EP129: RFP Response FAQs, Part 1
What questions come up when you write an RFP response?
It’s likely that you share concerns with our clients and community here at the RFP Success Company.
So, on this episode of the podcast, I’m answering eight of our most common FAQs, discussing why you need to repeat key information multiple times in an RFP response.
I explain how to compare your business to others in the industry without mentioning them by name and explore how case studies build credibility and make your response more believable.
Listen in for my take on the most important part of a proposal response and find out when you need to meet ALL the requirements of an RFP—and when you might get away with delivering on most.
Key Takeaways
8 of the most frequently asked questions we get from our clients and community
3 reasons why you need to repeat the answer to a question you already covered somewhere else
Why you shouldn’t refer evaluators to another section of your RFP response
How to compare your business to others in the industry without mentioning them by name
The importance of repeating key win themes throughout your proposal
How case studies build credibility and make a response more believable, i.e.: show vs. tell
My take on the most important parts of an RFP response
How the executive summary serves as a Cliff’s Notes version of your response
When you need to meet all the requirements in an RFP (and when you might get away with delivering on most)
RFP Success Show EP129 Transcription
(00:00):
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 in 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 today I am answering Part 1, answering frequently asked questions that we get from our clients, and from other people that we interact with. So we're going to do two parts here. We're going to do this one, and then, I don't know, maybe three or four episodes down the road, you'll get a Part 2. So today we're going to answer eight frequently asked questions that we get. Again, these come from our clients, they come from our community. They're the ones that we hear all the time. So let's just go ahead and dive right in.
(01:03):
Question number one, "Why do I have to repeat my answer in another question if I have already answered it somewhere else?" We get this one all the time because people feel uncomfortable giving the same information more than once. So, "We already did it. It's kind of a pain in the butt to redo it." We're going to come to, actually, Part 2 of this question in a couple of minutes, but there are two reasons why you need to repeat the answer. Because a lot of times what happens is that they parse out sections of the RFP response to different evaluators. So they'll take maybe section one, and they'll give it to evaluator A, and section two and give it to evaluator B. They don't always do that, but if you don't know, you don't know. And then obviously if you've got it in one place, and you don't have it in another place, then that's not a good thing.
(01:56):
The other thing is, that it's proven that all of us humans, in general, need to hear something five to seven times before it really sinks in, right? We need to hear it several times. So that's the second reason. But the third reason, and the most important reason, is that because they asked it. And when they ask it, you need to answer it, because they have a scoring guide, and their evaluators are going through that scoring guide and giving you scores. They're reviewing 3, 5, 10, 15 other responses. They might not remember what you said in another question. They likely will not remember what you said in another question. So if they ask it, answer the darn question.
(02:37):
The other question that we get that I'm going to add here, it's kind of the same thing, is that, "Can't we just refer the evaluators to another section where we answered that same question?" No, and it's the same reasons why I'm giving you now is because a lot of times they parse it out to multiple evaluators. Also, because we need to hear things, but it also makes it too hard on the evaluator. So they just often won't do it. If they've got to thumb back through and look for a section and look for a page number, honestly, that sounds crazy, but again, they're evaluating, at the least, one other response. But most of the time they're reviewing 3, 5, 10, 15, however many other responses, they're in a hurry. This probably isn't their main job. They have a gazillion other things on their to-do list.
(03:30):
So while it sounds simple to you, when they've got these piles of responses that they've got to go through, it's a pain in the butt for them to do that, to flip back and look and then tie it to the question that they asked in this particular section. So what happens, is that it will annoy them. You end up giving them an unconscious bias against your proposal. So don't do that. And I know it feels hard sometimes because you're like, oh my gosh, we added it already. It was five pages long and we don't, which it should never be, by the way, but we don't want to give all that content again. You can summarize it a little bit differently and you can summarize it and you can say, "We went into more detail in section 3.5", but give the general gist so that if they don't go back and look, which again, the likelihood of them doing is pretty small, you give them the answer that they need to be able to score you on that. So give them enough information there, to be able to score you on that.
(04:27):
Let's go on question number three. "Is it okay to mention our competitors by name? If not, how can I compare ourselves to others in the industry and show that we're a better fit?" So I would say that this is somewhat of a philosophical debate, but my personal opinion is never, ever, ever mention a competitor by name, for multiple reasons. If they don't know your competitor, they might perk up and go, "Huh, well now I need to go out and find out more about this competitor". But mostly it just makes you sound cheap. It makes you sound petty, it makes you sound defensive, and you don't want to sound defensive in your response. You want to be on the offense, right? You want to be confident and sharing your information confidently that you have the answers, and that you are the best one. If you've got the right value proposition in there, your competitors really probably shouldn't matter.
