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Expand sales intelligence and personalize sales documents with RFP automation software

Expand sales intelligence and personalize sales documents with RFP automation software

Sales Enablement

When customers start using RFPIO’s RFP automation capabilities, most of them quickly expand response management to their overall sales intelligence […]

Category: Tag: RFP automation

Expand sales intelligence and personalize sales documents with RFP automation software

Expand sales intelligence and personalize sales documents with RFP automation software

Sales Enablement

When customers start using RFPIO’s RFP automation capabilities, most of them quickly expand response management to their overall sales intelligence program. They enable sales teams to generate personalized sales documents and proposals on a self-service basis. With easy access to a robust content library, sales representatives can (relatively) easily piece together pre-approved, pre-vetted content to create proactive selling documents.

In the spirit of transparency, we happened upon these added benefits somewhat by accident. We actually learned about them from our first enterprise customers, who had thousands of projects running in RFPIO. Upon evaluation of all the content they had accumulated in their Answer Libraries, they asked a seemingly simple question: With all this great content in RFPIO, how else can we use it?

Ever since, we’ve been fine-tuning features so that RFP automation software adds more value to the greater sales intelligence program for customers of all sizes.

How your sales representatives respond matters. For more conversions at higher price points, they need to respond quickly, with a personalized touch, and they need to do it efficiently so they spend more time on revenue-generating activities.

According to Forrester, there are three key elements to sales intelligence.

  1. Operational Intelligence: “What is happening and what has happened.” In other words, these are the KPIs that guide day-to-day activities (e.g., number of calls, proposals delivered, pipeline-to-quota coverage ratios, average deal size, etc.).
  2. Diagnostic Intelligence: Analyze the KPIs established in operational intelligence to gain a meaningful view of data and identify trends that may determine future performance.
  3. Interpretive Sales Intelligence: Use operational and diagnostic intelligence to guide and support revenue generation throughout the organization, from optimizing responses to prospects and customers to structuring compensation plans.

Based on this definition, RFP automation software can have a significant impact on sales intelligence. Here’s why.

Without data, nothing is driving your sales intelligence

Sales intelligence is all about identifying buyer signals and nailing the timing. Sounds simple, right? It’s not. Depending on your product or service and your market, the amount of analysis that goes into signal identification could range from hours to months, or even years.

Sales is like the rest of the intelligences that are all the rage right now. Artificial, business, military… you name it, if it’s intelligent, then it depends on data. Similarly, sales intelligence relies heavily on data collection, management, and insight.

Your CRM is the central nervous system of your sales intelligence. Let me throw some borrowed knowledge at you (source).

  • CRM is among the top three tools and technologies for creating personalized interactions with customers to foster loyalty and better marketing ROI. (Salesforce, 2017)
  • 73% of marketers with a CRM system use it for a shared customer view between their service and sales teams. (Salesforce, 2017)
  • High performers are happier with the level of collaboration between their marketing team and other departments and they’re also three times more likely than underperformers to extensively use CRM tools. (Salesforce, 2017)

Much of the client, opportunity, and product data that can be leveraged to personalize proposals already exists in CRMs. By integrating RFPIO and CRMs like Salesforce, sales reps can now generate personalized selling materials without leaving their CRM. RFPIO can link CRM data from client, industry, job title, product information, and opportunity fields to dynamic proposal templates that allow sales reps to hyper-efficiently generate proactive proposals.

A real-world use case is:

  1. Sales rep Alpha finishes their first phone call with a prospect. They enter what they’ve learned about the prospect, such as product interests or points of contact. These fields will be used to swap out the dynamic templates when the proposal is generated.
  2. The prospect has asked Alpha to send a solutions brochure to learn more about Alpha’s company and solutions. The sales rep will click on “create proposal” to get started.
  3. Alpha navigates their CRM (e.g., Salesforce) interface to select “Create Proposal in RFPIO” from a list of available document templates (NOTE: You’ll need to set up the document templates ahead of time, but once you do so, it’s just a matter of plug-and-play content!).
  4. Alpha completes the proposal builder without leaving the CRM to add content relevant to this particular prospect and include personalization variables. These can include contact fields such as name and title, relevant quotes and testimonials from companies in their industry, the specific solutions and prices that the prospect needs, implementation team, timeline, etc.
  5. Alpha clicks the “Generate” button.
  6. Voila! Alpha has a personalized, on-demand proposal to share, which will be much more effective than a boilerplate email or generic brochure. The generated proposal is then automatically published to the Salesforce page from which it was created. Now, it’s ready for the sales rep to download or share as needed.

Sales intelligence with RFP software integrated into your CRM enables more informed selling, allowing you to take advantage of the personas you’ve been developing and the hard-fought information you’ve been gathering on your prospects and customers.

5 sales intelligence advantages of RFP automation software

Let’s say you’ve integrated RFP software into your CRM. What benefits can you expect?

  1. Keep sales reps focused on selling: Are your salespeople spending less than 36% of their time selling? Sales VPs and directors want reps living in the CRM, focused on revenue-generating activities. By providing access to RFP content and automating its generation from the CRM, reps spend less time chasing down content or composing proposals.
  2. Gain leverage from content analytics: Track the content that’s being consumed, by whom, and how it’s being shared. Identify the most common and popular content to help inform future content development. Analyze trending queries, both internally and externally.
  3. Strengthen your account-based selling strategy: Make it easier for your sales team to collaborate on developing multiple contacts and relationships within a single account. Content analytics helps you track the buying signals throughout different levels of your most complex accounts.
  4. Personalize every response: With the data stored in your CRM combined with the high-quality content stored in RFPIO, proposal managers, marketing teams, or sales teams can create pre-approved content blocks that sales teams can piece together to create proactive selling documents. What would it mean to your team to send professional, personalized proposals with every response?
  5. Take a big lift off of proposal and marketing teams: No more one-off requests for content or proposal support from sales reps because they’ll be able to do it themselves. For example, Microsoft estimates that its RFPIO Content Library saves up to 5,000 hours per year.

A rising tide lifts all boats

Advanced sales intelligence will also contribute to greater success with RFP responses. For proposal managers, customer data points from the CRM will help automate the completion of a proposal and inform bid decisions.

Natural language processing and analytics will help decipher what kinds of questions will be asked in an RFP. RFPIO can estimate what type of proposal to expect, compare it to past RFP responses from similar client profiles, and analyze how you performed in the past to determine your likelihood of success and how long it will take to complete. The proposal manager can also estimate resources and identify contributors that will need to be allocated in order to win the RFP and determine if it’s worth it to the organization to proceed.

What’s it gonna take?

We’ll need to connect the systems, so there is some administrative setup. However, we’ve already synced up with multiple CRMs, so we know what to expect.

Schedule a demo today, and we can discuss whether it makes sense for you to integrate your CRM with RFPIO RFP automation software.

You need RFP software. Here’s how to convince your boss.

You need RFP software. Here’s how to convince your boss.

Selling & Enablement

The first question will be, “Why do we need it?”

Tell your boss, “Because we can’t afford to gamble our relationships, and our contacts cannot afford to gamble on us.”

Now let’s crack open this fortune cookie and unpack its meaning.

In sales, relationships are everything. Many companies won’t even respond to an RFP if they don’t have relationships established with the RFP-issuing group. Sales professionals protect these relationships like they’re hoards of treasure. Much time and effort is put into cultivating them.

However, the art of the deal has changed over the many years I’ve been in the proposal game. The deal that used to be made via handshake with a high-powered decision-maker now has to be vetted by multiple stakeholders. A single decision-maker won’t gamble their career on selecting a vendor anymore—no matter how strong a relationship exists.

