Requests for proposals (RFPs) generate a whopping common of 35% of annual gross sales income, in accordance with Loopio’s RFP Response Benchmarks and Developments Report.

The analysis, which surveyed 650+ groups, discovered that regardless of financial uncertainty over the previous 12 months, RFPs will proceed to be an integral a part of gross sales progress. Nevertheless, maintaining with RFPs is usually a problem at one of the best of occasions. Busy technical consultants, tight deadlines, and difficult approval processes can all throw a wrench within the gross sales cycle.

6 methods to rework RFPs into alternatives

So how can gross sales groups concentrate on rushing up their response course of whereas nonetheless growing income for the 12 months forward?

Carry on studying for the six greatest practices gross sales groups can implement to rework these pesky RFPs from impediment to alternative in 2022, based mostly on behaviors of top-performing groups uncovered from Loopio’s analysis.

1. Designate an RFP lead

In terms of responding to RFPs, it’s all about constructing efficiencies in your course of, which ought to start earlier than you obtain a request. Analysis reveals that prime performers have a delegated RFP staff or gross sales staff member(s) proudly owning the response course of.

 

When the RFP course of is owned by a devoted particular person or staff, the info reveals that stress ranges lower compared to these with advert hoc possession.

However do stress ranges really impression efficiency? The reply is sure. Groups with extra manageable stress ranges have 5% increased response charges (that means they will reply to extra RFPs yearly) and 10% increased win charges than different groups. Principally, a delegated RFP lead helps gross sales groups reply to extra RFPs, quicker.

Be sure that your staff has somebody monitoring and proudly owning RFP tasks so that they don’t get off observe or forgotten, whether or not that’s a selected staff member on the firm or a salesman that includes this accountability into their position.

2. Be proactive, not reactive

An essential lesson to recollect: your response course of shouldn’t begin if you obtain an RFP. Whether or not you’re making a brand new connection, or have a relationship with an current buyer, chances are high that they’ve dropped a touch or two about an upcoming RFP.

Take a second to proactively notify your staff a couple of potential RFP on the horizon. It should present a chance on your staff to make room of their schedules for this challenge and contemplate key themes wanted to win the bid.

In case your staff doesn’t have an ordinary manner of taking up RFPs, attempt making a easy consumption type to proactively handle the upcoming work.

Right here’s what to incorporate in an RFP consumption type:

• Firm identify
• Gross sales routing data (geographic area, vertical, and firm dimension)
• Format for responding to the gross sales request (web-based portal, Excel spreadsheet, or Phrase doc)
• Due date
• Prospect’s wants and potential key themes (i.e. themes that differentiate your organization from opponents)

3. Be selective about which RFPs are price responding to

Responding to the next share of bids isn’t a straight shot to success. The common RFP has 115 questions and takes 23 hours of writing time to finish, so it’s merely not in your greatest curiosity to spend this sort of time on bids that aren’t more likely to win.

So how do you have to assess if an RFP is price responding to? It’s all about buyer match. Seventy-two p.c of top-performing RFP groups (those that win greater than 51% of their bids) use a go/no-go determination template to find out which RFPs to tackle.

By implementing an efficient decision-making course of up entrance, you possibly can concentrate on high quality alternatives that take advantage of sense for your online business. Plus, a streamlined and environment friendly course of will unencumber extra time to concentrate on what issues most—closing offers and hitting targets.

Creating a scoring system will assist your staff shortly resolve which RFPs to tackle. Loopio’s free go/no-go determination template is a superb place to begin. It covers the principle elements gross sales groups ought to contemplate when evaluating the chance to win an RFP.

4. Automate your response course of

The precise software program might help gross sales groups put together a primary draft RFP in minutes as an alternative of hours. In actual fact, analysis reveals that groups utilizing devoted RFP response software program submit a median of 43 extra RFPs yearly, compared to those that don’t have software program.

