reputation: Is the company a leader in the industry? Do they have strong reviews from users?
  • Customer success: What kind of support will your team need?
  • User experience and adoption: Is the tool easy to use, navigate and understand?
  • Broader value: Is the platform flexible enough to be used for additional use cases?
  • Security and controls: How does the software manage security and data? Do they allow various user permission levels to keep information secure?

How to prepare now for automation in the future

While automation can undoubtedly save almost any proposal team time, some organizations may not quite be ready to make the investment. However, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do now. First, create a business case for proposal software. Then, begin building the foundation for successful automation.

Map your current proposal process in detail

Creating a detailed, step-by-step map of your process is the best way to identify areas that are ready for automation. Start at the beginning. What steps happen when you receive a new RFP? Who is involved in the decisions? What information is gathered? Who plays which role in proposal creation? And so on.

Benchmark key metrics

After you’ve defined your process as thoroughly as possible, estimate and note the hours required to complete each task. Consider what steps take the longest and which are the most repetitive. This exercise will point you to the areas where automation will be most impactful. Not to mention that benchmarking the time and cost involved in RFP responses allows you to calculate return on investment once you adopt a solution.

Plan how you will redirect time saved

Another powerful way to prepare for automation is to consider what you will do with the time you save. We all have a list of projects and ideas in our heads, and with automation, you’ll be able to put them into action. If nothing comes to mind, we have a couple of ideas to further improve your efficiency and effectiveness.

Dig into your data

The more information and historical RFP response data you have, the better off you’ll be when you are ready to adopt proposal automation. Explore your proposal library and identify knowledge gaps as well as any opportunities to improve the quality of your data.

  • Remove duplicate and outdated answers
  • Ensure on-brand messaging
  • Improve consistency in tone, word choice and style
  • Record which answers appear in winning proposals
  • Identify commonalities in won and lost opportunities

Final thoughts

Despite all the advances in automation for proposal teams, the RFP process is still human. At its core, it’s still about connecting people and finding customers that will help you reach your goals while you help them reach theirs.

Again, Ashley Kayes, sums up the potential of proposal automation nicely saying,

“Leveraging these tools effectively in the future, I believe we will increase the efficiency of our business development and proposal process by automating some of the most time-consuming pieces of the process and helping us to make smarter, more-strategic decisions on the opportunities we pursue.”

There can be no doubt that automation is part of the future of RFPs. But, the real question is: Will you be ready? Are you ready now?

How to write a letter of intent to bid: Tips, examples & template

How to write a letter of intent to bid: Tips, examples & template

Selling & Enablement

If you regularly respond to RFPs, you have probably encountered buyers who ask you to submit a letter of intent to bid as part of the response process. While this step in the RFP process is far from universal, it’s important to understand the purpose of the intent to bid letter. Additionally, you can use it as another positive touchpoint for prospective buyers.

Whether you’re responding to a buyer that requested a letter of intent and need guidance, or you’re simply looking for new ways to engage with buyers earlier in the RFP process, you’ll find what you need to know here.

First, in this post, you’ll learn the basics about the letter of intent to bid including what it is, who uses them and a few of their benefits. Then, I’ll offer some quick tips about how to write a letter of intent. Finally, I’ll share sample letters of intent to bid and an intent to bid template.

Just need the template? Download now.

What is a letter of intent to bid?

Letter of intent to bid definition

A letter of intent to bid is a formal way for prospective vendors to communicate their plan to submit a response or bid to a request for proposal (RFP). Often, a buyer requests or requires a letter of intent from interested vendors as part of the RFP process.

A small distinction: Letter of intent to bid vs letter of intent

The letter of intent or letter of interest, abbreviated as LOI, has other applications outside of the RFP and sales process. For example, job seekers, grant applicants and legal agreements may also use letters of intent. So, be sure to understand the context of the LOI request before responding.

Who uses the letter?

When The letter of intent to bid can be requested by an RFP issuer (buyer) or offered proactively by a RFP responder (seller or vendor). The document isn’t exclusive to any particular industry. However, you’ll find it most often in government, legal, education and construction RFPs.

When required by a buyer, the procurement manager in charge of the RFP is the person who requests, receives and reads the letters. On the other hand, when offered proactively, the letter of intent to bid is written and submitted by the proposal manager.

What is in the letter of intent to respond?

The intent to bid letter is usually very brief. Indeed, it follows the standard business letter format and fits on a single page.

Your letter of intent to bid should include:

  • The name of your company
  • Name of the proposal contact
  • The name or reference number of the RFP you’re responding to
  • A clear statement of your intention to submit a proposal
  • Your sign off and signature

In addition to the above, you may choose to include more information. For example, you may wish to offer a brief statement about why you believe you’re a fit for the business. You may also highlight your relevant experience or confirm that you meet or exceed the minimum RFP requirements.

In many cases, if this step is part of the process, the buyer will provide a letter of intent to bid template that outlines the information they require. You can see examples of this later in this blog.

When is the letter of intent due?

If an RFP requires vendors to formalize their intention to bid (or decline to bid), the deadline will appear in the RFP timeline. Typically, this step happens after vendors receive answers to any follow-up questions or points of clarification during the Q&A period.

On the other hand, if you’re sending an intent to bid letter as a courtesy (when it’s not required by the buyer) you have more flexibility. In this case, you should send the letter as soon as possible after you’ve done your bid/no-bid discussion and made a decision. Ideally, this is at least two weeks prior to the RFP deadline.

Benefits of the intent to bid letter

You may find yourself wondering why anyone would require a letter of intent to bid. Why add one more step to an already long process? Well, there are a few reasons why an intent to bid letter is a good idea.

1. Ensures sufficient interest and competition

Many organizations have procurement policies that require three valid bids before making a purchase. The letter of intent to bid enables buyers to ensure that a project will have sufficient vendor participation to proceed.

If a buyer doesn’t receive enough affirmative letters of intent to bid from vendors, they may reevaluate the project, even if they have a qualified, under-budget bid. They can extend the RFP invitation to additional vendors, find out why vendors chose not to respond or they can put the project on hold.

Essentially, the letter of intent saves a procurement manager weeks of waiting and hoping they’ll have the necessary number of bids when the RFP deadline arrives.

2. Defines and streamlines communication paths

The purpose of an RFP is to exchange information between buyers and sellers in an organized way. In an ideal world, the process would be straightforward. However, in the real world, it’s rarely that simple.

It’s not uncommon for a buyer to have a few updates after issuing an RFP. For example, there may be amendments to the requirements, changes in scope or clarifications of the RFP questions. In this case, the buyer needs to know who to contact.

Thanks to the letter of intent, they know exactly who to reach out to. Not only that, but the procurement manager avoids sending unnecessary emails to suppliers that have indicated they will not be submitting an RFP.

3. Enables a faster RFP evaluation process

After the intent to bid deadline, the response period begins. While you and your team write a winning RFP response, the buyer begins preparing for the RFP evaluation process.

Because they already know the number of participating vendors, the procurement manager can prepare more thoroughly. For example, they can set up proposal scoring and prepare guidance for stakeholders.

Faster evaluation means faster results. So the buyer can award the contract and you can win business faster.

Tips for how to write a letter of intent to bid

As we’ve discussed above, you can use the letter of intent to bid in two situations: either to meet the stated RFP process requirements or as a proactive courtesy to the buyer.

Sometimes, if a buyer requires an they provide a template to ensure they receive the same information from every vendor. In this case, simply fill out the provided document and resist the urge to add more detail.

The letter of intent to bid template is usually included at the beginning of the RFP or as an attachment at the end. However, if the buyer doesn’t offer a template or you wish to create a letter of intent to connect with the buyer, there are a few things to keep in mind.

LOI best practices

• After your decision to bid or not to bid, write and send the letter as soon as possible.

• It’s best to address the letter to the procurement manager or company contact specified in the RFP. Try to avoid a generic greeting like, “To whom it may concern.”

• Begin the letter by clearly stating your intention to bid and basic company information.

• Include contact information for the person who will manage the proposal process. This is the person the buyer should contact if they have questions, need more information or want to begin negotiations.

• After addressing the necessary information, consider including brief statement on why your company is the right fit for this opportunity. In addition, you could briefly mention past successes, differentiators, references and expertise.

• Remember, keep it short. Save the details for your RFP response.

• Avoid asking follow up questions, because they’ll likely get overlooked if you include them in the body of your LOI.

• Apply RFP response best practices to your letter: be concise, use active voice and review for grammar and spelling.

• Conclude your letter by expressing gratitude for the opportunity and offering any necessary assistance.

Letter of intent to bid samples

Now, if you’re considering adding an LOI step to your proposal process, you may want to see some real-world examples. Below you’ll find a few samples of letters of intent requested by a buyer. Then, you can compile your favorite parts to create your own template.