In a highly competitive RFP, multiple prospective vendors will have strong relationships within the RFP-issuing organization. You as a sales organization don’t want to gamble your hard-earned relationship by underperforming at the proposal stage and losing the deal.

In the modern sales landscape, your relationships plus a high-quality proposal will give you the best chance to win the deal. RFP software helps you create proposals that eliminate your contacts’ need to “gamble.”

Now that you’ve explained why you need RFP software, answer these three questions to close the RFP software deal with your boss:

  1. Which of our corporate initiatives does this investment support?
  2. What is the ROI and over what time period?
  3. Why do it now?

Build on these 4 initiatives

Find a way to align RFP software to a stated business imperative. Anything relating to revenue or margin impact is good thing, like the following:

Proposal value isn’t always obvious to an organization’s stakeholders. Aligning it with your business imperatives makes it harder for stakeholders to ignore the fact that response management is an essential cog in your sales lifecycle.

Cut to the chase: ROI in less than 2 months*

One of our more impressive recent data points is that Crownpeak saw a 5-6x ROI after using RFPIO for just a few months. If your bosses hang their hats on ROI, then don’t hold back. Calculate your ROI here to include an estimate in your pitch to your bosses.

Efficiency is going to be your primary ROI metric. With RFPIO, organizations increase response management efficiency by 40%, on average. Broken down by role, we are currently seeing the following:

  • 63% of salespeople said RFPIO enables them to automate their process, so they can make time to pursue new business with RFPs.
  • 71% of marketers said RFPIO helps them centralize company content for easy access.
  • Subject Matter Experts (SME) gained back 39% of their daily hours with RFPIO.

RFPIO doubles as a knowledge management tool, which will increase proposal production for sales and reduce the burden on SMEs from legal, IT, security, procurement, contracts and other departments that typically contribute to responses. It’s a cost-effective method to give everyone at your organization access to your Content Library, while also empowering your proposal team to do more.

*On average, based on verified customer reviews collected on G2.

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See How Much You Can Save With RFPIO

Why do we need RFP software now?

For you, it’s about leveling the playing field. Harking back to my earlier reference of an RFP where five proposals are delivered and three of them likely have relationships with the RFP issuer…In this case, at least one of the vendors that responds will be using RFP software. They will have completed up to 70% of the RFP using automated features, which means they can put 100% effort on the remaining 30%. How likely are you to win any race when you give your competitors a 70% head start? (Flipside bonus you’ll want to call out to your bosses: On the off chance that you’re the only one using RFP software, then you will have a 70% head start!)

For your bosses, it’s about showing accountability to their commitment to success. If sales is the lifeblood of your business, then a fine-tuned RFP process will be as valuable as a multifunctional CRM, an integrated marketing strategy, a highly responsive customer service system, or any other support system that is already included in your budget.

But are proposals really that important?

YES!

The most common pushback you may need to address is that a proposal is just one part of a complex and lengthy sales process. That is true, and the best proposal in the world will not win you the deal on the spot. But a poor proposal will likely cause doubt in the issuer’s mind. At best, this will extend the sales cycle. At worst, you lose the deal.

A good proposal provides the opportunity to encapsulate everything you have learned during the sales process. RFP issuers never say they’re hemorrhaging clients or cash or taking a beating from their competitors, even though you understand that’s probably why they’re issuing the RFP.

The proposal is your opportunity to document how well you understand the issuer’s underlying needs or pains. You can do it passively (“We help with client retention by…” or “We’ve helped X clients increase revenue by X%…” or “3 out of 4 industry leaders rely on us to….”), but stating your solution to an unspoken problem validates your expertise. Ultimately, that’s exactly why they should choose to work with you.

And the only way to communicate that information to all stakeholders involved in the decision is through your response to the RFP.

Ready your pitch for RFP software

Twenty years ago, I expected RFPs to go the way of the dodo. Because of the Internet, you see. I thought that any generic information an issuer would need about a company could be found on the Internet. I was wrong. RFPs didn’t go away.

The way companies select vendors based on RFP responses is what changed. Out went the single decision maker, in came the decision by committee. The proposal management market is booming ($3.1B by 2024) and RFPIO has more than 1,000 customers only three years after signing its first.

RFPs have grown in complexity and require more customized responses. Part of a response is cookie cutter (another reason you need response management software), but the part of the response that requires more customization to explain your value—the part that shows you an issuer wants to deal rather than just kick the tires—is the part that you need to spend the most time on.

If you see any variation of this question, then you know the issuer is serious and in need of innovation: “What can your company offer that others cannot?

Want help prepping your RFP software pitch to your boss? We can help. Schedule a demo to get started.

Improve sales contract management with RFP software

Improve sales contract management with RFP software

Sales Enablement

If sales is the rock and legal is the hard place, then you’ll often find sales contract management stuck right in the middle. The constant dilemma of the sales contract manager is, “How can we propose redlines that make legal happy and mitigate business risk, but still get sales contracts done efficiently?” There are two common approaches to dealing with this dilemma.

One, you can manually execute contract management through a hodgepodge of emails, spreadsheets, document versions, and pleas for responses ASAP. This exposes your process to a host of issues, including:

  • Lack of continuity or redundancy in the contract review process.
  • Significant differences in the redlines proposed by contract management staff.
  • Disparate systems and processes to manage sales contract terms between departments.
  • Too many contracts at different stages to effectively track.
  • Missed renewal opportunities.
  • Misfiled or lost versions.
  • Reused contract language that is no longer accurate or is out of date.
  • Easily lost tribal knowledge about preferred redline responses.
  • Lost time waiting on SME feedback for specific clauses or Exhibits.
  • Inflexibility in negotiations due to fear of swamping a deal in the contract morass.

Two, you can use RFP software that will bring together the parties involved in contract review and will create consistency in redlining through a knowledge repository of legal-approved contract language. This certainly shuts down the issues that arise from the standard email process, but it opens you up to the expense of a new platform. Small to midsize businesses will need to evaluate whether they create enough contracts to justify the ROI. Organizations that derive their revenue predominantly from requests for proposals (RFPs) may want to consider another option: Using RFP software to augment contract management.

How can RFP software improve sales contract management?

Throughout my contract management career, I’ve learned that there’s a wide variance in how companies structure their contract management departments. Some are embedded in legal, some in sales or business operations. Others oversee multiple functions such as procurement, sales and RFP responses. And then there are the lone wolf departments — sometimes operated by a team of one — that focus only on contracts but depend on all other departments to contribute.

In any one of those situations, the contract management process can benefit from knowledge management capabilities in RFP software. At RFPIO, my team uses our Content Library to manage contract content and various redlining playbook language. It gives us access to pre-approved content that my team needs to complete sales contracts without having to unduly burden any other departments. We utilize a private collection in the system as a contract language repository. It increases efficiency for legal, sales, contracts, and other subject matter experts (SMEs) whom we rely on for contract management. It also helps me train new team members in a consistent review process and helps reduce the likelihood of brain drain if a member of the team leaves.

A simple process

Your RFPIO Content Library can serve the same function for contract language management as it does for RFP responses. But instead of using it as a hub for Q&A pairs you need for an RFP, use it as a hub for contract clauses that have been approved by legal or any applicable content from an SME. Other than that, just like for RFPs, you can use it for interdepartmental communication, and it will all be enhanced by an intelligent recommendation engine.

