Want to start winning RFPs but the response process gives you a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach? You’re not alone. Every proposal writer knows what it feels like to spend hours searching through spreadsheets, emails and old RFP bids for answers. After all, they know they’ve answered this before! All too often, when they finally locate the content, they discover the answer is outdated.
Then, you feel guilty for interrupting a subject matter expert to get critical proposal content. Meanwhile, you know they have their own pressing concerns. All of this to complete a bid that has no guarantee of winning new business … Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be this way.
By following the five tips listed below, you can simplify the proposal process and create winning RFPs that land your organization on the shortlist.
Responding to every RFP that comes in the door doesn’t increase your chances of winning new business. In fact, it wastes time and resources.
For example, if you don’t have an existing relationship with the issuer, experts say your chances of winning are very low. And, every second you spend chasing a low-probability opportunity is time you’re not focused on the deals you’re more likely to close.
So, stop going after deals that aren’t a good fit for your company. Focus on winning RFPs that support your business goals. The best way to do this is to use a bid or no bid process.
2. Define your RFP process
Once you’ve decided to bid on a project, determine the most efficient way to complete the proposal.
If you don’t have an RFP team or proposal coordinator, don’t worry — a lot of companies don’t have those roles. Just make sure to clearly define ownership with aRACI matrix and responsibilities in the RFP process. That way everyone knows who is involved, what the expectations are and when the deadlines are.
If possible, give yourself 72 hours or so to proofread and add the final touches before submitting the bid. This will also give you time to ensure the responses carry the same voice and tone, which can take work when multiple stakeholders provide content.
3. Assign proposal tasks early
Start assigning tasks as soon as you receive the RFP. Whatever you do, do NOT procrastinate. Remember, if you have to engage subject matter experts, proposals are lower on their priority list so it may take some time to get the answers you need.
Giving them as much time to answer questions as possible will help them balance their priorities and help create winning RFPs. In addition, it prevents you from scrambling to add their content at the last minute.
4. Be genuine — Customize canned answers
If you use canned responses, the people who score the submission will see right through it. Instead, you should provide customized responses that directly address their most pressing concerns.
So, how can you give your team more time to customize answers? Great question! Stop reinventing the wheel with every RFP response. It’s imperative you develop a centralized repository of proposal content you can quickly access and tailor to each RFP.
This can be daunting, I know. But it’s absolutely worth it. Start by compiling answers from recent, successful RFP bids. You’ll know the content is up to date because the bid is recent, and you’ll know it’s compelling because you won the bid. Then, create a list of the most frequently asked questions and start collecting answers.
You may need help from some of your team with this step. Don’t hesitate to ask. They’ll likely be happy to help knowing this will prevent them from having to answer the same questions over and over again.
5. Highlight how you are different, but don’t give away your secret sauce
Keep it simple. Provide value through substance, not superfluous detail. For example, a public relations firm might want to detail how their industry contacts and relationships can help a potential client get the exposure and press they’re looking for.
They won’t, however, want to list those contacts to prospects — it provides little value, can potentially undermine the sale and may even sour those critical relationships.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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?
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.
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
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.
Does your business have an effective RFP strategy? When it comes to RFPs, organizations generally take one of two approaches. Either they respond to every RFP they receive, or they ignore them completely and opt out of the process. Unfortunately, neither option could be called strategic. One wastes time and the other ignores potential opportunities.
In the middle of these two opposite approaches is an RFP strategy that will improve your chances of winning while ensuring your time is used wisely. With some consideration, time and helpful tips you can discover how to use RFPs as a tool to grow your business.
In this blog, I’ll define what an RFP strategy is. Then, I’ll explore the flaws in common approaches to RFPs and why they work well. Finally, I’ll offer some tips to help you make your RFP strategy a success. With these things in mind, you can build a process that saves time, optimizes your proposals and empowers you to win more business.
So, what exactly is an RFP strategy? An RFP strategy is how your business receives, reviews and approaches requests for proposals. In addition, it clearly defines goals and expected outcomes. Finally, an RFP strategy serves as a guide for decisions to bid or not to bid.
Factors to consider when creating your RFP strategy:
How many RFPs do you respond to in a year?
What is your RFP win rate?
On average, how much time does an RFP response require?
Typically, how much value does an RFP opportunity represent?
What percentage of revenue is a result of successful proposals?
These questions will help you define the role that RFPs play in your business. With that information in mind, you can start to build your RFP strategy by considering the results that could be achieved with small changes to your current approach.
RFP strategies are often part of larger business development initiatives. For instance, Viewpoint, a computer software, created an RFP strategy for business development. According to Mark Vignolo, Viewpoint’s Manager of Sales:
“I’m not entirely sure that we are unique, but I can tell you that we definitely see our share of RFPs. One of the things I’ve mentioned during the sales process is, when somebody gets a 1000-question RFP, nobody’s happy to receive that.
But when an RFP comes in, you can’t say no. Really, it’s the gateway to getting involved in the sales process.”
With the goal of growth in mind, they adopted RFP software to streamline their process and enable their existing staff to leverage their proposal content library and collaborate more effectively. Their typical response time went down by 20-30 percent.
RFP strategy example
To illustrate, if Viewpoint were to define its RFP strategy, it might look like this:
Our company uses RFPs to win new business. The goal of our strategy is to increase both the number of RFPs we respond to as well as our win rates. We will do this by increasing our team efficiency as well as improving the quality of our RFP content.
We receive RFPs directly from customers as well as through RFP databases and open bids. We increase efficiency by 20-30 percent by leveraging RFP software to automate RFP responses, ensure consistency and collaborate with subject matter experts (SMEs) and stakeholders.
If successful, business secured from RFPs will represent 30 percent of new revenue, a 15 percent increase over last year.
Why common approaches to RFPs don’t work
It’s no secret that RFPs are not well-loved. As mentioned above, businesses frequently adopt an extreme all-or-nothing policy when it comes to responding to RFPs. If either of these approaches sound familiar, it may be time for a better RFP strategy.
The shotgun approach: Answering them all
If you answer every RFP, you may find yourself thinking, “Why do I need an RFP strategy? It’s simple, an RFP comes in and we answer it. Then, we wait to find out if we won.” This reactive approach is unpredictable, chaotic and inconsistently rewarding. In fact, not being selective often results in a low RFP win rate, a burned-out proposal team and a whole lot of wasted time.
The problem is that businesses that answer every RFP often don’t calculate the cost of the time spent creating a proposal. Subsequently, they neglect to weigh their investment with the likelihood of winning.
Not only does answering every RFP mean that you’re wasting time, it likely also means that your RFP responses aren’t customized to the buyer’s needs. The results? At best, you don’t win the RFP. At worst, you make a bad impression and the potential customer remembers you for all the wrong reasons.
The take-my-ball-and-go-home approach: Opting out of the RFP process
On the opposite end of the spectrum is the second common approach to RFPs — not participating at all. Unfortunately, it’s a common situation: the deck was stacked against you. You’ve spent time researching, collaborating and crafting an RFP response, honing it until it was pure perfection, only to discover that there was no real chance of winning. Lo and behold, your work-of-art proposal was merely rounding out the required trio of proposals in a farce of due diligence.
Some businesses that have run into this situation one too many times, simply refuse to answer RFPs altogether. While it’s an understandable reaction, refusing to engage altogether means the business misses out on genuine opportunities for which they might have been the perfect fit. These organizations limit their potential for growth, miss out on insights that could be gained from RFP data and force customers to work outside of the proven RFP process — it’s an approach that few can afford long term.
If neither of these options sounds ideal, you’re right. There’s a better way, and it starts with defining an RFP strategy.
5 tips to make the most of your RFP strategy
1. Adopt a proactive RFP approach
When it comes to receiving RFPs, many businesses just wait for them to arrive in their inbox. However, if you’re looking to grow your business, being proactive pays. After all, you can’t respond to an RFP if you don’t know it exists.
Encourage client-facing team members to ask questions about potential customers’ procurement process. Do they plan to issue an RFP? If the answer is yes, offer to be a resource for them as they create their RFP. For example, Cegid, a business management solution, created The ultimate guide for building an RFP for talent acquisition in 3 steps.
