QUIP 10 - The Value of an RFP?

QUIP 10 The Value of an RFP??

So what’s the real value of a Request for Proposal ("RFP") and where did the RFP come from??Having been in Business Applications for 30 years, I probably have 40 to 50 RFP’s cross my desk per year.?By my math, I have seen close to 1500 RFPs.?Of those, I bet 70% were canned RFP’s that had requirements that were not relevant to the business submitting the RFP.?Seeing this pattern, we look at RFP’s and start to ask questions not only about the RFP, but also the business submitting the RFP.

Organizationally, we respect the process, but if we aren’t collaborating with the customer submitting the RFP and/or the Business Consultancy (Selection Consultant) working with the customer to submit the RFP; then we risk wasting a lot of the Customer’s time.?Yes, I said, "if we respond to the RFP we could be wasting a potential customer’s time".?Understanding this point is often missed in the Technology Business.?Too often, sellers will jump in the process without understanding this fact.?To get the proper information from a potential service provider a business (potential customer) should be prepared to have at least 3 to 4 discussions about the RFP Process.

We really enjoy helping businesses assess business solutions software.?Our goal is to ensure that we work with prospective accounts to help them make the most informed decision possible.?People that we are working with are almost always being asked to evaluate solutions by either a CXO, Board Member or Business Owner.?Consequently, we like to work with this person to insure they are reporting the right information to those individuals.?After all, we understand that the employees want to look good to the executives.?By doing this, we will often push back on things like timing, access to personnel, having a contextual understand of why the process has been initiated and many more points. We do this to insure we are gathering the information so that we can get an account the proper data points.?We want to make the person coordinating the evaluation at the prospective client look good.?Part of making them look good is setting the right expectations so that they can provide the most accurate and comprehensive insights back to their employer.

Why do we do all of this? Simply because we don't want to waste anyone's time in the process.