Customizable letter of intent to bid template

This letter of intent to bid template in Word offers quick instructions and customizable fields. Additionally, it follows the format and best practices mentioned above and can be used for any RFP response. Get a head start on your next letter of intent by downloading it now.
 
Letter of intent to bid template preview from RFPIO
 

Construction letter of intent to bid sample

This letter of intent template, provided by Hard Hat Hunter, is specific to the construction industry. It is very short and to the point with just the basics: the vendor’s information, the project name and when the buyer can expect to receive the RFP response.

Employment agency letter of intent to bid template

Contact information, the name of the RFP and an acknowledgement of the RFP criteria are included in this sample letter of intent to bid. Offered by Golden Sierra, it is tailored to an employment and job training agency.

Municipality letter of intent to respond form

In this letter of intent to bid example, from the city of Seabrook, New Hampshire, the city asks that all vendors respond. Consequently, the form allows vendors to select their intent to submit nor not submit a bid.

Ultimately, sending a letter of intent is just one more way to connect with and serve your potential customer. When competition is tough, every gesture matters and clear communication is crucial.

For organizations that use Responsive RFP software, creating consistent, memorable letters of intent to bid can be done quickly using templates. Automating this process is a great way to save time while also increasing your engagement with buyers.

How profiles can enhance and accelerate the sales process

How profiles can enhance and accelerate the sales process

Selling & Enablement

What’s the most tedious part of responding to RFPs, RFIs and RFQs? The repetition. Like a kid during a road trip asking “Are we there yet?” every five minutes, most questions in RFPs and other requests have been asked before. Many times. The answer is almost always the same, and the repetition can wear you down.

But what if you didn’t have to respond to the same standard questions over and over? Or, at the very least, were able to do it a lot less? If you could proactively provide answers to the most common RFP questions before they’re even asked, what would happen? Ideally, you’d receive shorter RFPs that only ask new questions that are unique to the prospect’s needs. The proactive approach would also make you the vendor that sets the stage for the deal, leaving your competitors to play catch up. And, in the best case scenario, you’d be able to avoid a formal, competitive RFP altogether.

InfoSec professionals began adopting profiles as an efficient means of sharing information several years ago. Today, sharing a profile, instead of completing a questionnaire, is the prevailing means of providing sensitive (though repetitive) IT security information to prospects, customers, and business partners. If your IT team can use an information profile to avoid answering the same security and risk questions over and over — why not apply the same principle to RFPs, bids and proposals?

In this blog, we’ll explore how bid and proposal professionals can leverage profiles to reduce repetitive work and win more business. First, we’ll start with some basics about what an information profile is and the potential benefits of using one. Next, we’ll explore what this idea looks like in practice and provide examples of the kinds of information you might share with a prospective or current customer using a profile. Finally, we’ll share how the Responsive platform’s new product, Profile Center, makes it easy — plus offer tips to try it out for yourself.

Table of contents

Profile basics and background

What is an information profile?

First thing’s first: What is a profile? When we use the term profile, we’re referring to a collection of information assembled to address the needs of a specific audience. The information within a profile addresses a particular topic and is factual, thorough but standardized. Common profile contents include precompleted questionnaires, fact sheets, policy documents, certificates, and other credentials. The objective is to provide a body of information that enables your prospects, customers, and business partners to browse the profile you’ve shared and self-serve the information they require.

How are profiles used?

As mentioned in the introduction, InfoSec (information security) teams pioneered the use of security profiles to share detailed, sensitive information with trusted external parties. They regularly use security profiles to deliver vendor risk assessments, preempt SIG (standardized information gathering) questionnaire requests and share security certifications. A profile might include complex information about a company’s data storage policies, employee training, security certifications, hardware policies and so on.  

In this case, the information in the profile likely doesn’t change significantly from day to day or depending on who’s asking. Regardless, this information is specialized and isn’t public so it’s routinely requested by customers, partners and others. Luckily, profiles are ready to go whenever they’re needed.

It is common for teams to maintain multiple profiles—each focused on a distinct product line, system, or policy area. Organizing information into multiple profiles helps ensure the information shared is focused on the needs of the viewer, and ensures sensitive information is shared on a need-to-know basis.  

Why use a profile instead of a PDF or Word document?

Unlike a PDF or Word document that is out of your hands once sent, an information profile offers more control. Profiles are shared by invitation only, ensuring only your intended recipient can view the information. Access to the profile is provided using an email address and delivered in a secure portal. Additionally, the sender can adjust user permissions, revoke access if needed, revise and reshare information, and see if the profile has been viewed or downloaded for additional insight.

Using profiles to win business

When viewed at a high level, the sales cycle is one big exchange of information. You’re asking questions and building a picture of the opportunity. What does the prospect need? How can you help? Who else are they considering? Will the engagement be mutually beneficial? The buyer is likewise trying to gather information, but they may not know what they should be asking. 

Here’s your chance to use a profile to assist, educate and influence the deal. Collaborate with your sales, marketing, bid and proposal teams to create a general profile that offers detailed answers to the 25 (or so) most commonly asked RFP questions. Add more information that speaks to the customer’s specific needs using your RFP content library. Then, invite them to the profile.

This approach has a number of advantages.

1. Create a sense of transparency, exclusivity and trust

As a bid and proposal professional, your instinct is to heavily customize anything you send to connect with the customer and sell them the exact solution they need. And, when you’re answering a competitive RFP, that tailoring is essential to success. 

However, when you provide a profile, you’re likely earlier in the sales cycle. At this point, you’re acting as an expert consultant. By inviting a prospect to view a profile, you create a sense of transparency, exclusivity and trust. 

Transparency – Because the profile contains general information and very little customization, you create the perception that you’re not winding up for a hard sell, you’re simply seeking to educate. You’re there to assist them in their journey and help them find the right solution. 

Exclusivity – Information contained in your profile isn’t publicly available to just anyone. Logging in to a secure portal makes the prospect feel like they’re being let into a high-value secret.

Trust – While most of the information in your profile likely isn’t sensitive and echoes dozens of past RFP responses, you don’t share it freely for obvious reasons. As you advise and consult with the prospect, you’re building trust. It’s a two-way street that a profile reinforces.

2. Skip the RFP altogether

When a prospect expresses a desire to tap into your organization’s expertise, sales teams often jump at the chance to help write an RFP. Naturally, you ask questions that play to your strengths. But you’re still going head to head with your competitors. 

Instead, consider offering access to a profile that has common questions AND your answers in one neat package. Offering a profile proactively delivers the standardized information the prospect needs to gain buy-in from their business without unintentionally seeding the idea that they should compare vendors. 

Additionally, a profile may enable you to provide the prospect with everything they need to move forward to the next steps. The goal is to give them confidence that they can (and should) skip the hassle, extra time and expense of issuing an RFP.

3. Influence unavoidable RFPs

Admittedly, sending a proactive profile isn’t going to help you to avoid every RFP. But, it can still be a valuable tool for positioning your organization to win. Buyers and procurement teams often draw RFP inspiration from independent research and industry analysts but there’s nothing quite like a real-life example. Build your information profile using common questions from past RFPs as well as those that best highlight your strengths. 

When you share the information as a way to help your prospect, you’ll accomplish two things. First, you’ll influence the questions of the RFP and have a head start on your response. And second, the buyer may subconsciously set a higher bar for competitors based upon your answers.

Additional profile use cases and examples

Profiles are helpful in a variety of applications across your entire business. Essentially, any information that you’d like to securely deliver to an external party can be provided via a profile. For example, you could create profiles to share:

  • Proactive sales information (as described above)
  • Boilerplate company information
  • Financial history and insurance details
  • Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies
  • Data security policies and certifications
  • Supplier diversity certifications
  • Due diligence information
  • Vendor security information
  • Privacy policies
  • SOC certifications
  • ESG policies
  • Terms and conditions

An inside look at the Responsive Profile Center

Creating and sending secure profiles is quick and easy with our strategic response management platform. The Responsive Profile Center enables your team to build and send profiles leveraging your Responsive content. Because Responsive serves as a single source of truth, your customer receives consistent, current and approved content across profiles and RFP responses. 

Information Profile Center RFPIO Screen Shot

Want to see Profile Center for yourself? Request a demo here.

How it works

  1. Create a profile to share, selecting completed questionnaires from your response projects and relevant documents from your content library.
  2. Enter email addresses for recipients and set access level.
  3. Recipients receive an invitation to view the profile.
  4. Recipients view the profile after verifying their identity with a one-time passcode sent to their email. 
  5. Track recipients’ engagement with the profile content through real-time analytics.
  6. Revoke or revise access when the engagement changes or concludes.

Key benefits

  • Secure access – Share profiles with confidence and confidentiality, protecting access with one time password (OTP) verification and real-time control. 
  • Current and complete content – Use the Responsive AI-enabled content library as a single source of truth for accurate and effective response content..
  • View or download control – Specify how recipients can interact with your information, maintaining complete control over your profiles.
  • User activity tracking – See how many times profiles have been viewed or downloaded, learning how they’re being used.
  • Review profile history – See activity logs and an audit trail for changes and updates made by your team to every profile.
  • Revoke access at any time – Resend, revoke or delete your profiles as needed based on your sales process, time limits and so on.
  • Dashboard for profile data visualization – Glance at a dashboard to see real-time analytics on interactions with shared content.