Because they offer this guide, they deliver genuine value for their customers. In addition, they position themselves as a leader in the industry and stand a good chance of receiving the subsequent RFP, packed with questions they wrote themselves.
2. Pair your RFP strategy with capture management
Capture management is the process of gathering insight, building a connection with a potential customer and strategizing how to win RFPs that are upcoming. The goal of capture planning is to put you in a favorable position long before the RFP is issued.
Using a capture management plan as a part of your RFP approach for particularly valuable opportunities increases your chances of success. If you’re interested in learning more about how to create a capture management plan, check out this blog: Capture management: The plan to win.
3. Be picky about which RFPs you respond to
As you create your strategy, improving your RFP win rate will likely come up. One of the fastest ways to give it a boost is to simply decline to bid on opportunities that aren’t a good fit or you’re unlikely to win.
The decision to bid or not to bid should be based on five factors:
The big picture: Does this opportunity align with your business’s long-term goals?
Capability: Is your business equipped to fulfill the RFP requirements?
Profitability: Will the project be profitable?
History: Do we have proposal content from a previous RFP in our knowledge library?
Competition: Do you know who you’re competing against and can you win?
Remember, if you decide not to bid, it’s a good idea to clearly communicate your intention with the RFP issuer. In some cases, the issuer will respond, asking you specifically to provide a proposal and offering additional insight that might sway your decision. Not only that but the extra courtesy and communication will make you memorable and ensure you’re not excluded from future opportunities.
4. Adopt RFP software to improve the RFP process and collect data
When it comes to execution of your RFP strategy, you may find yourself in need of a little help. RFP software centralizes the proposal process and streamlines it with RFP automation. When responding to RFPs, an RFP management system allows you to quickly access past proposal content, confer with SMEs and track proposal progress. Additionally, it enables greater collaboration, improved efficiency and data collection. It’s truly a game-changer.
Speaking of data, if you’re not already tracking your RFP data including your win rate, start now. The benefits of capturing RFP data are numerous. Tracking your win rate is the best way to understand how you’re winning, why you’re winning and how to win RFPs more often. Additionally, with RFP data you can optimize your proposal process, predict RFP trends and quantify the value you deliver to your business.
5. Share your strategy with the business
RFPs inevitably require participation from people across your organization. So, it is helpful to define your team and bring them into your plan. A well-documented approach helps to guide all departments that interact with the proposal process from sales to legal. Certainly the better they understand the process, the more likely they are to participate effectively.
Finally, share your success stories. It’s not uncommon for SMEs and stakeholders to circle back with the proposal coordinator to ask, “Whatever happened with that big RFP we worked on?” While you may not need a full debrief for every opportunity, it’s important to close the loop. Celebrate wins and share lessons learned from lost opportunities. Always use the knowledge to continue optimizing and improving your RFP strategy.
Final thoughts
A well-defined RFP strategy can streamline your proposal process, help you win RFPs and make your team more efficient. Subsequently enabling you to respond to even more RFPs and win more business. As time goes on, the benefits compound and your RFP strategy will continue to pay dividends.
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.
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.
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.
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.
With an aging population, it might not surprise you to learn that healthcare is the fastest-growing industry in the world. It’s no coincidence that insurance companies, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, and other healthcare organizations also have the fastest-growing demand for products and services.
To help ensure all vendors meet their budgets, timelines, and other requirements when purchasing those products and services, healthcare organizations, like those in other industries, issue requests for proposals (RFP).
What is a healthcare RFP?
A healthcare RFP is a way for buyers to collect and organize necessary information for evaluating potential vendors. RFPs are structured in a questionnaire format, giving organizations a clear, side-by-side comparison of the prospects bidding on the project. Most importantly, each new RFP is an opportunity for new suppliers and vendors to win new business.
In this blog post, we’ll discuss the unique challenges with healthcare RFPs and best practices to benefit both buyers and vendors.
Elements of a healthcare RFP
A healthcare RFP should include:
The project background and an overview of the problem
The ultimate project goals
Description of needed goods or services and budget
The RFP timeline and vendor deadlines
RFP decision requirements including qualification, submission and evaluation criteria
The organization’s terms, conditions, and regulatory requirements
A vendor security questionnaire (although that might fall later in the buying cycle)
Identify the issue, assess specific needs, and define the scope of a project. Understanding the core of the issue will enable an understanding of what the best solution is. Collaborate with stakeholders to prioritize the factors that will help you make your final selection.
Before writing your RFP, select prospective vendors, conduct research, and explore industry trends to ensure relevancy when drafting your RFP.
Using feedback from your internal teams, your research, and the background you’ve learned, you can draft your RFP.
2. Administration
Whether you issue your RFP publicly or to a select group of prospective participants will depend on the regulations that govern your procurement process.
During the question and answer period, collect and collate any necessary clarifications, providing uniformed questions to all prospects to ensure fairness.
3. Evaluation
Review your collected RFP responses and start by reviewing them for compliance. Next, ensure that vendors meet the stated minimum requirements. After that, score sections that contain closed-ended questions. An RFP software solution can save time by scoring automatically.
Engage SMEs and stakeholders for more complex response evaluation before making your final selection. An RFP management platform can simplify side-by-side comparisons when making a decision.
3 tips for responding to a healthcare RFP
Create and optimize a content library – Cut down on repetitive work by saving and organizing past RFP questions and responses, as well as templates. Proposal software can centralize your knowledge base and automate your workflow by suggesting answers to previously seen questions.
Streamline SME collaboration – A content library can help you complete as much of the proposal as possible before sending it to your SMEs. By suggesting potential answers based on past proposals, you lighten the SMEs’ load and complete RFPs in less time.
Only answer RFPs you can win – Consider RFP deadlines, available resources, requirements and deal-breakers. A powerful software tool can facilitate bid or no bid decisions.
Improve efficiency by removing emails from the response process
RFPIO seamlessly integrates with most of the tools you might use to send and receive RFPs, including five CRMs and four communication apps.
Scale your response process as industry and customer needs change
RFPIO’s AI-enabled Content Library lets admins and approved users quickly update stored messaging to simplify adapting to changing market needs.
Keep your content current
Built-in curation tools quickly help you create content review cycles, find duplicate content, and flag posts that need review.
Ensure regulatory compliance
Embed compliance reviews right into your workflow to make sure all content is compliant and simplify security questionnaires.
Healthcare companies respond faster with RFPIO
RFPIO is the response management platform of choice for leaders in the healthcare industry.
The key area we’re seeing success with RFPIO is being able to handle multiple RFPs at the same time. There’s no way we could have simultaneously responded to 16 RFPs with a two-person team if we were still using a manual process.
Learn from the experts on response
Healthcare procurement and fulfillment is complex with multiple regulatory requirements. RFPIO is a tool designed to streamline the process by helping proposal professionals navigate complexities, enabling them to craft clear and compelling documents.
Schedule a demo. We’ll demonstrate how RFPIO might help you focus on the most important parts of your job and safeguard compliance.
You may have heard the adage that 80 percent of a company’s business comes from 20 percent of its customers. Many call these big customers “whales.”
Whether or not that number holds true for your company, big-ticket sales are the holy grail for any business. While sales teams would love their whale customers to click “buy” on their website and call it a deal, large purchases require time and due diligence on the buyer’s part and at least an equal amount of effort on the seller’s part.
Requests for proposals (RFPs) precede most large purchases and they specifically outline the customers’ requirements and goals and define the bidding process and desired contract terms. A typical RFP could have 100s to 1,000s of questions.
If that sounds like a lot, I’m not going to lie; it is. Strategic RFP response management requires expertise from multiple stakeholders across the organization, a tightly coordinated set of deliverables, and an excellent wordsmith or two.
Now for the good news.
The right RFP response management processes help make short work of creating winning proposals.
This blog post will show you how to create timely, accurate, and compelling proposals by establishing systematic response processes and hopefully land more whales.