Start by approaching legal with the clauses that get the most pushback from customers. These are the clauses that require more customization. The same ones you have to email over and over again to legal and wait too long for a response. After these clauses are in the Content Library, contract management staff can reduce the content that legal needs to review (and in an iterative process, new language provided by legal can be added to the Content Library to minimize the back and forth even further!).

Create a collection that’s only accessible to the contracts and legal teams. Cordon it off so only your team can see it and maintain version control. For example, you may want to set up a “change to governing law” section. Then you can have the legally approved clause applicable to Delaware or Idaho or California or Alpha Centauri. Do the same for clauses relating to payment terms, auto renewal, notice periods, limitation of liability, warranties, and indemnification; the same applies for certificates of insurance (COIs) exhibits, data privacy agreements (DPAs), SLA response times, or whatever else appears in your contracts.

Preserve lawyers’ more expensive time

Debate value of different positions all you like. The fact is that the average lawyer will be more expensive for your company than the average salesperson, contract administrator, or proposal manager.

Also, legal likely has many other priorities that require their time, which means that addressing sales contracts will not be as important as it is to sales. With your Content Library in place, you can retain up-to-date, legal-approved content that is easily accessible by the entire contracting team, minimizing the sales contract review time for lawyers. Showing legal that you respect their time will also go a long way toward getting faster turnarounds for non-standard contract language.

Make sales look good

One of the most frustrating responses you have to provide to a salesperson is, “We’re still waiting on legal.” It impacts that person’s commission, endangers their deal, and causes unnecessary interdepartmental friction.

Avoid the big time suck of sending every contract to a lawyer by using the approved clauses in your Content Library. Sales can work faster, and they can also work smarter. Eliminating the fear of avoidance frees them up to be more flexible in their negotiations. It’s easier for salespeople to cater to prospect and customer needs if they know their contract changes won’t bog down negotiations.

Increase value of your contracts team

With an Content Library chock full of legally approved clauses and communication features that help track a project, the contracts team now has the ability to view an entire project and see what has already been answered. This can be a blind spot for many contract managers, especially if the contract team is separate from a proposal team. Now a contract administrator who can see what’s already been answered in a questionnaire or pre-RFP response doesn’t have to search around in the project’s history or shared file or email chain.

Contract teams deal with subject-matter-experts other than legal, too. Procurement may need to add customers as additional insureds to the COI. IT and/ or IS will need to weigh in on the DPA and SLA information, and Operations may be needed for product information, quantity commitments and timeline obligations. Have the pre-approved contract language set aside for access only by your contracts team and a system where SMEs can quickly review instead of create. “Is this the right clause?” requires a “yes” or “no,” whereas, “Please provide the most recent insurance verbiage,” requires more of a time commitment.

Finally, with a knowledge management system in place, you can focus contract team training on how to use discretion within the system and how to chase down only the non-standard answers.

Emerge from between the rock and hard place

Knowledge management with a solution such as the RFPIO Content Library alleviates pressure between departments in the contract review process and allows each department to specialize: sales on generating revenue; legal on compliance; and contracts on contracts.

Schedule a demo today to learn more about RFPIO Content Library.

7 tips to excite SMEs about the RFP process

7 tips to excite SMEs about the RFP process

People & Teams, Product & Best Practices

What’s harder? Changing, or not changing? In the 25-plus years I’ve worked with subject matter experts (SMEs) on proposals, I can attribute almost all initial pushback to resistance to change. Who wants more work if they don’t have time to complete what’s already on their plate? But the fact of the matter is that a proposal program powered by RFP process automation and a continuously updated Content Library makes changing easier than not changing.

Before I launch into how to get internal and external SMEs excited about the RFP process, I want to call out a recurring theme that echoes through all of the tips: Respect their time. SMEs already have daily calendars chock full of responsibilities, such as solving engineering issues, dealing with clients, and creating demos.

Requesting their help with responses to any RFx (RFP, RFI, RFQ, DDQ, security questionnaire, etc.) is you asking them to repurpose some of that valuable time. But you need their help to complete the RFP process. Your company needs the revenue. SMEs need the company. In the circle of your company’s success lifecycle, the greater the SME involvement and enthusiasm, the easier your job will be.

#1: Control comms chaos

SMEs already get too many emails that are easily lost or deleted. Overloading SMEs with multiple emails frustrates them because they don’t know which are the most current, especially if they’re trying to respond from an airplane, client site, or conference. RFP automation software that streamlines the RFP process provides a personalized dashboard of the most current action items. Most importantly, it gives SMEs a single source of truth to eliminate confusion, and they’ll thank you for protecting their inbox.

#2: Do the heavy lifting for them

A proposal team should be able to complete 70-80% of a response using an RFP Content Library (see tips 3 and 5). Then set up SMEs as reviewers to save time and avoid having them answer the same question multiple times.

With the right RFP automation software, you can reduce the burden on SMEs with functionality such as robust search options, marketing-approved templates, and targeted action items. One important reminder: SMEs—like many of us—are resistant to change. Any change you make—even if it’s being done to simplify their lives—has to be quick to learn and to show value. Don’t hesitate to kick off the RFP process with a quick 30-minute training session and a one-page how-to guide for easy reference.

#3: Update the RFP Content Library on a regular cadence

If you’re already using RFP automation software, then take full advantage of the RFP Content Library. When you get an answer from an SME, add it to the database immediately. SMEs will remember that they have already answered a question. They see asking them to repeat an answer as a lack of respect for their time. It’s better to have them review the answer for accuracy than to start with a blank page.

#4: Point out how they control their own destiny

If you are downselected or win an RFP, then SMEs will be first onsite, which means if there were any mistakes in the RFP response, they have to answer for them. If the new client reads that your product or service will do “X”, then SMEs are onsite having to explain why that’s not the case. Help SMEs understand that their involvement ensures a smoother transition and more positive client interaction.

#5: Sell the benefits of content audits

The more up to date the Content Library, the more your proposal team can complete automatically, and the easier SME lives will be during live proposals.

Use this carrot often, but even when you’re updating existing content in the Content Library on a cyclical basis, remember tip #2 (do the heavy lifting). SMEs are not grammar gurus, and it will be easier for them to deliver content in their language. It’s up to you or your content/proposal team to wordsmith it.

When you start a content audit, it can be daunting. Prioritize what’s used most. Don’t force SMEs to review rarely used or unused content. Have a kickoff meeting with SMEs and their managers to document the process and illustrate how you’re making it as easy as possible for them. They need to see that you have as much skin in the game, or more, as they do.

#6: Be transparent with external SMEs

With internal SMEs, I can go to their manager if they refuse to participate. I don’t have that luxury with external SMEs. Provide the same courtesies of communication and heavy lifting that you offer internal SMEs. RFP automation software should include “guest” functionality to give them access.

When you’re working with guests, make sure to give them as much notice as possible. And, when you do need their help, make it as easy as possible. Send them a short, single-page (front and back) PDF of instructions on how to use your RFP automation solution of choice. And definitely leverage the comments function so they know exactly what they need to do.

The big thing you need to pay attention to is content audits. Communicate ahead of time that you’re going to keep their content in the RFP Content Library. However, you won’t bother them to review it until their portion of the solution is proposed. They need to know that when you contact them, you’re doing so because there’s real business value potential at stake.

#7: Recognize the effort

Recognize SMEs for spending their valuable time on your RFP response! If your company doesn’t have a recognition system, then expense a $10 Starbucks card. They deserve it, and they appreciate it.

Give respect, earn respect

Remember, if your primary responsibility is to respond to a proposal, then SMEs are your most precious resource. Without them, you’re a quarterback without an offensive line…a pilot without landing gear…a tree with no roots…a musher with no dogs…you get the idea.

