EP138: The FAQs We Get About RFPs, Part I
If you had the opportunity to ask an expert questions about winning business with RFPs, what would you want to know?
Do you have questions about pricing? Competing with big companies? Or recognizing when an RFP is wired?
On this episode of The RFP Success Show, I answer five of the most frequently asked questions we get about RFPs, discussing when it’s worth it to bid against the big guys and when it’s not.
I explain what to do if your small business doesn’t meet all the requirements in an RFP and how to price your proposal so it’s a win-win for you and the client.
Listen in for insight on what to do if you’re not getting the scores you deserve and learn how to audit your previous RFP responses in a way that jumpstarts your win rates for 2024!
Key Takeaways
5 of the most common questions we get about RFPs
When it’s worth it to bid against the big guys (and when it’s not)
How to highlight the benefits of being a small business in your proposal response
What to do if you don’t meet all the qualifications in an RFP
How to price your proposal so it’s a win-win for you and the client
The top 3 signs that an RFP is wired
Why you might not be getting the scores you think you deserve
What it looks like to write a proposal that resonates with evaluators
Why we suggest auditing your proposals every year
Resources
The Role of Contracts in Successful Prime + Sub Partnerships on RFP Success EP036
How to Develop Your RFP Pricing Strategy on RFP Success EP081
Book a Call with the RFP Success Company
The RFP Success Book by Lisa Rehurek
RFP Success Show EP138 Transcription
Intro:
You are listening to the RFP Success Show with eight-time author, speaker and CEO of the RFP Success Company, Lisa Rehurick. 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 Rehurick:
Hey everybody. Welcome to the RFP Success Show. I'm your host, Lisa Rehurick, Founder and CEO of the RFP Success Company. Today, we're doing another version of Frequently Asked Questions. These are the top 10 questions we get asked most by our clients and prospects, and this is just an update. We see different trends coming through in the way of questions. So we're going to do two separate episodes. This first one is going to hit on the first five questions and the next episode in two weeks will hit on the next five questions, so let's go ahead and dive right in.
The first question that we get asked is, is it even worth bidding against the big guys if I'm a small business? And the answer is yes and no, and it really depends on what you know about the buyer. If you are bidding cold, it's really hard to beat out the big guys, no lie, right? The big guys have all sorts of proposal professionals that are helping them. They've got a lot more resources than small businesses do. It's hard sometimes. They also have a lot more money. They've got a lot more financial strength, things like that that frankly state agencies look for. They want to know that you're not going to close your doors in a month or a year or even two years. They want to know that you're financially stable.
But if you've done your homework and you do a great job of presenting your content and proving why you're the one they need, then it's doable. In fact, we just had one particular small business client who we helped win a $750,000 contract. Again, this is a small business client and she was thrilled, by the way, super thrilled with her win. But what was so fun about this win for her and for us is that she beat out many larger competitors, and I think that shocked us all the most.
Not shocked in the way that she beat them out, but because there was so many of them, I think there was in total about 20 bidders on that project, and there were quite a few. So she didn't just beat one big competitor, she beat multiple big competitors. So it's absolutely doable, but you've got to kind of know your business, know the industry, and you've got to position that proposal in a way that showcases why they can trust you as a small business and also why you're better suited. And there's so many great ways to do that. There's a lot of benefit to being a small business because you can be more nimble and more flexible, and sometimes the large corporations have a lot more turnover, have red tape that they have to wade through. So there is a lot of really great reasons for an agency to choose a small business. You've just got to position your content appropriately, know some stuff going in.
So that's question number one. Let's move on to question number two.
What do I do if we don't meet all of the qualifications? Now, the first thing you want to do if you don't meet all of the qualifications is really to determine how much it's going to cost you any evaluation points. Now, you don't always know this, but if you do, that's where to start. Let's say the qualifications account for 40% of the scoring. You're not going to want to bid on that if you don't have the qualifications because 40%, you can't overcome that point deficit if you lose a lot of points on that. That's a big part of their scoring criteria, and they're looking for companies that can meet that.