Understanding RFP management
RFP management, at least from the vendor side, is the process of organizing and responding to requests for proposals. Of course, that definition is simplistic. RFP response management is about choosing whether an RFP is worth a response and coordinating subject matter experts (SMEs), stakeholders, deadlines and deliverables, and a postmortem.
A typical RFP response includes:
A cover letter – Much like when you apply for a job, and perhaps even more so, a cover letter is an opportunity to shine beyond the document’s limitations. It may include information that shows you know what they need, how your company can address those needs, and maybe a little flattery, or at least a statement demonstrating that you’d like to work with them.
An executive summary – An executive summary dives deeper than a cover letter. It might show how you plan to address the customer’s needs, competitive differentiators, and why your company is an expert.
An implementation plan – This is usually part of the questionnaire. The implementation plan is about how you will meet customer needs, including timelines, onboarding and customer service team members, and so on.
Terms of the deal – This section details the costs, postimplementation support, and a contract. Note that the customer may not sign that particular contract, but it will show them the terms and conditions.
References – Potential customers want to know that you have a track record of meeting similar needs to theirs. Include at least a couple of references from a similar industry, size, or type of product or service.
The Response management process
Do you want to know my favorite part of a great RFP response management process? Cheating. As a matter of fact, cheating is encouraged, if not the only way, to respond effectively.
Below is the RFP process created by our response experts. You’ll get to the cheating part in step three, but please don’t skip steps one and two.
Step one – Should you bid or should you (no-)go?
Not all RFPs align with your business’s goals or capabilities. It’s okay to choose not to respond to an RFP that you probably won’t or might not want to win.
Step two – Hold a kickoff meeting
The most critical part of an RFP process comes before you ever receive an RFP. You should know your stakeholders and have a list of subject matter experts (SMEs) with their areas of expertise and availability.
Once you do receive the RFP, call a meeting with your SMEs, writers, editors, and others involved in the project. Fill them in on their roles, responsibilities, and deliverable deadlines.
Step three – First draft
Step three is almost fun, at least it should be if you have an up-to-date content and document library. Let the library do much of the work for you by responding to the questions you’ve seen before with its stored question-and-answer pairs.
Step four – Second draft
Depending on the age and health of your content library, you might arrive at step four with 80 percent of the work already done. Now is the time to roll up your sleeves and answer the rest of the questions. You will probably need to involve your SMEs.
Step five – Review and revise
When attempting to convey that your product or service is the best for the buyer’s needs, your RFP response should be perfect. Are your answers, including those from the content library, accurate and well-written? Are there any typos or grammatical errors?
Step six – Submit the response
Your response is polished and perfect and hopefully on time, if not early. Submit it as soon as it’s ready and wait for a receipt.
Step seven – Save and audit the responses
Your RFP response contains valuable information that is certain to be useful for future RFPs. Set yourself up for success by auditing your new responses and storing those with value in your content library.
Step eight – Postmortem
Even if you’ve answered every question with relevant and beautifully worded responses, your company’s product or service is a perfect match for the buyer, and even if you won the bid, you should always take a moment to assess what went right and what went wrong.
Perhaps you find a bottleneck in your process or rely too heavily on a particularly busy SME who’s understandably slow to respond. Addressing those or other problems before the next project will help you prevent those issues from undermining your subsequent response.
The challenges of response management
Response management is challenging. Even the best response teams need help. Heck, even our response management teams need help. Here are some roadblocks you might encounter:
Lack of time – It can take days or even weeks to respond to an RFP. RFP software can cut that time in half or better.
Strict deadlines – An RFP deadline is pretty much set in stone. A slow internet connection can mean the difference between winning and losing a deal. Try to submit your proposal early to avoid unforeseen delays.
Disorganized content library – A well-maintained knowledge base will save you days on a typical response. A poorly maintained knowledge repository will force stakeholders to search for answers and annoy SMEs, who might have to repeat themselves.
Siloed and distributed workforces – RFP response is collaborative by definition. When stakeholders are spread throughout the organization and even the world, let’s just say that herding cats seems like a comparative breeze. A great RFP response platform should have its own collaboration tools and work with your existing ones.
Security risks – When a company suffers a data breach, it affects customer confidence and the bottom line. Be sure your RFP response platform has strict security protocols.
How to manage RFP responses
Perhaps repeatability is the ultimate sign of a great process—or is it agility?
Imagine attempting to scale Mount Everest without a guide. An experienced guide knows all the well-worn trails and how to respond to changing conditions. Responding to an RFP is far less perilous than climbing Everest, but the principles are the same.
Optimize time management with automation
Your SMEs are some of the busiest people in your organization. Respect your stakeholders’ time by letting your process do most of the work. RFPIO leverages artificial intelligence to guide you to the correct answers to an RFP’s questions.
Scale your response management process
Response resource needs are tough to predict. One response might need dozens of stakeholders, while another might only need a few. You might have one RFP on your plate this week, but next week three more will appear.
Too few user licenses might force you to ignore some RFPs, while too many are a waste. RFPIO doesn’t have user licenses. Our scalable platform enables you to assign the exact personnel you need for each response without it affecting your team’s budget.
Upgrade your content management approach
A well-maintained content management system allows you to access company history, documents, hiring procedures, financial information, and much more. It also protects your SMEs’ time by ensuring they won’t have to repeat past answers.
Regularly audit your content management system to ensure that everything is accurate and up to date.
Facilitate collaboration
RFP response management is a team effort. If your company is anything like RFPIO, you have SMEs and other stakeholders distributed worldwide. Even if not, pinning people down for in-person meetings is a challenge.
RFPIO enhances collaboration either directly through the project management platform or any of its third-party integration partners, such as Slack, Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams, and so on.
Employ branded response templates
Add the final sheen to your polished and perfected response with branded response templates tailored to your organization.
What is knowledge management?
Knowledge management is about capturing, storing, organizing, maintaining, and generally managing all of the information that is valuable enough for a company to keep. That might include incorporation papers, financial statements, hiring policies, product information, customer details, and so on.
Effective knowledge management also includes regular audits to ensure all the information is current and relevant. It should also flag records for disposal according to “shred by” regulations. Ideally, all knowledge should be easily accessible to those who need it.
Improving RFP knowledge management
Organizations and their employees lose a lot of time to improper knowledge management. An IDC study found that employees spend an average of 14 hours a week trying to locate data. A McKinsey survey found that searchable knowledge bases can reduce that time spent by as much as 35 percent.
RFPIO’s Content Library helps organizations improve their RFP (and companywide) knowledge management by providing a repository for all their company content and documentation in an easily accessible and highly-searchable, thanks to machine learning, single source of truth.
Scale organizational content
I like to shop. Perhaps you do too. As we both know, if we keep bringing new items into our homes without clearing out the old, we’ll soon overflow and might have trouble locating our favorite comfy sweaters.
Just as we occasionally need to clean out our drawers and closets, a well-organized knowledge management approach needs regular content auditing to ensure accuracy, relevancy, and timeliness. RFPIO helps you make data-driven decisions when streamlining and scaling your content library.
Conduct regular review cycles by turning to RFPIO to identify the content you use and the content you don’t. Additional reporting metrics include answer accuracy and who is using the content.
Remember, RFPIO’s unlimited user model lets you engage maintenance help from any team member.
Centralize your content library
You might have a distributed and siloed workforce, but a centralized content library consolidates and democratizes your organization’s knowledge base.
Future-proof your knowledge base
Your needs today look very different from your needs tomorrow. You can help future-proof your knowledge base by performing regular audits.
RFPIO gently reminds you when it’s time for your scheduled Content Library audit, ensuring that your content is accurate and current. The more often you issue new product features or releases, the more you should audit your content.
Another often overlooked component of future-proofing is creating a succession plan. Sure, you might plan on staying with your company until retirement, but perhaps you’ll receive a job offer you can’t refuse or simply choose to take a vacation.
Make sure you have a plan in place in your absence, which includes training others on the content library, including familiarizing them with tagging practices, and so on.
Choosing response management software
Maximizing your response output without adding employees will likely require help from a response management software. What are the key components of advanced response management software?
Import/export capabilities – RFPs arrive in multiple formats, including Microsoft Word, Excel, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and sometimes even PDFs. Advanced response software lets you import from any of the most commonly used formats, work within your familiar platform, and export into the buyer’s format.
