The Misconceptions of RFP's
To many sales organizations, when an RFP (Request For Proposal) appears in email from a prospective customer, it represents an exciting new opportunity. But is it really? It's true that RFP's often represent major deals being pursued by major companies for significant corporate initiatives; however, I would suggest that they are fool's gold when they suddenly appear out of the blue. This is because it likely has incorporated unique features from your competitor's product, since they (the competitor) probably wrote it, or at a minimum, significantly influenced it. Certainly, if you didn't write it, it doesn't include the unique features of your product.
To add to the RFP challenge, it is due within a week and will require significant resources on your part to thoroughly complete . . . so, what do you do? The RFP suggests that the opportunity is huge and your current pipeline could use a new major opportunity. The requirements, as outlined in the RFP, appear to be well within your product capabilities and you're prepared to provide appropriate references and aggressive pricing.
Are you tempted to give it a shot? Before you do, I suggest doing a little research first to attempt to uncover the customer's real motivation. For example, do you think the RFP is truly objective (haha) and was written without having a specific vendor in mind? Does their current technical landscape allow our product to fold seamlessly into their technical environment? Do you know anyone at the account that can provide a little insight behind the initiative for which the RFP was written?
My advice is to withstand the temptation to compete for this project. The odds are that the winner has already been (unofficially) selected and that the RFP process was just a CYA exercise by the project leadership to make it appear as if they properly surveyed the market before making a selection. I suggest you don't get seduced by the size of the opportunity or the relative ease of potentially completing the RFP.
Ultimately, my advice is to resist any thoughts regarding completing an unsolicited RFP, as your chances of winning it are probably worse than that of winning the lottery. When looking for more pipeline, I suggest looking elsewhere (email campaigns, events, etc.), as unsolicited RFP's aren't real opportunities. If you want more help determining which RFP's to which to respond or how to author an RFP to win, please ask Virtual Dave or email dave@moicpartners.com.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Virtual Dave is an AI-based virtual sales support tool trained on 40 years of enterprise software sales experience, available 24/7 to enhance sales process consistency. Curious? Try him out for yourself by clicking HERE.
