Request or Runaround?

Salespeople often jump for joy when a prospect requests a proposal. Of course, this appears to be a promising step toward a sale. It can, however, be the beginning of a long and frustrating process that leads to a big goose egg. When a rep spends countless hours working on an RFP only to find out a week later that the account went to the current supplier, or worse, the prospect used your proposal to price gouge some other supplier, it’s natural to feel used and abused. So what cards can a sales rep play up front? The deck is full of them.

“Buyers will ask for RFPs for a lot of reasons,” says Lee Salz, president of Sales Dodo LLC, a sales consulting firm. “Many times companies will request RFPs just to use as leverage against another company; they could be price shopping. Maybe it’s just a policy process that they have to go through. In this case, they may have no intention of leaving their current provider. A sales rep has to ask a lot of questions before doing the research and spending the time required writing an RFP.”

Jennifer Runyon, a program manager with ESI International, a company that provides project and contract management training, is a pro when it comes to seeing the real picture when presented with an RFP.

“I can spot, right off the bat, when an RFP is heavily written toward one of our competitors, because I know the competitors so well.” She advises, “Know your market; understand your competition and what they offer.”

If you don’t know your competitors, Runyon suggests conducting an Internet search on the company issuing the RFP. By reading past press releases, you can often see whom they’ve been working with. Then you can review the RFP and ask yourself, “Do they align closely with my business offerings or my competitor’s business?”

Runyon’s company uses a customized “go/no-go” checklist when reviewing RFPs. They analyze the dollar potential, opportunities, client experience, and history with clients to decide whether it’s worth responding.

“This checklist has been a tremendous tool for me because I can take an educated guess on whether to respond,” she says. “There will always be a little bit of guesswork, but your job is to eliminate most of that. If the level of effort exceeds the revenue potential, it really isn’t going to be a win for you.”

Dead End?

Sometimes an RFP will just show up in your inbox from a company that you’ve never called on. In this case, you need to know how and why you got on that company’s list, says Salz, also author of Soar Despite Your Dodo Sales Manager (Wbusiness Books, 2007).

“Call and ask how they got your name,” advises Salz. “If you don’t have a history with the company and you don’t know anyone, depending on the level of work involved in answering the RFP, it might be wise to say, ‘No, thank you.’

“I see a lot of salespeople misstep when they get a blind RFP,” he continues. “Instead of calling the company, they just look at the RFP and work on it. Then they’re shocked when they don’t win. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. If handled correctly, even if it’s a blind RFP, you can turn it into an educational tool for the company that’s inquiring about your services and use it to build a relationship with them.”

Salz says that RFPs are rarely clear enough for a salesperson to respond with a targeted solution. That’s why he advises asking enough questions so that it leads to a conversation with the actual users. Questions he says to ask include: How did you hear about my company? How many providers have been asked to respond to this RFP? What is your decision-making process? What criteria will you use to narrow down the list? What are the next steps?

“The better formulated [highly technical] the questions are, the greater the chance of getting to the end users,” says Salz. “If you still can’t talk to the end user, tell procurement that you need to meet with the end user because there are certain things needed in the solution that aren’t addressed in the RFP. If they say no you can respond with, ‘It sounds like you folks aren’t interested in our company; you are just looking for the lowest price.’ This way you lose early instead of spending countless hours and dollars on something that isn’t even going to happen.”

On the other hand, if you’ve built a strong relationship with a client but it’s their policy to issue RFPs, help them tailor the RFP to your company. You can even help them write the RFP questions, says Salz.

“Typically, you aren’t working with procurement at this stage, you’re working with an end user,” says Salz. “The end user has the challenge of working with procurement to make sure their specs are met. You can provide them with an RFP template so you can build the RFP with the questions that can differentiate your company and map back to your solution.”

Plot a Course

Once you’ve decided that you want to go ahead with the RFP, do your research and use the RFP to educate your prospect – that includes using your references to your advantage.

“I look at references as my company’s intellectual capital,” says Salz. “The request for references is a standard part of any buying process.” Salz’s experience with buyers has shown him that many look at the reference step of the buying process as their opportunity to validate their decisions.

“Prospects are searching to ascertain whether a supplier can deliver on the promises made during the RFP process,” he explains. “Can the supplier really handle this size account? Are they really that fast? Or that accurate? Is the service as good as they described? If all your competitors are going to provide good references, you have to provide the best references. Just know that ‘best’ is different for each prospect.

“Ask the prospect questions around what they are hoping to learn from your references,” he says. “If you can’t do that, consider reflecting on what was learned during the needs analysis discussions. For example, if they were concerned about implementation, you can provide them with an account that your company recently implemented. If the decision is being made by a CFO, provide a CFO reference.”

If, after all your hard work, the good news doesn’t come, you can still hope that they’ve learned something about your company. Don’t forget to ask why you didn’t get the account, so you can learn, too.