Content management – Access all your stored question-and-answer pairs with a few clicks. Better yet, advanced response software leverages machine learning to help you find the correct answers fast and do most of the work for you.
Integrations – Response software should work within your existing applications to foster ultimate productivity and collaboration.
Artificial intelligence – Access automated answers, track progress, and generate reports using advanced AI.
How a response management platform can support your revenue team
The same features that facilitate response management help enable sales. Most large sales include proposals and documents such as due diligence and security questionnaires. RFPIO seamlessly integrates with sales enablement, CRM, and vendor assessment tools.
Increase your win rate with RFPIO
Respond to more RFPs, and boost your win rate without adding personnel by leveraging RFPIO’s advanced response software.
Case study
RFPIO helped a human resources organization double its win rate thanks to the Content Library. Before RFPIO, their teams spent most of their time searching for answers to questions they’d answered before.
For those answers they did have stored, they’d often find themselves correcting errors directly in the proposal rather than in the system, meaning the mistakes were being passed down to future responses. RFPIO made it easy to store, find, and correct answers within the system, saving hours on each response, while the professional responses helped significantly boost the win rate.
See how RFPIO can help you build better bids and increase your win rate by taking us for a test drive.
Response management software FAQs
What is an RFP? – Businesses, nonprofits, and governmental agencies issue requests for proposals when seeking bids for large purchases.
Who owns the response management process? – Response management ownership depends on a company’s organizational structure. Some have dedicated response management teams, and in others, sales personnel might own the process.
Do manual response processes work? – Manual response processes do work. However, they are inefficient and have trouble keeping up with growing needs.
What kind of organizations issue RFPs? – Any type of organization can issue RFPs.
How does artificial intelligence help the response process? – I will let data scientists and software developers debate whether AI is actually more intelligent than human brains (I’m team human, at least for now), but it is undeniably faster. It can find relevant responses within seconds, while humans might take minutes or more.
How many users can RFPIO support at one time? – RFPIO is a project-based platform rather than user-based. Go ahead and assign as many users as you need.
Does RFPIO integrate with other business applications? – RFPIO seamlessly integrates with more than two dozen of the most popular business applications.
Is RFPIO secure? – RFPIO offers best-in-class security protocols and is trusted by highly secure tech companies such as Microsoft, Google, Visa, Facebook, and far more.
I like to think of RFP response managers as the unsung heroes of their organizations. In a typical company, around fourty-five percent of revenue begins with an RFP, and response is becoming more and more competitive every day.
In addition to having a range of titles — proposal manager, bid manager, capture manager, or RFP manager — response managers wear a lot of hats. They’re part researcher, part writer, part salesperson, and part ringleader, although they may claim that they’re more than part ringleader. Keeping up with that evolving skill set can be exhausting!
You could go back to school, I suppose, or you can hone your skills through blogs. Every morning, I read a handful of curated blog posts to help up my game. They’re quick, convenient, and easy to come back to when interrupted, and the great ones make me feel a little bit smarter.
In this post, I will share some of my favorite blogs. Some are about RFPs and response management and others dust off and refine all those other hats you wear.
Gartner is a fantastic resource for all things tech. They offer business consulting and some of the most thorough statistical research out there. The blog contextualizes their research and offers invaluable actionable insights to increase revenue and navigate a dynamic business environment.
Generating revenue is the single most important business goal. As a writer, I like to feel as though I am part of the revenue generation process, although not directly. My colleagues in the marketing department and I are responsible for creating brand awareness and helping our sales department sell. Does that make marketing “sales enablement?” Is RFPIO a sales enablement platform? Doug Bushée with Gartner thinks so.
“(Sales enablement is) an opportunity to help your sales force be more effective, not just through technology or training but with a complete package that includes content, technology, communications, sales process, and training to enable your sales teams to drive revenue.” – Doug Bushée
McKinsey & Company is an OG in the management consulting world. While their blog isn’t specifically geared toward RFP response, they offer insights and best practices for all verticals and organizational structures. Many in the response industry look to McKinsey for inspiration or statistics for their own blogs. McKinsey’s blog covers a wide range of topics including mergers and acquisitions, analytics, risk management, sales operations, and more.
You’d be hard-pressed to find an industry with more variables, at least when it comes to proposals, than construction. The larger the project, the more difficult the bidding process. Most (we hope) companies don’t want to underbid, but all too often, it happens. This blog post explores the psychological factors behind underbidding.
“Why do project planners, on average, fail to forecast their effect on the costs of complex projects? We’ve covered this territory before but continue to see companies making strategic decisions based on inaccurate data. Deliberately or not, costs are systematically underestimated and benefits are overestimated during project preparation—because of delusions or honest mistakes on one hand and deceptions or strategic manipulation of information or processes on the other.” – McKinsey & Company
I am sort of obsessed with reviews. I refuse to try a new hair stylist, dog groomer, or restaurant without first checking their online reviews. I’m that annoying person who scans QR codes in the aisles of Costco or Target to make sure I’m making the best buying decisions.
Before accepting my job with RFPIO, I made sure it was a cultural fit for me and I checked G2 to see what their customers had to say about the platform. G2 is more than a software review site. Its blog is a phenomenal source of information for nearly every vertical and every skill set.
Most RFP responses require several stakeholders, which is where that unofficial role of ringmaster comes in. Guest blogger Susmita Sarma has several very helpful tips to create accountability in the workplace, which is sure to help you spend less time chasing stakeholders down and more time doing the rest of your jobs.
“In reality, accountability at work is all of the above, which runs like a machine. But if the employees keep no accountability mechanism in place, things quickly fall apart. To avoid this, every employee should be accountable for their own actions at work. It builds confidence within teams and organizations because people know they can depend on one another.” – Susmita Sarma
Do you follow economic or industry news? If not, I completely get it. Sometimes our plates are so full that it’s difficult to see the world outside. Few know more about business trends than venture capitalists, which is why my go-to blog for all things business is Insight Partners.
Pricing is one of the key components of an RFP, and the ultimate component of an RFQ (request for quote). Should you offer the same pricing structure today as a quarter ago? Should you raise prices to cover inflation or lower them to gain a competitive advantage?
“Properly setting prices is an untapped opportunity for SaaS providers to squeeze more value out of what they offer. We often see companies who haven’t touched their pricing for three years or more — which might explain the lack of inflationary growth in the sector. Usually this means companies have built up a significant amount of pricing power through market growth and product improvement which they haven’t yet monetized. While this was also the case well before the current inflationary environment, now the opportunities are even greater — while the risks of not adapting your pricing are more severe.” – James Wood
Hubspot is one of the top CRM platforms and it has a strong focus on marketing. Their blog could have gone under the “general trends” category, but I read Hubspot for their marketing tips. In their blog, industry experts discuss everything from a product’s life cycle to how to be more productive.
Aren’t online personality tests so early 2000s? In most cases, I’d agree, but there is value in learning how you tick. By understanding your personality and triggers, you can help establish a more harmonious and productive work environment. And because more data is almost always better, have your teammates take the tests.
These tests are great conversation starters, especially among groups of people who don’t know each other very well. They can help create connections and establish common ground at work. Learning about your colleagues’ personality traits can reveal how each team member prefers to receive feedback and criticism. This can help your team avoid unnecessary miscommunication down the road, as well as lead to more productive projects and meetings.” – Caroline Forsey
I guess you could call Seth Godin a marketing guru. He’s a Stanford Business grad, a published author, and a dot com alumnus. Now he blogs. Some of his posts read like streams of consciousness and others like social media posts. I call them bursts of marketing wisdom.
Proposals aren’t technically contracts but many contain the same terms. Who has the power? Would it surprise you to know that the power shifts depending on where you are in the sales cycle? Can you control the shifts?
“In the moment before a contract is signed, the lower-powered party momentarily has more power. That’s because the other entity wants what you have. But as soon as they have it, it’s only the contract that offers concrete protection against future events.” — Seth Godin
The content-rich Martech blog is the leading resource for tech marketers. Their team of marketing professionals blogs about diverse topics such as content strategy, World Cup marketing, and how to survive the death of cookies. They have a robust search engine, so if you have a marketing, or marketing-adjacent, question, just plug your query in to get expert tips. Check the site often as they typically post three or more blogs per day.
