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The Dirty Dozen of RFPs 1

"It was on fire when I lay down on it."

That was the statement of a drunk man who was rescued by firemen from his bed that was on fire. They asked him how did the bed catch on fire, and he answered "I don't know, it was on fire when I lay down on it." (quoted from Robert Fulghum's book, It was on Fire When I Lay Down On It.)

How many times do we answer RFPs that we know are not going to result in a sale for us? When The Whale Hunters talk to clients around the country, the answer is A LOT! If we know, then why in the heck do we answer them?

Fear of Scarcity - "If we don't answer this one, then there may not be another one. " Hope - "You never know, we could get lucky..." Boredom - "Well, we don't have that much else in the pipeline right now, so we should answer it and see what happens..." Don't know any better - " You never really know if you are going to win or lose, so we answer most of the RFPs- we play the odds."

In a recent session with a client's sales team, we came up with the ‘dirty dozen' indicators that an RFP is not worth the effort in completing. They are:

  1. No succinct objective - When it is unclear what the whale is trying to accomplish or what benefits they seek to obtain. They are trolling for new ideas.

  2. No budget - Whales who are given new initiatives from their CEOs or Boards will often learn the market through an RFP process. If the RFP is supporting a new initiative, the RFP is sent out without a budget. Part of the objective of the RFP is to determine the budget. This is a losing proposition: an unsophisticated buyer and an unclear initiative do not favor smaller companies in a whale hunt.

  3. Repetitive - Cut and paste. The process is slap-dash and poorly thought out when the RFP is overly repetitive in its requests.

  4. No access - When access to the people who will be using the services or products you sell is completely denied and you have no point of entry, this is a sign to run, not walk.

  5. Boilerplate - It is easy to tell an RFP process that is required by Procurement rather than created by those who are seeking a new supplier. It is boilerplate. We have seen some atrocious ones where the Procurement people were too lazy to even do the "find" and "replace" work themselves. They simply indicated in the attached letter that the respondees to the RFP should substitute their service offerings anywhere they saw the word "products."

  6. Too many invitees - A broad-spectrum, shotgun approach to the marketplace is a sure indicator of a process designed to protect the buyer and garner free consulting, not to accomplish a change in providers.

  7. Variety of invitees, non-specific - Sesame Street had a song, "One of these things is not like the others." If you are looking at a room of potential vendors of what you are selling and the company is very unlike what you do, this is not a good sign. It indicates that the buyers do not know what they need.

  8. Excessive creative requirements - Free drawings, samples, material samples, engineering, and other creative requirements as a part of the process of qualifying for the finalist round are another guise for free consulting.

  9. Cycle of request to delivery - The RFP response is required within 7-10 days of your receipt of the request. You can be certain that the incumbent knew about the RFP well before 10 days out, as did the company that the prospect is most interested in having win the deal.

  10. Tight control of the responses - "in 200 words or less" or "not to exceed 1 page." When every question that is included in the RFP places a tight control on the answer's length, this RFP is designed to make the answer review easier on the reader, not to differentiate the responder.

  11. Rate card request - The whole purpose of an RFP is to receive a specific proposal on a specific piece of business. This includes all of the elements of people, planning, execution and pricing around that piece of work. If you are being asked for standardized pricing schedule, this is an indication of a market survey, not a business proposal.

  12. No Reason to leave - You should find language in the RFP that reflects the problem that the Whale is trying to fix. That problem should include the problems created by the current provider. If there is no identifiable problem in the RFP, then there is no motivation for change. In the end, the deal will go to the incumbent.

What should you do with this knowledge?

First - use this list as your list. Do not answer RFPs if they violate any more than 3 of The Dirty Dozen. It is a waste of time and energy.

Second - Make your own list. Every industry has a customized version of this Dirty Dozen- make the language your own and then follow the discipline of reviewing the RFPs against the list before putting one word on paper.

Finally - Make one senior person responsible for RFP response investment control. Continuity in asking these questions and having this discipline is critical to managing RFPs for success.

It sounds crazy that someone would lay down on a burning bed when he could already see the fire! The same is true with answering Loser RFPs. Just check The Dirty Dozen.


— Tom Searcy





Tom Searcy, The Whale Hunters Company, Large Account Sales, Business Growth, Sales Process Development, Fast Growth Strategies, RFPs, Key Account Management, Current Account Growth, Sales Management, Breaking Business Growth Plateau's, Prospecting System, Business Acceptance Process, Sales Management Development, Big Sales, Big Deals, Deal Coaching, Transform your company, Explosive Growth, Whale Hunting

FOOTNOTE: 1 COPYRIGHT 2006-2008, THE WHALE HUNTERS, LLC, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.