EP091: Emerge from the Pandemic with a Plan to Win RFPs – with Deb Zahn
The pandemic was perhaps the world’s most difficult stress test. But you can emerge stronger if you take action NOW. So, what should businesses be doing to recover from the disruption of COVID? How might you benefit from the American Rescue Plan? And how can you put yourself in the best position to win stimulus dollars through RFPs?
Deb Zahn is the Founder and CEO of Craft of Consulting, a firm dedicated to helping accomplished professionals start, build and grow their own consulting business. A practicing consultant herself, Deb has earned a reputation for getting high-value contracts with hard-to-get clients, turning them into her biggest fans and best marketers. Deb also has 25 years of experience with RFPs, yielding over $100M in business for her clients.
On this episode of The RFP Success Show, Deb explains what companies are doing to emerge from the pandemic better and stronger, challenging us to use this time to track and anticipate forthcoming RFP opportunities and ‘date’ potential business partners.
Deb describes how to think about using short-term dollars to support long-term growth, offering advice on how to help clients set spending priorities and demonstrate your value with what she calls ‘a soothing clarity.’
Listen in to understand why making the reviewer happy is Deb’s top priority and learn how she has achieved a hit rate of 90% by mastering the art and science of the RFP!
Key Takeaways
What inspired Deb to become a consultant herself and then help others do the same
What companies are doing to prepare for future disruptions and improve their customer experience as we emerge from the pandemic
The most important action businesses can take now to benefit from the American Rescue Plan
Deb’s advice on using this time to track and anticipate opportunities and ‘date’ potential business partners
How to think about using short-term dollars to support long-term growth
Deb’s insight on demonstrating your value with ‘soothing clarity’
How to help your clients set spending priorities and get to the proposal stage faster
What Deb does to make the reviewer happy and how it’s yielded her a hit rate of 90%
Connect with Deb
Resources
RFP Success Show EP91 Transcription
You're listening to the RFP Success Show with eight-time author, speaker, and CEO of the RFP Success Company, Lisa Rehurek. Tune in each episode to learn what today's capture and RFP teams are doing to increase their win percentages by up to 20, 30 and even 50%, and meet the industry trailblazers that are getting it right. Let's get started.
Lisa Rehurek (00:24):
Hello everybody and welcome to the RFP Success Show. I am your host Lisa Rehurek and today's guest is Deb Zahn. So Deb is a sought after consultant with 10 years of successful consulting under her belt. She has earned a reputation as the Closer. I love that. The consultant who can get high value contracts with hard to get clients. That's pretty intriguing. She also is a podcast host herself. She's got the Craft of Consulting Podcast, which features other successful consultants who share their strategies and insights about building their consulting business and delighting their clients as well as consulting clients who share what makes some consultants rise to the top of their hire list.
Lisa Rehurek (01:06):
So I was first introduced to Deb because I heard her on another podcast and I kind of sort of fell in love because she was giving so many golden nuggets. And I think I've listened to that thing like five or six times since then. Because I'll remember, "I think Deb Zahn said that in that podcast. I got to go back and listen to it." So when I heard her I thought, "This woman is fantastic." And then I heard that she had some RFP expertise that I thought, "Okay, we got to get her on this show." So here we are. Welcome Deb. I'm so excited that you're here.
Deb Zahn (01:39):
Thank you so much. I am delighted. And I'm an RFP nerd too, so I am ready to talk all things RFP and consulting.
Lisa Rehurek (01:47):
Oh my gosh. So tell us a little bit about your background. What did you do before you started? Because you're now kind of known as the consultant of consultants, very-well known and very successful. What did you do before that?
Deb Zahn (01:59):
So I have had a sort of an interesting path none of which was terribly by design until recently. So I'm actually still a practicing consultant. So everything I talk about doing just know that I've likely done it this week. And so that's really helpful. So I am a healthcare consultant. That's how I ended up down the path where I decided to help other consultants. And before that I worked at Kaiser Permanente. I worked at organizations that do variety of things in healthcare. And I worked at a statewide foundation, which is also helpful in terms of thinking of RFPs because that's where I had to be a reviewer and do various things.