This post caught my attention because it’s one of the many areas where marketers and proposal professionals share common ground. Twenty-eight percent of B2B marketers have the technology they need. Proposal management is somewhat better; 43% say they have the technology they need to perform their jobs.
“The technology issues are likely the results of two things. First, too many B2B companies are letting features and functions determine what’s in their stacks, when it should be determined by their own strategy. Second, they may not understand the level of complexity and amount of resources needed to manage and maintain their martech tools.”
I’ll be the first to admit that we don’t spend as much time talking about nonprofit grant proposals as we should. Even when taking profit out of the equation, as with any for-profit company, nonprofits still need to create a compelling case for organizations to untie their purse strings. Competing for an organization’s budgeted grant money is challenging. Because you have to demonstrate that your nonprofit meets a donor’s values, a captivating and clear narrative is perhaps even more important than with for-profit industries.
Jodie Eisenberg, the founder of Proposal PRO, specializes in government grants and has more than $500 million in federal grants and contracts under her belt. In her blogs, she shares the tips and tricks to win those super-competitive federal grants.
Confession time: one of my closest friends is a grant writer. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard more polite variations on #4, “Don’t talk to me—I’m on a deadline!” Proposal writers of all kinds are arguably some of the busiest in their organizations. Jodie empathizes and offers advice that might help save grant writers from themselves.
“Let’s face it, deadline pressure is a thing, and if you’re still waiting for people to sign documents, provide a final budget item, or just call you back with an OK to submit, things can get tense.” – Jodie Eisenberg
The first thing that caught my eye with Presentation Zen was, well, the name. I’m willing to bet that your job, like mine, is fast-paced and requires you to turn on a dime. Presentations, where perfection is expected, only add to the stress. Presentation Zen is all about bringing confidence to your presentations by featuring the best advice from presentation experts.
You may wonder why I recommended a post about the largest animation studio in the world. I’m not suggesting you include cartoon characters and fantasy in your responses, but proposal writing, like most writing, should offer strong narratives and follow a similar arc to your favorite Pixar movies.
Pixar may be the best at the technical side of animation, but what really made them successful is their understanding of story and storytelling. In an old interview regarding Pixar’s success, Steve Jobs said this: “Even though Pixar is the most technologically advanced studio in the world, John Lasseter has a saying which has really stuck: No amount of technology will turn a bad story into a good story.”
I know how it sounds to recommend our own blog, but we’re truly passionate about improving the full-circle RFP process with response management software. That means that within our blog we cover procurement in addition to proposal themes. This broad range of topics helps deepen understanding and collaboration between buyers and sellers. Not only that, but many of the posts in our blog are inspired directly by recent conversations with our customers.
This post from Ganesh Shankar, CEO at RFPIO, offers a vision of how response teams can help their companies navigate economic uncertainty. Currently, for many, RFPs are manual, time-consuming, painful, and downright annoying — but they don’t have to be. In addition to identifying challenges faced by organizations, the post explores how technology, transparency, and collaboration can drive significant revenue.
“In the grand scheme of things, this is a time when companies are looking for ways to be more efficient. Technologies tend to help companies become more efficient.
Better efficiency doesn’t mean that automation will take people’s jobs. I strongly feel that technology will allow companies to produce more and deliver better outputs with less infrastructure.” – Ganesh Shankar
APMP (the Association of Proposal Management Professionals) is the resource for proposal managers and stakeholders. Their blog, not surprisingly, is a wealth of information. Some of it is serious and some is rather tongue-in-cheek although most posts focus on best practices and industry news.
If you google “proposal,” you’ll find that most dictionaries offer two definitions. One is a written proposal and the other involves a ring and a knee. Is it a reach to compare the two? Winning the Business makes the case that the two types of proposals have a lot more in common than we think.
“This article considers the logical progression of the capture methodology by comparing it with (the) universal experience of personal courtship. Couples go through a multi-stepped process that is remarkably like the four-step capture methodology. Both scenarios have several similarities including a common means to prompt a positive response during the proposal stage.” – Alan L. Lewis, CP APMP
What do proposal managers and college students have in common? In a word, writing. And in both cases, grammar matters. sixty-two percent of procurement departments say that they regularly receive error-riddled RFP responses. Sadly, grammatical and spelling errors can take a bidder right out of the running, which is understandable since most customers want to see attention to detail throughout an RFP response.
There are several writing and grammar tools online, but I love Grammarly because it covers many of the confusing basics like when to use accept vs. except.
Grammarly is far more than just an online grammar checker. Its blog offers real-world advice and business writing tips. Grammarly can help boost your win rate by showcasing your company in its best light. Rachel Meltzer offers guidelines for creating a business proposal, whether solicited through an RFP or unsolicited.
“A business proposal is a document that presents one company’s products or services to another company in detail. Business proposals are often customized for the potential client. It’s a way for the company to market its product and get on the same page as its potential client before they agree to work together.” – Rachel Meltzer
While I love Grammarly, its reach is broad. There are tips and tools for students, fiction writers, and writing hobbyists. If you’re looking for something that’s specifically focused on business writing, there’s the Business Writing blog. Like Grammarly, they write entire blog posts covering confusing words like “council vs. counsel,” but their posts all have business angles.
A tech copywriter, technical writer, and data scientist walked into a bar to ponder the word “data.” Okay, I’m open to suggestions as to a punchline, but a debate over whether “data” is singular or plural could get a little raucous, especially if one of the writers is, shall we say, traditional. Business Writing’s Ryan Fisher tackles that surprisingly controversial issue just to conclude that we’re all right.
“A look at Google’s Ngram graph shows that in American English, while the plural form (the data are) has been predominantly more common, the singular form (the data is) has been rising and is now on par with the plural form.” – Ryan Fisher
Organizations issue requests for proposals (RFPs) because they have a need that cannot be fixed internally — a big need — one that will cost lots of money. This isn’t calling a plumber to fix a clog. It’s soliciting bids from multiple contractors for complete remodels, or to construct full-on additions. So, they send out a request for proposal. Now, to win that business, you need to know how to respond to an RFP.
Admittedly, RFPs can be challenging. So, we’re here to explore how you can master the process, create compelling bids and (hopefully) win. First, we’ll explore common obstacles you may face when you respond to an RFP. Next, we’ll offer the key steps for how to respond to an RFP as well as best practices. And finally, we’ll offer insight on how technology like RFP software makes responding a lot faster and easier. Let’s dig in.
Obstacles in the RFP response process
The scale of an RFP can be huge
RFPs contain up to thousands of questions and requests for specific content. If your company has a solution to the problem put forth by the issuer, then you respond with a proposal that includes all the answers and requested content. Depending on the size of the RFP, it can take you hours, days, or weeks to prepare a response. As long as you submit your completed RFP response by the deadline, your solution will be considered.
Competition is fierce
The issuer compares your RFP response with all of the other RFP responses received from your competitors. Sometimes, the lowest price wins. Other times, the best solution wins. Sometimes, it’s both…or neither.
Success requires more than paperwork
Much of the time, the winner results from the best pitch — an umbrella term that includes the RFP response, relationships built with sales and subject matter experts (SMEs) during the process, pricing, reputation and a variety of other factors. Then there are the times when winners are selected based on prior or existing relationships between the two organizations.
No matter what the deciding factor between an RFP win or loss, the ultimate truth is that you have to compose an RFP response to have a chance. Why not put your best foot forward?
How to respond to an RFP
1. Qualify the bid
Is this worth going after? Starting off with a bid or no-bid discussion gives you an opportunity to evaluate your win probability. Essentially, building a proposal is like investing in your future. Every investment requires close scrutiny.
2. Understand requirements
What do you need to get it done? This ranges from the type of content, to who produces it, to who is responsible for signing off on the final proposal. The list can be extensive, but it must be comprehensive to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.
