EP140: Discover the Art of Winning RFPs: The RFP Success® Show Returns
Welcome back to The RFP Success Show! After a brief hiatus, host Lisa Rehurek, founder and CEO of the RFP Success Company, returns with key insights from her 30+ years in the RFP arena.
In this episode, Lisa takes us behind the scenes to share the most impactful lessons learned from her journey—stories of pitfalls, setbacks, triumphs, and unexpected opportunities.
From her first proposal heartbreak to the evolution of her RFP processes, Lisa dives deep into the challenges small businesses face when responding to RFPs.
She emphasizes the importance of thorough research, the value of setbacks for innovation, and how to leverage relationships and networking for RFP success.
Whether you're a seasoned proposal professional or a small business owner navigating RFPs for the first time, Lisa’s experiences offer practical guidance to help you win more contracts and level up your RFP game.
Key Takeaways
The importance of thorough research: Go beyond the RFP document to understand your client's needs, mission, and goals to craft a compelling proposal.
Learning from setbacks: Use challenges—tight deadlines, missing team members, or changes in the RFP—to innovate and streamline processes for future success.
Leveraging networking and partnerships: Unexpected opportunities can come from unlikely places. Stay open to collaborations that could help you win RFPs.
Celebrating triumphs and small wins: Even losses can teach valuable lessons. Celebrate successes and the lessons learned from failures to keep your team motivated.
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 EP140 Transcription
Intro:
This is the RFP Success Show, the go-to podcast for RFP responding companies and professionals that are ready to ramp up their RFP win rates. Get ready for tools and resources, lessons learned by industry experts, and hot strategies to help your proposal stand out. Here's your host, bestselling author, speaker, and CEO of the RFP Success Company, Lisa Rehurek.
Lisa Rehurek:
Hello everybody. And welcome back to the RFP success show. I'm Lisa Rehurek founder and CEO of the RFP success company and your host for today. Today, we're going to dive deep into the world of RFPs. You know,we've been on a little bit of a hiatus. with the show. And I want to dive back in with what some of the pitfalls are. I'm going to, going to take you behind the scenes to share some of the most impactful lessons that I've learned throughout my 30-plus-year journey in the RFP arena. I kind of wish that In the beginning, I had kept a journal of just all of the crazy stories, all of the lessons learned because, you know, 30 years is a long time and I try to remember these things. I feel like I'm driving down the road and I remember like, Oh, remember when this happened to remember when that happened.
And I just always want to share these types of stories with you because frankly. For those of you listening there's a lot of small businesses listening to this podcast where you don't have the proposal experience you don't have like proposal professionals on your team you're trying to piece together by yourself or with some of your other team members but again not.Trained and skilled proposal professionals, and even those of you that are proposal professionals, you'll be able to relate to some of this and might learn a thing or two from my experiences. So I'm excited to be back. I'm excited to talk about this again, kind of, we're going to talk about navigating pitfalls to leveraging unexpected opportunities.We're going to cover the full spectrum of experiences, the triumphs, the setbacks and everything in between.
So grab a cup of coffee or a cup of tea, or if you're in the afternoon, grab a martini or a glass of wine, get comfortable, and let's jump right in. So I want to start with the pitfalls. I can't tell you how many times I stumbled in my early days, and one of the biggest lessons that I learned was the importance of thorough research. So I remember the very first proposal that I ever submitted. I was so excited. So I got hired by this consulting firm and I had done proposals before in the hospitality industry, but this was a whole new ballgame. I remember them coming and putting this 200-page document on my desk and me thinking, Oh, my gosh. What is this? I thought I had proposal experience, but I guess I didn't, but I combed over that thing. I made sure that we met all of their requirements. I was on top of it and we have the qualifications.
In fact, the company that I worked for at the time did a lot of state government work and got sole-sourced contracts because they were kind of the only one in the early days that did it. But when I came in. They had started to see more competition. There were more RFPs now that they had to respond to. And that was my job is to create this proposal department and respond to the RFPs. So this first one I get, I come over it.