Final thoughts

Building prefilled questionnaires and document collections from your Responsive response content — profiles — have a wide range of benefits. From easily sharing information with customers and business partners in a secure environment to improving customer relationships and closing new business as quickly as possible, Profile Center helps you take your bid and proposal process to the next level. Using profiles empower you to be more proactive, helpful and aligned with your prospects and others.

See Profile Center in action

If you would like to explore more about how you can use profiles to win more business and accelerate deal time frames, request a Responsive demo. Or, if you’re an Responsive customer, see it in action with your account manager.

Bid or no-bid decision guide: Save time & improve RFP win rates

Bid or no-bid decision guide: Save time & improve RFP win rates

Selling & Enablement

For organizations focused on growth, answering every RFP is tempting. After all, each one represents an opportunity to win new business and generate revenue. However, not every RFP is created equal. And in some cases, responding to an RFP may not be the right move for your organization. So, how do you know the best way to spend your time? How do you separate promising RFP opportunities from those that are unwinnable or unwise? The answer is to add a bid/no-bid analysis step to your RFP response process.

The RFP response process requires an enormous investment of time and resources. Naturally, it would be best if those efforts were only focused on responding to RFPs that your business is sure to win. While there’s no way to ensure you win every RFP you respond to, you can quickly improve your win rate and save time by making a thoughtful bid or no-bid decision.

In this post we’ll discuss why carefully deciding to bid or not to bid is so important. Then, we’ll share three approaches to help you make a confident decision. In addition, we’ll offer key questions to ask and bid or no bid checklist examples. Finally, we’ll explore how to share your decision to bid or not to bid with the buyer along with letter templates to help you get started.

Table of contents

Download the bid or no-bid checklist now.

Basics and benefits using RFP go or no-go analysis

Bid or no bid defined

The process of evaluating whether to bid or not to bid goes by many names but is primarily referred to as the bid/no-bid or RFP go/no-go decision. Simply put, in bid and proposal management, the RFP go or no-go process is a way to evaluate internal and external factors to determine if an organization should bid on an opportunity.

Benefits of holding go/no-go discussions

Responding to RFPs can win new business and help your organization grow, so why not just respond to all of them? Here are a few reasons why carefully considering which RFPs to bid on is important.

Lighten proposal team workloads and avoid burnout

Creating a winning proposal takes a lot of thought and time. So, creating a proposal for every RFP will inevitably result in wasted resources, a low win rate and an overworked, undervalued proposal team. In fact, a recent survey by Mairi Morrison with Strategic Proposals revealed that 62 percent of proposal professionals feel that their workload and volume of work are their greatest stressors.

A more selective and precise go/no-go process could significantly relieve the burden on proposal teams and prevent burnout. Bob Lohfeld, the CEO of Lohfeld Consulting Group has more than 30 years of experience in proposal management. In a Washington Technology article Lohfeld discusses the importance of RFP go or no-go decisions and believes they are the best way to improve your win rate saying:

“It is far quicker than hiring better people, improving poor proposal processes or investing in capture and proposal technology. In fact, making better bid decisions brings about an immediate improvement in win rate and, as an added bonus, lowers your annual cost of proposal development.”

Invest time wisely and improve win rates

Certainly, working strategically, improving your win percentage and reducing the cost of creating proposals is always important. However, making smart bid decisions becomes absolutely crucial when faced with big revenue goals. Despite this, many businesses seem to suffer from the fear of missing out when it comes to RFPs. Consequently, they spend resources and chase opportunities that aren’t a good fit. Lohfeld reframes the decision like this: 

“Contrary to popular belief, the key to making good bid decisions is not picking the deals in your pipeline that you are going to win, but instead, it is discarding the deals that you are going to lose.”

If you knew you were going to lose, you wouldn’t waste your time preparing a proposal. Accordingly, the bid/no-bid process is about weeding out unlikely deals so you can better focus on the most winnable opportunities. Furthermore, a strong go or no-go evaluation process enables you to better forecast revenue and use available resources to your best advantage.

3 strategies for conducting bid/no-bid analysis

From business to business the RFP evaluation process will be different. However, this guide will help you create a go/no-go analysis that’s as simple or complex as your business requires. Certainly, the more objective you can be, the more accurate your decisions will become.

Basic: The core five go/no-go questions

The simplest and most straightforward way to determine if you should bid or not is to answer these five questions. Each question focuses on a factor that should be considered before proceeding.

  1. Big picture: Does this opportunity align with your business’s long-term goals?
  2. Capability: Is your business equipped to fulfill the RFP requirements? Can you meet the RFP deadline?
  3. Profitability: Will the project be profitable?
  4. History: Do you have content from a previous RFP in your proposal content library that will make answering this one quick and easy?
  5. Competition: Do you know who you’re competing against and can you win?

If you answer each question with a confident ‘yes’ then, go for it and happy bidding. On the other hand, if there are too many ‘no’ responses or caveats that start with ‘yes, but…’ or ‘yes, if…’ the opportunity may not be a fit. 

This basic approach serves as a quick gut check before you devote time and resources to an RFP response. It is a great place to start for those new to bid/no-bid decisions. In addition, it works well for small- or medium-sized businesses where sales executives are responsible for proposal management. Another benefit of this short-form evaluation is that it can easily be conducted during a meeting with stakeholders if necessary.

Intermediate: True or false checklist

For those looking for a slightly more formal bid or no-bid analysis, the true/false checklist may be a good option. This form is still quick and easy to use, but considers the core five factors listed above in more detail. In addition, it can be customized to include the bid or no-bid criteria that’s most important to your business.

To gather your custom criteria:

  • Examine past RFPs and identify common themes in those you’ve won as well as those you’ve lost.
  • Ask for feedback from subject matter experts, business development and stakeholders ⁠— they may be aware of other factors you should consider.
  • Define strengths and weaknesses that would heavily influence your likelihood of winning.

Now, to add your criteria to the checklist, simply phrase it as a true or false statement where true is the ideal answer. To keep the evaluation speedy, I recommend using no more than 20 true or false statements in your checklist. Once you’ve filled it out, tally up your affirmative answers and evaluate the recommendation to bid or not to bid. Generally, if there are more than 80 percent true statements, you’re in a strong position to bid.

This go or no-go analysis works well for businesses that have one or two dedicated proposal coordinators. It provides clear guidance and justification that will help to get everyone on the same page.

Bid or no-bid checklist template

Preview of To Bid or Not to Bid Checklist and letter templates

This downloadable bid or no-bid checklist template includes some sample true or false statements to help you get started. Naturally, you’ll want to customize these to meet your organization’s needs. The standard considerations are broken into several sections. In addition, you’ll find templates for your next steps including an intent to bid letter and a no-bid letter.

Advanced: Bid/no-bid decision matrix

Math and data lovers, look no further than the bid/no-bid decision matrix for all of your analysis needs. The decision matrix approach uses a number of factors, rated on a scale to make a bid or no-bid determination. In some cases, each question or factor can also be weighted based on its importance to the business.

While this approach can get a little complicated, it’s helpful to teams who must consider many varying perspectives when making a go/no-go decision. In this scenario, each stakeholder completes the go/no-go matrix and shares the resulting score. Then, you gather the results and make your final decision by averaging the scores.

Bid/no-bid decision matrix examples:

My PM bid/no-bid Excel worksheet

This worksheet from MyPM includes more than 60 questions to consider. In this case, each question has three possible answers, each with a value:

1 – Unfavorable
2 – Neutral
3 – Favorable

The spreadsheet calculates the overall average and offers a recommendation of either bid, consider bidding or do not bid.

SMPS go/no-go decision making matrix

The go/no-go matrix created by the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) is highly-detailed. For instance, each question is scored on a scale from zero to 10. In addition, within the sections there’s a detailed description of what each score means. Not only that, but the worksheet also allows you to complete the scoring from your competitor’s perspective and see how you stack up. Certainly, this will give you a good idea of your chances of winning.

A note about these tools

Remember, these checklists and worksheets are tools to help you make informed decisions. As such, they should evolve as your business needs and goals change. Regularly update the go or no-go criteria as you identify trends and better understand what works. If you use RFP software to respond to RFPs, explore how you can use the platform to accurately track workload considerations, win themes and more.

Next steps: Letter of intent or decline to bid 

Now, you have your decision. What’s next? If the opportunity is a great fit, you’re good to go! Use an intent to bid letter to share the news with your buyer. Then move forward to the next step in your proposal timeline. Conversely, if you don’t plan to bid, you should notify the customer of your decision. Either way, we’ve got you covered.

