WHY YOU LOST (OR WON) YOUR RFP

You probably don’t love it when someone tells you that you aren’t doing something very well - especially when you think you’re doing it really dang well. But what you probably hate more than hearing critical feedback is doing something stupid over and over and over and over again.

And what you probably hate even more than getting feedback and looking stupid is looking stupid AND losing RFPs, all at the same time.

So if you aren’t already doing so, start asking your customers for specific and critical feedback on your RFP responses. It might not always be fun to hear critical feedback, but it will help you know how to be a better vendor and win more RFPs.

Why we ask.

Assuming you’re the type of person who enjoys winning more deals while also being a good vendor that customers actually like to work with, getting customer feedback is something you have to do.

When you don’t ask for feedback, you lose a valuable learning opportunity that can cost you future deals. And you don’t want that.

Your customers are constantly judging your RFP response, your demos, and your conversations. If you’re doing something poorly, but you don’t know you’re doing it poorly, then you’re going to continue doing it poorly. You’ll never get better, and you’ll be less likely to win more deals.

Storytime!

A few years ago, I started asking customers for feedback. I consistently started to hear that our customers were disappointed in our proposal accessibility for those who are visually impaired.

The product itself was very accessible, and product accessibility was rather important to our customers. A simple thing like not having alt-text in our bids’ images made our customers feel like the product wasn’t really as accessible as we said it was. This definitely made us less likely to close deals.

After hearing this feedback, we immediately changed our template to be more accessible. This led to a better view of us as a company, and it probably meant we won more RFPs. But before we started asking for feedback, we had no idea this had been costing us deals. We wouldn’t have known we needed to change. We would’ve continued to lose.

If you want to know how to improve, ask for feedback.

How to reach out to ask.

Asking for feedback is an art, and it will take practice to get it right. You must build a process that has the right people asking the right questions. The outcome of the process will be specific and honest feedback that you can use to win more RFPs.

Set the expectation at the beginning. At the beginning of the RFP process, your salesperson must let the customer know that your team is always working to improve and make the customer buying process better, and therefore you’re going to ask for feedback at the end of the process, regardless of whether you win or lose. This sets your customers’ expectations; they won’t be surprised when you ask, and they’ll be more willing to give it.

Not everyone is going to want to give you feedback. But most people like talking about themselves and their opinions. And everyone is a lot more likely to give feedback when you set the expectation for feedback at the beginning of the process.

Get the right person to set the meeting. Once you’ve signed a contract - or are informed you didn’t get the contract - the person with the best relationship with the decision maker(s) should reach out to ask for feedback. They should be the person who introduces the stakeholder(s) to the person who will ask feedback questions.

Get the right decision maker(s) in the meeting. Although procurement teams may be capable of giving good feedback, it will probably be very process-driven feedback. Instead, you need to get feedback from the stakeholder/decision maker(s). They know the real reasons for why you won or lost, and they can give you the most detailed feedback.

There is usually more than one decision maker, and so choose your feedback person wisely. This person may not be the person who was the nicest to you throughout the process - it should be the person who was the most honest with you throughout the process.

Get the right person to ask the questions. The person who actually asks the feedback questions needs to be at least somewhat impartial to the feedback. This person shouldn’t be the salesperson, the salesperson’s manager, or anyone who has really presented to the customer.

Customers usually don’t want to hurt the salesperson’s feelings, and so they often downplay the more critical feedback. Very few customers want to say, “Your proposal was the most useless thing I’ve ever read,” to the person who wrote the response. Or say, “Your presentation literally made me wish I was doing laundry instead of listening to you,” to the salesperson - even if that is the feedback they want to give.

Customers also don’t want to feel like they are “telling on” anyone, and so they often downplay the more critical feedback if they are speaking to a manager.

Therefore, the person asking the questions should be a step removed from the RFP and the customer. This person should be someone who feels comfortable asking tough, thoughtful questions. Even though the customer probably doesn't know this person, the customer needs to feel comfortable giving them both good and constructive feedback.

The right questions to ask when you win and when you lose. Asking the right questions isn’t always easy, but it comes with practice.

Your questions can be general at the start, but then you need to dig in and ask specific questions. Vague questions will give you a great idea of what you did(n’t) do well - but it won’t give you enough detail to change anything for next time.

So when you ask general questions, or you get general feedback, ask follow-up questions like, “Can you give me an example of that?” or “What was the impact of that?”

