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How to improve your RFP response process in 5 simple steps

How to improve your RFP response process in 5 simple steps

Selling & Enablement

Let’s start with the good news: You have an RFP response process. You’d be surprised to know how many companies […]

Category: Selling & Enablement

How to improve your RFP response process in 5 simple steps

How to improve your RFP response process in 5 simple steps

Selling & Enablement

Let’s start with the good news: You have an RFP response process. You’d be surprised to know how many companies don’t even have that. If you don’t have a process yet, then I recommend reading How to create an RFP response process as well.

Now the bad news: It needs work. I can help. Let’s look at how to improve your RFP response process.

blog

Guide: How to Build and Use an RFP Response Template

Discover how to build better RFP response templates and get tips and insights on improving your RFP response process.

Get the guide

First, take inventory: How are RFPs viewed within your organization?

Before you improve, take a look at what you have and why. Does your organization view RFPs as a strategic revenue stream or a box to be checked? If the latter, are executive sponsors in place to help you lead the process change?

Change management is real. If past attempts to prioritize RFPs in the sales process were mishandled, then you may still be feeling the pain. If this will be your first sales process change as it pertains to RFPs, then how it’s managed will be just as important as what is implemented.

One advantage of improving your RFP response process now is that salespeople and customers are more open to change than they may have been prior to the pandemic. As people quickly adapted to a “new normal,” Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, said, “We saw two years of digital transformation in two months.”

However, if you’re like most organizations, the change will need to take place while maintaining current staff levels. According to our 2021 Benchmark Report: Proposal Management, 75% of organizations plan to respond to more RFPs in 2021, but only 37% of organizations plan to hire more RFP response staff.

5 steps to improving your RFP response process

  1. Only chase RFPs you can win
  2. Focus on content
  3. Set clear definitions of roles and responsibilities
  4. Get to know your resources
  5. Rinse & repeat

Perfection is unattainable. There’s always room for improvement. I’ve seen organizations improve their RFP response process and see big gains within a year. One 2-person team successfully responded to 16 RFPs that were stacked on top of each other a year after having to push back on the same expectation. Hopefully these tips will help you attain the same kind of results.

Step 1: Only chase RFPs you can win

One of the best ways to make your RFP response process more effective is to stop wasting time on unqualified RFPs. Do this by setting up a qualification step or a go/no-go decision. Consider the following during this step:

  • What was your level of involvement prior to the RFP being issued? RFPs are not the optimal time for cold calls. Odds are definitely better when you’ve been invited to respond to an RFP because sales or presales has developed a relationship with the prospect or you already responded to a request for information (RFI) or the prospect has done extensive research on you and your competitors.
  • Is your solution a fit? At minimum, it needs to meet the mandatory requirements. Everyone’s agile. Everyone’s flexible. Issuers already know that. You need to be able to prove that you have a battle-tested solution. If proof isn’t required in the RFP, then it will be at onboarding or implementation. RFPs fall into the category of “under promise, over deliver”; doing the opposite will sabotage future support, renewal, and upgrade efforts.
  • Does your price match the prospect’s budget? Of course there’s give and take when considering the opportunity and what it means to your business now and in the future. Nevertheless, the issuer will expect your solution to come with everything promised in your response. Whatever the cost to deliver on expectations, make sure you’re being fair to your prospect, your product, and your team responsible for supporting those expectations.
  • Is it a strategic fit? RFPs take a lot of time and effort, but not nearly as much time and effort as onboarding and supporting a customer that doesn’t fit your business or product development strategy. There are few things more frustrating than submitting and winning an RFP only to find out that you cannot follow through because it’s not a strategic fit for you or the issuer.
  • Do you have bandwidth? Too often, this consideration gets pushed to the side. It’s especially important if you’re responding to unqualified bids! It’s completely understandable to want to respond to more RFPs (we found that 72% of companies plan to respond to more RFPs in 2021 than they did in 2020). But don’t do it at the expense of response quality or your proposal team’s, sales team’s, and subject matter experts’ valuable time.

Step 2: Focus on content

Are you working from a content library, or are you still chasing down content ad-hoc? If you have a content library, make sure it’s up to date and that content is clean and reusable. Develop content so that it has the flexibility to either be easily customized or used in its generic form. It should all have a consistent voice to reduce editing and review time on the back end.

Your content library also needs to have an organizational structure that helps with searching. With RFP software such as RFPIO, you can use tags, collections, and custom fields. It might help to organize content to match the structure of the RFPs you receive. What sections do you always see? Sections common in many RFPs are:

  • Company overview
  • Training & implementation
  • Security
  • Software/Functional/Technical
  • Biographies
  • Case Studies

If you’re not using RFP software, organizing your files and documents this way will help reduce the need to chase down content for every new RFP.