It’s a go: Send a letter of intent to bid

Now it’s time to get down to business. But, before you start drafting your winning proposal, take a few minutes to send your prospect an intent to bid letter. 

While typically not required, this handy little note lets the buyer know you’re excited to partner with them and you’re hard at work writing a perfect proposal. It also helps you stand out from the crowd, shows your thoughtfulness and high regard for them as a potential customer.

It’s a no go: How to respectfully decline to bid

We get it. This is awkward. No one likes rejection and it feels like a role reversal to tell a buyer that their RFP wasn’t a fit. At the same time, you want to be sure you maintain a good relationship for any future opportunities. So, here’s how you do it.

Write a no-bid letter

Communication is one of the most important things in a customer relationship. Accordingly, the decline to bid letter lets the procurement team know what to expect from your organization. 

It is especially helpful for the issuer to know if you’re participating when the RFP has a small vendor pool. At the same time, the notice gives the customer the opportunity to follow up with you (and potentially offer helpful insight) before the RFP closes. In addition, sending the update will also save your inbox from unnecessary clutter as the RFP process moves forward and the customer sends new information to vendors still in the running.

When writing your letter, remember:

  • Be as brief as possible.
  • Offer insight about your decision, but stay positive.
  • Provide your contact information for future opportunities.
  • If you have an existing relationship with the customer, follow up with a phone call as well.

Final thoughts on the RFP go or no-go process

As you develop and implement your RFP bid or no-bid process, remember that no two RFPs are the same. Often, the difference between deciding to bid or not could come down to timing, staff availability, customer expectations, competition and so on. By adding a formalized go or no-go decision step to your RFP process, you can boost consistency, track success and better optimize in the future.

Understanding the RFP response process

Understanding the RFP response process

Selling & Enablement

If your company is like most, you responded to a lot more RFPs last year than you did the year before. You’ll likely respond to even more in the upcoming months and years.

Leadership is beginning to understand the importance of dedicated response professionals. Still, they’re a bit more reluctant to invest in the processes needed for efficiency, faster response times, better morale, and higher win rates.

To be fair, not all RFP response processes call for automation or even computers, but unless you’re a one-person show–and even if you are—creating quality, on time responses requires a repeatable process. Here is what that looks like for us and perhaps for you.

The basics of the RFP response process

When a company or organization wants to make a major purchase or launch a project, they usually issue a detailed document–a request for proposal (RFP)—describing their needs to several potential vendors. A typical RFP will outline the following:

  • Their budget for the project or product
  • The project’s goals
  • Common deal-breakers, such as:
    • Unsatisfactory audit findings
    • Insufficient security protocols
    • Poorly-defined procedures and policies
    • Improperly vetted subcontractors
    • Customer support concerns
    • Inability to meet the buyer’s budget or timeline
    • Not enough customer references
    • No out-of-the-box functionality
  • The most important factors
  • The RFP’s due date

The prospect may also include separate documents such as a security questionnaire, which asks about your and third-party vendors’ security protocols, or due diligence questionnaire, which asks about your company rather than your product.

The best way to produce a winning bid is to have a process in place. Do you have project management software? Who is your project manager? Do you have a list of subject matter experts (SMEs) and their schedules? What about other stakeholders, such as writers and editors?

RFPs are more alike than they are different. Around 80 percent of an RFP’s questions are relatively standard. For example, it’s common for an RFP to ask about company history, hiring practices, and the onboarding process. Why not have those answers ready to go or at least prepared for a quick proofread?

Creating a repeatable process establishes:

  • Whether the RFP is worth pursuing
  • Team participants
  • Timelines
  • Role definitions
  • SME engagement
  • Final evaluation

Why are RFPs issued?

Organizations issue RFPs when their needs are complex and want to efficiently access multiple vendors. Governmental organizations, many nonprofits, and large companies send RFPs for every purchase exceeding a certain threshold.

Steps in the RFP response process

Establishing an effective and efficient process is easier than you might think. RFPIO’s response managers have identified eight steps:

Step 1 – Go/no-go

As the number of RFPs you receive increases, so does the number of questions on each one. Instead of attempting to respond to each one, choose those that best align with your business and are winnable.

Step 2 – Have a kickoff party

Unfortunately, most kickoff parties don’t have cake, but they do define team and individual roles, responsibilities, and objectives.

Step 3 – 1st draft

Because roughly 80 percent of an RFP contains questions you’ve probably answered before—many times—let your automated system take a run at it first. Make sure the answers are correct and up-to-date.

Step 4 – 2nd draft

Consult with SMEs and other stakeholders to answer the remaining questions.

Step 5 – Review and revise

Were the questions answered accurately and completely? Were all the objectives met? Are there any misspelled words or typos? Are the responses otherwise well-written? Have you attached all relevant documents?

Step 6 – Submit

Once you’ve completed and polished the response, submit it (hopefully before it’s due). Confirm that it was received and let team members know.

Step 7 – Save and audit the responses

Every answer is potentially valuable for future RFPs. Save them in a central location that’s easily accessible to key stakeholders. Make sure you regularly audit the content in the centralized repository.

Step 8 – Postmortem

Win or lose, every response is a learning opportunity. What worked? What could have used improvement?

An example of a high-quality RFP process

A high-quality process is well-defined, efficient, and generates quality proposals for winnable RFPs. Once you’ve established a high-quality process, your team will begin to run like a well-oiled machine, you’ll increase the number of responses and hopefully win more bids.

Accruent, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company, has recently acquired several companies with highly-technical products. RFPs began arriving faster than the response team could master the new technologies. Unsurprisingly, SMEs were stretched thin.

Accruent introduced RFPIO into their response process. Confident that their answers would be stored for future use in their Content Library, SMEs were much more likely to offer their expertise.

Soon, because more than 75 percent of answers came directly from the Content Library, the response team more than tripled its capacity.

RFP response process metrics

The go/no-go step is key to increasing your win rate, but knowing which RFPs to answer requires data. Tracking metrics should be part of your response process. Those metrics include the following:

  • Project types – How many RFPs did you answer compared to DDQs and other documents?
  • Types of wins – You should save your resources for winnable RFPs. What kinds of projects provide the highest win rates? Break types down by:
    • Vertical – Are there specific industries that are more apt to purchase your product or service?
    • Company size – Are your target customers enterprise-level or small and medium-sized businesses?
    • Product line – What is your win rate for that product?
    • Project type – Has your company successfully implemented this type of project in the past?
    • Project stage – How far do similar projects make it through the sales funnel?
    • Number of questions – Do you have the bandwidth for an RFP of that size?
    • Project value – Is it worth it for you?
  • Project scope – How much work does your current project require?
  • Completion time – How long does it take, on average, to complete a similar project? What is the shortest time on record, and what is the longest?
  • Average response rate – What percentage of incoming RFPs do you answer?
  • Resource needs – Comparing the content and moderation needs, who are the people who are best suited for the project?
  • Content needed – Read and understand the questions and determine how much content you have in your Content Library.

Once you have decided to go forward, metrics help keep you on track and tell you whether it’s worth continuing.

  • Determine workload – Break down the project into manageable deliverables which can be divided among your team.
  • Readability score – Write in a way that’s easy to understand, typically at no more than a 10th-grade level. Use tools like the Hemingway App or Flesch reading ease test to ensure readability.
  • The Probability of Win Score (PWIN) – You’ve already calculated your odds of winning based on past similar projects. Still, the PWIN examines the details of your current project for a more accurate prediction.
    • How do your answers compare to similar RFPs that you’ve won?
    • Have you answered each question?
    • Have you met all the conditions?
    • How many questions were you able to answer in the affirmative?
  • Identify content gaps – What is missing from your Content Library? What needs to be updated?
  • Determine your Content Library’s health – How many questions can you answer using the curated content in the Content Library? Aim for 40-80 percent.

For more information on response metrics, read here.

Best practices for a smarter RFP process

Turning your RFP process into an 800-horsepower revenue-generating engine takes coordination, a great pit crew (so to speak), and tools to turbocharge efficiency.

At RFPIO, we receive and respond to RFPs just like you. Below are the best practices our experts swear by.

Encourage collaboration

A Facebook poll by RFPIO found that effective collaboration was considered much more important than an efficient process. I would argue that neither is possible without the other.

Because RFPs are long, complex, and require potential input from every department, from finance to HR to IT (and more), collaboration is a critical part of an RFP response process. And because we have distributed and siloed workforces, intense competition for SMEs’ time, and tight deadlines, smart processes foster collaboration.

An RFP response system should leverage project management and communication tools to keep everyone on the same page. And because respecting your colleagues’ time is key to continued collaboration, it should also include a single source of truth knowledge management system to record answers for use on future projects.

Bring effective storytelling into your RFP responses

No one is suggesting that your RFP response should include the next great novel, but telling your organization’s story helps make your response memorable and builds trust among readers.

Your proposal’s story should include information about your company, such as why your founders created your solution, how it will meet the customer’s needs, and how you will handle their needs.

