YOUR GUIDE TO THE RFP PROCESS: 8 STEPS TO ENSURE AN IMPACTFUL PROPOSAL

When companies or organizations determine a specific need outside their scope of capabilities, they often call for proposals from organizations that can meet those needs and provide services for particular projects. Through this Request For Proposal (RFP) process, companies can obtain the credentials and experience of several potential partners and more easily compare those credentials side by side.

If you’re new to the RFP process, it may feel daunting and time-consuming. However, once you’ve created a standard procedure for creating robust and customizable content, and visuals that represent your company and brand and catalog your standard responses, you’ll feel well-prepared to present your company’s credentials and excited for each new opportunity comes your way.

Following are eight steps to consider ensuring an impactful RFP, leverage your time, and create an efficient and repeatable process.

Step 1: Ensure the RFP is the Right Fit for Your Organization

The RFP process can take time and dedicated resources from your team. It will save time in the long run to have a system that allows you to qualify potential RFPs quickly. Is the company issuing the RFP an organization you can see yourself working alongside? Does your business offering and team experience meet the criteria needed for the project? Have you evaluated the risk, timing, budget, and strategic fit to ensure the right opportunity for your organization? Once you determine the chance you would like to pursue, it’s time to get your system in place to respond with a firm proposal highlighting why you would be the best fit for the job!

Step 2: Write a Strong and Compelling Cover Letter

The RFP cover letter is your chance to make a great first impression. This is the first opportunity for a potential client to learn why you’re interested in working with them, your areas of expertise, what sets you apart, and what drives your organization and makes you the best fit for their project. As you’re often limited to a one-to-two-page cover letter response, you should quickly establish your expertise and interest and then highlight or bullet information you will expand upon in the remainder of the reaction. Please do your research and work to understand the potential client, their company history, the specific project needs, and how your two organizations would create a strong partnership. Potential clients will appreciate that you took the time to understand their organization and highlighted how your company fits with their?vision and goals.

Step 3: Immediately Address Your Expertise and How it Meets the Selection Criteria

This section of an RFP is often the most crucial and thoroughly reviewed information. Every client looking to hire resources outside their doors will need to feel confident in your ability to provide the requested services, meet the outlined project goals, respect their proposed timelines and budgets, and provide exceptional service as if you’re one of their own. When providing content for this section, ensure that you immediately highlight your areas of expertise, the specific services you will provide, why your company and team are best suited for the client, and how you foresee being able to?meet their goals but exceed them. When possible, it’s also advised to outline the specific goals and metrics you will meet, provide your expected timelines, and highlight the final deliverables for the client. More than anything, you want your potential client to immediately feel at ease that you are the expert and that they would be making a wise choice in choosing you as their partner.

Step 4: Provide Project Examples that are Relevant to the Client

In most cases, a potential client will ask for project examples showcasing your professional experience and how it aligns with the proposal. This is your opportunity to highlight your industry expertise, service offerings, and how you’ve helped your clients reach their business goals. When selecting clients to showcase, think about their direct relevance to the potential client, how that client would draw parallels to the work you’ve already performed, and what you would provide for them to meet their needs and goals. When providing client examples, immediately draw attention to your client’s challenges, how you addressed them, how you added value, and how it positively impacted your client’s businesses in the long term. Providing before and after photos, relevant project stats, and short client testimonials will create a strong client response. If presenting more than one project example, ensure the format of your information is similar and the impact of your contributions is front and center.

Step 5: Present a Strong Team from Your Organization

With each RFP, you can put your best foot forward and present your dream team of individuals most closely aligning with the potential client’s needs. This is your chance to showcase individuals in your organization who have vast experience in the client’s industry, have created incredible value for your clients, won awards on behalf of clients, contributed to your overall organizational success, and would bring that same level of professionalism and expertise to the potential client’s business. When presenting your dream team, it’s always advised to include full names, titles, a summary of their relevant industry experience, and the role that individual would serve for the potential client. Unless requested to submit bios in a specific format, biographies of moderate length with a list of client experience and accolades are standard. When writing biographies for RFPs, establish a standard format you will use to keep the biographies similar in length, information, and tone. Headshots should be professional photographs and have a similar background and feel.

Step 6. Follow All Proposal Formatting and Delivery Instructions

In some cases, you will receive specific format instructions with an RFP. For example, a specific word count or several pages per question, specific supporting documents may be requested, or financial charts may be required. Please follow the format requests exactly as they have been asked, as companies are often comparing multiple responses to one another. These specific requests enable them to ensure all information they have requested has been submitted uniformly. In addition, detailed delivery instructions are provided; please pay special attention to how a potential client has asked you to submit the RFP and follow those instructions exactly. Sometimes, you are asked to send a hard copy via mail and submit an electronic copy. Or you may be asked to upload your RFP to a main website or send multiple copies to numerous people in different offices. In some cases, government RFPs will require additional financial and legal documents to be submitted. Above all else, always strive to submit your RFP before the necessary date to show your commitment to the client and attention to the deadline. You don’t want to miss the opportunity to be considered by simply missing a crucial submission detail!

Step 7: Create a Template to Follow for All Future RFPs

One of the most significant ways to leverage the RFP process is to create a template with each response and an internal system to pull information commonly asked in RFPs. For example, you can create a standard reply for your company background information, client lists, executive bios and headshots, list of services, office locations, etc. This will allow you to gather information quickly and ensure a consistent proposal response. You may also want to write specific client case studies with client stats, project photos, highlights, and results. Standard formats for bios and team credentials are also helpful to have in advance so you can easily pull information together when asked to assemble a new team. Once you have your information finalized, save it in easily accessible folders for anyone who may need to pull this information for future RFPs or modify it for similar but uniquely different proposal requests. Cataloging your RPFs in an easy-to-access folder will allow for future efficiencies and consistency.

Step 8: Outsource the Process to Maximize Your Time

Suppose you’re a small business or an organization without the internal staff to manage the RFP process. In that case, you can also outsource this task to marketing agencies that are well-versed in submitting RFPs. Outside firms will have graphic design teams on-hand to create visually appealing responses, copywriters to help you hone your message, and they can manage the timelines, document requests, and RFP process for you from start to finish. Often, outsourcing this task can free you up to do what you do best, run your business, and serve your clients, and it allows you better to manage your time and resources through each RFP submission.

With every RFP opportunity, you want to put your best foot forward and treat it like submitting a resume for your dream job. Your goal should always be to showcase what you do best, call attention to the synergies between your two organizations, and highlight your dedication to helping your potential client reach their business goals.

At Threaded Marketing Group, we specialize in the RFP process. Please don't hesitate to contact us to learn how we can help you create winning RFPs every time.