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Proposals
Last Updated: Jun 14th, 2004 - 16:16:31
If responding to RFPs is part of your sales process, consider these strategies.
Times are tough. The economy is still down. There is more supply than demand. Buyers are attempting to commoditize just about everything we sell, so they can buy on price. They attempt to distance themselves from us. Your competitors are getting tougher and more desperate. You are beginning to feel that pursing anything is better than sitting in the office...
You receive an RFP. What do you do?
Situation 1: You didn't know it was coming and you have no contacts in the account.
This one is easy to answer, but hard to do. If your pipeline is weak the temptation is to muster whatever resources are required and blindly dig in. But think about it. Someone wrote that RFP. Can you say with certainty whom that person is and what their agenda is? Here are a few possibilities:
It was written by a consultant who doesn't know your company, or worse, regularly works with your competitor;
It was written by an internal team, based upon the influence of one of your competitors;
The prospect bought the RFP from an analyst firm or other "impartial" third party.
Goal: Since it is extremely rare to win a deal under these circumstances, you need to determine quickly whether this is something worth spending any time on at all.
Strategy: Qualify, qualify, qualify. Who wrote the RFP? What is the key buyer's vision of a solution? What are their pre-conceived ideas of the capabilities and reputation of the company who will provide it? Do you even stand a chance?
Tactic: It takes courage, but require a meeting with the key buyer (the person who pays for this purchase) before you agree to respond to the RFP. You may not get the meeting, but as a concession you may be given other information, which will help you qualify the opportunity.
Many, many sales winners I work with say, "No meeting? I'm out of here!" They understand that every minute wasted on a deal like this is a minute they could be investing in another that is winnable. They also know squandering valuable resources causes them to lose credibility with management and other members of their team.
By the way, it's not unusual for the RFP to come from an existing customer--the first tangible indication that you're on the way out. (More on this in Chapter 8 of How Winners Sell.)
Situation 2: You knew it was coming. In fact, you received the final version from your ally in the account by e-mail five days ago.
A dream? No, a regular occurrence for million-a-year earners. Many never respond to blind RFPs. (They do respond to RFPs they have written or have substantially influenced.)
Goal: Write the RFP, substantially influence its content (and the list of vendors who will receive it) or eliminate the RFP process altogether.
Strategy: Based upon information from contacts and research, target several accounts where you know your solution will contribute to achieving a specific company, division or department business goal.
Tactics: Before requirements are formally defined, get out of the office and start investing time in those few pre-selected accounts. If that account is in a segment with which you are familiar, leverage your expertise, resources and network-- listening, teaching, coaching, building relationships and setting what will ultimately be the decision criteria. Get to the top early, before the gatekeepers keep you away. Provide value at every encounter. (See Chapters 11 & 12 in How Winners Sell.)
There is certainly a risk involved here, but the time you will invest in this approach is often far less than pursuing business that you have no chance of ever winning.
It's not my intention to oversimplify what is a critical issue for suppliers today. Pursuing unqualified business is one of the most common reasons companies fail to meet their revenue targets.
Some buyers will do everything they can to distance themselves from potential suppliers. When they do that, it becomes difficult to properly qualify them. And there are many more considerations relating to customer buying trends, RFPs, RFIs, and ITTs:
Reverse auctions;
Procurement services;
Tightly controlled sales to the government;
Outselling competitors who lie on their RFP responses;
Creating and deploying your own RFPs preemptively.
The message here is (1) pick your targets, (2) research the heck out of them, (3) get in there early and get to the right levels and (4) when you have built an appropriate level of credibility, start setting the agenda, which will become the basis of their RFP--before your competition does.
©2004 -- The Stein Advantage, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Get Dave’s newest book How Winners Sell. We are waiving all shipping costs (Excludes International).
http://www.salestrainingcamp.com/products_main_howwinnerssell.htm
About The Author:
Dave Stein is known as the expert in competitive selling strategies and tactics. He is president of The Stein Advantage, Inc., his sales consultancy outside of New York City. He'll teach you how to compete in today's hypercompetitive marketplace. If you really want to hone your skills at beating your competition, download the most cost-effective and entertaining sales training tool to hit the market today at www.LearnHowWinnersSell.com.
Contact Information:
The Stein Advantage, Inc.
69 Woodland Road
Mahopac, NY 10541
(845) 621-4100
info@thesteinadvantage.com
www.howwinnerssell.com
© Copyright 2003 by SalesVault.com
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