RFPs: Win It, Reshape It, or Walk Away

[00:00:19] Hello everyone, I'm Andy coming to you from the United Kingdom. Andy Baqone And I'm Scott and I'm in Canada. Very nice to see you again, Scott, and welcome everyone to the Tea and Timbits podcast, Global Perspectives on Business Development to help you prosper. We are continuing our theme for the month of August, which I believe is all about proposals.

[00:00:46] And we are going to be focusing on RFPs today. And if it wasn't about proposals before, it certainly is in this episode. So before I get any more lost and I can find my notes so I can actually talk to you properly. Scott, do you have a story to save us? Scott Snowden Yes, indeed. Thank you, Andy. And you know what? It ties right into proposals. I didn't think about that when I jotted a note to say I can probably share some thoughts there.

[00:01:16] And I know that I come back to this theme a lot more recently, but it was going to be about the speed and benefit of using AI that we're experiencing now.

[00:01:25] And what made me think about putting that down as a story I thought would be worth sharing was the pace at which I've been working lately has like the I don't work any harder. But the pace of output, the productivity output has gone up dramatically.

[00:01:53] What used to take me and I and I noticed this with with proposal writing, I can I now used to be like, OK, I've got this proposal. It's due in three weeks. I need to think about the work back schedule. I need I'm going to need time for this and then I'm going to need time to collect that. And then I'm going to need to talk to this person and it's going to have to be like I have to build a project schedule for getting my proposal written.

[00:02:17] And now that pressure and that sensitivity and that sort of timeliness has been hugely compressed because I can I can multitask. I can spin up an AI that goes, OK, give me what you think about this. And then it's it chews on that for a while and I can do the same thing. I can go to a meeting and then I and then it's it's so it's a lot more happening in parallel. And there's a lot more happening in a in a not a lot more.

[00:02:43] It's it's now it's all happening in a compressed timeline so I can fit more things in because I don't have to be spending as much time doing the same proposal writing that I was doing before. Or, you know, I'm using proposal as an example because it's our theme, but I've been doing a lot more content generation report writing for clients. We're working a little bit on sort of our own marketing right now and things like that. But, you know, it's like I said, it's not that I'm suddenly.

[00:03:15] Personally working faster or harder, I'm just able to do more in the time that is now that's always been available to me. But I've noticed that for some reason and I guess it all makes sense, but I'm definitely noticing lately because I've been doing this pace for a while now. It seems like there's a lot of this just kind of popping up at the moment. It's uncharacteristic for the summertime. I'm mentally exhausted.

[00:03:41] Like I'm I am processing information and data way more rapidly than I have ever before. There would be a much slower output and consumption and processing speed expected of my own brain. And now I'm I'm I'm I'm able to do and get my throughputs gone up.

[00:04:08] And I've noticed it has a physical effect like my my I can't sustain that. The same way. At the end of that, you know, block of work, I'm I'm tired in a way that I wouldn't have been for. Putting the same block of effort into the same block of work before it's just because I'm churning through so much more now.

[00:04:37] It's an interesting situation. Situation. It sort of makes sense by one perspective and doesn't make sense. I again didn't. But I'm producing more. So it's it seems to be exhausting. Interesting situation. Fascinating. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:04:54] I think in many ways, of course, having a member of your team constantly delivering the answers to your, you know, requirements and your inquiries and the work that you need to get done, of course, means that you don't have any time really to switch off, reflect, look back.

[00:05:16] Because you're constantly checking all of that work, reviewing it, upgrading it, making sure that it's human, making sure that it's you and it's got your stamp on it. And of course, that means you're always on because you know that while you're doing that thing, it is producing the next four or five things for you that you then need to get done, which is a great thing.

[00:05:38] But it's not strange that you're then feeling exhausted because you don't get that break that you would get if you were relying on a, you know, a normal team member. Yeah. That's a really good way of putting it. Like I am getting this input of stuff from a colleague, a co-worker. And it would be the equivalent of like, so maybe other people who have bigger teams who get this kind of thing from more people that they work with more regularly are used to this.

[00:06:06] And it's a calibration situation for me. I don't know. I'll be interested to see what the general society, societal posture is on this experience. I think the biggest mistake will always remain with businesses who rely on the AI to do 100% of the work for them and therefore remove themselves completely from that work other than being the person who enters in the data and then publishes it.

[00:06:36] Because, you know, there's even, I'm not going to name any specifics, but there are top level business executives and government officials who have very clearly used the most basic or had their teams use the most basic version of AI available and then just published it without thinking or checking or having a huge element. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:07:03] I mean, I think, I do think, yeah, that does happen. I do think that there are some business tasks in particular can be fully automated by this. So, but I appreciate what you're saying. Like, and in the kind of knowledge work that we're doing, I guess that's part of what we have to wait and see. Will we actually be able to do that at some point and shift the value that we're able to bring or extract?