To learn more about streamlining your RFP process to make life easier on SMEs, schedule a demo.

Everything you need to know about the RFP process

Everything you need to know about the RFP process

Product & Best Practices

Much like a human, every RFP is different. However, from an anatomical perspective, there are also similarities. Each RFP response your team creates will impact your organization’s win potential. Knowing how to respond to an RFP effectively can increase your chances of landing a deal.

This is by no means an extensive list of every question that you will encounter (or email you’ll have to send). Instead, we picked a few RFP questions and themes to explore. The goal is to help you know what’s coming ahead of time, so you are more prepared with a stronger foundation.

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Guide: How to Build and Use an RFP Response Template

Discover how to build better RFP response templates and get tips and insights on improving your RFP response process.

Get the guide

By the time you’ve finished reading this post, you’ll understand that:

  1. There is an effective way and an ineffective way to respond to an RFP
  2. Understanding the anatomy of an RFP helps you create stronger responses
  3. Team success happens by combining processes with technology

Once you’ve completed this “lesson,” you’ll have the necessary anatomical background to respond to RFP questions with precision. And, you’ll also understand why RFP software is the primary set of tools you need to operate.

How to respond to an RFP effectively

RFP stands for “request for proposal”, and is one of the many “requests for” that your company may respond to. RFP is part of a broader category known as RFx, which also includes RFIs and RFQs. Between an RFI, RFP, and RFQ an RFP will likely require the most effort to respond to.

As you’re preparing to respond to your RFP… you need to know how to respond to an RFP. There really is a right way and a wrong way to respond to an RFP:

The effective way to respond to an RFP

  1. Exceptional teamwork happens with every RFP project.
  2. Communication is clear and easy for all contributors.
  3. A documented RFP process serves as the anchor for your team.
  4. Content is easily accessible in an Content Library.
  5. The Content Library is always relevant to ensure quality.
  6. There is plenty of time to spare before the deadline.
  7. Branding and messaging is on point every time.
  8. A healthy percentage of these RFPs result in business won.

The ineffective way to respond to an RFP

  1. Teams and departments work in distinct silos.
  2. SMEs feel frustrated to contribute because of inefficiencies.
  3. Nobody owns the RFP response process.
  4. Responders can’t find content when they need it.
  5. Spreadsheets, emails, and online folders “store” historic responses.
  6. RFP contributors work after hours and weekends to meet deadlines.
  7. Inconsistent fonts and language are compromising the deliverable.
  8. A high percentage of these RFPs result in business lost.

The effective way is made possible with both a great internal process and technology that offers continued support. The ineffective way is the result of a manual RFP response approach where a lack of direction, process, and accessibility cause great inefficiencies.

Teams using RFP software experience a much more streamlined process. They not only cut their response time down, they also improve the quality of the responses to win more deals. Yet, only 16% of organizations are using RFP software to support their efforts.

This is a disservice to busy teams, who can benefit from a tool that helps them manage a lengthy document like an RFP. As we dig into the anatomy of an RFP, it’s easy to see just how many sections there are to handle—and how technology is really the right move here.

Understand the anatomy of an RFP response

Ready for your RFP anatomy lesson? From “head to toe,” here are some questions you will likely come across in an RFP.

Your homework as a responder is to familiarize yourself with the nuances of an RFP, so you can pass your prospect’s test with flying colors. Analogies aside, understanding these different questions and themes will help you craft stronger responses to win the next opportunity.

Company Information

“27% rated project management flow during the content creation process as ‘fair,’ revealing that some projects moved along efficiently but they faced bottlenecks.” – Content Marketing Institute

Though it may seem like a basic part of an RFP response, company information can be tough for teams. This content includes all of the foundational pieces for your organization: company name, address, annual revenue, employee count, website URL, year founded, etc.

While HQ’s address is an easy one, the employee count is not. Depending on company growth the number of employees might change dramatically every year or even every quarter. RFP software automates this basic content in your Content Library, ensuring the most accurate information is on-hand for team members.

Executive Summary

Responding to an executive summary is tricky in an RFP, but it’s also one of the factors that affects your organization’s chances of winning. Though usually an optional section, this particular content section allows you to stand out by adding some flavor to your deliverable.

All too often responders mix up the RFP executive summary with the cover letter—but they are two distinct sections. An executive summary is high-level content that covers the issuer’s challenges, and demonstrates how your solution will help. While a cover letter is more of a conversational introduction that mentions your reason for responding and what you are providing in your RFP response.

Need a cheat sheet for your next RFP executive summary? Enjoy…

How to write executive summary
Competitive Differentiators

There’s a high probability that you will be asked to state your competitive differentiators when responding to an RFP. Here are some examples of what that question might look like:

  • What is the competitive advantage of your solution?
  • Describe your competitive position relative to your competitors.
  • When comparing yourself to the market, what are the unique selling points?
  • Briefly state how you are differentiated from any competitors.
  • Why should we work with you instead of one of your competitors?

Speaking of competitors…a generic RFP response to this particular question will only benefit your competitors dazzling the issuer with a great response. Instead of using jargon-y adjectives that everyone else uses, focus on demonstrating the value your solution provides.

Knowing company differentiators is half the battle for many organizations—take the time internally to explore what these are and how to communicate them. Once you have these locked down, make sure the best versions are readily available for your team to grab and tailor appropriately within your Content Library.

“A value proposition offers clients something they want and gives them a good reason to choose you over your competitors. In the executive summary and in your full proposal, communicate a strong value proposition that matches your client’s needs and demonstrates your unique offer.” – APMP Body of Knowledge

Our Approach

The approach question is a seemingly straightforward inquiry. However, similar to competitive differentiators, this is another RFP response that teams struggle to execute well.

If someone were to ask who you are as a person, how would you answer them? You might go with a safe answer about your line of work and what you do. Or, you might share a little bit about what you value and believe in. There is no right or wrong way to answer this, because you are made up of all of these things.

When you respond to the approach question of an RFP, think about who your organization is along with what you do. Explain your methodology and how your solution benefits your customers. Also demonstrate why you do what you do to show your greater purpose behind offering the solution.

Branding

How does content impact an RFP response? Majorly. Which is why marketing teams often own this piece. Branding isn’t a specific question per say, but more about how the final RFP deliverable is presented. Messaging, font style, and any visual design must align with your brand.

Due to the collaborative nature of RFP responses, you end up with many voices and styles from SMEs who don’t always have their pulse on branding guidelines. Random fonts and bullet points combine with an ancient logo from eight years ago for a big design headache. Technical jargon makes sense to the expert, but isn’t engaging for the issuer reading the response.

To achieve a consistent look and feel when it’s time to wrap up the RFP project, manually fixing the branding bloopers can cost marketing a lot of time. RFP software helps teams save hours during the export process with templates that ensure consistency for a higher quality deliverable.

Learn How RFP Software Empowers the High-Performing Marketer

rfp response marketing
Security

Security is a concern for modern organizations and this topic is becoming more and more common in RFPs. You will either need to address your internal processes by responding to a specific section of the RFP or you may need to respond to a separate security questionnaire. It’s also quite possible that you will do all of the above.

A security questionnaire might arrive at the same time as an RFP, or along with the DDQ if you’re further along in the vendor selection process. Depending on your industry, a security questionnaire might have anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand questions.

security questionnaire template
RFP software supports teams who are responding to these massive spreadsheets. Auto-response fills in the majority of questions from the start of the project. A template designed for even the largest Security Questionnaires imports the content in a single click. Technology makes a big difference in time-savings and providing the most accurate responses.

