Should you invest in RFPs you didn’t see coming?
At first glance, your response to this scenario might lean towards the negative. Crafting proposals consumes precious time from your team, incurs costs, and is typically pursued only if there’s a reasonable expectation of securing a contract that would recoup your investment.
However, there are instances when unexpected requests for proposals arise. You may have never interacted with this potential customer (the “prospect”), nor considered whether they would be a suitable client or if you could bring something valuable that they require. In fact, you know very little about this company. Yet unexpectedly, they invite you to submit a proposal. Perhaps they’ve come across your name through various channels. Or an advisory firm has recommended to include you in their list of potential vendors. What course of action will you take?
Assessing an RFP: what is NOT mentioned?
If you don’t dismiss the idea of proposing straight away, you’ll probably study the request for proposal (RFP). Is it clear to you what they want? Is there an opportunity to ask clarification questions? If it’s sufficiently clear what they need, can you provide that? What revenue would that represent? What buying process do they propose and is that attractive to you? Can you meet their time scales? Are they transparent on the companies they invited to propose? Can you beat them?
You’ll likely concentrate on the details outlined in the RFP, which could lead you to overlook important aspects that aren’t mentioned. What is the current business environment they are operating in? How does their market appear? What insights do industry analysts provide regarding them or their line of business? What is their overarching business strategy? Is this RFP connected to any of their strategic goals or challenges? Are there additional ways you could support them, perhaps with a unique service that they didn’t specify in the RFP?
You have a sense that this opportunity might evolve into a deal, but you’re unclear about how to proceed. While you may wish you had conducted some preliminary research and analysis earlier, it’s now time to decide your next steps. How do others deal with such situation?
Deal Qualification is most often not ideal
You might be familiar with structured Deal Qualification processes. The sales team must respond to numerous questions regarding the opportunity, and their responses are placed on an attractiveness scale. Common dimensions include prospect atractivity, opportunity suited for your organisation, competitor strength, and internal capabilities. Frequently, this qualification process results in a Go decision, primarily because certain factions within your organisation have a vested interest in chasing the opportunity. Whether justified or not, you opt to proceed with it. What follows?
Go for it: making up for research you didn’t do
The team typically strives to compensate as much as possible for the challenge of lacking customer insights and relation. Information is collected promptly, and every chance for engaging with the customer is fully leveraged. Usually, the most relevant competitors are identified quickly, allowing you to discern their standing with your prospect. Although your prospect may claim that there’s an equal opportunity for all competitors, this assertion is rarely entirely accurate. As in any sales cycle, you’ll eventually reach a conclusion—sometimes resulting in a signed contract and other times not. In either scenario, you’ll assess your performance, ideally incorporating feedback from your prospect. It’s not unusual for a lost opportunity to be attributed to the setback of starting late: lacking customer or opportunity information can be a serious hurdle.
Lessons learned, and a recommendation
Undoubtedly, responding to RFPs that arrive unexpectedly is far from ideal. However, such opportunities do arise at times, and you may not always be in a position to simply pass them up without making an effort. Remember that your organization can creatively justify why you should consider responding. Additionally, the prospect or their advisor might have motives for inviting you beyond a genuine intention to award you a contract. Benchmarking does occur frequently in these situations.
The best approach is to be particularly discerning during the qualification process and find ways to compensate for the lack of established relationship and insight. For instance, by requesting additional interactions—such as arranging a board-level meeting—to confirm mutual intentions and assess strategic alignment between both companies. This may require some flexibility in the process, which your prospect may not favor. Purchasing departments often resist these kinds of interventions.
Nevertheless, it’s crucial to establish direct contact with the decision-maker and ensure they understand you’re willing to take on the risk of investing time and resources into this opportunity based on their promise that you’ll get a fair chance. If doubts arise at any point during the sales process, you always have the option to withdraw from pursuing it and minimize your expenses.