RFP software program automates tedious components of the response course of by way of good libraries that auto-detect and autofill solutions to questions based mostly on previous responses. It additionally helps centralize tasks in a single spot for higher collaboration and to eradicate model management points.

No shock: 69% of top-performing RFP groups use response software program to streamline their course of. Most likely as a result of software program was additionally discovered to result in higher proposal high quality and improved effectivity, each of which tie to increased win charges. However there’s an essential qualitative profit, too: workers at organizations utilizing RFP software program are 11% extra more likely to say that their staff has manageable stress ranges.

Right here’s methods to inform in case your staff may benefit from an RFP resolution:

• Do you reply a couple of RFP or safety questionnaire every month?
• Do you contain 5 or extra contributors in every RFP? (Don’t overlook to rely authorized, safety, and exec approvals.)
• How usually do you reply repetitive questions in your RFPs? (Is it 40% or increased?)

Should you answered sure to the questions above, your staff would possible profit from utilizing RFP automation.

5. Create an RFP content material library

When requested what their prime challenges within the RFP course of had been, the commonest points respondents cited had been discovering correct solutions to questions shortly, collaborating with inner material consultants (SMEs), and choosing the proper solutions from a bunch of potential solutions. When pondering by way of actions their firm might win extra RFPs in 2021, 27% of groups steered improving how they retailer and search their RFP content material.

Having a centralized library of correct, pre-approved, and up-to-date gross sales content material that’s simple on your gross sales staff to entry and search is usually a severe game-changer. A content material library allows your staff to prepare essentially the most reusable and related content material in a manner that’s simple for different staff members to search out at any time when they want it for a proposal, electronic mail, or gross sales name.

Constructing a library of RFP content material is best by way of a devoted RFP response software program resolution, however Microsoft 365’s SharePoint or a shared Google Drive folder may also work as a short lived resolution.

Rising the library will take time, however the effort shall be price it. Ultimately, you and your staff can use this library of inner experience to shortly pull collectively a tough draft for a proposal. Then, you’ll merely simply recruit your SMEs for gentle critiques and fact-checking of the ultimate bid.

Begin by including solutions out of your 5 to 10 most up-to-date proposals since these solutions would be the freshest. Then, any time you full a brand new RFP, add the brand new solutions to your library.

6. Construct a giant bench of consultants to enhance proposals

The saying may be that too many cooks spoil the stew, however that’s not the case in terms of RFPs. In actual fact, it’s really the alternative. Analysis reveals that best-in-class RFP groups contain a median of 10 contributors.

Extra collaboration signifies that proposals usually tend to embrace data from throughout a corporation, which improves total proposal high quality and your possibilities of profitable.

It’s essential to remember the fact that contributor numbers change with firm dimension.

Though extra collaborators are confirmed to result in increased win charges, it’s not with out its challenges. When requested what actions their firm ought to take to win extra RFPs in 2021, the highest motion respondents selected (29%) was requiring inner SMEs to reply requests in a extra well timed style.

Some methods your staff can fight this potential roadblock and enhance collaboration embrace:

Enhance your staff’s communication

Use instruments to create a suggestions loop about RFPs with groups, like a devoted Slack channel. This manner, staff members are simply notified every time they discover an RFP reply is outdated, or lacking data that might allow you to win sooner or later (sharing aggressive intel on this channel is vital). Bonus factors in the event that they’re built-in with instruments your gross sales staff already makes use of.

Enlist the assistance of your SMEs forward of time

When an RFP is coming, you should definitely put together your SMEs prematurely and clearly talk essential deadlines. Internet hosting a kickoff name may be an efficient strategy to get all stakeholders to agree on the timeline and their stage of participation.

Schedule common content material critiques each quarter

A content material library of contemporary and up-to-date content material is what’ll allow you to reply to RFPs shortly, with far much less effort. Plus, the content material received’t want as many updates and also you’ll keep away from forwards and backwards communication if you’re right down to the wire on a deadline.