(05:22):
So, in the part of this question where we get to, "How can I compare ourselves to others in the industry and show that we're a better fit?", just show how great you are, show your value proposition. Talk about the things that you do. You can say something like, "We are the only ones in our industry that do X, Y, and Z, and we have been told that we're the top in our industry in X, Y, and Z". So say things like that. It keeps you above board. It doesn't make you sound petty. And again, kind of that unconscious bias that sometimes comes in if you're ripping and railing on somebody else, it just isn't a good look.
(05:57):
All right, let's move on to question number four. "Why should I be repetitive on key win themes?" Now, I said this above in question, I think it was question number one, but people need to hear things five to seven times before it really sinks in. That's statistically valid. People have proven that. You can go to the internet and find that out. So people really need to hear those win themes at least five to seven times throughout. But also, as I've said, again, I've said several times in every one of these questions that I've already answered is that, sometimes they parse out pieces of the RP to different evaluators.
(06:35):
So you want to make sure that those win themes are sprinkled throughout so that if they do that, you'll be covered. But even if they don't, the most important thing to think about when you're including and interjecting your win themes, is that you don't just take this sentence of a win theme that you came up with in your strategy meeting, and just drop it in word for word. You want to use those win themes for specific sections. Tie those themes to what you're talking about in the moment, and how relevant they are to that particular question.
(07:09):
So those win themes, while we can say, okay, let's make sure we sprinkle them five to seven times throughout, no, they are kind of your guiding light for every question that you answer. How are you tying your answer back to those win themes, because if you've done those right, they're your value proposition and they're tied to what's important for the clients. So make sure that you're repetitive on those key win themes. And again, I'd say, probably every question should have some semblance... I mean, not some of the basic questions, but some of those deeper questions should tie back to those win themes.
(07:45):
All right, question number five, "Why should we provide examples if we've already answered the question?" So same people who are like, "Look, we answered the question, why is it important 'cause we push on our clients. What are some examples there?" And it's all this concept of show versus tell. When people get told something, they will have an opportunity to judge that tell, right? They'll have the opportunity in their minds to either choose to believe it or not to believe it, but when they get examples, and when they get anything with case studies and testimonials and examples, it just shows them versus just telling them, and it gives them something more to sink their teeth into.
(08:25):
It's more believable to them than you, you who's trying to sell them something, telling them what you think they want to hear. And I will tell you, I'm going to go down a little rabbit hole here, but I'll tell you, the good majority of people don't like to be sold to. They like to buy. Obviously people are buying in this instance, they know they're buying, they know you're trying to sell, but the minute that they feel that they're being sold to, they put up a defensive wall. Not everybody, but I'd say probably the majority of people. So when you're telling, it's going to feel a little bit more like selling, even if it doesn't feel like selling to you, it will feel like selling to them. And the minute that you show through those examples, it just builds more trust, builds more credibility, and really allows them to see in action... when you give examples, it lets them paint a picture in their brain, and it really just lets them sink their teeth into it and better visualize it, and you're going to get better scores every single time.
(09:27):
All right, number six. I love this question because it's such a loaded question, but number six question is, "What is the most important part of the RFP response?" Oh, such a big question and it's a big question, because the answer is really, it depends. But I would say, the evaluation group criteria is the most important part of you thinking about the response, right? So you've got to know what that evaluation criteria is telling you, and the most important part of your response is based on what that evaluation criteria says. That's going to guide you to where you need to spend the most time.
(10:08):
Now, absent of the evaluation criteria, or absent of enough information in that evaluation criteria, there's a whole bunch of things that are equally important. It's very important to follow their instructions, their format, and meet the requirements. I mean, that's kind of all baseline. Everybody that's responding should be doing that, and you should assume that everybody else is going to do that. Meet the requirements, follow the instructions, follow their format, but also really making a strong impact right out of the gate. I'm not saying the cover letter, cause the cover letter isn't always read.
(10:46):
In the executive summary and in that first section, I'm always a big proponent of making a really great impression in those first few pages. Some other people might argue that the most important part of the RFP response is the way it looks, and that is important because it's the first thing that they see. How professional is it? Is it too text-heavy? Is it going to be easy for me to read? Is this going to be enjoyable? Is it pretty? Doesn't need to be over the top graphical, it just needs to be pretty to read. I don't know if you've ever picked up a book that you're going to read, whether it's a novel or a business book, and you look at how small the font is and how much verbiage there is on each page. A lot of times people are just like, "Ugh, this just looks hard." So that is important too, because you don't want them going into it feeling like this is an arduous task for them. Again, it goes back to that unconscious bias. They're going to feel that, and sometimes just if they walk into it with it feeling hard, that's not a good thing. So all of those things are equally important.
