BUSINESS KILLING MISTAKES #9 – SCARED OF RFPS? DON’T BE

 

SCARED OF RFPS? – DON’T BE

Many new clients are scared, jaded, or are outright afraid of answering RFPs (Request for Proposal). Huge strategic blunder – it’s one of the ways we have created hundreds of multi-millionaires with their businesses – by winning RFPs – even no-relationship and “blind” proposal requests.  

THE BIG RFP MISTAKE

At least a few times a year, a client in our high-intensity RAMP® program will receive a “blind RFP.” That is a Request for Proposal (RFP) from a company with which they have no existing relationship. During our meeting, I will hear, “We never win RFPs,” or “RFPs are a waste of time,” and sometimes, “We’ve been burned on RFP efforts and spent a fortune responding to these requests, so we make it a rule never to do it again.”

Having worked on, completed, managed, and helped clients win close to a thousand RFPs in my career, I can totally understand why anyone would feel frustrated or opposed to working on an RFP, especially one with no insight into the process or relationships with the prospect. 

However, in this article, I want to share with you how often you should work RFPs… 

…every time you get one! 

Make sure to read this to the end and share it with your team to make sure you are learning how to compete differently and even win major, high-dollar, business-changing, “out-of-the-blue” proposals. 

OVERVIEW OF NEVER WORK ANOTHER RFP MISTAKE

First of all, let’s discuss what an RFP means. As you have read, it is an acronym for Request for Proposal. In my early days, when I didn’t know how to win them at a high rate, we would call them “Rarely Financially Profitable” (RFP) deals, so don’t proceed.

Although these requests can take all sizes and forms, a typical RFP provides background on the company (or government agency) and why they are requesting providers to complete the document. The RFP usually includes the background and situation or needs, the rules of engagement, the solution or service requirements, the details needed such as financials, and how the process will proceed. Most RFP processes are designed to narrow a wide range of participants down to a manageable three. That is called “making the cut.” 

Because in most cases, RFPs are “prewritten,” meaning that a third-party consultant or even competitive vendors wrote or “shaped” the document, the criteria and requirements can be slanted toward a predetermined solution. 

And that’s the mistake that most leaders make. They don’t understand how RFPs work and how to work them. 

RFP – Curse and Blessing

Most RFPs are slanted towards an existing solution or predetermined vendor (but not all of them), and that is why companies rarely win blind RFPs. This is the curse when you first engage. However, there is a blessing with RFPs. 

The whole intent and objective of the RFP process began in the government sector around WWII when agencies had to procure massive supplies and inventories and manage time, delivery, quality, and costs. Because it was a World War to control the planet, the government couldn’t afford mistakes. 

In the 1980s, the private sector, especially large corporations, adopted RFPs as a standard practice because, in many cases, mistakes or failure with large procurements could put their whole company at risk. 

RFPs for the buyer are expensive, time-consuming, distracting, and even frustrating. And that’s the good news. If you are receiving an RFP from a company, that means, in about 98% of cases, they WILL make a “buying decision.” This is unlike the typical non-RFP pursuits where maybe one-third of buyers will drag decisions out for years or never even choose a solution. That is rare with RFPs. 

WHY DO LEADERS MAKE THIS RFP MISTAKE?

Yet, even if there is a decision to be made, in most cases, you are set up to lose in a blind RFP. And once a CEO, leader, or entrepreneur loses their first couple of RFPs, they never put their hands on that hot stove again. 

But here are the two biggest mistakes that leaders all over the world make with RFPs.

First – not answering or working them at all. 

Second – engaging in a blind RFP until the very end or decision point, only to have lost at the start. 

WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF NOT WORKING RFPS

The impact of making RFP mistakes or not working them at all is missing out on the fortune that can be made from winning RFPs. We have many client case studies of how competing and winning RFPs became the game-changer the company needed to move to the next level or explosive growth. 

In addition to potential growth and making ridiculous revenues, RFPs can offer a phenomenal range of opportunities for learning. Here are a few examples:

1. Completing an RFP can reveal how well your solutions/services or value proposition fit the needs of potential clients and marketplace;
2. By seeing who “made the cut,” you can learn who the top competitors are in your space;
3. In many cases, the buying team or bid or procurement managers might share a lot of information about competitors and where you fit in the buying and evaluation processes;
4. Learning how to compete and win in the big leagues is one of the most important competencies to explosive growth;
5. Preparing answers, board presentations, and completing Q&As can provide valuable opportunities for new teams or new salespeople;
6. Gaining a commitment for a win/loss (hopefully a win) review with the buyers can provide mountains of insight and information to strengthen your game.

If all those reasons aren’t enough for you to pursue a blind RFP, let me give you one more. Use the process to find out why the RFP is blind! Why do you not have a relationship with a company that can afford, use, or want your products and services? Are you doing something wrong? 

CHANGE – WHAT SHOULD YOU DO INSTEAD?  

Hopefully, I have you more excited about competing, working, and even winning RFPs. But let’s talk about the first thing you must change if you expect to start being the final vendor chosen. You must change your mindset. 

Don’t think binary – yes or no. In other words, too many leaders sniff a blind RFP and then say, “Nope, not working that one.” Imagine if a stoplight only had a binary choice – green means go, and red means stop. We would have millions of accidents all over the world.

Instead, add the “yellow light” – proceed with caution – into your RFP thinking and strategy.

In the future, think of working on RFPs in phases such as:

• How much time or effort would it take to identify the competitors?

• How much time or effort would it take to augment, change, or modify the buying criteria?

• How much time or effort would it take to build a business relationship with the right influencers (there are five levels of business relationships)?
• If by a certain date or time you and your team can’t accomplish goals such as one or more of the ones above. Then do this: STOP! Walk away. There is no law that says you have to work an RFP until the very end (at least not in Texas).

KEY LEARNING POINT

RFPs, especially blind RFPs, can be extremely valuable learning, growing, and financially rewarding, business-changing experience. Or it can be a total waste of time, money, and resources and even damage your brand. 

The outcome is up to you and how you and your team think, strategize, and approach business opportunities that seem to fall out of the sky. 

In the future, don’t say just “no” or “yes” an RFP. Put on that “Yellow Light” – say “maybe.” Proceed with caution. Work the process where there is a mutual benefit or exit in a professional way. 

KNOW THIS:  90% of winning a blind and cut-throat competitive RFP is “messaging”.  This top is covered extensively in the book Entrepreneur To Millionaire Chapter 7, Power Messaging Tools. Do not answer another RFP until your team reads and masters that chapter. 

ACTION AND URGENCY 

1. Take on the next RFP you can with your team. Apply the “Yellow Light” strategy I just shared.
2. Read the book Entrepreneur To Millionaire, as every chapter will help you and your team be in a position to compete and win bigger and better contracts much faster.
3. Contact us if you are about to engage, share, or respond to an RFP.  We will help you strategize to win, not waste your precious resources or damage your brand. 

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AUTHOR BACKGROUND

Kent Billingsley is the founder and president of the Revenue Growth® Company, LLC (TRGC). He is a published author, international keynote speaker, and business transformation expert. He has become America’s Revenue Growth® Architect by helping thousands of entrepreneurs and CEOs (representing over a million employees) generate several billion in new sales, as well as tens of billions in new revenue and profits for large corporations. He has personally designed, built, transformed, and turbocharged several thousand organizations in 36 countries. Over the last 20 years, his proprietary content and trademarked programs have helped thousands of entrepreneurs and employees become millionaires and multimillionaires by “creating wealth” inside their companies. He can be reached at [email protected].