Your cover letter might highlight your company’s values and what it does to live up to them. It’s also a great idea to include testimonials from customers with similar needs.

Automate your response process

At least three-quarters of companies hope to boost their RFP response, but only around half of those companies consider increasing response staffing. That leaves one option, which is to automate their response processes.

Because most questions on an RFP are exact or near exact duplicates of former queries, you can save hours, days, or even weeks by leveraging machine learning to access those repeat question-and-answer pairs, giving you the time to address the questions that need your efforts.

Develop habits that support organizational success

Suppose you worked out or ate well today. Congratulations! Continue for a few weeks, and the next thing you know, you’ll have formed a habit that might lead to better health and longer life.

When you habitually maintain your list of SMEs and other stakeholders, as well as your Content Library’s health, those habits will pay off with faster responses, smoother collaboration, and improved morale.

Enable your sales team

Aside from your employees, a well-maintained single source of truth is your company’s greatest asset. It might contain incorporation papers, financial statements, sales reports, and product details. There’s no limit to the number of use cases.

We like to think of RFPIO as a sales enablement platform. Naturally, RFPs generate tremendous revenue. Still, a well-maintained Content Library supplies relevant, customer-facing information for sales teams with a few keystrokes. RFPIO’s proposal management features can help you create winning sales proposals complete with automation and reporting.

And because salespeople spend time on the road, RFPIO® LookUp provides access to your Content Library from anywhere you have browser access.

The role of RFP software

Chances are, your company uses CRMs and other sales enablement platforms. You probably also use communication apps and some sort of project management software. How does one make a case for more on top of what your CIO might call a bloated tech stack?

Advanced RFP software works with your tech stack, not on top of it. It should integrate with your productivity, communication, and sales enablement apps, but it should also add value on its own. Unlike a standard project management platform, RFP software is customized for proposal management.

RFP software is designed to let you respond to more requests and maximize your win rate. It may not be a specific part of your sales team, but like your top salespeople, its superpower is revenue generation.

Advanced RFP software should import and export from and to nearly every format and offer standard and customizable templates. Its knowledge and document library should provide relevant stored Q&A pairs as well as required documentation with a few keystrokes. In fact, its knowledge and document library should serve as a single source of truth for the entire organization.

The software’s reporting features should go far beyond response analytics and help facilitate informed business decisions. Additionally, because RFPs come in waves, software should be scalable and instantly respond to your changing requirements.

Choosing the right RFP software for your team

I could spend hours highlighting all the RFP software features you might need, but the fact is that even you don’t know what might arrive next week and especially next year. Your ideal RFP response solution is a bespoke answer to your evolving needs.

The software should work with your existing systems to maximize revenue and efficiency. It should be designed by response managers who know the ebbs and flows of response processes.

The most important feature, however, is the designers. Is the company receptive to your questions and poised to consider adding features as requested?

RFPIO’s approach to the response process

RFPIO offers an end-to-end approach to RFP response. Its features include:

  • Knowledge – Store your commonly-seen questions and answers and your critical documents in a single repository.
  • Collaboration – Communicate with other stakeholders inside the platform or with your current collaboration apps.
  • Projects – Break your projects down into manageable pieces, assign tasks, and keep track right inside the app.
  • Insights – How much time and other resources are you using? How many and what kind of deals do you win? What are your strengths and weaknesses? RFPIO has many standard and nearly unlimited customized reporting features.
  • Integrations – RFPIO integrations work seamlessly with more than two dozen of the most popular business applications.
  • Remote access – RFPIO® LookUp provides access to your Content Library through Google, Microsoft Office, and many other applications.
  • Loyal customers – RFPIO is the response platform for many of the world’s most successful companies, including Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Visa, Lyft, Zoom, and hundreds more. Read more about RFPIO from our customers.

Case study

While RFPIO is the RFP response solution for large companies, most enterprise organizations have dedicated response departments. Employees for smaller companies find themselves wearing many hats, which sometimes means putting RFPs on the back burner.

Complí, a small software company located in Portland, OR, often found themselves missing deadlines for lack of time and personnel. Just a week after investing in RFPIO, that changed. The company was able to respond to RFPs without holding time-consuming, in-office meetings. They were also able to complete up to 80 percent of each RFP with just one click, thanks to the Content Library.

Today, they are submitting RFPs on–time (and even early) and the entire company uses the Content Library as their single source of truth.

RFP response management process FAQs

It isn’t easy to gauge RFPIO’s true value without seeing it in action. We invite you to view a demo to see how RFPIO might benefit your organization. Before that, though, here are some of the most common questions we are asked:

  • What is an RFP? – A request for proposal (RFP) is a document designed to solicit multiple bids for large organizational purchases.
  • What type of information and questions are included in an RFP? – An RFP provides in-depth descriptions of the customer needs, deadlines, and so on. It might ask for company history and details, pricing, related past projects, and projected deliverables, and so on.
  • Why do organizations issue RFPs? – Organizations issue RFPs to gather pricing and service comparisons in their desired formats.
  • Who responds to RFPs? – Some organizations have dedicated response departments. Others might respond through their sales teams.
  • What does RFP software do? – The short version is that RFP software helps organizations win more business using fewer resources. The longer version is that it utilizes your existing applications and teams, along with customizable tools and a robust Content Library, to become a revenue-generating engine.
  • Does RFPIO do more than respond to RFPs? – As a response platform, RFPIO will automatically respond to up to 80 percent of a request for information (RFI), request for quote (RFQ), security questionnaire, due diligence questionnaire, and more. As a sales-enablement tool, its proposal management features and Content Library will help you drive revenue. And as a business application, its built-in and customizable analytics will provide the information needed for informed decision-making.
  • Does RFPIO integrate with existing applications? – RFPIO integrates with more than two dozen applications, including the most popular ones.
  • What if we need to add or subtract users? – RFPIO has a best-in-class pricing model. Instead of purchasing licenses, we provide unlimited access.
  • Is RFPIO secure? – RFPIO has industry-leading security protocols. We are trusted by the world’s leading technology, healthcare, and financial services companies, including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Visa, Cigna, and far more.
Request for qualifications: A guide to the other RFQ

Request for qualifications: A guide to the other RFQ

Selling & Enablement, Templates & guides

Depending on the industry you work in, you may be familiar with one or both of the procurement processes that go by the acronym RFQ. For many, a request for quotation may be more familiar. However, its counterpart, the request for qualifications is just as useful.

In this blog, I’ll focus primarily on the request for qualifications. But, to get started I’ll define a request for qualifications vs. a request for quote. Then, I’ll outline the common uses for an RFQ as well as the components of the document. Then, I will provide tips and best practices for writing and responding to RFQs. Finally, I will include some helpful RFQ examples. 

Tired of searching through spreadsheets, emails and previous responses to answer RFQs?
Request a demo of Responsive to see how you can cut response time in half.

A story of two RFQs: Request for qualifications vs. request for quote

Admittedly, there are a lot of acronyms in sales and procurement. However, RFQ stands for both a request for qualifications and a request for quote. Consequently, there is some understandable confusion. So, to start, let’s establish the difference between the two RFQs.

What is a request for qualifications?

A request for qualifications is a document that asks potential suppliers or vendors to detail their background and experience providing a specific good or service. The RFQ may also be called a statement of qualifications, or SOQ. Both documents focus specifically on a vendor’s skills and experience rather than pricing. Therefore, the response is not typically considered a bid.

What is a request for quote or quotation?

A request for quote or quotation is a document that details a buyer’s requirements and asks vendors to respond with pricing and payment terms. The focus of this document is primarily price, and often, the lowest priced bidder will win the business.

To learn more about requests for quotations or see RFQ examples and templates, check out this blog: What is a request for quote?

Now that we have the basics out of the way, we’ll explore the request for qualifications. So, below when you see RFQ referenced, it will stand for request for qualifications.

The RFQ’s role in the sales cycle

Who uses RFQs?

The request for qualifications process is common to the government sector. Most RFQs issued are for projects involving construction management, architecture, engineering and other professional services.

3 ways an RFQ is used

In most cases, this process precedes an RFP, but not always. Procurement professionals may issue the RFQ in three different ways.

1. Vendor selection for an upcoming, identified request for proposal

In this case, the procurement team has a project in mind. However, they want to send the upcoming RFP only to the most qualified vendors. The RFQ is sent to a large group and helps narrow the field of vendors for the subsequent RFP. 

Certainly, this two-stage approach allows for a shorter, more focused RFP. In addition, evaluating a handful of pre-qualified vendors is much easier for buyers than scoring proposals from dozens that may not be able to meet their needs.

2. Non-competitive RFQ to catalog vendor information for future procurement projects

Much like using vendor profiles, requests for qualifications are a helpful tool to organize important supplier information. In fact, some companies use RFQs as a standard part of their vendor onboarding process. Then, as future procurement needs arise, the most qualified vendors are selected to participate in the RFP. Having this information on hand makes the procurement process more efficient. Accordingly, it’s in a vendor’s best interest to respond to these requests for information.

