SKILL


When a rep spends countless hours working on an RFP only to find out a week later that the account has gone to the current supplier – or, worse, the prospect used your proposal only to price-gouge some other supplier – it’s natural to feel used and abused. So what cards can a sales rep play up front? The deck is full of them. “Buyers will ask for RFPs for a lot of


Request or Runaround? How to Meet an RFP without Spinning Your Wheels RENEE HOUSTON ZEMANSKI


Salespeople often jump for joy when a prospect requests a proposal. Of course, this appears to be a promising step toward a sale. It can, however, be the beginning of a long and frustrating process that leads to a big goose egg.


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reasons,” says one expert in the field of sales management. “Many times companies will request RFPs just to use as leverage against another com- pany; they could be price shopping. Maybe it’s just a policy process that they have to go through. In this case, they may have no intention of leaving their current provider. A sales rep has to ask a lot of questions before doing the research and spending the time required writing an RFP.” A program manager – with a company that provides project and contract management training – is a pro when it comes to seeing the real picture when presented with an RFP. “I can spot, right off the bat, when an RFP is heavily written toward one of our competitors, because I know the competitors so well.” She advises, “Know your market; understand your competition and what they offer.” If you don’t know your competitors, she suggests conducting an Internet search on the company issuing the RFP. By reading past press releases, you can often see with whom they’ve been working. Then you can review the RFP and ask yourself, “Do they align closely with my business offer- ings or my competitor’s business?” Her company uses a customized “go/no-go” checklist when reviewing RFPs. They analyze the dollar poten- tial, opportunities, client experience, and history with clients to decide whether it’s worth responding. “This checklist has been a tremen- dous tool for me because I can take an educated guess on whether to respond,” she says. “There will always be a little bit of guesswork, but your job is to eliminate most of that. If the level of effort exceeds the revenue


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