I am going to be very generous with you and give you an idea of what to ask for when you win and lose an RFP (you’re welcome): 

1. In general, how did you feel the RFP process went?
2. What did we do well that you liked?
3. What could we improve on for the next RFP we work on?
4. What was your initial opinion of us before the RFP?
5. What was your opinion of us after you read the RFP response?
6. What was your opinion of us after the demo?
7. How did you feel about our overall technical solution?
8. How did you feel about our ability to deliver the solution?
9. How did you feel about the commercial portion of the bid?
10. How did you feel about the team you worked with?
11. At what point did you know we were(n’t) the right fit for you?
12. What were the key differentiators that made you choose our company over the other vendors?

Before you ask these questions, make sure that these are actually the questions you want to ask; make some of the questions specific to the experience you’ve just had with them.

What to do when you’ve got your feedback.

You’ve reached the most difficult part of getting customer feedback. Your challenge is to distribute the feedback and make improvements, all without making your team feel like they have been punched in the face multiple times. Good luck. I believe in you.

1. Set up a short call with the people who were a part of the bid.
2. Set a clear agenda and objective. Put the agenda and objective in your calendar invite and remind them of the agenda and objective at the beginning of the call.
3. Continually keep the team thinking of how this feedback will turn into actionable next steps.

You must have a clear agenda and objective because feedback sessions have a tendency to become a bit more like a maze than a yellow brick road, and that makes the meeting useless. You must leave the meeting with clear next steps, or the feedback is worthless.

My suggestion is to have a table with three columns to use and share during the meeting: (1) The list of feedback, (2) Actionable next steps, and (3) The person responsible for the next steps.

Talk through the great and the critical feedback, one by one. Always come away with next steps on how to improve, and ensure one or two people are responsible for working on those next steps.

One of the most important things to do is to make sure this is a comfortable, trusting setting. The people in this call know they are possibly going to hear they didn’t do something well - which can often lead to people feeling defensive or upset. A lot of people absolutely dread these feedback calls (one of my friends loses sleep the night before!), and that is usually because one of the attendees makes the feedback session feel like a finger-pointing session; it’s not fun, and it is not productive.

Straightforward feedback and radical candor are important, and it can be given without being an asshole. If your feedback sessions start to feel like this, step back, figure out why it is feeling that way, and change it.

(Pro tip: If there is a manager or someone else who makes this session feel overly critical and just generally awful, then you need to talk to them about it. I’ve been in this situation before, and it can quickly become toxic. Most people aren’t trying to be monsters; most people are just incompetent when it comes to feedback.)

On the opposite end of the spectrum, don’t shy away from giving important feedback. You may not want to hurt anyone’s feelings or feel like you’re throwing them under the bus. Giving difficult feedback is, well, difficult. Practice giving it. Record yourself to see how you sound. But be clear with the feedback you have, because that is the only way your team can change for the better.

In one of my past companies, one of our technical people managers kept leaving in the middle of our evaluated customer presentations. He’d tap on the desk and say “Thanks, guys. Lovely to meet you, but I need to leave now.” The customers found this to be rather rude, and it made them think we weren’t serious about working with them. This feedback was consistent. His actions were negatively affecting our deals, and this would’ve been an easy fix. However, the person who needed to provide him with that feedback was not okay with providing that information. The result was that nothing changed, and they are probably still losing deals because of it.

You also have to make sure to call out the good feedback. Knowing what you did well can help you keep doing those good things. I’ve had a few customer feedback calls, where the vast majority of the feedback I got was very positive. After one of these rather positive the meetings, I got a message from someone, telling me the meeting had been a waste of time because we were just patting each other on the back. I disagreed.

We don’t always know we are doing well, let alone exactly what we are doing well. Whenever I get positive feedback that is specific, it doesn’t just boost my confidence, it helps me know exactly what I should keep doing. This is the same with bid teams. Going through the positive feedback reinforces what you’re already doing so that you keep doing it.

In one of my past companies, we started adding specific customer benefits to the beginning of our answers. It took a few hours of extra time to do this, and we weren’t sure if it was worth it; we almost made the decision to stop. But we started getting feedback on how some of the decision makers appreciated being able to quickly see how our product would benefit them. This feedback meant we kept spending the time to make sure we kept doing what we were doing - which lead to winning more deals.

Conclusion.

Go through the good feedback. Go through critical feedback. Set clear next steps. Improve. Win more bids! Simple, eh?

Feedback is difficult, and it takes a crazy amount of practice. But it is one of the key ways you will get better and win more deals.

Your turn! What do you do to get customer feedback? What roadblocks have you hit and what are your best tips to your fellow bid teams?