(11:50):
It's really hard to say what the most important thing is, but always, always, always, look that evaluation criteria and sit down and think, too. One of the things that I always love to do is sit down and think about the questions and think about, or the evaluation criteria, and think about what are they really trying to accomplish here? What are their hot buttons? What are the kind of hidden-between-the-lines messages that tell me they've been burned before, and this is really important to them, and they want that particular thing to be really present, and then that becomes very important in your response. So it's a lot of things. I know that doesn't specifically answer the question of what is the one thing, but all of those things are very important. All right, we are almost done. We are on the last two questions.
(12:39):
Question number seven, "Why do we have to summarize our approach in the executive summary if we already explained it in the response below?" Well look, the executive summary... I mean, the whole purpose of an executive summary is to be basically a Cliff's Notes version of the response. You will have some people that just read the executive summary. This tends to happen at the higher levels. A department head, an agency head, maybe somebody that's not super technical, they just read the executive summary. You want to make sure that you've summarized the key points, and if that's all they read, that they walked away feeling like, "Okay, I think these guys can do this, and I think that they'd be a great option for us".
(13:19):
It's also a great way to really summarize the, why you? It's a great way to make that first impression of why you, positioning yourself for the win in that executive summary. So a lot of times people just dial in that executive summary. Now, I'll tell you, I know people that don't ever read the executive summary, so it feels sometimes like, "Oh, why do we even have to write this if they're not going to read it?" The problem is you just don't know, right? You just don't know who's going to read it and who's not going to read it, and who's only going to read that. So, you need to make sure that it summarizes... again, think of it as a Cliff's Note of your response, okay? It shouldn't give information that you don't have elsewhere in the response, at all.
(14:03):
Now, last but not least, "Does it really matter if we don't meet all of the requirements but are pretty good in delivering on most of them?" It's a little bit of an "It depends" answer. But look, we always want our clients to meet all the requirements, because you want to get the maximum number of points you can get. That's what's going to get you the win, and you can't rely on, "Well, hopefully our competitors are maybe missing here and missing there". You want to go all in. But in actuality, you may be able to get away with it, and it largely depends on that evaluation criteria. How much weight will be put on that requirement?
(14:41):
So I've seen it work before, where we had a client that had a minimum, the RFP had a minimum requirement for small diverse business participation. The company didn't have the requirements, they still bid, and they won, because they felt pretty strongly that they knew their competitors super well. They felt really strongly that their two main competitors would not get that requirement either. And so there was a lot going on there. They had really strong response everywhere else. They had super strong knowledge of their competitors, and in that particular situation, they chose to bid and they won. They still won. But it also wasn't even part of the evaluation criteria. It's kind of one of those nice to haves, right? This is fine. This is an extra, bonus points basically, if you've got this, but we've also seen others that leave out a requirement and lose because of it.
(15:39):
And, of course, you don't want that. If they're asking for a specific type of experience and you're like, "Well, we don't have that, but we're close", you better know how to write to that, to make it sound like it's going to be okay without that experience. You've got to have a solution if you're not going to meet that requirement, and you've got to know how to write to that solution. But honestly, leaving out a requirement is pretty tough. It's a matter of time and resources, too. Do you really want to be bidding on something that you have a low chance of winning just because you don't meet that requirement?
(16:12):
Now, sometimes I've seen business people say, "We want to bid because we want to get our name out there. It's a little bit of a visibility exercise. We know we probably won't win." If you go into it knowing that, and that's a strategic decision, then that's okay. But if it's a big requirement, like they require you on site, and you're like, "Nope, not willing to do that." They require, again, a specific requirement, a specific type of experience, you better have a solution for that that you can write really well to, or I would highly recommend not bidding. I mean, I know that's harsh, but you know, you don't want to waste the time and the resources if you can't make that work.
(16:54):
All right, everybody, so that is the top eight frequently asked questions that we get here at the RFP Success Company. We're going to come back with a Part 2. I'm going to come back with a Part 2 in a few episodes to really close this out. I think we've got another seven questions on Part 2, so join us then. Obviously we'll have other podcast episodes in between that, so please stay tuned, and make sure you subscribe if you haven't already done it, so that you don't miss an episode. Thanks so much for listening in today.
Outro (17:26):
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.