3. Rapid vendor selection 

Occasionally, an RFQ replaces an RFP. For straightforward projects that require a specialized skill set, a company may issue a request for qualifications, evaluate the statements of qualification and move directly to contract negotiations with the most qualified vendor. 

In this scenario, the RFQ provides details about the project budget. This transparency assists in the go/no-go process for bidders, empowers faster contracting and ensures buyers that only vendors prepared to work within that budget respond.

How to write a request for qualifications

1. Outline your objective

Because a request for qualifications can be used in several ways, it is important to clearly state your intended outcome. Consider what outcome would make this RFQ a success. To do that, you may need to enlist feedback from stakeholders or executives within your business. What are the specific requirements for the project? Are there essential technical skills? How many years of experience or similar projects should a vendor have successfully completed?

The more context and detailed questions you can add, the better your responses will be. Not only that, but providing a thorough understanding of your needs will discourage unqualified vendors from responding, which will make your evaluation process easier.

2. Create your RFQ

With your list of requirements in hand, it’s time to create your RFQ. It can be helpful to create a template to work from to ensure you don’t miss any crucial components. If you have an RFP management system, leverage dynamic templates to group common questions together into sections.

3. Issue the RFQ

Now, it’s time to send it. Contact the vendors you’d like to hear from through an RFP consultant or directly through email. If you use RFP software, you can issue the RFQ digitally, communicate with vendors directly in the centralized platform and track their progress. In addition, you can answer questions and share the information with every vendor instantly. This helps to keep your RFQ fair and transparent. 

4. Evaluate the responses

Finally, the due date has arrived, now you’re ready to evaluate the statements of qualification you’ve received. Start by reviewing each document to see if the organizations followed directions and filled the RFQ out completely. If there are any gaps, you may go back to the vendor for more information or remove them from consideration. 

Next, it’s time to score the responses and statements of qualifications. Refer back to your source document for the scoring criteria and weights you established. Some questions will have straight forward yes or no answers, making them easy to score based on the desired answer. For subjective questions, it is helpful to engage your stakeholders to provide their input. Again, RFP software can help automate this process and empower easier collaboration with your evaluation committee. 

Once all the SOQs are scored, hopefully you have a clear set of front runners, or perhaps even a winner. Remember, even if you don’t select a particular vendor, RFQs can be useful to keep on hand for future procurement projects.

Essential components of an RFQ

  • Company information including business details and primary contact person
  • Project description with background information, desired outcome, scope and next steps
  • RFQ timeline noting submission due date, shortlist selection date and final decision date
  • Evaluation criteria and weighted scoring details
  • Submission instructions
  • Qualification questions and experience requirements
  • Contracting terms and conditions if applicable

Creating a winning response to a request for qualifications

Despite the fact that RFQs are generally shorter and more direct than RFPs and other RFXs, the response to request for qualifications process is nearly identical. 

1. Go/no-go

Responding to RFQs for which you are not a fit wastes your time and can negatively affect future transactions for which you might be a fit. Accordingly, it’s important to have a thoughtful go or no-go discussion.

Before determining whether your company is a fit, thoroughly read the specific requirements for the project. Are there essential technical skills? How many years of experience or and success do you need to have on similar projects? Does the project align with your company’s goals?

2. Have a kickoff meeting

Once you’ve determined that the project is a fit, host a kickoff meeting. In this session, you’ll review the RFQ, provide an overview of the response process, and assign roles, responsibilities and objectives.

3. Create the first draft

While an RFQ is different from an RFP, you’ll likely find some overlap in the questions asked. So, if you’ve responded to RFPs in the past that have many of the same requirements, you can use that content in your SOQ response. Customers who use RFP software, like Responsive, leverage their response content library to answer to 80 percent of the RFQ in minutes. 

4. Refine the second draft

Once you’ve inserted the answers for questions you’ve seen already, it’s time to tackle new or complex qualifications questions. Gather your SMEs and other stakeholders to customize answers and create new content for any remaining questions.

5. Review and revise

Did you and your team answer each question? Are the answers accurate and complete? Did you meet all the objectives and requirements? Is the response well-written and free from errors? Have you attached all the relevant documents?

6. Submit

Submit the completed response before the deadline to give yourself a cushion against technical issues. Confirm receipt and share with your team.

7. Save and audit the responses

If you’ve answered one RFQ, you’ll likely answer more. Get a head start on your next request for qualifications response by saving your responses. Add new content to central location to access for future RFXs. 

8. Debrief

The last step is to gather your team to capture process insights. Collaborate with your team to analyze what went right and what could have been better.

5 best request for qualifications samples

Highway project RFQ example ⁠— Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT)

In 2015, the Colorado Department of Transportation issued this RFQ to identify qualified vendors for an upcoming highway construction project. Five teams provided their qualifications and a subsequent RFP was sent to four vendors who qualified. This RFQ is impressively thorough and provides lots of information.

Legal services RFQ example ⁠— City of Seattle

This non-competitive RFQ allowed the City of Seattle to create a roster of pre-qualified firms for upcoming legal work. The request for qualifications provides ample background information as well as clear expectations. In addition, the document outlines the available budget for legal services.

Graphic designer RFQ example ⁠— The City of Great Falls

When the City of Great Falls, Montana wanted to create a new logo for their Downtown Parking Program, they issued this request for qualifications. This RFQ example is brief and to the point. It includes a brief description of the project, requirements and submission instructions. Just the essentials and nothing more.

Architectural and engineering services RFQ example ⁠— Bedford County Public Schools

Seeking expertise in educational design, the Bedford County Public Schools issued this request for qualifications. The document provides evaluation criteria, guidelines for the SOQ and a form to fill out that guides the vendor through the requirements.

Call center RFQ example ⁠— City of Chamblee, Georgia

The City of Chamblee created this RFQ to find call center vendors equipped to provide a wide range of services. This request for qualifications example is helpful because it is cleanly designed and easy to read. Indeed, the expectations and project details are clear at a glance.

Just like other RFX documents, the request for qualifications can be a helpful tool for procurement teams looking to accelerate and optimize their RFP process. A quality RFQ response can be the foot in the door to future sales and business deals.

Request a Responsive demo to learn more about other RFX processes and how technology empowers responders.

How to write a letter of intent to bid: Tips, examples & template

How to write a letter of intent to bid: Tips, examples & template

Selling & Enablement

If you regularly respond to RFPs, you have probably encountered buyers who ask you to submit a letter of intent to bid as part of the response process. While this step in the RFP process is far from universal, it’s important to understand the purpose of the intent to bid letter. Additionally, you can use it as another positive touchpoint for prospective buyers.

Whether you’re responding to a buyer that requested a letter of intent and need guidance, or you’re simply looking for new ways to engage with buyers earlier in the RFP process, you’ll find what you need to know here.

First, in this post, you’ll learn the basics about the letter of intent to bid including what it is, who uses them and a few of their benefits. Then, I’ll offer some quick tips about how to write a letter of intent. Finally, I’ll share sample letters of intent to bid and an intent to bid template.

Just need the template? Download now.

What is a letter of intent to bid?

Letter of intent to bid definition

A letter of intent to bid is a formal way for prospective vendors to communicate their plan to submit a response or bid to a request for proposal (RFP). Often, a buyer requests or requires a letter of intent from interested vendors as part of the RFP process.

A small distinction: Letter of intent to bid vs letter of intent

The letter of intent or letter of interest, abbreviated as LOI, has other applications outside of the RFP and sales process. For example, job seekers, grant applicants and legal agreements may also use letters of intent. So, be sure to understand the context of the LOI request before responding.

Who uses the letter?

When The letter of intent to bid can be requested by an RFP issuer (buyer) or offered proactively by a RFP responder (seller or vendor). The document isn’t exclusive to any particular industry. However, you’ll find it most often in government, legal, education and construction RFPs.

When required by a buyer, the procurement manager in charge of the RFP is the person who requests, receives and reads the letters. On the other hand, when offered proactively, the letter of intent to bid is written and submitted by the proposal manager.

What is in the letter of intent to respond?

The intent to bid letter is usually very brief. Indeed, it follows the standard business letter format and fits on a single page.

Your letter of intent to bid should include:

  • The name of your company
  • Name of the proposal contact
  • The name or reference number of the RFP you’re responding to
  • A clear statement of your intention to submit a proposal
  • Your sign off and signature

In addition to the above, you may choose to include more information. For example, you may wish to offer a brief statement about why you believe you’re a fit for the business. You may also highlight your relevant experience or confirm that you meet or exceed the minimum RFP requirements.

In many cases, if this step is part of the process, the buyer will provide a letter of intent to bid template that outlines the information they require. You can see examples of this later in this blog.

When is the letter of intent due?

