Successful transport RFP response teams – Part 2

Why are certain bid response teams more successful then others? What do these teams do to get a higher success rate than others? We identified 10 things that successful response teams do to win more business. In this series of two articles we share some of our observations about the characteristics that successful transport RFP response teams have.  In this second article we review the remaining 5.

Getting invited to respond to a transport RFP can bring pressure to a sales team. Pressure to deliver a competitive proposal in a short period. Many RFP response teams have been burning the midnight oil to get their responses out on time. All this hard work does not bring a guarantee to win the business though. And is that not what it is all about, winning the (new) business and have a high success rate?

 

So, why are some RFP response teams more successful than others? What traits do they have that give them a higher success rate? Having a successful RFP response team means your business can grow and become more profitable. Based on our experience we will share some of our observations on how the success rate of tender responses can be increased.  Here are the remaining 5 of their top 10 traits:

6) Don’t overpromise or under deliver

No one wants to start off a new business relationship on the wrong foot, by failing to deliver on promises made during the RFP process. The biggest question a Tender Manager may have after he awarded the business is: “did I make the right choice”? A Tender Manager may also see a new vendor as a potential risk and not necessarily only as a nice new relationship to explore further.

RFP response teams that understand the number one concern of a Tender Manager, ensure that people from the operations team are involved before a response goes out to the bid initiator. The response team reviews the proposal upfront with operations to understand if their proposal can be implemented successfully. When this is done, this should be made clear in the submission as well. It shows the Tender Manager that you have taken into account his concern about risk and that you can mitigate this.

 

7) Talk in benefits

Successful RFP response teams understand that the bidding party is mostly interested in understanding what is in it for them. So, what you’re going to do for them, how you are going to deliver those results and what will be the benefit for them. You need to make clear you have a full understanding of their requirements and talk about benefits, instead of talking about your features.

 

8) Demonstrate success

Success stories make great stories. Everybody wants to join a winning team, so tell your prospective client what is so great about joining your winning team. Professional RFP response teams list any great ‘claims to fame’, if you have any. Doing this proves that your company has ‘been in the trenches’ and suggests to them that they can also get results from you.

Pro-actively list your results, giving a brief description of the project, industry and the results which you have achieved. Also present real live KPI’s as proof and offer references.

 

9) Make response documents look extremely professional

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. How you present your proposal directly affects how your company is perceived. A professional presentation makes you look professional. A poor presentation makes you look inadequate.

Many people are ‘visual’ and they need to see things in a graphical format, so that they can understand how it works. Winning RFP response teams make extensive use of graphs, a graph says more than words. Also include some flow charts so your prospective client knows how your business and processes work.

Include action plans as well. Your prospective clients will know what to expect and when to expect it. Offer plans for multiple scenarios so that it is clear you are ready for every eventuality.

Ensure your document always contains at least an executive summary, contact details and a table of contents. Furthermore deliver your presentation in PDF format rather than DOC format. PDF format ensures the layout stays fixed despite the settings of individual PC’s.

To sum it up, make a document that your team can be proud of and does their efforts justice.

 

10) Evaluation cycle

For a professional RFP response team a bid process does not end at the submission of the proposal. The process needs to come full cycle through an evaluation process. Every tender response needs to be reviewed in detail. You need to get as much feedback from the client as you can on what they liked and did not like about your proposal.

The response evaluation step is part of the continuous improvement process of your RFP response team. It brings out best practices and creates success formulas for next responses. A team learns something from every tender. The evaluation process teaches a team where they are strong and where they need to improve. The lessons learnt need to be shared with the rest of the organization. This will bring the service offering as a whole to a higher level and improves the success rate on winning RFP’s.

We hope that many people who read these two articles think “we already do this”. If this is the case, great, you are probably on the right track. A good RFP response can give you the edge to win a tender - a poor RFP response will make sure you will not win the business.