EP095: How to Build Industry Authority in an RFP Response
You know it’s important to distinguish yourself from the competition in an RFP response. And one surefire way to set yourself apart is by demonstrating industry authority.
But few companies do this well.
It’s not enough to say you have multiple years of experience or advertise how many hundreds of clients you’ve helped. So, what is the best way to communicate industry authority in a proposal response?
On this episode of The RFP Success Show, I share some of the generic, blanket statements to avoid in a proposal response and explain how to reposition those statements in a way that showcases true industry authority.
I describe how quoting industry statistics in a proposal builds your credibility and offer insight on leveraging published articles, awards and examples of industry leadership to demonstrate your authority.
Listen in for advice on talking TO prospective clients rather than AT them and learn how to build out a collection of authority statements that distinguish your RFP response from the rest of the pack!
Key Takeaways
How industry authority distinguishes you from the competition in an RFP response
Why it’s not enough to simply say that you have industry authority
The generic, blanket statements to avoid in a proposal response
How to reframe generic statements in a way that showcases your authority
What it looks like to talk TO prospective clients vs. AT them in an RFP
How quoting industry statistics in a proposal builds your credibility
How to leverage published articles, awards and industry leadership to build authority
Examples of weak statements that undermine your credibility
Why I suggest building out 5 to 10 authority statements for your content library
RFP Success Show EP95 Transcription
You're 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 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.
(00:24):
Welcome to the RFP Success Show, where we share strategies and best practices for winning more business through RFPs. I'm your host, Lisa Rehurek, Founder and CEO of the RFP Success Company.
(00:37):
Today's topic: Building Authority. So you know, differentiation and distinction get a lot of play because they're both key elements for your proposal. If you aren't able to differentiate or distinguish yourself, you're going to blend in. And then you're just living on a prayer that you squeak out a higher score than the other bidders, who likely have very similar capabilities and qualifications. Capabilities and qualifications are really just the baseline. You've got to have more of that.
(01:08):
One way that you can stand out from the pack is to come in with some industry authority. This is a way to distinguish yourself, certainly. It's really important that we talk about it separately, because it's something that very few people do well. And, I'm going to share with you some examples today of what not to do and what you should do that will really help raise the bar for you in your RFP responses. What I would say also, is that this should be something that's done now. Don't wait until an RFP hits your plate because we all know we don't have the time and the mental space to really come up with this kind of stuff.
(01:48):
These are things that you should have in your library to pull out that you can modify accordingly, but please don't wait until then to at least have a baseline of, I always say you should have a little list in your library of some authority building statements, ready to go. It's so much easier to edit and customize than it is to build from scratch, and get your brain in the space that you have to be in to write these. So, think about that.
(02:15):
Now, again, you can't just come in and say you have credibility in your industry. If you come in and you're like, we've got industry credibility. I know that sounds simple, but we see it all the time. We've got industry credibility. We've been in the industry for 20 plus years. People know us. We're really well-known in the industry. Those are some of the things that we hear. You can't do that and have it land. It is not enough for you to say it.
(02:42):
Also, having just an industry association membership doesn't count. I can say that I am a member of APMP and I do professional development with them and I'm active. Or, I could say I am Chairperson of the Valley of the Sun APMP chapter. I sit on the National Member Liaison Committee. Those things start to build more credibility than just saying, we're active in the industry association.
(03:09):
What we're looking for is for you to prove that you have a very tight grip on your industry, which to the buyer it feels more like it leads to innovation, or that you can see into the future. And most importantly, that you have this clear understanding of what it takes to succeed in whatever you are providing them.
(03:32):
Again, this isn't a standalone. This goes hand in hand with your qualifications and your capabilities, but it just takes it to the next level so that they really start to see like, oh, they know what they're talking about. They get it. They're not just fly by night. They're not just somebody that's had a couple of years of experience. And again, you can say we've got 20 years of experience, but until you put some proof and some meat behind that, they're not really going to hear it. They'll hear it, but it's not going to excite them. It's not going to help to build that trust. We want to build credibility around that so that they really feel it.
(04:11):
Like I said, it really supports your experience. So, when you're saying that you have experience with X number of clients, that's one thing. What you want to do is, you want to pair that with some industry authority that showcases that experience. Wrap some proof around it. You're claiming it is not always enough.
