Rfp Quotes

the true worst-case is when we’re stuck responding to a request for proposal (RFP) that our competitor helped the prospect write!

In 1992, as we sought to establish our permanent terrestrial campus, we put out an RFP (request for proposals) that basically said, “Hi there, we’re ISU. We have this concept for a permanent campus. We’ve held five summer programs in five different cities, and this is our vision for what we want to create and where we want to go. Please tell us how much cash endowment, buildings, and operational money you will give us to bring our vision to your city.” Had we gotten no response at all, I would not have been surprised. But that wasn’t the case. Within six months, we received seven proposals ranging from $20 million to $50 million in funding, buildings, faculty, equipment, and even the promise of accreditation. In short, everything we needed to implement the next phase of ISU.

An RFP is not a writing project to complete, it's a sales opportunity to win.

You want to build your BATNA through the RFP and determine which set of suppliers you will advance to the negotiation phase. Then you want to take control of the negotiation and establish the starting point by making the first offer. You should never discuss the supplier's bid. Instead, you should highlight the intense competition the RFP process generated and the number of other suppliers who are interested in working with you. You want to use the RFP to highlight competition and then start the conversation.

I said that it was critical that the incumbent supplier recognize that there was competition and that other suppliers could do the work. Once the RFP was sent, the company noticed that the incumbent supplier's behavior improved dramatically. The supplier was on time with deliverables, their work was better than before, and they were much more responsive than in the past. My client was delighted, thanked me for my work, and asked me to send them my invoice. I stressed to them that we were not finished, though. They were surprised and reiterated that their incumbent supplier was now “behaving,” and they were so happy that they had done the RFP. I repeated that we were not finished yet and added, “You have to cut off a thumb.” They replied, “What thumb? We do not want to cut off a thumb.” I explained that we had to award some piece of business to someone else; if we gave all of the business back to the incumbent, we would only reinforce their perception that my client had no other alternatives.

When completing an RFP, Option A should always be exactly what the other side asks for. You do not want someone in procurement to throw out your bid because you did not respond directly to their request, so I always suggest that my clients indicate that Option A is “in response to your bid” or “as you requested.” I also suggest that my clients highlight that Options B and C are designed to address something the client asked for or something that they have indicated was a priority in the past. You want the client to feel as though the additional two options were, in some way, requested by them.

All caps with a red exclamation point. At 11:30 p.m. As if we were all doctors on call instead of tiny cogs in the giant wheel of the pharmaceutical industry. “It’s PR, not brain surgery,” goes the classic PR joke, but only because so many people in PR have to be reminded that a missing slide from an RFP—request for proposal—is not the same as a missing chunk of human skull.

Actually, the true worst-case is when we’re stuck responding to a request for proposal (RFP) that our competitor helped the prospect write! That has happened to me and, believe me, it’s no fun playing against a stacked deck.