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How Successful Consultants Respond to Requests for Proposals (RFPs) - YouTube
Channel: Consulting Success
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have you ever thought about using RFPs
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to grow your consulting business it's
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Michael diversity from consulting
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success comm and I got a question
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originally from a consultant wondering
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what is the best practices to use RFPs
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the leverage RFPs to grow their
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consulting business and my response was
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I can't help you and I can't help you
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because we don't go through RFP
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processes I'm not a fan of RFPs I think
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that they waste a lot of time and
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ultimately you spend time trying to
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create a document for someone who you
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haven't in most cases actually had the
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opportunity to sit down and have a
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conversation with now that being said if
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you are in an industry where there's a
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lot of RFPs
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there's great resources out there that
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can help you a book by Tom Searcy called
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RFP suck is a fantastic book about RFPs
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but let me offer you how we approach
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RFPs and how we've counseled many
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consulting client to to handle the
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opportunities that present them around
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RFPs so when you have a buyer that
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reaches out and you see you feel this is
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an ideal client and they're saying yeah
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we're going to be going through an RFP
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process
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can you please submit a bid so on so on
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so on the first thing you should do them
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is say listen we don't do RFPs we're
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very focused on on engaging closely and
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partnering with our clients to help them
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to a tree to achieve real success and so
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what I would suggest is that you can go
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through your RFP process and if you
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still haven't found the the right
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organization if you still would like to
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have a conversation after you've gone to
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the RFP process I'd be more than happy
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to go through that to have that
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conversation with you and what we've
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seen with many clients who have used
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that type of language is that in fact
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the buyer will go through the RFP
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process but they'll still be wondering
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in their mind you know how does this
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compare to this other consultant or this
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other firm who said that they don't do
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RFPs and why don't you know there's some
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differentiation there there they're
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clearly unique they have a lot of
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confidence and so in most cases what
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happens is the buyer ends up contacting
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the
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say hey we want through the RFP process
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there's we're still kind of thinking but
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what's the best here can we have a
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conversation and then you go in and you
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have a conversation about their current
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situation you dig deep into the true
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value and the problem the cost of it of
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them staying where they are and the
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opportunities for them and if you're
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truly great at what you do and you can
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provide real value what you will find is
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that most buyers will be very receptive
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and in fact will say okay let's let's do
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this right you don't need to go through
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the arcing process we've done that we've
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kind of looked at what's out there but
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clearly what you are offering in terms
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of the product the service to support
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the level of engagement the partnering
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aspect the results you've been able to
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create for others and so on is it's
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convincing for us it's compelling for us
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and so we'd like to engage with you and
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so we've seen many clients who have been
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faced with the RF with option for an RFP
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say no to it with full confidence
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letting the buyer know we're happy to
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have that conversation once you've gone
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through the RFP process if you like the
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buyer then comes back from said yes okay
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we've gone through the process we still
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would like to have that conversation
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with you and then they end up winning
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them the business without having to go
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through the RFP process why is that so
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beneficial it's beneficial because you
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then don't need to spend a whole bunch
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of time filling out you know documents
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and trying to make your case essentially
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an RFP is like trying to win business
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through a piece of paper where you don't
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even have the ability to engage with the
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ultimate buyers and really hear about
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what they want so you might hear about
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what one person wants or what's written
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in the you know in the request for
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proposal but you don't actually get to
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hear or speak with the ultimate decision
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makers and that's what is it necessary
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in almost all situations to to truly
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have a buyer and a peer-to-peer
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relationship right it's sitting down
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with the decision makers or with those
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who really influence the decision and
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asking the questions I can help you
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truly identify the value that they care
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about so you can communicate it so you
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can ensure that you're providing them
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with a significant return on investment
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helping them to get what they want and
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doing it in a way that provides
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significant and you know the right level
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of compensation for you so that's how I
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would suggest you approach rfp's but if
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you're really looking to RFP after RFP
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after RFP then there's other great
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resources out there that could help you
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with that
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you
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