Deb Zahn (02:43):
I did a whole bunch of good and wonderful things that I felt very proud of in my work life, but really had a desire for more diversity and more flexibility, which is what drove me to consulting. And I started off working at an absolutely national firm and then about a year and a half, two years ago went independent. And so I'm fortunate that I still get to serve great clients who are doing good things for the world. And then at the same time, helping other consultants figure out how to be successful and skip many of the mistakes that I made when I first started that delayed my success. So I'm trying to get everybody to hop over that and get to the good part.
Lisa Rehurek (03:24):
I love that. And I so love as you know because we've talked about this, the fact that you've been a reviewer because that insight is going to be valuable, hugely valuable for our listeners. So let me ask you this. Obviously, you're in the consulting business. You help businesses see things from a completely new perspective and as the recording of this, we're in spring of 2021 about a little over a year through this pandemic. So what are you seeing from a behind the scenes perspective that is changing now that we're emerging from this craziness?
Deb Zahn (03:59):
Exactly. So I'm seeing some of the panic and then numbness that existed sort of right at the heart of it. And I'm starting to see companies and organizations starting to emerge out of it as well as consultants and people who work with those organizations start to say, "Okay, did we really want to return back to normal or are there better ways to do things?"
Deb Zahn (04:23):
And I think recognizing that it's not just a matter of putting the pandemic behind us and saying, "Well, thank goodness we'll never have another disruption ever again in our lives." And yet, that's only if you don't watch the news and we just had another disruption. We just had the attack on a pipeline and suddenly you got people at gas stations putting gasoline in Ziploc bags, which don't do please.
Lisa Rehurek (04:51):
Don't do that.
Deb Zahn (04:51):
Don't do that. But so there's still going to be uncertainty. There's still going to be disruptions. We don't know what they're going to be, we don't know what they're going to look like, but people are starting to ask the questions how are we going to be different both to prepare for whatever happens, but then also how can we be different that's going to be a key differentiator for us in front of our clients and our customers? Because everybody's just gone through frustration and feeling beat down, and just all kinds of things.
Deb Zahn (05:23):
So how can you show up differently that helps take others to a place where they're going to be more sustainable over the long-term? So people are doing things like contingency planning for whatever happens, which I think is a great idea. They're hopefully, hopefully, hopefully re-looking at what their client or customer experiences because one of the key differentiators is and shall always be, but especially now what type of experience you provide that's going to set you apart from others. So there's a lot of activity like that that I see kicking back up as people start to say, "All right, there's a future and we actually have to help forge that future."
Lisa Rehurek (06:06):
And it's interesting because I feel like companies have talked about that contingency planning. We've got emergency preparedness. We've got this contingency plan, but they didn't really nor did they know how to execute it. And so it sounds like you're seeing people saying, "Okay, now we really actually need to be prepared because we probably will at some point need to execute this."
Deb Zahn (06:26):
That's right. And if you think of the pandemic as the world's most difficult stress test of what you actually had and didn't have in place, the smart organizations, the smart companies are using that as an opportunity to make themselves better and stronger. The folks that I think are going to have a difficult time surviving are just like, "Ah, let's just put that behind us and just pretend like it didn't happen." That's a waste of a crisis.
Lisa Rehurek (06:55):
Do you know who Todd Herman is?
Deb Zahn (06:58):
Yes, yes.
Lisa Rehurek (06:59):
So I don't if you saw this, but at the beginning of the pandemic he got COVID and he did a kind of an informal survey of CEOs, but it was a lot of CEOs. I mean, it was maybe like 250 or 300 people that he talked to. And he found at that time, the people that were kind of focusing on COVID and focusing on the news and focusing on all that was bad were really struggling. And CEOs that really kind of shot out right away were the ones that were like, "We got to find a way out of this now. We're moving forward." They didn't really speak negatively and they pivoted pretty quickly. So it sounds somewhat similar to what you're talking about and what you're seeing.
