When engaging on an RFP, the number one culprit to a positive outcome is time.
But who's time are you managing?
- Sales Person
- SME
- Legal/contracts
- Bid desk/proposal writing team
- Professional Services
- Customer
Each of these teams have unique contributions to most proposals and each person must contribute the content necessary.
Being able to conduct a proper kick off call to engage all of these individuals or teams can really go a long way for you to having a stress-free bid engagement.
What should you be planning?
The salesperson should probably contribute to a cover letter, as a connection gesture with the customer. The executive summary should be drafted by the Salesperson, the SME's and the Professional Services teams. When everyone agrees what the solution for the customer's problem is, then the writing can begin. This means that the team must build a bill of materials, validate it against the customer requirements, and vet that it is the right offering.
What is built out in the bill of materials will point to the solution content, service content, and response efforts. When you land on the right solution, then your SMEs can contribute to the Q&A that is probably sent with the RFP. This is important because in many cases, if you sell multiple offerings in a similar domain, you could be answering with the wrong product.
As an example, if you sell identity and access management solutions, you may have:
- Web single sign on
- Desktop single sign on
- Zero trust requirements
- Adaptive or risk-based authentication
- Multi-factor authentication