If an RFP requires vendors to formalize their intention to bid (or decline to bid), the deadline will appear in the RFP timeline. Typically, this step happens after vendors receive answers to any follow-up questions or points of clarification during the Q&A period.

On the other hand, if you’re sending an intent to bid letter as a courtesy (when it’s not required by the buyer) you have more flexibility. In this case, you should send the letter as soon as possible after you’ve done your bid/no-bid discussion and made a decision. Ideally, this is at least two weeks prior to the RFP deadline.

Benefits of the intent to bid letter

You may find yourself wondering why anyone would require a letter of intent to bid. Why add one more step to an already long process? Well, there are a few reasons why an intent to bid letter is a good idea.

1. Ensures sufficient interest and competition

Many organizations have procurement policies that require three valid bids before making a purchase. The letter of intent to bid enables buyers to ensure that a project will have sufficient vendor participation to proceed.

If a buyer doesn’t receive enough affirmative letters of intent to bid from vendors, they may reevaluate the project, even if they have a qualified, under-budget bid. They can extend the RFP invitation to additional vendors, find out why vendors chose not to respond or they can put the project on hold.

Essentially, the letter of intent saves a procurement manager weeks of waiting and hoping they’ll have the necessary number of bids when the RFP deadline arrives.

2. Defines and streamlines communication paths

The purpose of an RFP is to exchange information between buyers and sellers in an organized way. In an ideal world, the process would be straightforward. However, in the real world, it’s rarely that simple.

It’s not uncommon for a buyer to have a few updates after issuing an RFP. For example, there may be amendments to the requirements, changes in scope or clarifications of the RFP questions. In this case, the buyer needs to know who to contact.

Thanks to the letter of intent, they know exactly who to reach out to. Not only that, but the procurement manager avoids sending unnecessary emails to suppliers that have indicated they will not be submitting an RFP.

3. Enables a faster RFP evaluation process

After the intent to bid deadline, the response period begins. While you and your team write a winning RFP response, the buyer begins preparing for the RFP evaluation process.

Because they already know the number of participating vendors, the procurement manager can prepare more thoroughly. For example, they can set up proposal scoring and prepare guidance for stakeholders.

Faster evaluation means faster results. So the buyer can award the contract and you can win business faster.

Tips for how to write a letter of intent to bid

As we’ve discussed above, you can use the letter of intent to bid in two situations: either to meet the stated RFP process requirements or as a proactive courtesy to the buyer.

Sometimes, if a buyer requires an they provide a template to ensure they receive the same information from every vendor. In this case, simply fill out the provided document and resist the urge to add more detail.

The letter of intent to bid template is usually included at the beginning of the RFP or as an attachment at the end. However, if the buyer doesn’t offer a template or you wish to create a letter of intent to connect with the buyer, there are a few things to keep in mind.

LOI best practices

• After your decision to bid or not to bid, write and send the letter as soon as possible.

• It’s best to address the letter to the procurement manager or company contact specified in the RFP. Try to avoid a generic greeting like, “To whom it may concern.”

• Begin the letter by clearly stating your intention to bid and basic company information.

• Include contact information for the person who will manage the proposal process. This is the person the buyer should contact if they have questions, need more information or want to begin negotiations.

• After addressing the necessary information, consider including brief statement on why your company is the right fit for this opportunity. In addition, you could briefly mention past successes, differentiators, references and expertise.

• Remember, keep it short. Save the details for your RFP response.

• Avoid asking follow up questions, because they’ll likely get overlooked if you include them in the body of your LOI.

• Apply RFP response best practices to your letter: be concise, use active voice and review for grammar and spelling.

• Conclude your letter by expressing gratitude for the opportunity and offering any necessary assistance.

Letter of intent to bid samples

Now, if you’re considering adding an LOI step to your proposal process, you may want to see some real-world examples. Below you’ll find a few samples of letters of intent requested by a buyer. Then, you can compile your favorite parts to create your own template.

Customizable letter of intent to bid template

This letter of intent to bid template in Word offers quick instructions and customizable fields. Additionally, it follows the format and best practices mentioned above and can be used for any RFP response. Get a head start on your next letter of intent by downloading it now.
 
Letter of intent to bid template preview from RFPIO
 

Construction letter of intent to bid sample

This letter of intent template, provided by Hard Hat Hunter, is specific to the construction industry. It is very short and to the point with just the basics: the vendor’s information, the project name and when the buyer can expect to receive the RFP response.

Employment agency letter of intent to bid template

Contact information, the name of the RFP and an acknowledgement of the RFP criteria are included in this sample letter of intent to bid. Offered by Golden Sierra, it is tailored to an employment and job training agency.

Municipality letter of intent to respond form

In this letter of intent to bid example, from the city of Seabrook, New Hampshire, the city asks that all vendors respond. Consequently, the form allows vendors to select their intent to submit nor not submit a bid.

Ultimately, sending a letter of intent is just one more way to connect with and serve your potential customer. When competition is tough, every gesture matters and clear communication is crucial.

For organizations that use Responsive, creating consistent, memorable letters of intent to bid can be done quickly using templates. Automating this process is a great way to save time while also increasing your engagement with buyers.

How to find RFPs and win them

How to find RFPs and win them

Selling & Enablement

Every year, private organizations and government agencies award millions of dollars of business to vendors using the request for proposal (RFP) process. Consequently, responding to RFPs is a crucial part of any sales strategy and a great way to increase revenue. However, before you can take advantage of these opportunities to benefit your business, you have to know how to find RFPs.

Chances are you made it to this post by searching the internet — which is a great start. It won’t surprise you to know that’s one simple way to search for RFP opportunities. The internet plays host to thousands of organizations inviting vendors to bid to win their business. But joining or browsing an online RFP database isn’t the only way to find RFPs. You can also proactively submit your information to prospective buyers using online vendor portals. 

In this post, I’ll start with a few basics including key definitions that will help you understand the types of RFPs you can find online as well as their pros and cons. In addition, I’ll share the best RFP databases and how to get invited to closed RFPs. Finally, I’ll offer tips for winning more RFPs so when you find them, you’ll know exactly what to do.

Know what you need? Jump ahead here:

Key RFP definitions

Before we get into where to find RFPs, it’s important to start with the basics. So, let’s explore the RFP meaning and answer a few common questions. Then, we’ll go over several common types of RFPs you may encounter.

RFP definitions

What is an RFP?

RFP stands for request for proposal. A request for proposal is a document soliciting information from potential vendors. The document includes a collection of RFP questions that help buyers gather standardized information, compare and select the best supplier for any given project.

Why do companies use RFPs?

RFPs organize complex procurement projects and improve objectivity in supplier selection. In addition, the thorough nature of the process reduces overall vendor risk. Ultimately, this helps buyers reduce the overall cost of procurement and create long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships. 

Many private companies have a procurement policy that requires bids from at least three potential suppliers before they can move forward with a purchase. Likewise, agencies at all levels of government are required to issue RFPs publically to ensure that contracts are awarded and tax dollars are spent in a fair and transparent way. Accordingly, you can find open government RFPs online.

Who issues RFPs?

Almost every type of organization uses RFPs as a part of their procurement strategy. For example, RFPs are commonly issued by private companies, non-profit organizations and government agencies.

Two types of RFPs you can find

Open RFPs

An open RFP, sometimes called a public RFP, is available for anyone to respond to. Generally, these RFPs appear on the RFP issuer’s website and can be downloaded for response. While some private organizations may occasionally take this approach, most often, government agencies issue open RFPs.

Government RFPs
Government agencies create the most open or public RFPs. Federal, state or city agencies use the RFP process for most of their procurement needs. As mentioned above, procurement in the public sector is subject to complex regulation. Indeed, RFP regulations ensure a fair, auditable, objective and transparent vendor selection.

Education RFPs
Because they operate with some portion of public funding, schools and universities often follow procurement guidelines that are nearly identical to government policies. You’ll find lots of RFP opportunities on school district and university websites.

The pros and cons of open RFPs

Open RFPs typically prioritize price over most other factors. To avoid countless back-and-forth questions, open RFPs contain a lot of information and include rules, contract terms and conditions, and more. Consequently, they are often the longest kind of RFP. For example, public sector RFPs average around 116 pages.

It is also important to note that open RFPs have stringent requirements. Often they require very specific minimum qualifications and submission format. An open RFP may go as far as to specify that responses must be in a table format, use 12-point Times New Roman font, be printed and have hard copies submitted via postmarked package.

While open RFPs may receive dozens of responses, many may be unqualified. But, the procurement team still has to read each one to know which vendors might be a good fit. Consequently, RFP evaluation takes weeks or even months to complete.

For some businesses, the time-consuming and highly competitive nature of these RFP opportunities make them less appealing. However, government contracts also tend to be high-value with the potential for longer contract terms. So, having a strong bid or no-bid process is a must to balance the pros and cons of responding to open RFPs.