Deb Zahn (07:37):
Yeah, I had a client who is oddly cheerful when I talked to her sort of in the height of it. And I know her well enough. I've worked with her for a long time. I said, "Why the heck are you so happy?" And she's like, "Well, you know crises are my sweet spot. That's when things get thrown up in the air and people are willing to do new things." And she actually used to in her glory days as a youth used to be part of an improv group and she's like, "I'm back in my element." And they were able to pivot quite successfully and essentially get new opportunities they otherwise wouldn't have gotten.
Lisa Rehurek (08:10):
Yeah, I love that. And I'm kind of one of those people that's like be open to the universe and be open to what can come to you. And there is a lot of different opportunity out there for sure. And kind of one in particular as we talk about this and we know that the American Rescue Plan that's likely coming down the pike here, it's going to include in programs, incentives, money to businesses to invest in their growth, and mostly to support the infrastructure of a lot of different things.
Lisa Rehurek (08:39):
So what do you feel is a most important action that businesses can take now to kind of get ready for what might come? Because we don't really know what's going to come, but should people be preparing and what kind of an action should they be taking?
Deb Zahn (08:51):
So the answer to the should they is heck yes you absolutely should. And actually there already has been action related to this. So I have a client that I'm working with right now on one of their awards. So the first thing is don't wait until something happens. Don't hope that you're going to hear about it and that you're going to be able to take advantage of it. You can actually track and anticipate these things. So you can go on the federal register or grants.gov. Things I know you're very familiar with. Pay attention to what trade associations are talking about because they have people and lobbyists who are paid very much to be able to see what's coming down for the types of businesses that they represent.
Deb Zahn (09:35):
So get that information and track it on a regular basis. So one, you don't miss opportunities, but also so that you can try and get out ahead of it and say, "All right, given what we're seeing is already in place or might be in place, what do I think I'm eligible for?" Are there other folks that are eligible that I could either help our partner with in which case I want to start to perhaps forge some of those relationships now before the dance and everybody wants to be on their dance card?
Deb Zahn (10:06):
Recognize that for, I think most of it, if not all of it, a lot of the money has to be spent in a really short period of time. So some of the money that I know about that has gone out to health centers across the country has to be spent within two years. It's really easy to think in the short-term what's the money? What can I use it for? How do I fill holes that COVID in the economy and just think like, "How do I get back on my feet?" Rather than also thinking about it because that matters, but also thinking about how you can use those short-term dollars to support your long-term sustainability and your long-term growth.
Deb Zahn (10:49):
That's a critical way to look at the dollars and I'll give an example because I'm actually helping a client with this. So one of my clients is a health center from the federal agency that they report to. They got an allocation of $48 million. That has to be spent in two years. I'm pretty creative. It's hard to spend $48 million in two years without creating a fiscal cliff for yourself. And so you're trying to avoid the risks associated with spending it on things that there will be no source to replace it with afterwards. But you also want to think about it in terms of what will make us stronger? What positions us so that as other opportunities come down the pike or other opportunities to grow that the money we're spending now helps us do that?
Deb Zahn (11:45):
So for example, if you need to implement or fix any systems that you don't currently have in place now that our mission and revenue critical. If you have to reorganize so that you're more efficient and effective. Capacity building, skill building are critical and RFPs are a great example of that. If you know that one of the sources of your revenue is going to be hopefully successfully bidding on RFPs, now is the time to get really good at that, to fix your systems so that you can track it, you can know what your hit rate is. You can get away from the throw spaghetti on the wall approach.
Deb Zahn (12:26):
Particularly as things get more competitive, you want to get better at the things that are core to your business and that's a great thing to spend money on because it doesn't require money after it goes away, but you're stronger and you're more able to do the things that you want to do.