Pricing

To share pricing or to not share pricing…that is the question. As an RFP responder, you must answer this one way or another. There is a strategic decision to be made about pricing depending on many factors.

If you provide pricing in your RFP response upfront, you have less control over the conversation around pricing. Negotiation and discussion are replaced by numbers on a page. So, you might decide to hold off on providing pricing until you have advanced further in the RFP response process.

Like anything else, as long as you show the value of your product or service, the pricing should not disqualify you. In this case, you could get away with maneuvering around this question by sharing benefits of your pricing model without getting into exact numbers. It’s really up to your organization on this one, and you could test RFP responses over time to see if the price reveal is working for you or against you.

Support / Customer Service

Today’s buyer has many, many choices. When they choose your solution, they want to make sure they have a partner who will stick around to offer support long after the purchase. Your response is an opportunity to make your organization stand out as the obvious partner.

This is a great time to take advantage of subject matter experts from your appropriate service department to clearly explain these benefits. Do you have a help center where they are able to self-educate? Do you offer onboarding sessions and in-depth webinars to ensure they start and continue on the right path? When you respond to this question, you can highlight your service in a number of ways.

More powerful than your voice is the voice of your customer. So, another good move is to share validation from your happy customers. This could be a review or customer success story that covers the positive experience they had while working with you. Like this one…

“RFPIO’s customer service is amazing! Between weekly training and addressing questions with platform improvements in a matter of days, onboarding has been a pleasure rather than a chore.” – Lauren Daitz, Senior Manager at HALO Recognition

Including a great review can make a big impact with an issuer. All of your competitors are answering this same question—and they might be answering it the same boring way, with a generic rundown. Play to your strengths and to their emotions with a little storytelling.

Legal

With RFP responses, your legal team will be involved at some point. Specific wording must be used to stay in line with certain legalities. Legal might come in during the review process or to answer legal questions.

Collaboration with your legal team is much easier with RFP software. There is always a healthy amount of redlining in Google and Word docs when legal chimes in with feedback. This can all be handled within a solution to make communication and finalization easier on everyone.

Past responses that are “legal team approved” can be stored in your Content Library as well to populate responses with correct information. That way legal only has to perform a quick review rather than repeating themselves every time a similar question arises.

General Requirements / Situational Requirements

Speaking of repetition, general requirements are the questions you have answered thousands of times on every other RFP for your product or service. They can be disqualifiers or “knock-out” questions you plow through quickly.

On the other hand, situational requirements are gaining popularity with RFPs. With these questions you respond to a scenario, rather than just saying “yes” or “we have this feature.” The issuer might spell out a problem and ask you the following:

  • How would your software handle this situation?
  • How would your solution solve this problem?
  • How would your approach alleviate this issue?

…no pressure, right?

Situational requirements require a thoughtful response that demonstrate how your solution is the right choice for them. As such, they take more time to craft and refine. These responses should reinforce some of the strongest parts from your competitive differentiators and approach.

Again, RFP software is highly useful for knocking both general requirements and situational requirements out of the park. All content is already stored in the Content Library. Search functionality helps you select the most relevant response in seconds, versus endlessly digging through emails and folders—or rounding up a committee of SMEs and marketing to constantly create fresh content.

Combine a great RFP response process with technology

Nice work, RFP responder! You made it through your RFP response anatomy lesson. We hope you feel more confident about the next RFP that lands in your inbox.

By combining a great RFP response process with technology, your team will submit a quality deliverable that has a higher potential to land the deal. And, it will all happen in less time so you and your team can operate with greater precision and move on to other priorities.

Ready to improve RFP response operations? Reach out and we’ll show you how RFPIO can help you manage everything.

3 ways technology improves the response process for remote teams

3 ways technology improves the response process for remote teams

Products/Features/Solutions

Once upon a time, you had to walk around the office and ask collaborators to send you what you needed to respond to an RFP. As the digital revolution took hold, it became necessary to manage the process virtually across multiple geographies, languages, teams, and time zones.

Now that teams all over the world are learning to work remotely, RFP software has become even more important. One survey found that 47% of workers want to work from home one to four days a week, even after it’s safe to return to the office. 40% want to be remote all the time.

Because RFP response is one of the most collaborative activities an organization undertakes, proposal management teams are seeking out RFP software that helps them:

  • Embrace data-driven project management.
  • Free up strategic resources by automating administrative tasks.
  • Integrate workflows to capture, qualify, collaborate on, and respond to proposal requests.

What they’ve found in solutions such as RFPIO is that RFP software helps them drive the RFP process for remote teams in three key ways.

#1: Improve RFP management by breaking responses into manageable sections

The first thing you do when an RFP comes in is determine the resources and content required. How many sections are there? What sort of subject matter expertise is needed? And how do we ensure deadlines are met? When done manually, this could mean pasting sections into multiple documents, noting sections and sub-sections, and gathering content from disparate sources—a labor-intensive process for even the most experienced proposal manager.

When you upload an RFP document into RFPIO, artificial intelligence (AI) systems take over and help you auto-identify content requirements. Within minutes, you can know how many questions there are, which SMEs (subject matter experts) to involve, how many authors will be needed, and where potential bottlenecks may arise.

RFPIO also converts a one-dimensional RFP document into a dynamic, collaborative work environment where you can analyze bid requests, forecast resources, assign work, and track progress. It can be organized and quickly broken down into related question and answer (Q & A) fields. That way you don’t have to email an overwhelming source file to multiple responders. Instead, you can send collaborators only the necessary bite-sized sections that matter to them most.

Other benefits of creating a live work environment out of a stagnant document include:

  • Assigning tasks to responders with the most relevant expertise AND the time to contribute.
  • Monitoring what all authors and reviewers are working on to determine their workload and track their assignments.
  • Setting up and sending automated task notifications and reminders to keep collaborators on schedule. They can even be a guest working outside of the organization as an external user.
  • Allowing collaborators to respond directly in the task notification or reminder without the need to dig through attachments or file folders to find the content in question.
  • Visualizing overall progress and understanding resource costs of responding to each proposal.

#2: Save time by leveraging automation technology and centralizing content

Nobody likes spending their time answering the same question over and over again. That’s why RFPIO’s ability to automatically answer common questions is so valuable. Auto-response eliminates repetitive work and gives SMEs more time to focus on their specific areas of expertise. It’s a sophisticated feature that essentially lets proposal managers take heavy asks like…

“Hey, can you write down and define all the services that we offer?”

…and reframe them into simple questions like…

“Hey, RFPIO says these services apply to this RFP. Can you check to make sure they’re accurate?”

SMEs appreciate their time being valued. Proposal managers appreciate the fast turnaround. If you find auto-response technology tantalizing (who wouldn’t?) and want to learn more, go to the 19-minute mark in my webinar (below) for details.

Auto-response technology is made possible by a comprehensive Content Library. SMEs don’t need to take the time to provide answers to this library. It’s passively populated every time they answer a question. If you want, you can add a reviewer or moderator. Whether it’s through email, Slack, Google Docs, or individual spreadsheets, RFPIO harvests that response to build an intelligent knowledgebase. Eventually, it’s commonplace for organizations to answer 70-80% of an RFP with their auto-response technology powered by their unique Content Library.

Final RFP submissions include more than just Q & A pairs. They’ll have whitepapers, case studies, graphics, documents, and other content that needs to be easily searched, formatted, reviewed, and attached to response packets. RFPIO allows you to centralize all of that content without changing how it’s currently organized. Keep it in SharePoint, Google Chrome, CRM, Google Drive, OneDrive, or wherever, but make it searchable and retrievable through RFPIO.

