Optimize Your Sales Engine #2: Stop Answering RFPs
How a Company Typically Reacts Upon Receiving an RFP:
Ah, the curse of the Request For Proposal. It’s Friday at 6:27pm, and you stupidly check one more email before going to grab a beer with your buds. ”Oh look! It’s an RFP!” Big Company X thought so much of you that they sent you an RFP! So you read the email and it’s due, of course, Monday by 7am Eastern time. And holy shit. Guess what? It’s 87 pages long! Well, forget about that beer because you had better fire up Microsoft Word and get a proposal put together.
This is how most people and most companies would act. Don’t sell yourself short.
What To Do When You Receive an RFP:
In my opinion, you would be much better served getting that beer with your buds. I hate RFPs. These devices are simply a way for people in large companies to stay busy and avoid the hard work of answering the tough questions that we salespeople have. By forcing potential providers to answer 87 pages worth of questions and provide capability statements in an impossible time frame, these large companies fail to think about what it is they are looking for and what a working relationship with the provider might actually look like.
My recommendation to clients who insist on responding to RFPs is this: when you receive the request, immediately pick up the phone and call the sender. Then do the following:
- Respectfully request 20 minutes with the decision-maker for the purpose of asking several questions that will determine whether you will bid. They won’t let you talk to that person, but at least you asked respectfully.
- When they refuse, graciously let them know that you will not be issuing a proposal.
- Hang up.
- Beer.
I have been on both sides of the RFP process, and it is exceedingly rare that an RFP gets issued that is fair and designed to get the best decision for Big Company X. The reason for this is that there is most often an incumbent – a favorite – who has helped write (AKA “skew”) the RFP in their favor (I should know…I’ve done it). And I completely understand why this is done. But if that’s true, why do we keep beating our heads against a locked, bolted, chained door?
They say that insanity is doing the same thing over and and over and still expecting the same results. I tend to agree.
So Why Do We Keep Answering Those Darn RFPs?
The truth? Because sometimes we are as lazy as the people writing these things, that’s why! There is one thing you have to do in order to stop answering all RFPs. You have to SELL!. You have to have enough proactive pursuit so you don’t need this “free money” in the first place. Every “RFP” you get should look like this:
YOUR PROSPECT: “Hey, this is interesting! Can you write me a proposal?”
YOU: “You bet!”
So stop answering RFPs. They seem like free money. They’re not. Get over it.
Have your or company ever intentionally NOT responded to an RFP? What do you think would happen if you did? Please leave a comment below and argue you us. (Trust us, it will be fun!)