Closed RFPs

Many private organizations use closed RFPs, sometimes called invitation-only RFPs or private RFPs, to compare and select vendors. In this process, the issuing organization or consultant conducts market research, chooses a select group of vendors and privately issues the RFP to them, inviting them to submit a proposal. The small group of vendors may be selected based on data collected from a request for information (RFI), a request for qualifications (RFQ), reputation, area of expertise or experience.

Business RFPs
Corporations and companies of all sizes regularly issue RFPs for any goods or services you can imagine. They use them to evaluate new vendors and verify that they’re getting the best value from their existing vendors. Closed RFPs usually focus less on price. Instead, buyers seek vendors who can become partners, are the most qualified or deliver the best return on investment.

Because most corporations are private, they aren’t subject to the same level of regulation as public entities. Therefore, they often choose to create closed RFPs. Generally, it is simply a matter of efficiency.

Consultant- or broker-managed RFPs
When high-stakes, specialty procurement projects arise, many businesses engage with a consultant or broker. The consultant is an expert in a particular industry or type of procurement. So, they manage the RFP process on behalf of their client. For example, a business may seek out a consultant to help with a complex procurement project for a new IT network, employee benefits or company insurance. Because consultants and brokers have a deep understanding of their niche market, they tend to issue closed RFPs to select vendors who are the best fit for their client.

First, they work with stakeholders to gather requirements and provide expert advice. Then, they create the RFP, select which vendors to invite and manage communications. Finally, they evaluate the responses and provide recommendations to the client.

Pros and cons of closed RFPs

Unlike open RFPs that may garner dozens of responses, closed RFPs limit the number of proposals a buyer receives and has to score. This means competition is a lot easier and it speeds up the overall RFP timeline. However, the size of the contract is often smaller, and may be subject to lengthy negotiation and shorter terms.

Hybrid RFPs: Invited vendors but open RFP

The hybrid RFP approach is less common, but still deserves a mention here. This is when an RFP is issued individually to a handful of vendors, but is also posted in an open invitation. If an organization struggles to garner adequate exposure or interest in their RFP using an open RFP approach, they may reach out to a handful of qualified organizations to request a proposal. 

Non-profit RFPs
Hybrid RFPs are most frequently used by non-profit organizations. Because they receive tax benefits, public grant funding and donations they strive for transparency in their procurement processes. Unfortunately, their website or brand may not have enough exposure to simply post their RFP online and receive the required number of responses. A hybrid approach solves this and means you can find their RFPs online.

How to find RFPs

Now that we’ve covered key definitions as well as the types of RFPs you can respond to, let’s explore how to find RFPs for each category. Finding open RFPs is simply a matter of knowing where to look. On the other hand, being included in closed RFPs takes a little more work.

Two ways to find open RFPs

There are two main approaches to locating open RFPs. You can subscribe to an RFP database or look for RFPs manually. 

Use an RFP database

If you want to implement an RFP strategy to grow your business as quickly as possible, an RFP database subscription may be worth the cost. There are a number of sites that scour government and business websites and collect RFP information. Then, they place the RFP into a centralized, searchable database. This allows you to quickly sift through hundreds of RFPs and find the opportunities that are the best fit. Most are subscription based and cost anywhere from $10-50 per month.

Best RFP databases
There is a lot of overlap between RFP services, so it’s important to do your research and pick the best RFP databases for your business. Consider how often the database is updated, if they regularly have RFPs that align with your business and if they will send you automatic email notifications based on your qualifications.

Search for RFPs manually

A manual search for RFPs requires practice and research, but it’s the most cost-effective way to find new opportunities.

Google search for government RFPs
Because government organizations are required to make their RFPs public, they post them on their websites or in a searchable portal. You can quickly and easily find almost any state or local procurement page or portal with a simple Google search. When you search for an RFP opportunity, remember that each state may use different terminology. For example, try searching by the state or municipality name plus contracts, procurement, RFPs, request for bid (RFBs), or invitation to tender (ITTs).

Find open RFPs on social media
While less common, some organizations post their RFPs on social media. LinkedIn is the most popular social network for finding RFPs, but you will also see some on Twitter. Luckily, the search functionality on these networks makes RFPs easy to find. Simply search your industry and ‘RFP’ to browse through the results and find the latest open opportunities.

How to get invited to closed RFPs

Being invited to participate in a closed RFP is all about getting your company’s information to the right people. There are a lot of ways to accomplish this, but here are two that I’ve found to be most effective.

Proactively reach out to potential buyers

If you want to be included in RFPs from private organizations, the first step is to make sure they know who you are. Unlike using capture management, which proactively pursues known upcoming RFPs from specific targeted companies, being included in unknown future RFPs may be as simple as raising your hand.

Align with presales, sales and marketing
This approach requires research and a team effort, so it can be time consuming — but I’ve also seen it work. If your organization has a presales, sales or marketing team, they may already have initiatives to proactively connect with specific buyers. This approach is often called account-based marketing (ABM). 

The first step ABM is to identify your ideal customer profile (ICP). If you thrive within a certain industry, use this information and your ICP to identify top accounts to target. Then, align your efforts with presales, sales and marketing.

As part of your efforts to get into a particular company, reach out to the company’s procurement team. Let them know you’d like to be considered for future RFP opportunities and ask if they maintain a vendor database. If so, explore how to be included as a prospective vendor. Often, it’s as simple as filling out an RFI.

Note: Procurement teams get a lot of these calls so it’s important to stand out. Be knowledgeable about their business, unfailingly friendly, courteous and patient. It’s also useful to share any diversity certifications, qualifications or local connections you may have.

Register as a supplier or complete a vendor profile

Many large organizations accept vendor applications online. The process has different names including supplier registration, a vendor form or a vendor profile. If you know you’re a fit for a specific company, check their website for one of these forms.

Examples vendor registration pages

Get on a broker or consultant’s radar

There are brokers and consultants that use RFPs to serve a wide range of industries. In fact, you likely already know who they are within your sector. But, the real question is, do they know who you are? Procurement consultants want to deliver the best results to their client, so if you can provide value, introduce yourself.

When you do reach out, be brief. Send an introductory email with a few lines about how you serve their client base and what sets you apart. Then, ask about their vendor onboarding process and if there’s a vendor profile they use to track available suppliers. If you don’t get a response in a week or so, follow up and attach a short vendor profile of your own.

Once you connect with someone, follow up with them from time to time to stay top of mind. Remember, be genuine and provide helpful information. If you can build a relationship with a broker or consultancy firm, they are more likely to trust you, include you in RFPs and provide insights about customer trends.

5 tips for winning more RFPs

1. Make sure you’re qualified

Pay close attention to the requirements and evaluation criteria and prioritize your efforts. It’s easy to get caught up in answering as many RFPs as possible. However, if your chances to win are low, dedicating time and attention to creating a proposal is probably not worth the time. When you find RFP opportunities, ensure they pass your to bid or not to bid criteria. Responding to too many RFPs with fast proposals will impact your win rate and tax your proposal team resources.

2. Research your prospect

Learn as much as you can about the buyer. With more background and context, you’ll be able to better address the buyer’s needs and goals. If you’re responding to a government RFP, look for a previous proposal that won the contract. Just like RFPs are public, often the responses from each vendor are as well.

3. Pay attention to the instructions

Carefully read the instructions before beginning your RFP response. Identify every requirement and include them in an RFP compliance matrix (this process is sometimes called shredding the RFP). This is particularly important when you respond to government RFPs. If your proposal isn’t delivered as specified or doesn’t meet the submission criteria, they may not read past the first page. Instead the procurement manager may just throw all of your hard work out.

4. Ask questions

RFPs are complex, and unfortunately, some questions aren’t always clear. Instead of guessing at what the buyer meant, ask them. Even if the RFP timeline doesn’t provide a vendor question period, send the inquiry. Not only will it help you get insight, but it also shows the buyer you’re invested in understanding their business and being a partner.

5. Make sure your messaging hits the mark

Make your responses customer-centric and provide specific benefits. Address their primary needs and convey your understanding of their goals. Finally, when using your proposal knowledge library to create quick responses, don’t forget to tailor your answers to the buyer.

A final bit of advice

If your ultimate goal is to answer more RFPs (and win them) to grow your business, it’s important to not only search for RFPs, but ensure that your current response process is as efficient as possible.

However, if you’re already facing heavy workloads and tight deadlines, it’s going to be difficult to ask the proposal management team and SMEs to do even more. You have two options: hire more staff or adopt RFP software.

Naturally, I recommend RFP software (specifically, Responsive) because our average customer reduces their response time by up to 50 percent. They are then able to redirect that time toward improving their content library, optimizing processes, finding new RFPs, customizing responses and increasing RFP submissions by 5-15 percent. 

If you want to explore what Responsive can do for your business, you can see it for yourself by requesting a demo or use our return on investment calculator to see the results.

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Why do 250,000+ users streamline their response process with RFPIO? Schedule a demo to find out.