What percentage of RFPs do bidders respond to?

On average, bidders respond to two out of three RFPs they receive, with the number down from last year. This demonstrates that bidders are becoming more careful about investing their scarce resources of time and effort on responding to bids that they probably don't have a chance of winning.

Wide variation in behaviour

About a third of all bidders respond to less than one in two opportunities

If you speak to bidders (or more accurately, potential bidders) you will soon find out that opinions vary from:

• "We are not interested in tenders! Waste of time!"
• "We pick and choose which bids to pursue, but we don't go for 'blind' tenders"
• "We are careful about which tenders to pursue"
• "Most of our business comes from quotes and tenders"

So what?

One take-away is that there is no single pattern and that it is likely that response rates are sector-specific. If you work in construction, tenders are part of your World. If you work in advertising, perhaps RFPs are growing in significance, but you can ignore many of them.

When asked how they feel about their response rate, 43% of the respondents said they were satisfied with the number of RFPs they bid on. Or to put it another way, the majority of respondents were unsatisfied with the number. I suspect that many salespeople yearn for the relative intimacy of the relationship sell, rather than what my friend Tom calls "brown envelopes at dawn"

A final takeaway is that firms are increasingly careful about which opportunities they pursue. With the cost of bidding being $5000 and upwards even for small jobs, and success rates being typically 35% the 'go / no go' decision is critical for many bidders.

The 'go / no-go' decision

If you would like to receive my free 'go / no go' tool that I have created to help businesses decide which opportunities to pursue, message me on this platform and I will send it to you. The latest version now has go-faster stripes, helping you make better choices - or your money back!