#3: Make informed decisions on which bids you’re more likely to win

When you plug RFPIO in and start using it, you start amassing data. What’s working, what isn’t, win rates, time-to-completion, profiles of issuers, and much more.

For proposal managers, one valuable use of this data is to create a designated intake area for proposal requests. This achieves two goals: one, it helps you capture proposal requests; and two, it helps your company make data-driven decisions as to whether or not to pursue a proposal:

  • See all requests, including project details, client information, and supporting documents all in one place.
  • Gain visibility into the best authors for projects, how many days it will take to complete, and the estimated value based on prior outcomes.

This is an immensely beneficial feature. You can learn more about how it works at the 29-minute mark of my webinar.

Focus on the win

When RFPs come in, they can be both exciting and overwhelming. While the promise of winning the RFP should be the focus, teams often fall victim to worrying about barriers to success. Everything from how much time will be consumed to who will manage the whole process to how to manage version control problems creep to the surface. RFP software will help keep the organization focused on the excitement of a potential win.

Watch my full webinar, below, to learn more about how to use technology to improve the response process. Or, schedule a demo to find out how RFP software can help your proposal team, whether you’re remote or back in the office.

How RFP automation software helped Elevate Capital streamline their RFP process

How RFP automation software helped Elevate Capital streamline their RFP process

Customer Stories

Elevate Capital is an inclusive venture capital fund that specifically targets investments in underserved entrepreneurs, such as women and ethnic minorities, or those with limited access regionally to capital and opportunities.

They believe there is tremendous opportunity to invest early and offer mentorship to these entrepreneurs—which is why they provide the venture capital and guidance they need to turn their startups into great companies.

In order to effort to continue to support this underserved group of budding entrepreneurs, Elevate Capital launched a new fund in 2020. Shortly after launching this fund, they received a 24-page RFP from an institutional investor.

Much to their surprise (and delight), they finished the behemoth of an RFP in the same amount of time it usually takes them to finish RFPs a sixth of the size.

“And there’s no way we could have done it so quickly and efficiently without RFPIO,” asserted Nitin Rai, the Founder and Managing Director at Elevate Capital.

Working in real-time with built-in collaboration tools

Before the Elevate team implemented RFPIO, their RFP response process was confined to static Word Documents. Each collaborator would update a given Word Document using track changes or comments.

Several versions later, all the contributors would come together for an in-person meeting or conference call to go through the RFP, line-by-line, to make sure everything was accurate and up-to-date.

With RFPIO, they were able to work together all in one place, using in-app comments and @-mentioning. Nitin Rai described collaboration in RFP software as “an amazing experience. Instead of going back-and-forth in 10 different versions of the same Word doc, we were working together in real-time. Working in RFPIO is what collaboration is supposed to be like.”

“We ended up producing a 75-page response from a 25-page questionnaire and we did in just three weeks. There’s no way we could have done it as well as we did without RFPIO.”

A more efficient RFP response process means more time for other things

Because the collaboration process was so much easier, the Elevate Capital team was able to complete and submit a beautifully polished RFP in 3 weeks—the same amount of time it typically took to respond to RFPs that were 6 times shorter.

In-app collaboration tools meant the Elevate Capital team wasn’t spending time sending emails, searching for the right version, or scheduling in-person meetings and conference calls.

By eliminating inefficiencies from the response process, their team was able to quickly pull together a beautifully polished RFP—with enough time to spare to stay focused on their other responsibilities.

The future of RFP response at Elevate Capital

Now that Nitin has populated RFPIO with content relevant to Elevate Capital’s most recent fund, he and his team will be able to respond to future RFPs even more quickly.

Instead of writing each RFP from scratch, or searching through their hard drives to find previous RFPs, they can automatically respond to any repeat questions using RFPIO’s AI-enabled Auto Respond feature. The more RFPs the team responds to, the more accurate Auto Respond will become.

Nitin anticipates that Elevate Capital will quickly see a return on their investment—and he believes that an automated solution to the RFP response process is definitely something other venture capital funds would benefit from.

“After using RFPIO to respond to RFPs, I will never go back to a manual process—it has made a huge difference.”

Why RFP software is every responder’s solution of choice

Why RFP software is every responder’s solution of choice

Selling & Enablement

Responders like you add tremendous value to your organization’s sales process. Your team’s collective knowledge is what makes RFP responses great…and what helps win deals.

When an RFP is afoot, your response management team likely experiences a mixture of emotions. Some are excited about the big opportunity and others are running for the hills. Everyone understands that collaborative content ultimately helps the organization succeed, but that content takes time to create.

High-performing organizations maximize the time of all their resources by turning to all-in-one technology platforms. RFP software has become the solution of choice for responders. Let’s look under the hood at the ways RFPIO supports your response process and frees up your valuable time.

Clear up your process with centralized RFP responses

43% of subject matter experts said their top challenge was spending too much time on RFP responses. 68% of salespeople struggle with focusing on sales activities. 43% of marketers feel they do not have time for extra projects. 50% of proposal managers said keeping up with response content is their biggest challenge.

Much of this “lost time” feeling with responders is spent chasing down previously answered RFP questions. Your RFP response process should be like a road sign—obvious and direct. RFP response software champions a clear process with its core feature: a centralized library with built-in content automation capabilities.

RFP responses are stored in the Content Library, so all responders have quick access. This eliminates Q&A déjà-vu—all responders have to do is answer a question once. From that point forward, draw from previous content with each subsequent RFP and customize as needed.

Since the proposal manager also has quick access to Content Library content, they easily fill in responses before assigning questions or sections to subject matter experts. All that’s required of SMEs is a simple “yay” or “nay” approval.

Across departments, everyone saves time when response content is automated, allowing your team to recapture hours spent hunting for RFP responses to focus instead on other high-value work.

RFP language translation assists global teams

Multi-lingual teams need RFP response software that builds bridges across language roadblocks. RFPIO’s language translation capabilities are designed for global teams, allowing your organization to enjoy authentic communication internally and with customers.

Within RFPIO, all you do is:

  • Click on the Q&A pair that needs to be translated.
  • In the “source language” drop-down, select the current language of the Q&A pair.
  • In the “target language” drop-down, select the language you want the Q&A pair to be translated into.
  • Click “translate” after that and you’re all set.
  • Bonus: Save translated content for future use.

Clarification needs are much more challenging when you speak a different language than your proposal management team or your customers and prospects. RFPIO’s translation tool helps your team translate response content into many different languages to improve global communication.

Everyone uses one solution for efficient content creation

Responders at your organization represent a vast ocean of talent. That’s why RFP response software like RFPIO supports an infinite sea of users (aka unlimited user licenses).

To create compelling and accurate RFP responses, multiple responders across the organization must be involved. Having unlimited user licenses means large collaborative teams get involved to efficiently craft the best possible content. Resource needs are divvied up in the response process, protecting resources so contributors never feel overwhelmed by too many RFP responsibilities.

Since everyone is using the same solution, the response process becomes more systematic and protected. For example, if down the road, a proposal manager or SME transitions out of a role or moves on to another job opportunity, a rich Content Library is left behind for the rest of the response management team.

Flexible and adaptive to support how you work best

When RFP response software is married to a streamlined process, your team experiences across-the-board efficiencies. Since RFPIO is easy to get off the ground, you can be up and running within a week and see immediate improvements.