Lisa Rehurek (12:43):
I love that point about thinking about not just thinking about how are we going to spend this money now, but thinking about the ramifications going into the future. The other thing too, Deb, is and I know there's actually something that you talked about in that podcast that I'm obsessed with. But we always tell our people, "Look, you can't expect to win an RFP if it's just comes on your desk and it's sitting on your desk, and you decide we've got to bid on this."
Lisa Rehurek (13:10):
There's a lot of work that has to be done ahead of that. And to me, I feel like this is a perfect opportunity for companies to go into prospects or clients if they want to retain that contract and say, "Look, let us help you do some planning around what this is going to look like for you and how we can help you make sure that you're ready for it." So use it as a business development opportunity also, right?
Deb Zahn (13:37):
Yeah, absolutely or use it as an impetus to start dating people you've always wanted to date like from a business perspective. So if there's partnerships you wanted to forge, what a great thing to have a conversation around is, "Look, some of this money might be coming down. Together these are the types of things that we could achieve." So to think about it that strategically and not just money that I could potentially get to fill holes.
Lisa Rehurek (14:04):
Yeah. And that's a huge value add. And even this huge nugget that Deb gave us a couple of minutes ago, which was making sure that you're thinking about the long-term of it, not just the short-term. You take that to your clients in a strategic discussion, they're probably not thinking long, long-term, they're thinking, "How the heck are we going to spend this money today? What do we need today?" But they're probably not thinking about the implications for the future. Immediately, Deb's given you a golden nugget that you can share with your clients.
Deb Zahn (14:33):
And they can do one thing that I did, which is even before they start deciding what they're going to do with the funds, help them develop criteria by which they're going to make decisions because otherwise it's too easy for it to be like cage match or dance off of whose will is to prevail in terms of how the money gets used. But to have a set of criteria that makes them think about short, intermediate and long-term goals that they have as an organization.
Lisa Rehurek (15:01):
That is so great. Kind of like a spending strategy session.
Deb Zahn (15:05):
Yeah.
Lisa Rehurek (15:06):
Beautiful, beautiful.
Announcer (15:07):
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Lisa Rehurek (15:33):
So I knew you were going to throw out some really great nuggets and I appreciate that. I love it. So one of your hugely valuable downloads is How to Get to the Proposal Stage Faster. Now this is a little bit more about unsolicited proposals, so not necessarily RFPs, but all of us in business deal with that all the time. So are you seeing that process change at all with the chaos in the markets?
Deb Zahn (15:54):
Yeah. And other RFPs, if they have a face-to-face with you, these things, I would say these things apply as well. So the process hasn't changed dramatically, except that we're in this in-between stage. And since we're in this in-between stage from panic and fear to whatever sense of normalcy we're going to have, we're kind of in-between those two things. You have to then approach it and think about it in a different way and you have to take different actions.
Deb Zahn (16:25):
So I would say you have to be able to clearly demonstrate your value from the get-go and consistently, and be able to do that with just soothing clarity. And I'm using the word soothing intentionally because most human beings including us make decisions based on emotions. We rationalize the emotional decisions that we make. So you need to get really good at actually demonstrating your value in a way that produces the emotional state you want the folks on the other side to have, which is relief, feeling soothed, feeling hopeful again, feeling like, "Oh my gosh, somebody is finally going to be able to help me."
Deb Zahn (17:07):
So upping your skills related to that particularly depending on your marketplace gets more competitive. So I'm finding with clients that I talk to and with other consultants that are working with clients is they're a lot of needs. You kind of can't throw a rock and not hit a need, but they haven't yet been able to take a breath and take a beat and say, "What are my priorities and what should I be spending my money on?" So it's kind of like this big ah, help. But they're also shy about spending money particularly if they took a hit during the pandemic. So the more skilled you are at helping them clarity about their priorities and what they should be spending money on faster.
