EP103: How to Make the Go/No-Go Decision on an RFP
How do you decide whether to bid on an RFP? Too many companies make a go/no-go decision solely on their ability to do the work.
But when you bid on everything you can do, you water down your resources. And you don’t have enough time and energy to put into the opportunities you really do have a chance of winning.
So, what criteria should you use to make the go/no-go decision on an RFP?
On this episode of the podcast, I discuss the 11 questions to ask before you decide whether to bid on an RFP, challenging you to build relationships with potential clients and make sure you meet ALL of the requirements.
I share the overlooked questions to ask before you make a go/no-go decision, explaining how to know whether an RFP has been wired for somebody else and identify any potential deal breakers in the terms and conditions.
Listen in for the ‘forgotten’ questions to ask before you bid on an RFP and learn how to determine whether a client is a good fit before you say YES to the proposal writing process!
Key Takeaways
Why it’s crucial to make a go/no-go decision right away
The 4 OBVIOUS questions to ask as you decide whether to bid on an RFP
Do you meet the requirements?
Is this work you can do?
Is there an incumbent?
Did you know the RFP was coming?
Why it’s important to build relationships with potential clients
The 3 OVERLOOKED questions to ask as you decide whether to bid on an RFP
Does it appear to be wired?
Can you stand above the competition?
Are there any deal breakers in the terms and conditions?
How to know whether an RFP has been wired for somebody else
The 4 FORGOTTEN questions to ask as you decide whether to bid on an RFP
Can you deliver the services requested at the level you want?
Are there requirements beyond what you do for most of your clients?
Do you know enough about the client and their industry or environment?
Is this the right client for you?
What factors to consider in deciding if a client is a good fit
Why it’s demoralizing to bid on an RFP you can’t win
RFP Success Show EP103 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 trail blazers that are getting it right. Let's get started.
(00:24):
Hello everybody, and welcome to The RFP Success Show, where we share tips and strategies to help you win more business through RFPs. I am your host, Lisa Rehurek, Founder and CEO of The RFP Success Company. Today I want to talk to you about go/no-go criteria, or if you want to call it assessment criteria, whatever that is, it's all about how to assess opportunities when they come in to decide whether or not you should bid. And guess what? The answer is not, if you can do the work you bid. No, no, no, no, no, and we see that so many times and it just breaks my heart because when you bid on everything that you can bid on, you're just watering down your resources and you don't have enough time and resources to put into the opportunities that you really have a chance of winning.
(01:13):
If you bid cold, you've heard me say this a million times, you'll hear me say it a million more. If you bid cold, guess what? You have less than a 5% chance of winning. Why would you put time and effort into that, if you have less than 5% chance of winning? It's heartbreaking, it's demotivating, it's frustrating. It is not what you should be doing. You need to be much more present in each RFP that comes across your plate in figuring out whether it's the right opportunity. So we're going to walk through some of the criteria that you need to be thinking about, and it might feel like there's a lot, but it's for a reason, it's because you only want to be bidding on the things that fit, what you should be bidding on. Put this into a checklist, it's pretty easy to do.
(02:03):
We put this into Excel spreadsheets where we've actually put formulas in and actually given scores. So get creative with it, this is not meant to be an arduous process, but this needs to be done right out of the gate. You get that RFP in the door, you do your diligence around whether you should or should not be bidding. And then if you're moving forward, move forward. Far too many people, as a matter of fact, just this week, we got a call from somebody it's like, "We've got an RFP. It's due in a week, we need your help, we haven't even started." And they've been sitting on it for three weeks. Now, I know there's some of you over there thinking, shaking your head going, "There's no way we would do that." But even one or two days that you wait, that you hesitate, that you sit on it, think about how valuable those days are at the back end of the response.
(02:55):
So valuable to get better reviews done, to make sure that you're really weaving that theme throughout. That's where the wind comes in you guys, it comes in when you can really present yourself in the best light and that you've got your bid themes woven in and you've got time to really make sure your differentiators are shining through and that you're presenting yourself appropriately, but you can't do that if you don't have time to really do a good review and then edit accordingly. So those one, two, three days at the back end, hugely important, hugely important. So, first thing we don't want to sit on RFPs that come across our desk. We want to get right into the assessment criteria. So we're going to look at three different categories. We're going to look at the obvious, we're going to look at the off and overlooked, and then we're going to talk about the forgotten. Things that people tend to completely forget about until it's too late, when it comes to the go/no-go decision.