Navigate the Content Library with ease

RFPIO’s user-friendly tagging and search capabilities allow your team to file away your content to be retrieved later at the drop of a hat. Tag content based on author, topic, language, vertical—or any other tags your team uses to organize the Content Library.

Up-to-date knowledge base

Since your content is centralized in the Content Library, it’s easy to update RFP responses so your team always finds the most current company information. Pre-scheduled content audit cycles help you stay on top of your content as well.

AI-powered answer recommendations

RFPIO’s recommendation engine is powered by artificial intelligence, automatically delivering the most relevant content in seconds. Automation eliminates the way your response team used to work, repeating content creation unnecessarily. Now key subject matter experts can focus on fact-checking and customization to increase the impact of your response content.

RFPIO is the solution of choice for thousands of responders. See why RFPIO is the best solution for you too.

Elevate the RFP process in your asset management organization

Elevate the RFP process in your asset management organization

Selling & Enablement

In asset management, the RFP process is critical to winning new business. The prospect directly references your RFP document during the sales conversation. You must convey your organization in the most professional, appealing manner possible.

You’re here looking for ways to improve your RFP process flow. You’ve heard that RFP software manages your RFP process from beginning to end, but you’re wondering how. If you’re ready to empower your team, stand out in a competitive industry, and win more deals…keep reading.

Gain a competitive edge with a collaborative RFP process

Asset management is easily one of the most competitive industries out there. Right now you’re seeing a deluge of RFPs coming from institutional investors. When you’re submitting an RFP to a large pension investor, know that they are receiving 30-40 other RFPs for that single mandate.

Your organization’s RFP responses must stand out. With the sheer volume of RFPs that growing firms experience, the pressure is compounded. You need the best possible answers from all subject matter experts (SMEs) to make the final product shine.

But to do that, you need a better RFP process. RFP software rises to efficiency challenges, transforming RFP process management into a well-orchestrated strategy.

With a simple user interface—and helpful integrations with communications tools like Slack and CRMs like Salesforce—your team saves valuable time. A robust content library that’s easy to navigate puts quality information at everyone’s fingertips. There’s even an auto-respond feature to automatically and appropriately populate responses.

Optimize collaboration by saving time and streamlining communication. When collaboration improves, the quality and quantity of the final product improve exponentially. And that’s the name of the game—better and more RFPs.

RFP software content management benefits

As the financial service industry tends to have complex products and services, your RFPs and security questionnaires contain a wealth of valuable information.

You want to protect that precious data and curate a centralized content library. Gathering all the best responses into your Content Library is just the beginning when you use RFP software.

Review cycles and content audits

The Content Library gives you review cycles to simplify the daunting task of managing content during RFP projects and content audits. On a quarterly basis, question and answer pairs are sent to relevant subject matter experts for review. This way, you ensure that whatever goes out to prospects and clients is always accurate and current.

User-friendly and searchable

The structure of an RFP software Content Library is highly user-friendly and easy to search. With the help of artificial intelligence, the Content Library suggests relevant content and offers an auto-respond feature that populates answers with one click. Use what you need, then customize messaging and requirements at will.

Accessible knowledge and empowerment

RFP software empowers everyone on your team by organizing company information and making that knowledge widely accessible. Implement a custom tagging strategy so your team accesses the right question/answer pair easily whenever they need up-to-date content for RFPs, RFIs, security questionnaires, sales training, or prospect emails…the RFP software use case list goes on.

Easily build compliance into your RFP process flow

In asset management, you know the importance of compliance oversight. Financial institutions like yours must comply with an ever-growing complex web of regulations.

Not only is compliance harder than ever, but the cost of failure is crippling. Anything your organization sends out to clients or prospects, from RFPs to DDQs, must be approved by your hard-working compliance team.

RFP software doubles as a risk management tool. The Content Library was built with compliance oversight in mind. Answer library reviews can be set up so that your compliance officer is a moderator. Any time response content is changed or new content is added, your compliance officer must approve and finalize it before the RFP goes out the door.

RFP software takes on compliance requirements, turning them into a win for financial services organizations. As you respond to a myriad of business queries, your organization will be safeguarded by a compliant RFP process.

Elevate your asset management RFP process with RFPIO.

How Smarsh’s RFP process persevered through a merger

How Smarsh’s RFP process persevered through a merger

Customer Stories

Alex and her team at Smarsh have been managing RFPs with RFPIO for a few years and have gotten their RFP process down to a science.

In 2018, the Sales Enablement team submitted 30 more RFPs/RFIs compared to 2017, and they’re continuing to break that record every year. RFPIO empowers their team to juggle upwards of 10 projects at a time, all while collaborating within the platform across 5 different time zones.

This being the case, when Alex learned that Smarsh was merging with another company—along with her beloved, fine-tuned RFPIO process—she knew things weren’t going to be easy. But she also knew the only thing to do was to take a deep breath and get to work.

Through her experience leading the post-merger integration to success, she learned three valuable lessons—that will hopefully help guide others faced with merging two RFP processes.

Lesson 1: Understand each team’s RFP processes

Alex knew that if she wanted to successfully integrate her two teams, everyone on the team needed to feel like their voices were heard.  The last thing Alex wanted was a situation where people aren’t happy with the new system and just continue with their old way of responding to RFPs.

To avoid this, she sat down with her new team members to better understand how they were using their RFP software. She wanted them to be able to share any aspects they liked, so we could integrate it into our new RFP process.

After Alex was sure she had all her people behind her, she started work on the details.

Lesson 2: Understand best practices for your post-merger RFP response integration

When faced with the task of merging two content libraries and two organizational systems, Alex did the only thing that made sense.

She called her account rep at RFPIO.

RFPIO walked Alex through content management best practices, provided a post-merger RFP process integration checklist, and also came on-site several times to offer additional support.

After those first few conversations, Alex had a solid game plan. The first order of business was deleting duplicate reports in each instance and making sure the question-and-answer (Q&A) pairs were up-to-date.

The next step was to consolidate their tags. Before the merger, they had over 400 tags. Under RFPIO’s advisement — and after many calls back and forth with the RFPIO team — Alex managed to knock down the number of tags she had to less than 40.

“I practically had our account reps on speed dial. I feel very fortunate that they were there every step of the way and were willing to take my calls morning, noon, and night.”

Lesson 3: Trust your RFP software provider

Leading up to the merger, Alex was on a mission to start the content migration with an absolutely flawless content library. So she worked diligently to polish every Q&A pair to absolute perfection.

“But then I came to the realization that perfect is the enemy of good,” Alex admitted, “so I finally let go and decided to give RFPIO the OK to start the content migration.”

“I remember telling RFPIO we were ready to do the content migration and going home for the day. The next morning when I came into work, the content migration was already done. We were operating in one system. The first thing I thought was, ‘Wow, this is great! Why didn’t we do this six months ago?’”

The best thing you can do is stick to your deadlines, keep the project moving along — and, of course, ask your RFP software provider for help.

“I can’t recommend enough that any company going through a merger leverage the processes and the folks available at RFPIO. It makes the process a lot easier than starting from scratch.”

Get started now. Schedule a demo and start fostering a collaborative environment with RFPIO.

Transform your RFP document workflow with RFP automation

Transform your RFP document workflow with RFP automation

Product & Best Practices

Responding to a request for proposal is living proof of the old adage, “It takes a village.” With so many contributors and so many moving parts, RFP branding is far from consistent. If you’re reading this, marketer, chances are you’re looking for a better way to execute RFP documents.

