Getting the most out of RFPs and RFIs

How do you feel about receiving and responding to RFPs? When you ask three SEs this question, two will likely say that they are not very happy. The answer should, however, be a happy yes, I enjoyed getting and answering RFPs.

Today I will try to show you why answering RFPs is so valuable and has significant potential for you and your business and what you can learn from that.

By reading that article, you will learn:

1. The RFX basics
2. Reviewing and answering RFX are essential, so don't ignore them
3. The benefits and fun of answering RFX
4. Who is responsible for responding to RFX?
5. Can you win an RFP?
6. Tips and tricks

The RFX basics

A?request for proposal?(RFP) is a document that solicits proposal, often made through a?bidding?process, by an agency or company interested in?procurement?of a?commodity,?service, or valuable asset, to potential suppliers to submit?business proposals.[1]?It is submitted early in the procurement cycle, either at the preliminary study, or procurement stage.  Source        

• RFP - Request For Proposal
• RFI - Request For Information
• RFQ - Request For Quote
• RFX - Request For (X) Something

The TL;DR of RFX is that you and most likely some of your competitors get a spreadsheet file or online system containing the customer's background information and technical questions. Depending on what they are looking for, some of it will be very specific to you, while other items will be fairly general. It could range from 10 to hundreds of questions. It comes with a deadline to submit your answers, and you may need to have multiple people in your organization helping to respond to the RFX.

Don't overlook it

There will be some pre-sales engineers who think, "Wow, that's complicated, how many questions do we even have to answer, do we have any chance of winning here, as this isn't 100% relevant to our solution." I'll handle that, but I'll just give a short Yes/No answer, and I'll tell the customer more over the phone.

Please, don't be that person. When you get an RFX treat it like the next billion dollar deal that is likely to close that quarter.

Use the following process and methodology to handle RFX

1. Put it in a shared location and format where everyone involved will be able to review and contribute.
2. Learn about the deadlines and schedule calendar invites for those dates. Determine if you will need help answering and tell those people in advance. Create a channel to talk about it internally, and if time is short, schedule daily sync meetings.
3. Prioritize - usually RFX will have submission stages, you don't need to provide answers to all of the questions at the first day. Prioritize what is critical for now and what can wait. For example, in some RFX processes you have time where you can submit your questions to learn more about the RFX before submitting your answers to the entire document, use it and ask questions.
4. Answer - put time in your calendar to handle this, don't push it to the next day because next day will be the day after and then you will find yourself working on that at the last minute.
5. Ask - if something isn't very clear, ask the vendor who wrote the RFX, if you can't ask questions, in your answer explain why you answered that way, and consider adding a few different answers, each will accommodate different use case.
6. Manage - make sure you get the answers you need from everyone involved like PM, Sales, Legal, this is your RFX and this is your responsibility to provide answers in time.

Fun and meaningful

Yes, responding to an RFP is very relevant for you. Reading the questions carefully and writing responses will help you a lot. You will learn about the industry you are in, be an expert in your solution, learn what customers really want and need, learn about your competitors, what they do, provide feedback and product features to your R&D and Product Managers and learn new topics or terms that you never heard before.

See it as a learning opportunity. Every RFX contains hidden treasures that can help you win better deals now and in the future and learn about customers' pain points.

Who should own and respond to the RFP

It varies between companies. The pre-sales engineer and the Account Executive in a small startup will handle RFX, but some companies will have dedicated RFX teams, like a bidding department or RFX team part of pre-sales, allowing the pre-sales engineering to focus on later stage deals that have passed the RFX process. Some companies will have some automated tools to support the answering process.

I think that it doesn't really matter who's responsible for it, if you get an RFX don't say 'that's not my problem because X will do it' do everything you can that answers will be provided in time and raise flags to your manager if needed and when needed.

What are the chances to win RFX?

When you work in a fast growing company, you will get many RFX, quickly you will realize that not all of them are relevant for you and or you came late to the game. If you get an RFX that isn't relevant to your company, it might be an indication that your company didn't influence the RFX design. This gives you lower chances to win but never say never. I had cases where people thought that our chances were very low and we won. Invest time in answering the RFP.

Do a self-check - check how many RFX you answered on each Q, and how much you invested in each one, and how many were converted into POVs and paying customers. Evolve and improve, at some point you will be able to say no to some irrelevant RFX. As the startup grows and the number of RFX increases, consider purchasing RFX software that can streamline the process from managing to answering questions.

Tips and what else you should know

1. Don't answer legacy questions with legacy answers?- instead of answering questions about very old technology, use it as an opportunity to educate your customers and question them why they are looking for this kind of technology. For example, in the Cyber Security world, if a customer asks, how many signatures you have to detect a Ransomware, instead of giving a number you might want to consider answering our product isn't relaying on signatures to detect XYZ because in today's threat landscape attackers do XYZ which can bypass traditional signature which is why our solution provides XYZ that can solve the signature and do more. You want the audience who read your answers to pause and think because your answers are not regular like all the rest and you educated them, which is something everyone appreciate.
2. If the RFX is in a gated system that is not easy to access but you need help from multiple teams and groups in your company, consider?extracting some of the questions into a simple shared spreadsheet?and tagging the specific relevant people in there, create dedicated group (Slack) with the relevant people and collaborate inside there. It will make their life easier and you will get answers faster.
3. Put calendar invites based on the RFX requirements, e.g. when you should submit it.
4. Over time you will build a muscle that when you get an RFP just by reading the questions you can see if your competitor already influenced it with by helping the customer with some questions they are excellence in.

Summary

RFX should be treated with respect. Take this opportunity to learn about your industry, competitors, your solution, and to learn about the latest topics in the industry. Put it in your calendar, and prioritize what you should start with first and what should come later. Make it easy for all parties to answer the questions. Be the owner who makes it happen. At the end do your finest to educate your customer because you are the expert here.

Till next time,

Menachem.

What are your tips and tricks for RFP? What works best for you? Share in the comments.