3. Answer repeat questions
Pull from your content library to fill in answers to repeat questions. If anything needs to be reviewed by a subject matter expert, be sure to get their eyes on it before submission.
4. Note due dates and tasks
Whose expertise do you need? After you determine the requirements, identify all the milestones. There’ll be due dates for content, reviews, edits and approvals. The trick is to respect everyone’s time while driving the process forward.
5. Assign questions for review
Who needs to sign off on this content? Generally, you’ll have multiple approvers to sign-off on content related to sales, product, support, legal, branding and so on.
6. Review and polish
Make sure you’re telling YOUR story. Add visuals or other supporting content to help convey your message. If you have the good fortune to have a dedicated proposal team, look to them for proposal formatting guidance. If you don’t have a proposal team, look to your marketing team. Ensure your proposal is in a clean, easy-to-read format. Or, even better, put it into a branded template.
7. Proofread
Don’t let poor grammar and typos be the reason you lose the bid.
8. Submit to issuer
Push send with no regrets.
The Benchmark Report: Proposal Management
Learn about the state of proposal management, and see what teams need to do to be successful moving forward.
Whether you have a dedicated team of stakeholders from each department or you assign a new team for each project, what matters most is that everyone in the organization recognizes that they have skin in the game.
RFP wins, proactive sales proposals and fast turnaround on questionnaires equate to revenue and may determine whether the company grows, shrinks, or offers an extra percentage point in next year’s retirement fund match.
Build the right team
Proposal managers lead the proposal team. Proposal managers may think of themselves as the director of a motion picture. After that “Directed by” end title flashes, another three minutes of credits roll by.
The proposal team I’m referring to is made up of the individuals you rely on for a variety of roles:
Prospect and customer interaction – Customer-facing teams have their fingers on the pulse of competitors and customer needs.
Subject matter expertise – Many RFP questions require detailed answers, and for those you should turn to the people who know the most about their particular area of expertise.
Brand messaging – Consult with marketing before submitting your response to ensure that you are on brand.
IT support – Can your company support the issuer’s needs?
… and all of the others who are vital to creating a winning proposal.
Even a one-person proposal department needs input from internal or external SMEs to build a high-quality response.
Only respond to RFPs you can win
As part of your bid-qualifying at the beginning of your RFP response process, add a go/no-go checkpoint to ensure that you only respond to RFPs you can win. Whether it’s a scheduled team meeting or a checklist, you need to answer:
Is the RFP the right fit for your organization and solution?
Do you have a comprehensive solution that addresses all of the challenges presented in the request?
Does your pricing match the budget?
Do you have an existing or prior relationship with the issuing organization?
Do you have any insight into why the RFP has been issued?
Can you meet the submission deadline?
Basing the answers to these questions on data rather than anecdotal evidence will help validate the go/no-go step as well as your role as a proposal manager. The Responsive platform’s AI-powered analytics tools provide that data.
Respect contributors’ time
If you want SMEs and other stakeholders to feel a sense of ownership for their proposal responsibilities, then you have to respect their time. RFP responses will suffer if contributors end up working after hours and weekends, rushing to meet deadlines. Get their buy-in ahead of time on deadlines and time required for reviews and approvals.
Document your process
A documented RFP response process will anchor your team during the most chaotic times. It’s up to you to own the process, but RFP software will make it easier to automate, execute and monitor processes from beginning to end on multiple projects running simultaneously.
Conduct a win/loss review
The win-loss review gives your team an opportunity to close the loop. Internally evaluate what worked and what didn’t.
Did you win? Why? How can you repeat it for future proposals?
Did you lose? Why? How can you avoid it in future proposals?
Include the whole proposal team in a wrap-up summary, but make the extra effort to work hand-in-hand with sales enablement so they can bring in the customer perspective.
Let technology do the heavy lifting
Remember earlier when I said the RFP response process is cyclical? The win/loss review will inform your new go/no-go step, increasing your predictive accuracy of which RFPs you can actually win. It helps to have RFP software for a win-loss review because you have everything that went into the response—the planning, communication, content and the actual response—in one place.
Software is the single most effective way to overcome lack of time, experience and other resources. It’s the difference maker that will help you respond like a boss. With only 43 percent of organizations using RFP-specific technology, there’s a huge opportunity for you to get a leg up on competitors.
How Responsive can help
Responsive RFP software makes it easier to collaborate with an extended team and leverage the power of technology. With automated processes for scheduling, collaboration and completing wide swaths of massive RFPs using our industry-leading Content Library, you can blaze through the first pass of a response faster than working without RFP software or with less advanced software solutions.
You create more time to spend customizing the responses that really matter and focus on differentiating yourself from the competition. And that’s only the beginning!
Using software at every step in the RFP response process
Here’s a quick overview of how Responsive RFP software helps during each of the seven steps of RFP response:
Qualify the bid — Check data from past similar RFPs. What took weeks without RFP software may only take hours or minutes with it. All things being equal, is this RFP winnable?
Understand requirements — Let the tool create a checklist of open items based on what remains after the automated first pass conducted at intake by your Content Library.
Answer commonly seen questions — Responsive RFP technology consolidates all your previous Q&A pairs into an intelligent content library, so you can automatically respond to repeat questions in just a few clicks.
Assign due dates and tasks to key collaborators — Assign each RFP question or section as a task to individual collaborators from the project dashboard in Responsive. They’ll then receive a notification from where they’re already working (e.g., email, Slack, or Teams).
Assign questions for review and approval — Simplify the review and approval process with automated reminders and cues across multiple platforms.
Polish — From intake, work within a branded template and support answers with approved content that’s always up-to-date according to the SME in charge of that content.
Proofread — Still important, but working with already-approved content will decrease how much you have to proofread.
Submit to issuer — Push send from Responsive or your integrated CRM.
We recently created a Proposal Management Benchmark Report where we found that organizations using RFP software already managed 43 percent more RFPs than those who do not use RFP software. If you’re looking to speed ahead of the field in RFP response, then gain traction faster with RFP software.
I’ll just leave these other tidbits right here…
Recognize SMEs and salespeople at quarterly meetings. Salespeople are competitive and like to be recognized for winning.
Implement formal kickoff meetings for RFPs. Make them quick and include pre-reading materials in the invitation to hit the ground running. Some organizations combine this with a go/no-go checkpoint.
Hold 15-minute daily standup meetings or calls as you approach the RFP deadline. Focus on status reports and action items.
Commit to professional development time. Join this LinkedIn group, the response management Slack community, or connect with APMP. This is especially valuable for small shops, where it can be hard to build a network.
RFP stands for request for proposal, but it’s so much more than that. It’s a plea for help, a clue to problems that need solved, and an opportunity to build pipeline. This article will take you from asking, “What is an RFP?” to knowing how to use RFPs to drive revenue in less than 1,500 words. Buckle up.
First, an assumption: If you came here because you want to know what an RFP is, then I’m guessing that a high-value target has decided to issue an RFP to find a solution to a problem you feel strongly about solving. When that target finally understands that you’re the answer to their problem, then you’ll pick up a sizable chunk of business. Now you just have to play the RFP game.
(Just in case you’re here because you want to know how to issue an RFP, check out this article instead.)
What is an RFP opportunity?
There are essentially two types of RFP opportunities: solicited and unsolicited. Solicited means that you’re invited to play the game. Unsolicited means you have to crash the game. You have a better chance to win when you’re invited.
That reminds me. There’s a fair bit of jargon in the RFP world. Here’s a short glossary of some common terms you’ll encounter often, including in this article:
RFP issuer: The organization that sends out the RFP. They have a problem, and they’re willing to pay someone to solve it, within certain parameters.
RFP responder: You.
RFP response: How you answer the RFP.
RFP proposal: Your response to the RFP.
RFP Q&As: Most RFPs present a number of questions that responders must answer. This section makes up the lion’s share of your proposal.
RFP win: You were selected by the issuer to solve their problem.
RFP loss: Happens to the best of us.
Back to more on “What is an RFP opportunity?”…While you can still win an RFP if you submit an unsolicited response, the odds are against you and you need to take an honest look at whether or not it’s worth it to respond.