Step 3: Set clear definitions of roles and responsibilities

Have a project plan that emphasizes expectations. Someone has to own it and drive it to hold team members accountable to deadlines. If you don’t have a full-time proposal manager in place, then you’d be hard-pressed to find a better reason to hire one than to improve and own your RFP response process.

Initiate a kickoff meeting for every response to discuss strategy and expectations with the entire response team. Surface scheduling conflicts, content gap concerns, or issues with deadlines to avoid surprises. Find a way to get visibility over the whole process.

Step 4: Get to know your resources

The better you know your resources, the better you are at going to the right person at the right time. Establish their preferred communication channel and respect it. RFPIO has integrations with several channels to make it easier, including email, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts, and Jira. Maybe you have an SME who hates writing. Call him up and have him talk out the answer, then you write it out. Putting in the legwork to build relationships with your resources will pay off at crunch time.

Step 5: Rinse & repeat

Any improvements need to be repeatable. For example, if you bring in a contract proposal manager for a response, then be prepared to do so every time. This is a process you will cycle through for every RFP. If it works as well as it should, then you may want to carry the process over to other responses, such as security questionnaires or due diligence questionnaires (DDQs).

benchmark-blog-report

The 2021 Benchmark Report: Proposal Management

Learn about the state of proposal management, and see what teams need to do to be successful in 2021

Read the report

8-step RFP response process

  • Qualify RFP: Insert a go/no-go evaluation at the beginning of the RFP response process. Sales will be the loudest voice, but proposal teams, SMEs, and executive sponsors will need to weigh in to evaluate risk, timing, and strategic fit.
  • Kick-off project: Provide clarity and accountability to the full response management team, including strategic objectives that everyone can work toward.
  • 1st response: Make an initial response pass based on reusable content. This step is much faster with RFP software.
  • 2nd response: Tap into resources for new questions, and assign segments that require customization to respective SMEs.
  • Review & revise: Conduct internal reviews to ensure a high-quality proposal. Link review requests to specific purposes (i.e., Are strategic objectives met? Are responses accurate and high quality? Did we fully answer the question?)
  • Submit: Deliver polished RFP with reviewed supporting materials. Follow up to confirm receipt. Keep internal stakeholders abreast of progress.
  • Save & audit: Save finalized responses in a centralized location and commit to regular content audits.
  • Post-mortem: Winning doesn’t always mean content was perfect. Losing doesn’t mean it was a bad response. Evaluate what worked and what didn’t.
    Bonus step: Get a good set of tools

RFP process and steps

Bonus step: Get a good set of tools

RFPs are becoming more complex. As technology has evolved, expectations have risen. With the capacity to answer more questions, issuers want to ask more questions.

In the past, RFPs were issued with the issuer not knowing if a solution even existed, let alone the company that could provide it. Now there’s a lot of research done online. Typically, there are multiple touchpoints with a prospective solution provider before an RFP is even issued.

In 2021, companies that use RFP-specific software responded to 43% more RFPs than those who use other solutions or techniques. They were also 25% more likely to agree that their processes are streamlined enough to make time to tailor their proposals to the issuers’ specific use-cases.

RFP software can contain and drive your response process. In RFPIO’s case, AI-enabled automation and collaboration begin at intake and carry all the way through to your postmortem.

For those increasingly popular but sometimes maddening online response portals, RFPIO® LookUp can help. The theory behind online portals is that they make RFPs easier. For the issuers, maybe. But not for responders. Even though you can have as many proposal team members respond as you want, there’s no visibility. If multiple responders are updating and changing answers then version and quality control are at risk. RFPIO® LookUp lets you work directly from your Content Library to fill out the online portal without having to leave your browser.

I hope this helps you formulate your next steps for improving your RFP response process. Eventually, you’ll be able to respond to more RFPs or improve the quality of your proposals, or both! You’ll also have a transparent, repeatable process that your proposal team and organization as a whole can rely on to push RFPs as a strategic revenue stream. Schedule a demo of RFPIO to see if it’s the process improvement driver you’ve been looking for.

RFP 101: Request for proposal basics

RFP 101: Request for proposal basics

Selling & Enablement

If you’re new to the proposal or bid process, then you’ll need the request for proposal (RFP) basics. Even though, like all business processes, the request for proposal process has changed over the years, many of the basics have held true.

This article will brief you on what you need to know about requests for proposals so you’ll be ready to take on the response process with aplomb.

What does RFP stand for?