(03:54):
All right. The first category, the obvious, obviously do you meet the requirements? Now, you would think that I wouldn't need to say this one, but I need to say it, you know why? Because people, again, they open up the RFP, they look at the scope of services, they say, "We can do this, let's bid." And a week or two into it, all of a sudden somebody notices, "Oh my gosh, we don't have this one piece of the puzzle that we need." And then everybody's scrambling and it's a hot mess. You got to read the RFP, you got to read it pretty thoroughly. Yes, I mean the terms and conditions too, unless you have a lawyer that you are having look at that you trust that knows your business really well. But you've got to read the RFP to make sure that you meet the requirements, all of the requirements.
(04:40):
And the ones that you don't meet, you need to know that up front, because A doesn't mean it's a no-go, that's an immediate no-go, or B do you need to go find partners? And that takes a while, sometimes, oftentimes that takes a while. And then if you get a partner, subcontract or something on board, you've got to collect writing from them too, and that's a whole other ball of wax, right? So you've got to know if you meet the requirements. Is this work you can do? So that fits with what I was just saying, do you meet the requirements of what they need you to do? It's work that you can do, it's work that you've done, you've got experience in, you can claim the experience or again, do you need to bring some contractors in? And that subcontractor relationship needs to start early in the bid process because you're going to have to get resumes from them.
(05:30):
You're going to have to get all sorts of content from them, and then you're going to have to weave that in to the proposal. You can't just drop it in, which I know some of you listening have done before. That's a huge, no, no, right. It needs to be integrated. So is this work you can do, or do you need subs? The third thing under the obvious category is there an incumbent? Is there somebody in there doing that work already? And what is that relationship? What do you know about them? If they have a really great relationship, why are you bidding? Why do you think you can unseat them? And you better have a really good reason because it's a little bit difficult, totally doable by the way, to unseat an incumbent, but you got to know what you're doing going in.
(06:13):
If you're going in without any information about the incumbent themselves, the relationship that they have, then you're not going to be able to overcome that, and you're not going to unseat them. In order to unseat an incumbent, you really need to understand what's going on in that environment currently, do they have a good relationship? Are there any sticking points? Are there any hot buttons that the client is missing or not getting, or there have been problems? All of that you've got to know, and that's going to help you present yourselves better in that RFP response. And then the fourth thing is, did you know this was coming? Or did you get it from some RFP aggregator out there that sends you RFP notices? Best case scenario is that you have a really relationship with the clients, and they've given you a heads up that the RFP is going to come out.
(07:02):
Next to that, a good option is that you've been tracking it. You know when the contract's up, you know you've been doing your diligence, you understand the relationships that are going on there, you have a relationship and then you get that RFP through. Let's say you're bidding on something for state government, you get it because you are on their list, but you've got information. If you don't know anything about that client, you've never worked with them before, they don't know who you are and you get it through an RFP aggregator, that's bidding cold. You're probably not going to win, so that low points on the go/no-go decision for sure. All right. So that's the obvious ones. These are the things that you should be doing no matter what, no matter what, but there's a lot of things that are often overlooked.
(07:52):
And let's talk about those. The first one is, does it appear to be wired? Now, you can never be certain, you can never be certain, but number one, of course, this is another reason why you need to be building those relationships with your target audience, with your target clients. Because the more you are in there and understanding, the more you're going to know, and the more you're going to understand whether or not it was wired. There are things within the RFP that you can sometimes tell. Now this is not an end all be all, some of these things happen even when it's not wired. But what we look for is, is there a really tight timeframe for response? And by tight, I mean a couple of weeks. Unless it's a pretty simple RFP, it's weird when there's only couple weeks. You should have a minimum of three weeks, preferably, especially for the bigger ones, five, six weeks is a really great timeframe. But we see three to four on average, a lot.
(08:52):
When it gets into the two weeks, again, unless it's a really tiny one, I would question, "Okay, Hey, what's going on here?" The other thing we look for is the qualifications, are they pretty narrow? Are they saying you need 6.2 five years of experience with this specific type of organization, only within this region? When it starts getting super tight like that, they may have set that up for the person that they've already got in there, or that they already have in mind. And that person has probably had a say in developing that RFP, and they put those requirements in, because they're like, "Nobody else can meet this." So when you start looking at things like that, this is another other reason why it's so important to know your competition. If you don't know anything about your main competitors in your main markets for your main targets, then it's really, really hard to understand what is happening with those competitors and whether or not you can stand out and whether or not they are in these organizations that you're trying to get into.
