EP139: The FAQs We Get About RFPs, Part II
What is the #1 question we’re getting about RFPs from clients and prospects lately?
Is it a tactical question about insurance requirements, due dates or FOIA requests? Or a high-level question about standing out from your competitors?
On this episode of The RFP Success Show, I answer five more FAQs we get about RFPs, including our most frequently asked question around distinguishing yourself in the proposal process.
I explain what to do if your small business can’t meet the insurance requirements and why you should submit FOIA requests for scoring sheets, proposals from other bidders and previous contracts.
Listen in for insight on learning who your competitors are before an RFP hits the streets and find out how our RFP Flash Audit can help you level up your RFP game in the new year!
Key Takeaways
5 of the most common questions we get about RFPs
How to ask if insurance requirements can be negotiated to accommodate small businesses
Why agencies typically aren’t willing to extend the due date on an RFP
Why we recommend submitting FOIA requests for scoring sheets, proposals from other bidders and prior contracts
How to find out who your competitors are before an RFP comes out
Why it’s crucial to build relationships with buyers long before an RFP hits the streets
3 ways to distinguish yourself in a proposal response
Resources
The Role of Contracts in Successful Prime + Sub Partnerships on RFP Success EP036
How to Develop Your RFP Pricing Strategy on RFP Success EP081
Book a Call with the RFP Success Company
The RFP Success Book by Lisa Rehurek
RFP Success Show EP139 Transcription
Intro:
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 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:
Hey, everyone. Welcome to the RFP Success Show. I'm your host, Lisa Rehurek, founder and CEO of the RFP Success Company. Now, today we're doing part two of our frequently asked questions segment. These are the questions we get asked most by our clients and prospects. The first few are a little more tactical, but you're going to want to stick around for the last one because it's the number one question we have been getting most recently. So let's go ahead and dig into the second half of our 10 questions. So at number six, what if we can't meet the insurance requirements? This is kind of a tricky one because most terms and conditions are standardized across all state or corporate contracts. And this question we get from the small businesses, because if you're a large business, the insurance requirements are easy for you. But as a small business, if you're saying, "I need to have $5 million in liability insurance," that's a harder thing for a small business to do.
Don't assume. Now, again, those requirements that states and corporations set are generally set for much larger companies, but don't assume that those are not negotiable. So the first thing you need to do is ask the question, are the insurance requirements negotiable to accommodate small business? It's really important that you put that accommodate small business. If you're looking in a state that is very small business friendly, they're going to perk up and pay attention to that. In fact, I just attended a conference not too long ago. The panel members were all from corporations, not from state agencies, but they were so helpful in saying, "Look, we want to do work with more small businesses, so we're willing to accommodate some of those requirements." You just have to ask and work on that negotiation.
So a lot of times, we look at these TNCs and we say, "Ah, they're just set. We have to abide by them." But not always. The tricky part is, how do you ask this question? So you can ask that during an open Q and A period and then hope that you get a favorable response. And assuming you do, then you just want to write in your proposal that, as a small business, you request the opportunity to negotiate the insurance requirements upon contract award. So everything is negotiable, but the timing of it can be a bit challenging. So just keep that in the back of your mind. All right, question number seven. Can we ask them to extend the due date? You can always ask. That's the first answer to this question, you can always ask. But I remember helping a small business client once and they were convinced that they can just call up the agency and ask them to extend the deadline.
"But they really like us," they said. Well, it might be true. But listen, it's not always that easy. Most of the time, they're not going to extend it. If it's wired for you and you really need the time, they're probably going to extend it. But otherwise, likely not unless they get more than one request. So the challenges in state government, you can't simply just reach out to your contact or procurement and ask them because it depends on what the RFP says. Sometimes you can ask open questions anytime to the procurement officer, but a lot of times there's a very specific window for asking those questions. So you're going to have to know what the RFP says, of course, and then just utilize that Q and A period or whatever period they've given you to ask questions to ask that question. But don't count on it. The likelihood is that they will not say yes to that.
All right, question number eight. What is a FOIA request? Now, in the last episode, we talked a little bit about FOIA. And we work with a lot of small businesses who are relatively new to state government space. So this question's just been popping up more and more for us. FOIA stands for Freedom of Information Act. It was an act that was passed back in 1967, and what it does is it provides the public the right to request access to records from, really, any federal agency, any state agency. So once you bid on something, you could submit a letter requesting to see scoring sheets and copies of proposals from other bidders. In fact, you don't even have to have bid on it. If you are bidding on something now and you want to just see what information is available from the people that bid before, I don't know that you'll be able to get copies of those, but you should be able to get copies of the contracts.
Every state's a little bit different. So as you work in your target states, you're going to get to know their procurement preferences, their procurement laws a little bit better. But I would submit FOIA requests, first of all, anytime you bid, you should always submit a FOIA request for scoring sheets and for the other bidders' proposals. Sometimes, you're going to get a highly redacted proposal, but you're going to get some idea, number one, of who else bid, number two, of what their proposal looks like. And even if you can't read all the content, you're going to get a little bit of a feel for it. And those scoring sheets are so important. Frankly, at the state level, it's been a really long time since I've heard of somebody submitting a FOIA request for scoring sheets and didn't get them. And the reason being is that the states just need to be transparent because there is a lot of protesting that goes on and they're just going to open everything up and say, "Here's what it looks like."
So always get those. I know as a small business it's not always easy because you don't have a lot of resources, but getting that information and having a system for documenting some of that data and keeping track of what your competitors are doing is huge. And this leads to question number nine. How do we find out who our competitors are? Well, of course, after the fact, you can find out by submitting a FOIA request. But this is really part of that capture process upfront. Long before the RFP hits the streets, you should be doing research on prior contracts, other vendors that already have contracts, and thus have relationships in your state or slash agency, and you should be having conversations with the buyers. We push this all the time, and I know it's not sexy. People don't want to do it. They're like, "We'll just wait for the RFP to come out."
