EP134: Elaborating on RFP Response Answers: The ‘Baked Potato’ Episode
If an RFP isn’t asking a question that you think it needs to ask, is it okay to provide additional information?
While it’s tempting to tell a client what you think they need in your proposal response, it’s not always well received. Just like ordering a baked potato with butter and getting a loaded one.
So, what is the best approach to elaborating on RFP response answers? So you stand out in a good way?
On this episode of The RFP Success Show, I’m sharing my ‘baked potato’ analogy for elaborating on RFP response answers.
I explain how it might confuse evaluators if you add or change offerings and describe the challenge of evaluating a response that doesn’t align with the score sheet.
Listen in for insight on positioning additional offerings in a way that boosts your score and learn how to demonstrate that the additional information you’re providing serves the client’s needs.
Key Takeaways
What to do if an RFP isn’t asking a question you think it needs to ask
My ‘baked potato’ analogy for adding additional information to a proposal response
How it might confuse an evaluator if you add or change offerings
Why you should only include additional offerings IF you can demonstrate how it adds more value to what they need
How to position additional options in a way that boosts your score
Resources
RFP Success Show EP134 Transcription
(00:00):
You are listening to The RFP Success Show with eight-time author, speaker, and CEO of The RFP Success Company, Lisa Rehurek. Tune in each episode to learn what today's capture and the RFP teams are doing to increase their win percentages by up to 20, 30 and even 50%, and meet the industry trailblazers that are getting it right. Let's get started.
Lisa Rehurek (00:24):
Hello everybody and welcome to The RFP Success Show. I am your host, Lisa Rehurek, founder and CEO of The RFP Success Company. And this show is all about helping bidders of state government contracts learn how to do better so they can win more. And today we're talking about something that I don't think we've talked about this before, but one of the questions that we get often from our clients is, if the proposal isn't asking a question we think they need to ask, is it okay if we add additional information into our proposal? So I'm going to actually use a little bit of a story, a little bit of a metaphor, if you will, so to help you think about how best to do this because it's a fine line and you've got to have some balance in how you add additional information because that information is not included in a scoring sheet.
(01:23):
And so when the evaluator gets that, they've got to really know what to do with it. You don't want them to ding you for including that and confusing them and making them not really understand how to score you in that particular section to really ensuring that you give them the right information so they can give you the score and then you add on a little bit more that maybe helps them increase that score. So let me talk to you a bit about this metaphor. Let's say you've decided to go out to dinner, you go to a new restaurant. This is one that you've never been to before, but you've gotten referrals for it, you've heard really great things and you've really been wanting to try it. You pull up, from the outside, it looks really nice. It's a very modern building. You walk in, the host immediately greets you with a smile and says, hello, welcome.
(02:14):
You just immediately feel welcomed in. You feel embraced. The hostess guides you to your table. You're like, so far, so good. You're really impressed with this restaurant. So you pick up the menu, you start perusing it. You're looking at all of the different options. You like what you see, you like the options. The waiter comes up and immediately builds really good rapport. He or she's very knowledgeable about the specials. They guide you to some interesting recommendations, and you place your order, which includes a baked potato with butter. So you're sitting pretty, you're really excited about it. You've got your steak coming, baked potato on the side. It's been something you've been craving. Everything looks great. You're already anticipating coming back with other friends because you're like, so far, this is great. We've just got the food to overcome. So your order arrives and the waiter places the baked potato down, and to your surprise, it's covered in sour cream, bacon and cheese.
(03:22):
Now, at this point, you remind the waiter, hey, I just ordered a baked potato with butter. So he gets this big smile on his face and he says, yes, I know, but I'm an expert in our baked potatoes. I've served hundreds of people baked potatoes, and I'm telling you, this is by far the best way to eat a baked potato. Most of our diners love it this way, and it's my very favorite. I just know you'll love it soon. And it's really just so much more delicious this way, and with that, he walks away. Now, I want you to think about how you're feeling in that moment. This is not what I asked for. I mean, maybe there's a small chance you might just dive in and take his advice, but more often than not, you're going to be a little peeved that you didn't get what you ordered.