[00:07:28] But anyway, I just, it was the first time in my, in this, in this, in this evolution of embracing this technology that I, it felt tiring to me. Yeah. Yeah. And it leads nicely into today's topic of RFPs because one of the biggest challenges with an RFP is making sure that you have all of the internal resources, people and everything in place in order to be able to respond to an RFP when it comes in.

[00:07:57] And now you have AI, the temptation is maybe to go the other way. Oh, I'm exhausted from all the other stuff I've done. I'm just going to get the AI to do this for us. And that, of course, would be a mistake as well. But there's no harm in getting the AI's input. So we'll come back to that.

[00:08:14] But I think if we, you know, if we focus on the topic of today, I mean, an RFP is in many ways a sort of a decision junction for a business, isn't it? Because it's, you know, do you decide whether you're going to compete? You know, can you actually deliver on what it is that you're being asked? Is it a solicited RFP that you were waiting for that you'd been working hard to get?

[00:08:41] Or is it an unsolicited one from a company that you've never worked with before and you don't know anything about this? All of those type of things are decision gates that you need to then decide to walk through. I'm assuming that in your business, you see quite a few RFPs coming in from various businesses. How do you handle those different scenarios? Yeah, so I understand that there are some businesses out there that purely operate in the RFP ecosystem.

[00:09:11] And every proposal and every job and every opportunity comes through this method. Like the industry, I mean, you look at like construction or something like that. Like they are all driven by RFP and proposal response and whatnot. And you tend to encounter it more when it's larger companies and there's procurement departments involved. They have an RFP process that they run.

[00:09:40] We, but then you also get it for public institutions and things like that. And every, anything over five grand has to be RFP'd. Our general default position is we do not entertain or explore or respond to an RFP that we are not invited to respond to. So that's the first filter.

[00:10:07] If it's, if it's just a publicly posted thing, I am not going to give it the time of day. There are people who have cracked that nut, who, who figured out the way to respond to those, to get in the, and, and could I crack the nut? Maybe. But it's just like, it's, it's a hill I don't want to climb. It's a waste of time. No, that's fair. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:10:34] But in terms of, you know, a business receiving an RFP, it can sometimes be very deceptive, I think, for like a sales team, because they'll get excited to go, oh, this is an RFP from this big company that we've been chasing. And then just go all in on it without necessarily analyzing whether or not it was something that they were expecting and whether or not they have any sort of relationship with the business in the first place.

[00:11:02] And also, if you do have a relationship with the business and you already have expectation of receiving that RFP, rushing into it can also still be a mistake because I think there's a level of confidence that I think goes into a sales team when they receive an RFP that they have been expecting that they almost feel like, oh, it's a done deal because we, you know, we knew this was coming.

[00:11:30] It's got, you know, all of the way that it's written is written in language. We know we're going to get this. And then they take their foot off the accelerator, off the gas, whatever terminology. And that then leads to them not actually submitting a very powerful or very good response to the RFP and they end up losing it anyway.

[00:11:51] And I think it's really important for our listeners to understand the importance of not relaxing once you receive the RFP, especially an expected one. But to then actually go all in and almost go back to the beginning. What was it that you were expecting? Does it align with what you were expecting? What are the goals of the business? What are the expectations? Has anything changed?

[00:12:17] And if it has and if it is all looking really good, if it is all in line with what you're doing, don't cut corners. Go all in. Do a full proposal just as you would if it was an unsolicited one. Yeah, that's a really good point. When we get an RFP from an existing client or one that so a lot of times that'll happen, like it might be a different department within the organization.

[00:12:43] So the client that is used to just getting quotes and accepting the work and moving on with it, you know, passes your name over to a different department. And you kind of you've got to remember you're starting from from ground zero again. Or when there's, you know, this it'll happen every so often. The the the the key decision makers, the stakeholders will change. Somebody somebody new comes in is hired or somebody leaves and it kind of resets the table and you've got to treat it like it's a fresh situation again.

[00:13:12] So so yes, any time I get an RFP that I was expecting or from a client that, you know, gives me something new that maybe I wasn't expecting or they tell me, oh, the the account is up for renewal. We're RFPing. And again, like some people will go through that process on a set, you know, cycle or something like that. Absolutely. Absolutely. It resets the table.

[00:13:36] You have got even if you think you know what's going on and who is making the decisions on the other side of that table, you even owe it to the people, you know, on the other side to say to them, hey, we got your RFP. Just so you know, it's going to probably feel a bit awkward because we're about to show up on some of these calls as if we've never met you before. Like maybe not entirely. Oh, exactly. Yeah. But we're going to treat this like it is a fresh situation.

[00:14:05] And and because when you when you when you are going through that process, there are other people that are meeting you for the first time and you need to make sure that you're coming forward as you as you wouldn't in any of those situations. So that's a that's a that's a very good reminder. Oh, absolutely.