I make sure that all the requirements are met. I know we have the qualifications.I answered all the questions like, It was solid. I was really proud of it. And I was like, Oh, maybe, maybe a little arrogant about it. Cause I was like, Oh yeah, wegot this in the bag and we lost, we lost that one. And it was heartbreaking. I'm sure so many of you can relate to that. It's so heartbreaking because you put your time, your, your resources, your heart, your soul into bidding on this. They are not fun. I'm not going to lie. Like they're not the funnest things in the world to deal with, especially if you don't do it every day. So, um, When I got the scoring sheets, there was two kind of clear things that stood out as to why we didn't win.
One of them was that we just kind of got meets expectations scores across the board. So I did my job in that I made sure that we met the expectations. I did exactly what they asked for. But I learned in that moment that you can't just do what they ask for, you've gotta go over and above. And then the other piece of the puzzle when I saw our competitors' proposals is that they really understood the client and they showed that they understood the client. So one of the big pitfalls and one of the big lessons learned was really the importance of thorough research. So when you don't do that research, all you're writing to is what the RFP is asking for, but there's kind of these underlying. Emotions or hot buttons or just underlying even political things that are going on in a state that you're never going to know about unless you build relationships and do your research. So research isn't just about understanding that RFP document.
It's about knowing the client's goals, their pain points, and how your solution fits into their vision and their need. So you've got to take the time to dig deep, preferably long before the RFP comes out, you're building the relationships with yourtarget clients. So you're getting that information. If you get the RFP, you better go out and start doing research to see what's going on in that state or locality municipality around. Service that you provide and there's a lot of things that can be gleaned, even just looking at the state of the state that the governor does looking at some of the press releases.
If you can find anything on your topic or, you know, kind of what is driving this RFP, that's fantastic, because then you can weave that into your proposal. So take time to dig deep, look at their past projects, their mission, and If you're bidding on a corporate RFP, their company culture, but also on like the agency's priorities, the state priorities, the governor's priorities, or the school district priorities, whatever it is, whoever that entity is, you want to find out what's going on with them.This is going to help you tailor your response in a way that really resonates with the evaluators.
They're going to feel like, Oh my gosh, they understand us. And that starts to build trust and you will start automatically getting some higher scores on your proposals. That's kind of my big lesson learned around pitfalls. Now I want to talk about setbacks. We've all faced them, right? And I remember a project where everything seemed to be going wrong. It just, sometimes it feels like such a slog. Tight deadlines, resource constraints, last minute changes. My team, too, all of us feel this way about answers to questions. I don't know why entities don't understand this, but, you know, we'll submit questions and then. You know, we get the answers back maybe four or five days before the RFP is due. And that is really hard because now you have to not only comb through all those answers, you have to now see, okay, is there anything here that, that we need to make a change in our proposal because of the way that they answered this question?
That's one of the setbacks that we see often is just kind of, I don't know. Getting the answers to the questions or not getting the right answer. That's a big one too.I know that we will submit questions. And of course, we've been doing this for a long time. So we learned, we've learned now how to ask the questions, but in my early days in RFPs, just not really knowing how to ask the question so that I get the answer back. Never ask a yes or no question unless you really Just need a yes or a no, but some of those things just setbacks along the way a team member goes out sick. That was supposed to write like a big chunk of it or your subcontractor falls out all of those things. But here's the silver lining with setbacks, setbacks[00:08:00]often lead to innovation or process improvement in that challenging project that I had.
We really had to think outside of the box and come up with some creative ideas.I know that led to us streamlining our processes. We learned how to collaborate more as a team. And then all of that ultimately helps us deliver better proposals in the future. I'm actually in the middle of this right now with my own company earlier this year.We, the company itself had just a whole bunch of setbacks. We lost a couple of key team members. We lost a client. I mean, there were some things going on that are like, ah, and it makes you feel like. Like the sky is falling. All of this bad stuff is happening. But what that led to for us was an innovation with a new technology platform that we're rolling out later this year, that's going to be a game changer, not just for my company, but more importantly for the businesses that we serve.