(04:10):
Yes, he brought you something based on his experience but also based on his personal taste. He didn't listen to what you wanted. So I want you to think about that in relation to an RFP. I know it feels like a little bit of a long stretch, but here's the point. Be careful when you're adding or changing offerings aside from what the RFP is asking for. It's tempting but it's really not going to appeal to probably most people. And as I said a little while ago, it's going to confuse the evaluator on how to score you. It could potentially confuse the evaluator on how to score you. So your best course of action is to give them what they're asking for so that they can compare and evaluate apples to apples, proposal to proposal. I'm not saying that you can't enhance your offerings. You can, but it's a fine line.
(05:07):
So first and foremost, I want you to give them what they ask for. From there, you can bring in maybe an additional offering if and only if you can tie it directly to adding more value to what they need. So let's revisit how the baked potato analogy could have gone better so you can see how this would relate directly to a proposal. So the waiter could have said, choosing the baked potato with butter is a great choice. We're known for our potatoes because we soak them in this pine resin and we wrap them in a special paper. This makes it the moistest potato you'll ever eat. We also hand churn our own chive butter, which pairs perfectly with the potato. However, I just want to offer up another option for you. From my years of experience serving these potatoes, the most positive feedback we get is when guests add sour cream, bacon and cheese.
(06:04):
Not only do these flavors all meld together perfectly, but it's also more filling so you get more bang for your buck. But either way, you can't go wrong. Now, this whole example, I get, is a little bit over the top, but it's meant to help you relate to it in a real world scenario. We all know I'm a huge foodie, so of course, it's got to be a food analogy. But the point is give them what they ask for, then use your industry expertise, credibility, knowledge to enhance in a way that only you can.
(06:42):
That's how you're going to stand out, give them what they want but then say, we have another idea or another thought here. And you want to position that in a way that really enhances your credibility and allows them to use what you're saying to give you a higher score, and also just gives you an opportunity to stand out much more than standing on a mountaintop, pounding your chest, shouting all about the things that you can do outside the scope of work. That's what you don't want to do. You can carefully weave it in, but if you just start talking about all these other great things that you can do, that will only confuse them. So I want you to be really careful with that. Think about how this baked potato analogy, metaphor relates to how you can do that in your proposals. When I worked for corporate many, many moons ago, my very first proposal... You've probably heard the story because I've told it quite a bit.
(07:39):
My very first proposal that I helped one of the teams work on, I remember sitting in this room with them because they were like, oh my gosh, we should tell them about this and this and this and this. And at the end of the day, and you guys, I'm seriously not even exaggerating, we had two, three ring binders just full of extraneous reports and information that we're just, here's what we could do. We were trying so hard to just showcase, oh my gosh, we've got this amazing company with all of these different options but it just confused them. And what's funny is that many, many years later, actually, a couple decades later, I was talking to somebody that worked at that company and they said, we remember that proposal and we threw it in the trash. Literally, that long later, they remembered how horrible that was, and it went straight in the trash.
(08:31):
It didn't really even get evaluated because it was just too much, way too much, way too much information, way too many handouts, two, three ring binders just for those attachments, no, no, no. It will confuse them. It'll turn them off. They've got all these other proposals to review, so best option for you is to answer the question the way that they've asked it, and then enhance it a little bit. But you've got to do it in a way that showcases your credibility and shows them that, hey, we know what we're talking about. We've seen this before, and because of all of our experience in that, here's what we see for you. Thanks everybody for listening to my baked potato analogy today. You've been listening to The RFP Success Show, and we'll see you back here soon.
Outro (09:16):
This has been another episode of The RFP Success Show with Lisa Rehurek, eight-time author, speaker, and CEO of The RFP Success Company. Thank you for joining us. If you have feedback on today's episode, email us at podcast@rfpsuccess.com. No matter your business size, industry, if you have an in-house RFP team or need outside support, The RFP Success Company helps increase RFP win ratios by 10, 20 and even 50%. Learn more at the rfpsuccesscompany.com.