Deb Zahn (17:54):
First of all, that's giving them value right off the bat. Second, it's producing all of those feel good emotions like relief that you want it to produce, but that's going to help you get to a proposal faster, more likely get a contract signed, and get them to feel really eager about the good work that you can do with them starting. So there's urgency, but bringing in clarity is going to help you get to the proposal and contract.
Lisa Rehurek (18:20):
Yeah, it's such a good point because we do always try to make sure that when we're helping our folks with their RFP responses that they're building trust and they're helping make the reader feel like a sense of relief. But it feels like that needs to be even heightened right now because there's so much not necessarily distrust in individuals, but distrust in the world right now and what will happen next.
Deb Zahn (18:48):
That's right. And it's not in a rash overall response to what's been happening in the world. So that being proactive and doing your homework so that you can say, "All right, look, here's what I see happening in your market. You may know about this. You may not know about these other things. Here are some potential threats and opportunity." And have in your pocket like here are three things that based on what I've heard you say probably makes sense for you to tackle first and here's why.
Deb Zahn (19:18):
Even that prioritization step can be so relieving to them because most of them have been working so hard that they haven't had the time to sit and do it. So you doing some pre-thinking, you doing some sorting is going to make them more willing to take a next step.
Lisa Rehurek (19:36):
Yeah, and the other thing about that is that I bet and this is always the case, but again, exacerbated because of our environment. Just having somebody listen to them and as consultants, actually as anybody selling to anybody whether you're a consultant or not, you should always be in listening mode. I could imagine even just that exercise of listening to them and let them just toss it all out, you're going to learn a ton, but can you imagine the relief that they probably haven't had for a while?
Deb Zahn (20:05):
Yeah, or even the recognition of what they've been through. So I was actually at a client site for the first time in a year and a half. I was actually there this Saturday and they're a health center and they showed a video of everything they had to do during COVID and I got misty. I mean, I literally welled up because I thought I knew everybody was working hard. My husband's a mental health provider. I've seen it in our house in terms of all the things that they have to do that's so much more than they ever have to do. But I got to see it, experience it, appreciate it. And then the way that I'm going to interact with them afterwards is going to be with more care and concern, it just is
Lisa Rehurek (20:48):
Yeah, and especially in the healthcare field. That's also another good point is what industry are you serving that maybe got hit even harder than some other industries? And certainly healthcare is at the top of that list and they need some grace and empathy right now for sure.
Deb Zahn (21:02):
Right, or small businesses or hospitality or travel. I mean, there's so many.
Lisa Rehurek (21:08):
There really is. This is such great conversation. Now I want to talk about RFPs specifically, right?
Deb Zahn (21:13):
Yay.
Lisa Rehurek (21:14):
Yay. It's kind of crazy early in my career I never would've thought that I'd get so excited about RFPs, but alas, here we are. So you've been actively involved with RFPs in the past. You've been on RFPs. You have, I think you've even written RFPs. Is that right?
Deb Zahn (21:29):
Many. Yes.
Lisa Rehurek (21:30):
Yep. You've been a reviewer. So tell us a little bit about your experience with RFPs so just to kind of set the stage there?
Deb Zahn (21:37):
You bet. So I have either applied on behalf of an organization I was working for or been a reviewer or even a client bid for 25 years. Now on the ones that I write, my hit rate is in the 90%.
Lisa Rehurek (21:56):
Wow, that's amazing.
Deb Zahn (21:57):
So I recognize that's high and there've been some federal opportunities that it was like a gold rush feeding frenzy. And very few people got every single one we applied for. I got every single one we applied for it. And I don't say that to brag. I say that because I-
Lisa Rehurek (22:18):
Well, you should.
Deb Zahn (22:19):
Well, okay. I kind of do sometimes, but I say that because I understand how to get the basics right and I humbly understand how to get the basics, right which is why I have such a high hit rate. And the basics, which would you talk about all the time, which is like, don't go after RFPs that you're not a fit for. Be clear when you say yay or nay to go in after someone.
