You're wasting your time with RFP questions
When a big Request for Proposal comes in at Kunai, it's hard not to get excited at the prospect of winning the business. Crack teams are assembled, bringing some of our company’s best talent together to answer ambiguous questions about how we secure data or what flavor of agile we use. It's an adrenaline rush, but frankly, one that often ends in disappointment.
We remain far better at doing than talking - a fact that doesn’t lessen the blow when we get the ‘runner up’ message. Here are the questions we wish more of our prospective clients ask us:
- Will you go the extra mile for us when we need something slightly out of scope?
- Does your team really understand what we’re building and why?
- When there are difficult conversations to be had, will you approach them in the right way?
- Do you value our partnership or just our $?
- Can we learn something new from your experts, or are you just building to our scope?
Answers from vendors to these questions will always look great, so there’s no real point in asking. However, challenge your teams to do their due diligence and include these answers in their recommendations for who wins the bid.
Risk Compliance Manager at isolved
4 年RFPs aren’t going away anytime soon. Negative attitudes about them are understandable but not helpful. A solid team that includes project managers, engaged sales professionals, subject matter experts, excellent writers and a well managed database make the process efficient and effective. RFPs are an opportunity to showcase HOW your solution solves the customer’s pain points, share ROI, connect prospective clients with existing ones, and respect your customer’s procurement process.
PL-SQL || Data Normalization || Shell Scripting || GNU/Makefile
5 年Yes. A lot of times you find they don't even know what they are requesting therefore How Can You Put together an educated bid??????
Global Sales Director - Softlines and Hardlines
5 年not true, couldn’t enjoy more.
Retired attorney
5 年So true.