However, if say it's maybe more like 10 or 20%, you could make it work. Now, we recommend that if you don't have the qualifications, you partner or sub with somebody who does so that you don't lose any points and you get the best of the best, right? You've got you and your company that does a bulk of everything, but then you bring in a subcontractor that specializes in a particular qualification, and you can position that in your proposal in a way that gets them really excited because you're not like a one company fits all. We're going to bring in the experts and the expertise specific for this particular area so that you, meaning your client, gets the best of the best. That's the best case scenario.
Now, if you want to strategically still bid without partnering or subbing with somebody, you can write to the reason that it doesn't matter if you don't have the qualifications. Now, that's a little tricky because you've got to position it appropriately so they're like, huh, they're right. Maybe we don't need that, and that they would be just fine. That's kind of what you want to have in their head. It's a little tricky, but it's doable and it's only doable if it's a minor qualification or something that isn't going to make or break their goals and objectives.
So bottom line, it's really best not to bid if you don't have the qualifications, because guess what? Everybody else that's coming in will have them. So you'll automatically be at a lower score point just because of that. So the million dollar question is, can you overcome that deficit that you might lose? Again, we don't always know. A lot of times they'll give us scoring criteria and we'll be able to figure that out, but you don't always know. So it's a very tricky question, but it's doable, but you've got to be very, very careful there and also seriously consider that subcontractor or partner.
Okay. Let's move on to question number three. How do I price my proposal? This is a tricky question because pricing is tricky, and we actually have a whole episode on pricing. It's been a long time since we did that episode, but it's really worth a listen. But at a high level, pricing comes down to doing your research plain and simply. What have they paid in the past for this contract or similar contracts? What is their budget? How do you price your services for a win-win, meaning you've got a win too? We've seen companies want to, and I've got air quotes up, "buy the business", meaning they will just slash their prices and be at a zero profitability for it just to get that client in the door. So certainly you can do that. It's not the best tactic because you should value your services at the level that your pricing is. You don't want to gouge them, but be confident and plant your flag in your pricing. So you want to win, but you also want them to win.
So best case scenario here is that you've been having conversations with the buyers and you have some insight scoop, or you've done a FOIA request and you've gotten the information on past contracts. That is one of the things that we always recommend is making sure that you're doing continuous research and getting those FOIA requests and checking out the pricing of your competitors through other contracts. We work with a client that has a lot of presence in one particular state, and their main competitors also have contracts in that same state. So the beautiful thing is is they're able to get FOIA requests and get those contracts, and they're both always competing for the same contracts, but they each know each other's pricing, and they know really how they're going to position themselves. So you can do that as well. You just have to be organized and have a system for getting those FOIA requests, and we're going to talk about that actually in the second half of this FAQ podcast.
Speaker 1:
Is your company looking to break into state government contracting? There are seven key components that must happen before you dive into state RFPs. Jumping in without a solid strategic plan and the right pre-planning can cost you time, resources, and lost revenue. Learn more about the RFP Success Company's state government services and book a call at findrfpsuccess.com.
Lisa Rehurick:
All right, let's go on to question number four. How do we know if the RFP is wired? There's a few signs that we look for to tell if an RFP is wired. First, are there any really unique and narrow requirements? Now, I remember years ago working on a proposal that required three very specific experienced staff members to be on-site in a very small region, and when you kind of mix all of that together, what they were looking for in the way of qualifications, expertise, experience, and then being on-site in this particular region, there was only one firm that was teed up for that, so we knew immediately that it was probably wired for them. Those narrow requirements tend to sit in personnel requirements, although you could also see them, I mean, we've seen them in past performance or in references. In fact, even that same contract, I believe had some very bizarre reference requirements. It had to be a certain size in the past 18 months. It wasn't even like in the past two years, but it was the last 18 months.