RFP responses are not easy, even when you’re invited to partake. If you’re lucky enough to be alerted to an RFP on the day it’s issued, then you’re likely looking at a 3-6 week window to compose your response. Rarely are you so lucky. Sometimes it’s brought in with notice of a week or less, putting you on a tight deadline. The number of hours you’ll have to commit to building a proposal during that time will be determined by, among other things, team participation, content relevance and access, and how much you have to rely on manual processes to complete the response.
Now that you understand what an RFP is and the opportunity it presents, you need to put yourself on a path to respond only to those RFPs that you can realistically win. If this is one of your first RFP responses, then it could be a rabbit hole of unknown depths. Insert a go/no-go milestone before you go ask Alice. It involves asking yourself the following five questions:
What was your level of involvement prior to the RFP being issued?
Is your solution a fit (now, not at some squishy date in the future after you’ve had a chance to adapt it to what the problem calls for)?
Does your price match the RFP issuer’s budget?
Will winning the RFP be a strategic fit for your organization?
Do you have bandwidth (to complete a competitive proposal, not to deliver your solution)?
As part of the RFP response process, you should have an opportunity to ask the questions necessary to fill in the gaps for your go/no-go milestone. Best-case scenario? Your sales team has already laid the groundwork for all of this with the issuer and it’s just a matter of taking their learnings and making them actionable.
It’s a “go.” Now what?
It’s a process deal. Doesn’t that take the pressure off?
I won’t get into the nitty gritty of the RFP process here (you can do so here if you’re ready to start now), but I will touch on the value of efficiency. Even if this is your first RFP, you’ll want to go into it as prepared as possible to save you and your team some pain and give your organization its best shot at winning.
Break down your efficiency goals into three main categories: project management, content management, and proposal quality. Before you start checking boxes under these categories, you need a team. Part of that team has likely already formed. The salesperson at the tip of the spear will be your subject matter expert (SME) for issuer-related questions and perspectives. The rest of the team will come together based on your review of the RFP. What questions need answered? Who has the answers? Who has the design and technical chops to build the proposal?
After you identify potential team members, dig into their availability and try to build a schedule to complete the response by deadline, preferably before deadline to give yourself some buffer. Then schedule a kickoff meeting with all team members to get their buy-in to process details for the following:
Project management: You’ll be the lead for collaboration, assigning tasks, and driving the schedule.
Content management: You’ll need content creators, content reviewers, and a storage system for a content library (if you’re gathering all this valuable info for an RFP, you’ll want to save it for repurposing; even if this will be your only RFP response of the year, the info will be useful for business proposals, answering prospect and customer questions, and training new hires).
Proposal quality: Answering RFP Q&As won’t be enough. You need to personalize the proposal to make it stand out.
Remember, the issuer is using the RFP process to identify its optimal vendor. They’re inciting competition, so you need to play to win. Second prize doesn’t even get a set of steak knives.
Beef up your sales pipeline
Now that you’ve discovered RFPs and the opportunities they can offer, you may want to evaluate how they can help you achieve your sales goals. 69% of B2B salespeople do not have enough leads in their pipeline to meet quota. Pursuing RFPs can build up pipelines fast: Globally, $11 trillion of revenue is won through competitive proposal processes (i.e., RFPs) every year.
Obviously, you’re not going to win every RFP. We found the average win rate to be 45%. However, RFP opportunities can cost as much as 5X more than traditional sales opportunities, which makes your process and your sales tech stack your best friends when it comes to response efficiency.
Automate to dominate
The optimized sales technology stack is a hot point of conversation these days. With so many RFP automation software solutions, it’s easy for sales teams to overspend on solutions they barely use. A recent Harvard Business Review article cites a survey where 62% of B2B companies were not satisfied with their sales technology return on investment. It also found that:
“The winning companies in our analysis were 1.4 times more likely to fully deploy sales technology tools and 1.9 times more likely to fully integrate them…By taking the time to embed these technologies properly into its sales processes, the [SaaS] company was able to increase revenue growth by 200 basis points within a few weeks.”
RFP automation offers a massive competitive advantage for responders. It saves time, improves proposal quality, and helps companies create their best work by activating their company knowledge. Companies with RFP-specific technology respondedto 43% more RFPs in 2020 than those without a designated RFP tool. “With RFPIO, I would say we have increased our win rate by 15%,” said Grégory Saive, IBA global director of sales support and tender management,
We started with “What is an RFP?” and made it all the way through to the value of RFP automation. Once you win one, you’re going to want to win more. Since I’m almost at my promised 1,500-word cap, I’ll wrap it up with a tip on your next step: Schedule a demo. It’s the fastest and easiest way to find out if RFP automation is right for you. Even if it’s not, you’ll get some valuable response tips from our process experts.
There are two primary reasons why you should aggressively pursue requests for proposals (RFPs). One, they’re a great way to build pipeline. Which is key for the 69% of B2B salespeople who do not have enough leads in their pipeline to meet quota. Two, they can be a major revenue driver. You just have to make sure you’re pursuing the right RFPs and doing so as efficiently as possible. Take my word for it. Just kidding. I actually have data to back it up. I also did an entire webinar on this topic, if you’re ready for a deep dive.
RFPs: Opportunity and Risk
Globally, $11 trillion of revenue is won through competitive proposal processes (RFPs) every year. You may be asking, “What is a good proposal win rate?” RFPIO’s research puts the average RFP win rate at 45%. But that’s across all industries. It will vary according to your level of specialization. RFPs exist in multiple markets, including government, construction, supply chain, manufacturing, systems integration, healthcare, and technology.
$11 trillion of revenue is won through competitive proposal processes (RFPs) every year.
As a salesperson, I always wanted to include RFPs to help grow my pipeline. A healthy sales pipeline is 4-5x the close rate, and RFPs can represent deal sizes large enough to keep my pipeline super healthy. Since working in sales, I’ve led proposal teams and now have my own company, Patri, that helps qualify sales opportunities, including RFPs. I’ve also learned that too many salespeople and leaders are avoiding RFPs.
RFPs are not easy, and they can be labor-intensive. I’ve known many salespeople who find them too restrictive. In other words, there’s too much red tape to navigate to put together a response.
The fact is that only a little over half of all salespeople are hitting their quotas. There’s a lot of desperation out there. If you’re already in desperation mode, then the notion of allocating resources to an RFP proposal is tantamount to putting all your eggs in one basket. Proposal opportunities are more than 5x more expensive than traditional sales opportunities. As a result, companies are spending an estimated $200+ billion per year on lost bid opportunities alone.
Companies are spending an estimated $200+ billion per year on lost bid opportunities alone.
So if you boil it all down, objections to pursuing RFPs come down to time and finding the right opportunities. I’m going to unleash my inner salesperson and help you overcome those objections. Let’s look at the data.
5 smart moves to increase your RFP win rate
Pursue RFPs you have the highest probability of winning: Qualifying RFP opportunities before you respond helps reduce your loss rate and increase your win rate. Patri clients have saved $26 million and 27,000 hours by focusing efforts only on opportunities they can realistically win.
Increase RFP response volume: Teams with dedicated proposal professionals submitted 3.5x more responses in 2020.
Increase sales efficiency: Teams using RFP software submit an average of 46% more responses every year.
Improve RFP response quality: Medical device manufacturer IBA re-invested time saved from RFP software into improving response quality and increased win rate by 15% in the first year.
Streamline collaboration:38% of responders cite collaborating with subject matter experts (SMEs) to create and review content as their biggest headache.
So that gives you an idea of what you can do. Now, how can you win more RFPs? Qualify opportunities and implement RFP response software.
How to win more RFPs in 3 steps
Step 1: Qualify based on data
I remember early in my proposal response days, I was the salesperson and proposal manager. Wearing both hats, anything I wanted to pursue I had to make sure was winnable. Some of those early parameters were relationship status, incumbency, solution fit, and requirement fit. I grew this exercise in qualification into my company, Patri.
Patri sits between RFP identification and response, at that pivotal qualification point. We analyze data to provide clients a fit score and call out their strengths and weaknesses that will play into their pursuit of an opportunity. So far, we have helped qualify more than $40 billion of opportunities and helped win $84.6 million worth of business.