(04:31):
Here's what this doesn't look like. You don't want to make blanket statements like, we help, dot, dot, dot. Or, we suggest, dot, dot, dot. And I'm going to tell you right now, we see this all the time, and we've fallen prey to it as well. You're going to hear an example later in the podcast where we do it, too. It's human nature, I think, to go there, especially in an RFP where they're asking questions about you, it's pretty natural to go there.
(05:02):
But what happens is, when you say, we help you win more RFPs, it doesn't land. It doesn't resonate very well because it's all about me and my company, and not about you and the solution you're seeking. We don't want it to be about us and our company. We want it to be more about how the company is going to benefit. This does not build any credibility. It certainly doesn't distinguish or differentiate you. And then on top of that, it doesn't help you build your credibility. We think that it does, but it doesn't. So, no more, we help, dot, dot, dot, or we suggest, dot, dot, dot. Get that out of your repertoire.
(05:43):
And then further, here's another statement that we want to avoid. We want to avoid things like, we have 10 years of experience with similar projects, which is why we, dot, dot dot, dot. Now, you're going to hear an example here in a little while where I twist this just a little bit. I just make some small little tweaks to it that make it more powerful. We're going to go along that line, but we're not going to have it be so generic. And, I know that many of you are out there thinking, well, we don't do that. But, I guarantee you probably do. Just go back and look at your responses and see if you make some pretty generic blanket statements like, we have 10 years of experience with similar projects, which is why yada yada, yada. Or, and the way we approach that is, dot, dot, dot. It's all about me. It's all about me. It's all about me. No more of that. Get rid of that.
(06:37):
They're empty statements because there's no proof, and there's no credibility unless you've built the credibility. Just saying it alone, it's not going to give you credibility. You've got to put some proof in the pudding.
(06:50):
We're going to take a quick commercial break. We're going to be back with some examples of what you should do instead.
(06:56):
Is it time for an RFP process review? Are you ready to take an honest and thorough look at your team's RFP process to ultimately increase win rates and revenues? The RFP Success Company's diagnostic service assesses past responses for improvement opportunities, analyzes your current RFP processes, and works with you to create a highly customized RFP response roadmap. Book a call at therfpsuccesscompany.com/call.
(07:22):
All right, when we left off I was sharing some don'ts with you. Let's talk about what you should do. What you should do, is you want to come in with something a little more concrete. For example, here's what we know based on working with clients with similar challenges. Remember above, the example was, we have 10 years of experience with similar projects. Now we're saying, we're starting to build a little bit more credibility and we're just shifting that a little bit. Here's what we know based on working with clients with similar challenges. In order to have 99.9% uptime in your technology, you can't just simply build the solution. The organizations that have the most success have embraced the need for organizational change, not only initial success, but ongoing adoption. And without that adoption, your success rate drops to XX percent.
(08:16):
That was kind of a mouthful, but what's happening here is now we're showing some, like, we know what we're talking about. And immediately the reader can start to identify with this and start to feel like, oh, there's an authority speaking. I want to listen. Versus, you're just telling me about you. Again, a subtle nuance there. We have 10 years of experience. What was it that I said? Let me look. Hold on here. We have 10 years of experience with similar projects, which is why we built this process.
(08:50):
No, instead of saying something like that, here's what we know based on working with clients with similar challenges. And you could say, with over 50 clients with similar challenges, or with clients with similar challenges over the past 20 years. You can say that, but then I also want you to take it further and I want you to back it up. And show them. So, here you're talking to them instead of at them. It's the difference between talking to them versus talking at them. And you want to talk to them as if you're sharing information that is going to be helpful for them. You're not just talking at them about throwing your expertise there.
(09:30):
So, here's what we know based on working with clients with similar challenges. In order to have 99.9% uptime in your technology, you can't just simply build the solution. And then, going into the organizations that have the most success have embraced. So, what a lot of times we would see here is, we have implemented an organizational change component because that helps with ongoing adoption. You see the subtle nuance? It's just this little, you hear me say this a lot, flipping the script. It's a little bit of flipping the script so that again, you're coming at it from that more authoritative statement as an industry expert, versus as somebody that's trying to sell me something.
(10:17):
Here's another example. Here's what the industry is telling us. 50% of workers are unhappy in their jobs. Traditional training is no longer working. You've got to have a hybrid approach to employee development and engagement. This is now, you're quoting industry statistics, and this is a beautiful way to build some credibility, and it's not hard to do. If you don't have things yourself that you can say, I would grab some industry statistics that really help to build that authority. So simple for you to go out and research some of that, find some of those statistics, and then use that to your benefit. And, nothing builds credibility better than some of those statistics, as long as you, again, continue to back that up.