(10:01):
If you have a competitor that you say, okay, this is XYZ corporation. We know that they have a relationship in this state, this state, and this state, or we know that they specialize in this particular technology, so this a perfect opportunity for them and we're going to have a really hard time overcoming. Once you get to know your competitors more and you know all of that, then you can better understand like, "Hey, we know that XYZ corporation has one specialist in their organization that has that six and a half year experience in that region." You would know that automatically, so that's another reason to really understand the competitor side. So does it appear to be wired? The other thing sometimes we see is a vague scope. So the scope is a little bit vague or again, it's really detailed and really it's got very specific nuances.
(10:58):
So those are some of the things you want to look at to understand whether or not it's been wired. The second thing is, and I just talked about this, can you stand out above the competition? So again, you've got to know your competitors to know the answer to this. And if you don't know your competitors, then you don't know the answer, then it's really hard to write a response that is going to be the winning response. I'm going to tell you that right now, it's really hard to overcome that. It is not enough, if you've been following me for a while, you've heard this a million times. It is not enough for you to just answer the questions and meet the qualifications. It's not enough because there's a million other companies out there that are doing the same thing. So you've got to figure out how to stand out and get those higher points and show that you are the one that they want to work with, but you can't do it if you don't know what you're up against, you've got to know your competition.
(11:52):
And then the other thing under the often overlooked is the deal breakers. And these are things that usually come in the terms and conditions. And I say that this is often overlooked because a lot of times people just assume the terms and conditions are what they are. Smaller firms tend to not pay that much attention to them, or what happens more in our world is that they pay attention to them too late. Right? So some of the things that you'll see in terms and conditions where they'll have limits of liability that maybe you're not comfortable with and your legal team is telling you no, no, no. Insurance requirements sometimes are, especially if you're a smaller business insurance requirements can be really rough. Financial requirements, are you willing to and able to share your financial statements with them?
(12:43):
Are there any conflicts of interest? This is a big one. This is one that sometimes people really overlook because they don't really pay that much attention, but really are there any conflicts of interest? So you need to know ahead of time. Your executive team with your legal team really needs to understand, what are we willing to and not willing to compromise on? And then the other thing is, is the entity willing to negotiate the terms and conditions? And that's a question you should always ask, if you've got exceptions to those terms and conditions, you want to know if they're going to be open to that. It's a great question to ask in the bidders conference, if they've got one. So state government, a lot of times they will be open to it. Corporate, sometimes they'll be open to it. Federal, generally not.
(13:29):
It is what it is. But you want to pay attention to that. So those are the things that are often overlooked, those deal breakers, making sure that you know you can stand out above the competition and then understanding whether or not it's wired for somebody else. Sadly, yes, that still happens, and yes, it's pretty heartbreaking to lose an RFP, but I find it even more heartbreaking to lose only to find out that you had zero chance. Like they had somebody they wanted and they were going to hire them. I hate it when they wire them, I understand why it happens because especially in the government side, they have to go out to bid a lot of times, actually, even in the corporate side. But I hate that they do it because you're messing with people's livelihood here, right.
(14:12):
And people are busy and these are not easy to respond to, and it takes a lot of time and effort. But anyway, that's that soapbox for the day. All right. Let's move on to the third category. The forgotten, are these things that people really, a lot of times don't think about and it's strategic, again, your executive leadership team, whoever really making these decisions needs to be thinking about these things. The first one is, can you actually deliver the services they're requesting at the level that you want to? Okay. And this seems like an obvious question, but a lot of times what will happen is we'll get an RFP and the sales team will say, "Heck yeah, let's go for it. We can do this. Rah, rah."
(14:58):
They move full steam ahead and then you've got the operations people or the service delivery people that actually have to service this if you win it and they don't have enough staff or there's something in there they're like, "We don't have the capability to do this." You really need to make sure that your teams are not working in silos, your proposal team, your sales team, business development capture, and operations all need to be in on these discussions. It drives me crazy when a company works in silos because it's not going to work well, it is not going to be as efficient as it would be if you were all in it together. So can you deliver at the level that you want to and do you have the resources available to deliver? Very, very important. So that's one of the forgotten. The second one is, does the RFP have any requirements that are, or out of the ordinary for what you do for most of your clients?
(15:59):
So it would put an additional strain on your resources. An example might be they require onsite staff, and maybe that's not something you usually do. So it would require some changes in your operational functionality. It would require some different management of staff, things like that the sales team is not going to be thinking about. I'm going to tell you that right now, the sales team is going to be thinking, "Let's go, let's win more business, more, more and more." Somebody on the team has to recognize, can we do this? Is this functionality that is easy for us to do? If it isn't that easy, is it worth it? Is this going to be a contract that is worth it for us to make some of those significant changes? Another thing that sometimes happens particularly in state governments is invoicing processes, federal government too. Invoicing processes.