But I tell you what, you're having those conversations with the buyer, again, long before the RFP comes out, and you're gaining as much intelligence as you can. And once you build a strong enough relationship, eventually they'll tell you who the competitors are. And the other thing you can do is you can check competitors' websites. Let's just say you know our top competitors are company A, B, and C. So go to their websites and see if they have client information posted. A lot of times, people will showcase here's who our clients are. So you can see where they have other contracts in states that you're wanting to do work with. So again, long before that RFP comes out, you're just going to start building these relationships and eventually get information around who the incumbent might be, whether that incumbent is doing a good job, what are their biggest frustrations, things like that.
And here's the bad news. The process takes time. I mean, it can be years of relationship building, but don't let that scare you off. Start small, build relationships, and create research systems to build upon your market intelligence. And you're going to wake up in three years and be like, "Oh my gosh, we have such a great handle on this." Actually, in one year, you're going to wake up and be like, "Oh, we're so much better than we were a year ago." And then in two years, it's going to look really, really robust and really good. And you're going to be able to use that information in your proposal and to help your proposal stand out.
Speaker 1:
Is your company looking to break into state government contracting? There are seven key components that must happen before you dive into state RFPs. Jumping in without a solid strategic plan and the right pre-planning can cost you time, resources, and lost revenue. Learn more about the RFP Success Company's state government services and book a call at findrfpsuccess.com.
Lisa Rehurek:
Which leads to number 10, how do we stand out in the proposal? Now, we talked about this a little bit in the prior episode, but I want to go a little bit deeper here, because the number one question that we have been getting most recently is how do we stand out? How do we distinguish ourselves so the evaluators really take note of us? We get things like, what if we don't know our competitors? What if we don't know our differentiators? Well, I'm going to give you three things that you need to know to really make sure that you're standing out in that proposal, okay?
The first one is have strong market intelligence, what we just talked about. Not just the competitor piece, but also what's going on in the industry, the buyer's goals and objectives. Sure, in the RFP, they're going to tell you what their goals and objectives are. But I'm here to tell you that is... I mean, have you've ever sat down and with your team and said, "Let's create a mission statement," and everybody has input and everybody buys into the end result, but it's kind of this crowdsourced mission statement?
Well, it is going to be the same for when a agency is putting goals and objectives down into a proposal. They're all in a room talking about what the agency's goals and objectives are, and they map up to the governor's initiatives and they map to other things. But at the end of the day, the person and the people, they have other things that they're trying to accomplish. They're trying to not get burned by another vendor. They're trying to make sure that their staff isn't burnt out. They're trying to ensure that they have expertise that they don't normally have. Not to mention, by the way, all these emotional triggers that come up. They're scared of things. We as human beings are scared. Whether it's a super-duper big fear or a little teeny-tiny unconscious fear, we have fear of failure. So you're not going to learn these things unless you're having conversations with your prospect, with your target.
So you want to start having those conversations, build the relationships. This is not going to happen overnight, like I said before. But once they get to trust you, they're going to tell you things that nobody else is going to know, and you can then put that in your proposal and knock it out of the park. It's a beautiful thing. All right. The second thing to do to stand out in the proposal is don't be passive in your writing. People love to write in a professional corporate tone, but that is so boring and it doesn't stand out. And I had mentioned this in the prior episode that they're going to be doing their grocery list in their head because they're just going to be bored. So you want to keep it simple, but I want you to be direct in showcasing your credibility and expertise. You've got to do it in a way that shows confidence, but not arrogance.
And tying it back to everything that you learned in the first thing that I said, all that really strong market intelligence. You can tie it all back to that, but be direct. I love it when our clients are willing to be bold so we can make some really bold statements that it's almost going to be a little bit of a throwing a drink in the evaluator's face. They're going to be like, "Oh, I'm perked up. Okay, I'm paying attention. I'm paying attention." That's what you want. Do not be passive in your writing. And then number three, show, don't tell. People don't want to hear you shouting from the mountaintops how great you are. Prove it. Showcase via examples, case studies, testimonials, industry knowledge. All of that is how you want to present things, showing, not telling. And again, knowing how to showcase your solution in a way that shows competence but not arrogance, and in a way that keeps the interest of the evaluators. It isn't always easy to do, but the payoff is incredible.
And I'll tell you right now, I'm going to plant my flag in this, it's one of the things that we do better than anyone. And if you want our expert eyeballs on your proposals to make sure that you're positioning yourself for the win, I am so excited to share our flash audit that we're offering through the end of the year. Now, this flash audit is the annual game changer for RFP-bidding businesses. We've got a quick turnaround of three to five business days analyzing your proposals to ensure that they're easily understood by the evaluators. Then, we're also going to share with you some in-depth immediate recommendations that you're going to be able to implement so you go into 2024 positioned really, really well. Now, through December, the audit's 45% off at a price of $2,500. So you got to get started before December 31st.
No gimmicks, no games. It will absolutely return to full price of $4,500 on December 31st. So grab your place in the queue. And all you have to do, I've made it super simple, just email me, lisa@rfpsuccess.com right now. Put flash in the subject line. We'll get back to you to get started on that flash audit right away. All right, everybody, I want to thank you for tuning in. We look forward to conducting your flash audit to get you on the road to success in 2024. And I also want to wish you all an amazing holiday season. This will come out after Thanksgiving, but probably before all of the other major holidays in December. So have a wonderful and safe and beautiful, joyful holiday season.
Outro:
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.