[00:14:27] And I think this is a mistake that I've seen quite often as well in these processes is when the RFPs come in and they do get invited to then go and present. They'll go into it and the you know, their main contact will be in the room who they've discussed all of the stuff up to the point of getting the RFP. And then they'll get in the room and everyone else in the room. They'll just go. Oh, yeah. Yeah. As we said to John, let's say this and this as we said to John. Oh, we've told John all about this. Oh, we've talked to John all about this. And then they skip all of those things.

[00:14:56] They kind of dump their contact in a very difficult position because then everyone else in the room is going, well, he didn't brief us on that. He didn't tell us about that. But no one's going to say anything in the room. And that then damages the relationship in the room and can also very much undermine your preparation and your ability to come across as the professional organization, which you may be. And this is why when you get that RFP, as I said, you know, you've got to sort of reflect on why it's been an issue, who actually wrote it.

[00:15:27] But, you know, if you understand the problem that they're trying to solve fully, you may have discussed one problem. But what they're actually bringing up in the RFP may be something different. It may be the same, but it may be a different variation of that. And is there already a preferred direction or outcome that they're looking to do? And have they already got a partner that they're likely to be already tied in with?

[00:15:51] Because understanding those things are going to be really important when formulating your response and who you engage and mobilize internally in the organization as well. So I think doing all of that assessment beforehand is so crucial because sometimes you can just go all in on these things just because you received the RFP, but without doing the analysis of whether you should be getting it at all. Yeah, I think that's a good point.

[00:16:20] You still have to qualify the opportunity for yourselves in a fresh one or in a familiar or expected one. And some of those points that you just raised are part of that qualification process. Like, hey, you know, who else are you talking to? What's your budget? Like, for some reason, I think people are afraid to ask those kinds of questions because they're in an RFP process. Listen, a lot of times you're not allowed to circumvent the formal communication channels.

[00:16:50] Like, you know the client, but you're supposed to go through a procurement. Okay, fine. But you can still ask the procurement contact the same questions. Who else are you talking to? What's your budget? Who are the stakeholders? You know, which persons have has more influence on the decision here? It is entirely their prerogative to decline to answer.

[00:17:08] And in the in the past, I have said, you know what, if we're not able to get that kind of clarity and and establish the rapport that we're that we know exists, we're going to have to actually decline to participate. And I've had and I've had situations. It's not a game. You have to be ready to decline and and and and.

[00:17:29] But if you're about to invest time, energy into a robust response, you need to know that you're going to be set up for for success. And on that note, the other thing that I have done and in fact, the other thing that I always do to varying degrees of success is ignore the procurement process that's declared in the RFP. Like, fine, that's what you want to run.

[00:17:59] But I've got a sales process. And here's what we need to know and how we're going to run this from our side. And we can be running kind of two processes in parallel or we can. But I will explain what we need to do and our process and how it works and why we do it so that the procurement people or the buyer on the other side has an appreciation for the fact that, hey, how we do one thing is how we do everything. We need to gather these inputs. We need to go through this process. We need to talk to these people.

[00:18:27] We need to understand this thing in order for us to come through and present what we think is going to be a robust, useful proposal for you. You've got your procurement process. You need to score your thing your way and we'll do that. But we also need you to do ours. And sometimes they'll be like, oh, yeah, of course. Yeah, that makes total sense. And sometimes they'll say, well, I don't know. And again, you got to be ready to walk away too. They'll usually find a way to retrofit it into their process.

[00:18:56] There's usually a Q&A period. And they'll be like, well, I guess you could ask all those questions during Q&A or something like that. And then when you do that, you also end up sort of taking control of the process and showing that you've got that kind of capability, like dynamism, I suppose, and prerogative. And it will backfire sometimes. Some people are like, oh, my God, these flywheel guys. Like they're not listening. They're not following our process.

[00:19:26] Can you imagine what they'll be like to work with? But on the flip side, if they have that attitude, we don't want to work with them because they're expecting us to work their way. Exactly. You learn that early on. Yeah. Yeah. And I've been surprised how well that works in formal RFP processes. That's right. I think, you know, you've got really three options that we've discussed now on today's episode. And so anyone who's listened this far has already picked up on those.

[00:19:54] But to summarize, essentially, you've got, you know, several different routes that you can take when you receive an RFP. But ultimately, sometimes the best strategy is to try and win it and to go into it and try and win it. Sometimes it's to reshape the process. Sometimes it's to walk away. But the most important thing to remember is that you don't confuse the permission to participate in the RFP with the probability of winning. Absolutely.

[00:20:24] Well said. So if you enjoyed this episode and you would like to learn more about RFPs or anything else that we've talked about in the past, then go to tntinbits.com. I'm reliably informed that we have over 140 episodes to go back and listen to, which should keep you entertained for several hours. I don't know if anyone's going to do that.

[00:20:50] But if you do decide to do that, please do write in and tell us how you got on, because that would be a fantastic challenge. And we'll be very happy to hear you on the show. If you have any questions or would like to learn any more, please do get in touch. And again, you can do that via tntinbits.com. Please tune in next week when we will be continuing this theme. Thank you very much, Scott. Thank you.