(16:54):
And is your company set up to handle what their requirements are? Or is it going to require new technology? Anything like that. So do they have requirements that are out of the ordinary for what you do with most of your clients? The third one, do you know enough about the client and their industry or environments? I've been talking about this throughout this episode already, where you need to know about your competitors. You need to have a relationship with the client. You need to understand what are they really trying to accomplish here? Because I'm going to tell you right now, it happens a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, when the RFP is written in some such a way that really doesn't solve the problem that they're looking to solve. So the more you know about the client, the better relationship you have with them, the more conversations you've had with them, the more you understand their industry and what's happening in the industry right now, especially these days, by the way, because there're all sorts of crazy stuff going on in the world.
(17:57):
At the time of recording this episode, we're still in the middle of COVID 2022, so there's a lot happening. So you've got to really understand how all of what's happening in the world is affecting their industry and their business, understanding the client themselves, understanding their hot buttons, what they're trying to accomplish, all of that. When you know all of that, then we can really dig in and write a rocking RFP response that's going to get you the win. That's hugely important. This is controversial because people don't like to deal with this. But the last thing under the forgotten is, is this even in the right client for you? So yes, you can do the work. Yes, you have the resources to do the work. Yes, to everything else. But what if they're just going to go based on costs and you're never the low cost provider? All right, don't bid, you should never be bidding on the Walmart products of the world when you are in the Tiffany category.
(18:51):
And that's not a knock on Walmart, there's plenty of work to be had, and if you fit that category, then great. If you fit the Walmart category, you shouldn't be bidding on something that's looking for the Tiffany. So you've got to be thinking about that. The other thing do they value outside services? So it's interesting, I was working with a client on an RFP once, and it was a hard RFP. It was very, very arduous. We strongly suggested that they not bid because the requirements were so narrow that we were pretty convinced that it was wired, but this client wanted to go forward. We were going to support them, because they're an ongoing long term client of ours. And in the midst of it, one of the people in the leader ship team said, "I don't know why we're even bidding on this. We don't want to work with a client like this."
(19:36):
I got to tell you that deflated the entire proposal team. Like, "Then why are we bidding on it?" And we asked that question and they were emphatic that we continue to bid on it. So at the end of the day, they didn't win, no surprise, but had they won, it would've been a hard client. They are hard on consultants, so this was a consulting firm. They're very hard on consultants. They don't value the advice and the information and the work and the services provided. And what happens then is that guess what? The leadership are not the ones dealing with it necessarily, it's the staff that is having to deliver on this and it burns your staff out. And it demotivates and your staff is not doing the work that they really want to be working. And so you've got to be thinking about those two things.
(20:26):
Is this the right client for you? That is going to light up our employees, that's going to give our employees opportunity to learn and grow. Where's the price point? Like I mentioned. Also, is there appropriate margin in this? Or are you just going to complain every month? Or is the management team going to complain every month? That you're not making good enough margin and it's just going to be a sloth throughout the entire contract. So those are some of the things, and again, sometimes you're not going to know that, unless you're in there and building relationships and doing your diligence and really having that capture planning process to get all of the appropriate information before that RFP hits your desk. So that is the conclusion, there's always more, but these are the key things that we always want to look at that we consult our clients on, making sure that they understand all of this. Because it also then gives you a better understanding of what percentage chance you have of winning this.
(21:24):
And then when you look at that, is it under 20? Is it 50%? Is it over 70%? Then you can look at that and say, "Okay, it's worth our time and our resources because we believe we have an over 50% chance of winning." Or, "We don't think we've got even 20% chance of winning. Why are we wasting our time and resources? Let's wait for the one to come out, that's going to give us a bigger bang for our buck." So strongly encourage you to turn this into a checklist and make sure that everybody on your team is on the same page in really assessing those opportunities that are coming across your plate. So as you can tell, I'm really passionate about this because it just breaks my heart to see people continuously bid on things that they can't win. It just drives me crazy. I want you all to be winners, winners, winners.
(22:13):
My whole team loves, loves, love, supporting you all in winning more RFPs, but it's heartbreaking for us too, to see opportunities come around that are just not the right fit, yet time and resources are put into that and then the loss comes. It demotivates internal teams, in which is never a good thing either. All right, I'll get off my soapbox now. Thank you all for tuning in. Again, this is Lisa Rehurek, until next time.
(22:37):
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 therfpsuccesscompany.com.