Deb Zahn (22:46):
And then really what, for me, the heart of it and why I think I have such a high hit rate is that I know that my job is to make the reviewer happy. Not myself, not my organization, not even the agency issuing the RFP. All roads lead to the reviewer happiness. And I know that. And so I gauge everything around that because I want to make it easy and pleasurable for them to give me a high score.
Lisa Rehurek (23:15):
And I love that you said pleasurable because easy, yes, absolutely. But pleasurable it's like we don't want to read our own RFP response. We don't want to read the RFP. I mean, come on. I say this all the time. We've got to get rid of the boring RFP responses because nobody's going to read that and nobody wants to read it and they'll check out. And you're not doing them or yourself any favor, so I love that you said that. Beautiful.
Deb Zahn (23:38):
Yeah. I often put a fun phrase in there that's not jargon. It's not anything they would expect. And I've actually when we've asked for the scoring sheet back, I've seen smiley faces.
Lisa Rehurek (23:53):
I love that.
Deb Zahn (23:54):
So instead of using industry language to say that the way that care's being delivered as fragmented. I refer to it's friendly, but fragmented. And I make sort of a joke about it. Nothing that's flippant, but something that's just kind of fun when you read it because you don't expect to see it.
Lisa Rehurek (24:10):
Yes, I 100% agree with that because most RFP responses are dry as can be. As a matter of fact, I was working with a client not too long ago. And their RFP response was I think 500 or 600 pages. And I said, you got to cut it down to 200. Now I sometimes can be a little bit direct and people don't quite know how to take me. I mean, I probably should have been a little bit softer in that comment because they flipped their lids. They only had another, I think, 10 days to make any edits, but I'm like, "Nobody's going to read this" and they be adamantly disagreed with me that they needed all this technical jargon in there.
Lisa Rehurek (24:46):
And I stood my ground and they cut it down, but not to where I wanted them to be. But at the end of the day, we think more is better, but it actually is not better for the reviewer. They're just going to get lost in that. And most of the time, the reviewers don't even know all that technical stuff and they don't care to. They want to know that they can trust you.
Deb Zahn (25:06):
So I'm going to back you up 100% and say that what they should do is send you a gigantic bouquet of flowers for that tough love that you gave them because that's the difference between winning and not winning. If somebody wants to read War and Peace, they will go purchase it and then they'll only get a third of the way through if even.
Lisa Rehurek (25:27):
For sure.
Deb Zahn (25:28):
We should not make it painful for people to get to a yes, so I back you up 100%. I've certainly said it to my clients. Actually, somebody made me count it up. All of the RFPs that I've done for clients have yielded over $100 million.
Lisa Rehurek (25:43):
That's amazing.
Deb Zahn (25:44):
And the reason that's not chump change is because they know that there is an art and science to RFPs, which you know. Intimately. And if they're wise, they will listen.
Lisa Rehurek (25:56):
Yes, yes. You know it's funny. It is interesting and you probably run across this too. People will hire us and then not fully listen to us and you just have to laugh.
Deb Zahn (26:05):
Oh yeah. Well, months.
Lisa Rehurek (26:06):
That's true.
Deb Zahn (26:09):
Maybe if they want to win, they'll listen next time. Yes.
Lisa Rehurek (26:13):
That's very true.
Lisa Rehurek (26:15):
You have been listening to the RFP Success Show. Thanks for tuning in and we are going to bring you the second half of our interview with Deb Zahn in two weeks. So make sure you tune in for the rest of my interview for consultant Deb Zahn.
Announcer (26:30):
This has been another episode of the RFP Success Show with Lisa Rehurek. Eight-time author, speaker, and CEO of the RFP Success Company. Thank you for joining us. If you have feedback on today's episode, email us at podcast@rfpsuccess.com. No matter your business size or industry, if you have an in-house RFP team or need outside support, the RFP Success Company helps increase RFP win ratios by 10, 20 and even 50%. Learn more at the rfpsuccesscompany.com.