(11:02):
So, make it less about you on the front end, show them that you know what you're talking about. In this example, then you could go into the success of your hybrid approach. But, you've built something up front that makes them say, okay, oh wow, 50% of the workers are unhappy. This person who is now credible is building the credibility with me. This is all subconscious thoughts with the evaluators. I need to perk up. What are they going to say next? If 50% of the workers are unhappy, how are they resolving that? So, that's another example.
(11:34):
I'm going to give you an example from our company. We could, and we have said, and I cited this earlier, but here's something that we have said in the past. We have over 25 years of experience in RFPs from all sides of the aisle evaluating, developing, and responding to you. And that differentiates us. A lot of firms in our space don't have all three of those. But, what this statement does is it makes it all about us, and it doesn't build any authority at all. Again, we think that, that evaluating, developing, and responding to perspective differentiates us, but we aren't proving it.
(12:12):
To reposition that for more authority, we could say something like, the average industry win rate is around 20%. That's low. And we know through our experience that we have to build credibility, differentiate ourselves, and make sure we build trust with the evaluators, sure. We've got to have expertise around responding. But having been evaluators in the past, we know what they're looking for and we know what resonates. So, now we're just twisting that a little bit. Again, we're adding in some industry expertise and we're saying like, we understand how these two perspectives will help you. Actually, that could even be tighter than what I've got here. But, I think you get the idea here from those three examples. Again, I think the key here is knowing that I get that it sounds somewhat similar. It's just a slight flip of the script, but it's a huge differentiator to the reader. For them, it makes a huge difference. It's going to speak to them. They're going to be drawn in. They're going to lean in. They're going to listen more, and you need them to be listening and paying attention and feeling your proposal.
(13:22):
Actually, it's kind of funny. I was listening to a podcast the other day and they were saying that, we always say a certain percentage of people buy based on emotions, and another percentage buy based on their heads. But, this podcast was citing that 100% of people make buying decisions based on emotion, whether it's a more heartfelt emotion. But, even when we're making a decision based on statistics or based on hard facts, we're still making a decision based on how we're feeling about it. So, you want your evaluators to be feeling your proposal. And, if you're just talking generics and if you're not drawing them in and getting them to lean in, guess what? They are not going to be overly wowed by your proposal. And maybe you'll squeak out a win if you're lucky. But I don't know about you, I don't want to bank my chances on luck. I want to go in with the strongest proposal possible. So, you want to bring in other clients' industry stats to back up your claim, plus get that meat to it instead of just a fluffy statement that doesn't really tell them anything.
(14:30):
Some other ways that you can really build your credibility are things like published articles, published books, awards, industry recognition, industry leadership. At the top of the podcast I talked about, you can't just go in and say that you're a member of an industry association. No, but if you're part of industry leadership, if you're part of a committee that is helping to shape something in your industry, talk about that. But don't just talk about membership.
(15:00):
One more thing, please do not just undermine your credibility with statements like, we intend to, or we will likely, or we should, we think. Those are weak statements. They make you sound unsure. They make you sound tentative. And if you sound non-confident, the evaluator is going to immediately feel that. Instead of saying, we intend to, just say, we will. Be confident. Show that confidence because that builds your credibility as well.
(15:34):
All right. What I would suggest that you do is work on building some authority statements that you can have ready to customize for your RFPs. I would have anywhere between five and 10 of them. The more the merrier, but if you can start with getting three done, and then as you go add two more, and then add more as you go. The first one is the hardest. I promise you. And once you get past that one, they're going to roll off a little bit more. You'll be thinking about them throughout your day, and you're going to be processing things. You're going to be like, oh, we can create an authority building statement around that. Start that now. Don't wait for the RFP to hit your desk. It should be something that's part of your content library. Have that in your back pocket.
(16:19):
All right, everybody. That's our show for today. And, hey, I have a huge favor. If you are enjoying this podcast, we'd love to hear from you through a review. People look at those reviews to see if this is something that they want to listen to. And if you're enjoying it, we want you to give great reviews for us. It doesn't take long, and we are always super grateful. And thank you for listening to the RFP Success Show. We'll see you next time.
(16:41):
This has been another episode 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 podcastatrfpsuccess.com. No matter your business size industry, if you have an in-house RFP team, or meet outside support, the RFP Success Company helps increase RFP win ratios by 10, 20, and even 50%. Learn more at therfpsuccesscompany.com.