So when you start seeing some of those really unique and specific requirements, that's a true tell sign that it could be wired, especially if you know your competitors really well and you know that they meet those requirements, then it's like, oh yeah, this is wired for them. Another sign could be when they don't have a bidders conference or an open Q&A, particularly if there's already an incumbent. So that often tells us that they're all in on that incumbent and can't be bothered to answer questions of other vendors. So if there's not a Q&A period, no bidders conference, anything like that, that could be a true tell sign.
And then also another thing is the turnaround time on the proposal is super tight. We've seen it come in at a week and a half or two weeks for a really big RFP response, and usually those are going to give you four or five, six weeks. So when you see something like that, heed that warning and look for other signs in the proposal. Generally, you'll be able to see two or three different things that are popping up that you're like, okay, and listen to your gut. Don't give them excuses. It's kind of like dating somebody that you know shouldn't be dating, right? You've got all of these signs that pop up that are telling you this is the wrong person, this is the wrong person, but you keep giving them excuses. We see that show up here too, where we'll say, we think this is wired, and the client will say, yeah, but... Just check yourself on that because a lot of times you know it is and it's heartbreaking to put all that time and resource into bidding on something only to know that you were right, it was wired for somebody.
All right. Then the last question or number five, the last of this podcast episode is why did the evaluator score us low here? We should have gotten higher scores. Now, we see this a lot with our clients where they come in and they say, the state screwed up. They scored us really low here when it should have been high.
Well, they didn't screw up. That's their interpretation of your proposal. So if you aren't getting the scores you think you deserve, you are not doing a good job of presenting your solution in a way that really resonates with the evaluators. And here is the deal. You're so close to it. It's easy to not do this correctly. Most of our clients come to us and don't do this correctly because you're just so close to it, and sometimes we can't see the picture when we're inside the frame.
One of my favorite quotes by Les Brown, "You can't see the picture when you're inside the frame", and it's because you're so close to it that you can't really see how to pull back and be much more succinct in presenting your solution. You need to distinguish your solution and present it in a way in what I call sticky. Meaning the evaluators are going to absorb it and remember it. It's going to stick with them. If you're blending in, they're going to forget what you said. If you're boring, they'll be thinking about something else like their grocery list as they're reading your content, because remember, you're not the only proposal they're reading, right? They're reading at least another one, sometimes up to 20 more. What are you going to do to stand out? You need to write in a way that gets them to lean in and get engaged in what you're saying. Less blending, less boring. More exciting and more engaging. That is the key to getting the scores that you deserve.
Now, as we close out 2023, the time of this recording is November of 2023, this is actually the perfect time to look back at your proposals from say, the last 12 to 18 months and assess where you have done a good or a poor job at presenting your solution. Go back and look at those and get an idea for is this going to resonate with somebody that isn't close to this content, that doesn't work at the company?
In fact, we recommend you objectively review your RFP responses no less than once a year. A couple of times a year is really fabulous. December is such a great time to do this for companies wanting to jumpstart your win rates for next year. If you haven't thought about an audit, now, that's what we call it here, it's time to think about that. And if you want some help with that from experts who can look at your proposal with an evaluator's eye, we are offering a flash audit that objectively reviews your past proposals and provides you with immediate improvement recommendations. And for the rest of the year, that flash audit is $2,500. That is 45% off what our audit usually costs, and that's going to be the cost between now and the end of December.
So all you have to do, I'm going to make this really easy for you. All you have to do is email me directly, lisa@rfpsuccess.com, and we can get you started on that audit. We're going to have a very quick turnaround time for that. Three to five business days. We'll get that back to you so you and your team can really dig into that and really take a look at the things that you need to change going into 2024. It is such a perfect time of the year to do that.
Now, this concludes the first five of our top 10 FAQs. Next episode in two weeks, we're going to be right back here for the second half of the questions that we most get asked by our clients. Thank you for tuning in.
Outro:
This has been another episode of the RFP Success Show with Lisa Rehurick, 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.