So, If we keep our mind open on these setbacks to what can we improve, what are the lessons learned, it really will help project our business forward and get us more streamlined, more creative, more innovative. And I encourage you to make sure that whenever you have those setbacks, that you and your team sit back and think about, okay, what do we need to do different? What do we need to streamline? What do we need to tighten up? What do we need to change so that It pushes you forward and okay, so maybe it messed you up on one RFP, but it's not going to mess you up on the next one. This episode is brought to you by RFP Success Express, the first and only small business one-stop shop affordable technology platform.To guide you from sourcing all the way through writing, just visit rfpsuccess.express to learn more.
All right, now let's shift gears and talk about those unexpected opportunities. And sometimes the best chances come from the most unexpected. Unlikely places and this is kind of a random example, but I once attended a networking event and while I was there to connect with potential clients, I ended up meeting a fellow small business owner who needed a partner in an RFP that they were actually responding to.So that was super fun because if I had kept my eyes only on, like, I got to find clients, I got to find clients. I would have never had that conversation because I knew that they probably were not going to be a client of ours. So it's just one of those things, like keep your, Eyes open to those unexpected opportunities, keep the doors open and things will come to you in the most unexpected ways, but they can be amazing for your business.And particularly when I think about like partnerships with RFPs, um, you know, partnerships with primes, partnerships with small diverse businesses, those types of things can be really game-changing for your business.
All right, so now let's discuss triumphs. And of course, there's nothing quite like the feeling of winning an RFP after pouring your heart, your soul, all of your time into a proposal. And one of my proudest moments was when a small client of mine when I first started my business, it was just me. I was a solo practitioner. I helped my first client win their first government contract. And it was a significant contract. It was so fun for me. I know of course the client was thrilled, but for me, that's why I started this business is to help people win more business. And I have a very soft spot for small businesses because I am one, and I know what a state government contract does. Can do to change the trajectory of a small business. You can manage your contracts better. You can have more consistency in staffing.
There's so many great things that come from getting a state government contract or a corporate contract or a school district contract. It's really, really great. Now we're not going to win them all. It's, it's proven fact that, you know, nobody wins them all. Right. But here's what I want to say is that in that process of even losing one, I want you to celebrate your triumphs because there are so many things that go well along the way. And what I would suggest, this is a practice that I used to do a lot.I love it so much. It's called the success jar. And every time you have a little success, a big success, or even a failure that you have a lesson learned from, put that on a little strip of paper and put it in the jar. Put it in a jar or a box or whatever you want to do. Ours was a success jar. And the great thing about that is that we can get really discouraged when we're bidding on RFPs and we're losing, but we forget about all of the things we learn along the ways or all of the things that we did really well in that debrief meeting.
After you lose an RFP and you get a debrief with the entity, you know, ask them, don't just say like, why did we lose? You want to ask them like, Anything that you can point out in our RFP that stood out as something we did well, or that you were really intrigued by, and then put those, celebrate those as triumphs and put them in that jar.So, you know, back to my example, what made that win special wasn't just the contract itself, but it was the impact it had on their business. So they went from struggling to thriving. And for myself, being part of that transformation was incredibly fulfilling. I still have that note somewhere in one of my success jars, but it reinforced my belief that every small business deserves a shot at success.Every business deserves a shot at success.
When we get it, we're going to remember those big wins, but always celebrate the small wins as well. All right.So let's talk about the key takeaways from today's episode. A quick recap. Number one, make sure you do your thorough research. Understand your client's needs and tailor your response accordingly. That is how you're going to get their attention. Number two, embrace setbacks. Use challenges as an opportunity for innovation and growth and process improvement. Number three, leverage networking. Whether it's going to a bidders conference or going to a procurement event, anywhere that you can start building relationships and then stay open to unexpected collaborations. And then last but not least, celebrate your triumphs, recognize the impact your work has on your client success, and celebrate all the small wins along the way.
And if you have those setbacks and you get those lessons learned, you should celebrate those lessons that you learned. All right, everybody, as we wrap up today's episode, remember that every experience, good or bad, contributes to your journey in the RFP world. Embrace the lessons, share your stories, and keep pushing forward. Thank you for tuning into the RFP Success Show. We're so excited to be back. If you found value in today's episode, please share it with your network and leave a review. Your support helps us reach more small business owners who RFP landscape. So until next time, keep striving for success and remember that every proposal is a new opportunity waiting to be seized.
Outro:
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