EP137: Distinction with Differentiators (The ‘M&M’ Episode)

Podcast
Written By Lisa Rehurek
 

To win business with RFPs, you’ve got to distinguish yourself from the competition in your response.

But what if you don’t know what your differentiators are?

On this episode of The RFP Success Show, I share my M&M analogy for discovering what makes your company different and better than the rest.

I discuss why it’s challenging to identify the ‘candy coating’ in your own business and explain what question to ask clients and employees to uncover your differentiators.

Listen in for insight on what to do if your business lacks a candy coating and learn how to take your business from simple peanut to delicious M&M in your proposal response!

Key Takeaways

  • Why it’s crucial to distinguish yourself from competitors in an RFP response

  • What happens when you bore, overwhelm or confuse RFP evaluators

  • The legend of how M&M’s got their differentiator—a candy coating

  • Why it’s challenging to identify the ‘candy coating’ in your own business

  • Why I recommend getting outside counsel to help uncover your differentiators

  • What question to ask employees and clients to discover your differentiators

  • What to do if your company doesn’t have a distinguishing candy coating 

Resources

(00:00):

You are 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):

Hey, everybody. Welcome to The RFP Success Show. I am your host, Lisa Rehurek, founder and CEO of The RFP Success Company. I am talking to you today about another food analogy. If you listen to my podcast episode from, I don't know, two or three podcasts back from this one, I did a baked potato analogy and I have another food analogy. If you don't know by now, I am a total foodie, so it is not illogical for me to be doing food analogies when it comes to RFPs. We are going to talk today about the peanuts. Peanuts. All right? I want you to think about your differentiators. We talk a lot about this on the show and just in the work that we do with our clients because one of the keys to success, one of the biggest keys to success is your ability to distinguish yourself in your RFP response. You want to be able to stand out and distinguish yourselves enough so that you get higher scores than your competitors. That's really what it comes down to, right?

(01:27):

If we're boring the evaluators or we're overwhelming them or we're confusing them, you're not going to distinguish yourself. That is all just going to have you blend in or blend out, meaning that they're not going to have enough interest because you're confusing them or overwhelming them. That distinction is really important. The better you can distinguish yourself and the more clearly you can do that, the better your results will be.

(01:58):

Back to my food analogy here is the peanuts. Let's think about a peanut, and there are certain brands of peanuts out there. Of course, there is Planters. My dad used to order these really fancy dancy peanuts from Virginia. They were seriously good, but for the most part, a peanut is a peanut is a peanut. Unless you're a peanut connoisseur, you probably don't really notice the difference in the peanuts.

(02:27):

Now, if you take a peanut and you cover it in chocolate, now it becomes a little bit more interesting. Right? It becomes something that is like, oh, it's a chocolate-covered peanut. People get maybe a little bit more excited about it because it has a little more depth to it. It's not just a plain peanut. Now it's got some sweetness to it, it's got a little bit of creaminess, and it again, just gives it much more dimension. Then, the next level is the M&M. I want you to think about the M&M itself and how much that stands out from anything else. They found their distinguisher by putting coating on it. Now, there's a story that I've never been able to validate. There's a lot of information out about the story, but all of the information talks about how it's never been validated.

(03:16):

But apparently back, in one of the world wars that soldiers had access to chocolate-covered peanuts, but of course, it was melting in their hands, it was melting in their pockets and so they couldn't eat them and that's when M&M, Mars Company or whoever invented M&Ms developed the candy coating so that it wouldn't melt so easily, and so they found a solution to a problem that nobody else was finding, and they were able to distinguish themselves because of the candy coating. Now, even if there's some knockoff, like a peanut M&M, there's knockoffs out there, but nobody knows what they are or who they are, right? Everybody goes back to M&M. M&M is like Kleenex and jacuzzi. It's a brand name, but now it is also, anytime we think of a chocolate and candy-coated peanut, we think of M&M. It is just what it is.

(04:12):

That's what you want to do with your distinguishing. You want to find your candy coating. What is it that you have that not everybody else has? I understand this is a really hard thing to do. I get it. If you haven't heard this quote, one of my favorite quotes that I talk about a lot is, "You can't see the picture when you're inside the frame." That is so true when it comes to differentiators. It's really hard for us to do them ourselves. We help our clients do this all the time, but it's something that's hard for us internally to do because we can't see it, right? Again, we're way too close to it, so we always get outside counsel to help us with that. I want you to think about that.

(04:50):

One of the other ways that I suggest people digging into their differentiators is to ask people in the company, so of all different levels, and also ask your clients like, "What do you think makes us different from other companies that do this?" Ask your employees, "What do you think makes us different and better?" Then brainstorm on that and pull it all together and see if you can find your candy coating. If you can't find your candy coating, what I would suggest is brainstorming what you wish your candy coating was, and then you can start to work towards that, so in six, nine, 12 months, you'll have your candy coating.

(05:30):

Again, I want you to think about the layers of this M&M and what layer are you on? Are you a simple peanut right now? Are you a chocolate covered peanut or have you found your candy coating? Once you find your candy coating, you're going to find so many different ways to be able to use that in your RFP response in regards to the solution that you're presenting to the buyer. Thanks so much for listening. You have been listening to The RFP Success Show, and we will see you again next time.

Outro (06:00):

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, 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 therfpsuccesscompany.com.

 
Lisa Rehurek
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EP136: The Power of Certifying Your Company—featuring Heather Cox