Why You Should Lose an RFP on Purpose

What’s worse than the grind of RFPs? Losing 95% of them—and still doing more! Sometimes the key to closing sales isn’t winning… it’s about stalling, creating buzz, and building credibility for the next buy cycle. This approach will change the way you think about RFP strategy.

Don't forget to check out last week's top tip: No New Features: Expanding Value!

For more strategies like this, check out my sales tip video library on YouTube...

If you prefer to read - here is the transcript:

RFPs. What do we do about them? You know, a couple weeks ago, I was in a workshop with a client and we talked about RFPs.

People talked about kind of what a waste of time they were, but that they had to do them. And so I asked, well, what percentage of those do you win when you get a random RFP from someone you didn't know? What percentage of them do you win? And they said, I don't know, maybe 5%. And the owner of the business was like, yeah, less than 5%. Well come on, I had to ask, why are you doing them. Well, you know, you never you know, you might one day win. Okay, I get that in it to win it. But 5%?

My goodness, that is an unprofitable venture. So let's talk about an alternative way. You get an RFP that you didn't know what was coming. It's not with an existing customer. Number one I recommend of course you try to talk to people. Can you get more information?

Often you can't. So the backup plan is to submit an unsolicited proposal. You don't have to submit a proposal in the format of the RFP. I've had clients who do things like create an entirely different pricing matrix to show value.

They add, a value calculators or best in class calculators, in the front end, again, to show value in a format that's not part of the RFP. Now, when you're doing that, you do it not necessarily to win, although that would be nice. Sometimes you're doing it to stall.

A few of my clients that have tried this have found that it puts the RFP on hold and allows them the chance to open up questions. But worst case, you're really looking to lose the RFP. I know that sounds crazy. Do something to lose. Well, I'm going to suggest that you submit this unsolicited proposal. It's low effort to you, so you're not filling out all the bells and whistles in the spreadsheet, in order to lose the business but to open a dialog.

This is playing the long game. And then over the whole next year, you're going to use that time to meet as many stakeholders, as many decision makers, as many users, as many people of influence, outsiders or advisors that are going to have a say in how that company makes a decision for their RFP the following year. You're going to spend a year building credibility, building rapport, and building trust so that when and if that customer goes to tender the next year, you have the inside track.