Your attention is always divided amongst projects, including RFPs. Your energy is best spent on creating quality content and refining your marketing strategy, not the mechanics of reformatting spreadsheets. But, you know how important RFP responses are to your organization—and you have the content expertise and stamina to knock them out of the park.

Ultimately, you strive to promote brand consistency and increase revenue. And that takes time and effort. RFP branding is easier and more cohesive with automated exporting features. Get ready to transform your RFP document workflow with a smarter approach and RFP automation.

Improve your RFP document workflow in 5 steps

An RFP is a selling document. It should speak for your organization and convey your brand’s purpose and vision. How can you safeguard against branding and messaging inconsistencies to deliver a winning RFP document? By improving your workflow first.

1. Apply content creation efficiency to RFPs

Use your in-depth content expertise to make recommendations that speed up and smooth out the creation process. You produce more content than anyone else at your organization. Help your proposal management team draft responses in the most efficient way possible. The more time you have to refine your RFP document later, the better off you’ll be with your deliverable.

2. Establish roles in your RFP workflow

Together, with your proposal manager, define who is involved in the content creation cycle with every request for proposal. Your sales team handles pricing and clarifies questions with the issuer. You and your team review for brand consistency before executives sign off. Document your RFP response process so the workflow is defined from start to finish.

RFP process and steps

3. Protect your RFP response content

Be clear that only your team creates, manages, and approves all of your organization’s RFP content. Subject matter experts (SMEs) own specific questions and sections. But your team owns the final RFP document generated as a result of that collaboration before the issuer ever lays eyes on it.

4. Curate and cultivate your content library

The epicenter of a great RFP response process is the RFP content library. When curated and cultivated effectively, it’s really your internal knowledge center. Every step of the way, your team will have ready-made, reusable content at their fingertips. The final deliverable is that much easier for you when approved content is accessible to other contributors.

5. Spend time on the presentation

At the end of the workflow, after all of the information and content is pieced together, you’ll be prepared for final formatting and export. With a clear division of labor, you maintain control over the final document and can dedicate time and attention to the important details of the presentation. The result is a polished, professional, and engaging RFP document.

Make RFP branding seamless with RFP automation

“As an RFP responder, really we’re the front line. It’s important that what we’re giving prospects is relevant, timely, and accurate. For a lot of our prospects, an RFP is one of our first touchpoints. It’s where we develop our tone, brand consistency, and professionalism. It’s really about ensuring all of those elements are met through RFPIO, and that we’re putting our best foot forward.”

Hope Henderson is the Marketing Communications Coordinator for Alera Group, one of RFPIO’s customers, and a brand consistency champion for RFPs. She stresses the critical nature of RFPs and marketing’s key role in that process. So, how does RFPIO ensure all of those elements are met?

As you are putting all the pieces of the puzzle together, your deliverable might resemble a crazy patchwork quilt rather than a cohesive RFP document. You spend valuable time reformatting everything to create the final deliverable…and that’s just one RFP document of potentially hundreds you will encounter in a single year. RFP automation supports your efforts to save you time and standardize content.

RFPIO offers customizable export templates. It’s up to you to maximize RFP document potential through these capabilities. Template customization for RFP documents looks different for everyone, but the point is that it’s your tool for your team.

Create templates that represent unique branding needs and simply export your content in that chosen template during the final stages of your RFP project. Are you a SaaS company with a product that serves healthcare and financial organizations? If your organization works with different verticals, design a template with distinct branding for each vertical.

All you do is run the RFP document through its appropriate template, and the formatting is polished for you. No more realigning lists and resizing headers and fonts. By using RFPIO, you end up with a well-designed, polished RFP document that represents your organization through professionalism and brand consistency.

RFP automation is a natural progression for marketers searching for advanced content creation methods with RFP documents. Transformation starts with improving your workflow, then finding technology that supports your content creation goals.

RFPIO is here to help you automate and elevate your RFP documents. Reach out for a demo to start transforming your workflow.

How to get your team on board with RFP management software

How to get your team on board with RFP management software

Product & Best Practices

RFPs are highly complex projects. As a proposal manager, you work under a deadline to captain the whole ship. Responding to an RFP means you need all hands on deck. Your crew members (aka RFP contributors) all squeeze responses into their hectic schedules to help out.

Here are RFP response contributor insights you’ll find interesting:

  • 68% of salespeople struggle with managing their time to focus on sales-related activities.
  • 43% of marketers mentioned their top hurdle was wearing too many hats and not having time for extra projects, like RFPs.
  • 43% of subject matter experts revealed their top challenge was spending too much time on RFP responses.

You know collaboration is the key to getting the job done. But you also know what you’re up against with your team. RFP management software is the right solution for your organization. Now you just need to get everyone on board. Check out these strategies for getting team buy-in.

Involve key stakeholders to create early buy-in

Your product and IT teams dream of an efficient method for managing security questionnaires. Your legal team yearns for a well-maintained, readily accessible content library. Salespeople want to give proper attention to RFPs but don’t want to lose focus on making sales. Your go-to SMEs would love a way to collaborate more effectively and ditch the spreadsheets.

Your response management team might not yet realize what you already know—the solution is RFP management software.

When searching for the right RFP software, it’s best to know exactly what people need—so ask them. Create a cross-functional project team to identify salient challenges with your RFP response process. That way players join forces to define their requirements and goals.

Be sure to involve heavy-hitters like your security, finance, and legal teams. If you generate early buy-in from the people most closely entwined with leadership, you’ll catalyze whole enterprise buy-in.

When you link stakeholders in early, they are already sold on the solution before it ever rolls out. Everyone will be itching to use the great new software that transforms collaboration and makes RFP responses hyper-efficient.

Market RFP management software to your team

When you ask team members to use something new, they may be reluctant to take time out of their busy day to learn it. RFP management software exponentially improves operational efficiency.

Once you get your team to jump in and try it, they’ll discover a user-friendly experience and see immediate benefits. So what’s the secret to inspiring RFP contributors to take that leap of faith? Market the solution to your team with the following selling points…

1. Prove that RFP management software saves time

RFP management software like RFPIO has a timer function that tracks how long team members spend on specific tasks.

Let’s say you’re under a tight deadline and you need a few quick details for an RFP. You seek out one of your best (and therefore, in-demand) SMEs. They want to help you but think they can’t find the time. This is when you show them the time data. When they see that an RFP response only takes twenty minutes, they’ll likely pop into the project and get it done.

2. Show how easy it is to access and create content

You’ll facilitate better collaboration with RFP management software, thanks to the Content Library. In fact, 82% of proposal managers said RFPIO helps them manage response content all in one place.

A major component of smooth collaboration is the ability to source information independently when it’s needed. RFP response software has a robust, dynamic content library—meaning, no more information hunts or silos. Tell everyone about this exciting news. Let them know that when they get their next action item, they’ll have quick and easy access to quality content.

3. Train closely, inspire change, and demonstrate value

You’ve done the work upfront to get team buy-in…but we all know there’s always one in the bunch—the anti-change person. Work with this person. Do some personalized training and get them inside the tool, trying things out. Then, pinpoint exactly what they dislike and target a solution. Maybe they hate automated email reminders—so, show them how to change their settings.

Share success stories with your team and demonstrate the value of RFP response software to even the most reluctant users. Publish testimonials and statistics in a newsletter and quantify the results in concrete, relatable terms.

You are the captain of your RFP response process. Get everyone on board with RFP management software, and don’t let them jump ship. With these strategies and a little persistence, you’ll be well on your way to smooth sailing with your next RFP. Experience the collaborative power of RFPIO. Schedule a demo, then get your team on board.

See how it feels to respond with confidence

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