Step 2: Save and re-invest time
When clients agree that an opportunity is fit enough to pursue, we recommend that they use RFP software to craft the best response possible. Solutions such as RFPIO automate manual processes and improve collaboration, freeing up your time for other things. The more time you have to fine-tune your proposal, the better your proposal will be, and the higher your win rate.
RFP software helps proposal and sales teams save time (and achieve higher win rates) by:
Cutting response time by an average of 40%: Automatically respond to commonly-seen questions with Auto Respond, automation functionality powered by machine learning.
Managing and moderating content and projects: Organize RFP content, import projects, assign tasks, respond to questions, set up review cycles, and export into the source file or custom template.
Streamlining cross-functional collaboration: Easily collaborate across teams using in-app @mentioning and integration with Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts, and Jira.
Making data-driven decisions: Gain insight into time spent, deals won, and resources used with built-in business intelligence and analytics.
Integrating into your existing tech stack: RFPIO integrates with more platforms than anyone, including popular CRM, SSO, cloud storage, and communication platforms.
The primary indicator for RFP software, like any other automation software, is that it saves time. It’s what you do with that time that will determine your level of success with increasing RFP win rate.
Re-invest time into responding to more RFPs with higher quality proposals. Also, like a pure shooter who moves well off the ball (a la Craig Hodges for 90s-era Bulls fans or Klay Thompson for current Warriors fans), you can work on your process outside of active projects. In other words, re-invest time into improving your content. So when that next RFP comes in you not only have content that’s locked and loaded, it’s high quality, too, which will improve your odds of getting shortlisted.
Step 3: Designate an owner of the response process
While RFP software delivers efficiency, you will get more value out of it if you have a dedicated proposal manager administering the software and the processes around it. This de-facto leader of the proposal team will also be responsible for:
Building relationships with other company stakeholders, including sales, product, legal, and marketing teams.
Driving user adoption, knowledge management, and other essential functions associated with RFP software.
Enabling sales to have a streamlined, unfettered user experience to minimize objections and elevate the value of RFPs in pipeline management.
Finally, it’s important to note that you don’t have to make double-digit gains in your RFP win rate to realize impressive results. For example, if a company’s average RFP is worth $570,000 and they submit 415 RFPs annually, with a win rate of 32%, the business value of their RFP process is $75,696,000. Improving the win rate just 2% would represent a nearly $5 million dollar increase.
Pursuing RFPs doesn’t have to be a black box experience. Be transparent within the company. Know your costs and win rate probability. Go and embrace them. By properly qualifying opportunities and using RFP software, you can improve your own odds.
To learn more about how Patri can help you qualify opportunities, schedule a demo. To see if your RFP management process is ready for automation by RFPIO, schedule a demo.
In an enterprise sale or government bid, you’re likely to run into one or more of the following: request for proposal (RFP), request for quote (RFQ), and request for information (RFI). They all sound similar, but each serves a different purpose. So, what IS the difference between an RFP vs RFQ vs RFI?
It’s an important question, because how your organization responds to these requests has direct implications on your sales process: Improve how you respond, improve how you sell.
What is an RFP?
RFP stands for request for proposal.
For the proposal team, this is the be-all, end-all of responses that stirs up everything you can possibly imagine about your organization. Pricing, functionality, technology, security, company basics, competitive differentiators, case studies, references, implementation, SLAs…phew! As the owner of the RFP response process, the proposal managermust ensure that ALL of these questions are tackled.
For the deal that’s already several touchpoints in the making, this response can either help seal it or kill it for the sales team. The importance of the RFP in the overall sales processvaries according to industry. But across the board, it’s one of the touchpoints—along with product demo, pricing, and references—that every stakeholder will take into consideration when deciding on vendor selection.
If you receive an RFQ, then one of two things have likely happened. One, your RFP passed muster and you’re a finalist. Or two, there never was an RFP and you’re being approached because yours is a known solution for one reason or another. Either way, details are important in an RFQ. The issuer wants to know exactly what they’re getting at what price.
Lean heavily on subject matter experts (SMEs) to ensure accuracy. In some cases, you may need to complete a table of specific line items and include a cost for each. Your industry dictates your details. The point is that you need to be ready to deliver those details in an RFQ. There’s usually no room for creativity like you might have in an RFP. And remember, anything you commit to in the RFQ will have to be backed up down the line during implementation and support. You’re setting up expectations for the customer experience moving forward, after the hand-off from sales.
What is an RFI?
RFI stands for request for information.
There are two schools of thought regarding RFIs. The first school says an RFI is a fishing expedition for organizations who have questions but don’t know who to ask. In this case, RFI responses usually end up forming the basis of an RFP.
The second school says that RFIs are closer to RFQs and are used only with RFP finalists. In this case, the open-ended questions may try to clarify something in your RFP or may give you an opportunity to explain use-cases of how your solution solves specific challenges.
The RFI is usually more casual than the RFQ and will give you room to be creative. In some cases, it can even be your last opportunity to set yourself apart from the competition. End on a high note!
What is the difference between an RFP vs RFI vs RFQ?
Obviously, there are many differences, based on the definitions above. But the biggest difference between these three requests is in the content of your response.
RFQs will be structured; content will likely be technical, financial, and legal.
RFIs are more casual; content will be more along the lines of solution briefs, case studies, and custom answers to open-ended questions.
RFPs will be structured and formal, but they’ll also provide opportunities to show off your creativity and competitive differentiation. Content will be in the form of answers to many, many questions. Hopefully you have an RFP software solution in place to automate and manage content. It makes your life much easier.
Ways RFPs, RFQs, and RFIs help your sales process
Back in the days of paper forms and manual processes, if an RFP was involved, then you could count on a long wait before knowing if you won the deal. That’s not necessarily the case anymore. Digital transformation has introduced three new trends with regards to the RFP as it relates directly to the sales process.
Deadlines are sooner: Issuers expect vendors to have technology and expertise in place to turnaround RFPs faster than ever. Besides, in some instances, the ability to respond fast may be part of an issuer’s filtering process.
RFPs are more complex: Lots of reasons for this. More complex problems, competitive industries that have more vendor options, and the ability for issuers to do a lot of research on solution providers prior to launching an RFP (thanks a lot, Internet) are the biggest, in my mind.
Globally, more organizations and agencies are using them: Actually, there’s a flip side to that idea, too. More solution providers are able to respond to global RFPs. Few of us are limited by borders anymore when it comes to conducting business. If you offer a product or service that the world needs and you can deliver it, then go after the business!
Regardless of your RFP vs RFQ vs RFI predicament, if you work on the following two things, your sales and presales process will be the better for it.
#1 Know your 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 how that might look:
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?
A generic RFP response to any of these will only benefit your competitors who are able to dazzle 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.
“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.”
How do you make sure the best versions of your competitive differentiators are easy for your team to grab and tailor? Make sure they’re in your Content Library, of course. It won’t be long before response management software will no longer be a choice; it’ll be an imperative.
Most RFP-specific technologies include an Content Library component. This is where all the content is stored and organized for use in RFPs or other responses, depending on the flexibility of the solution. Much of the content in these libraries exists as Q&A pairs. For the sales process, using AI functionality from an Content Library improves:
Repeatability: Build your response process around the foundation of your response management software. It will help establish steps for how you develop a response, access content, and collaborate with writers, editors, and experts time and again.
Efficiency: Make everything easier and faster—from finding content and assembling documents, to working with collaborators. Teams that do so are often able to increase efficiency by 40%.
Quality: With much of the time-intensive activities of responding offloaded to AI-enabled software and rock-solid processes, you can spend more time on personalizing responses and generating revenue.
Improve how you respond, improve how you sell
We found that organizations using RFP software submitted 43% more responses in 2020 than those without. We also found that organizations averaged a 45% win rate in 2020. From a sales perspective, that’s a huge opportunity for improvement: submit more responses, win more deals.
To learn more about how response management can benefit your sales processes, schedule a demo today!
Why do 250,000+ users streamline their response process with RFPIO? Schedule a demo to find out.
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