RFP stands for request for proposal. As a remnant of government contracting processes, it’s no wonder “RFP” is more popular as an acronym. After all, in byzantine bureaucratic processes, responding to an RFP from the DoD is the only way to share your KSP with a VIP who prefers to keep their ID on the QT until they determine ROI. And this all started before texting and social media! LOL!

Why do RFPs exist?

Organizations and agencies issue RFPs as part of their vendor selection process. It’s an attempt to create parameters that enable apples-to-apples comparisons of solutions to a particular problem.

Outside of the United States, RFPs are also known as tenders. Instead of “issuing an RFP,” organizations “run a tender.” Instead of “responding” to an RFP, vendors “bid” on a tender.

Other RFP-related terms

To learn more about common RFP-related terms, you have 3 options. One, check out the quick definitions below (it’ll take less than a minute). Two, read my new screenplay for the short film, “Once Upon a Time in an RFP Process,” later in this article (it’ll take you 3-5 minutes). Three, do both! Note: If you are an artist who can help me storyboard the movie, let’s talk (think low-budget, though).

Proposal
The proposal is your response to an RFP. If an organization or agency asks, “How can I solve X?” in an RFP, then your proposal is the answer: “I propose this solution to X.” Like Dr. Barbay’s single question for Thornton Melon’s academic evaluation that ended up having 27 parts, your RFP proposal can be hundreds, if not thousands of pages long.

RFP Executive Summary
The RFP executive summary sets the tone of the proposal. It’s usually written first, by the salesperson in charge of the relationship. It will summarize the highlights of your proposal. There are occasions when it will be the only part of your proposal that some of the issuing stakeholders will review.

RFI: Request for Information
RFIs, or requests for information, are more casual than a request for quote and more generic than an RFP, RFIs are either a fishing expedition or a clarification exercise.

RFQ: Request for Quote
When someone issues an RFQ, or request for quote, they want you to tell them how much your product or service will cost. Lowest price definitely does not always win. This is an opportunity to illustrate everything included in your offering as well as prospective ROI.

DDQ: Due Diligence Questionnaire
DDQs, or due diligence questionnaires—not to be confused with a security questionnaire (see below)—are all about compliance. You might see one as part of the RFP process, but it’s also likely you’ll be filling these out throughout your partnership with the issuer. With increasing scrutiny on data security and privacy, you may be filling them out more often, too.

Security Questionnaire
This will be one or more standardized questionnaires designed to assess risk of taking you on as a vendor. Popular questionnaires include SIG, SIG-Lite, VSAQ, CAIQ, and more.

When to use an RFP

Say you’re an enterprise or government agency. Through research and experience, you’ve identified five possible vendors that may be able to help solve a particular problem. Now you can issue an RFP to gather everything you need to know about the solution, its cost, and its impact on your operations after selecting a vendor. The level of complexity, number of questions, and deadline will vary greatly depending on your industry and the sophistication of the solution.

When to respond to an RFP

There are several factors to consider when determining whether or not to respond to an RFP. We recommend that your standard RFP intake process include a go/no-go step. Only respond to RFPs that you can win:

  • Is the RFP the right fit for your organization and solution?
  • Do you have a comprehensive solution that addresses all of the challenges presented in the request?
  • Does your pricing match the budget?
  • Do you have an existing or prior relationship with the issuing organization?
  • Do you have any insight into why the RFP has been issued?
  • Can you meet the submission deadline?

When to use RFP software

If you’re responding to a couple of RFPs, a few security questionnaires, and spend most of your time sending out direct responses to RFQs, then RFP software may not be the best fit.

RFP software falls into a new category of software known as response management. Response management software’s primary value is efficiency. How you repurpose time saved will determine much of your success. Some organizations seek to respond to more RFPs, others seek to improve response quality. Most want both.

If you think RFP software and its automation capabilities would help, then it’s important to consider your entire response universe when selecting a vendor. For example, do you only want help responding to RFPs? Or do you want to automate responses to security questionnaires and DDQs, too?

What about proactive proposals? Do your sales, presales, and support teams want a better way to respond to prospects and customers?

RFPs are sales vehicles, and how your organization responds is a sales support function. The response management solution you choose will be determined by how much sales support you want to offer.

Sometimes you wonder if life is a movie…

Me, too! So if you had to break down RFP basics into a scene in your life’s movie it might look like…

“Once Upon a Time in an RFP Process”

By Sue Donim

[LOCATION: HOME OFFICE OF “KEYES,” THE SALES MANAGER/PROPOSAL MANAGER/MARKETING MANAGER HERO. KEYES LOGS ONTO A VIDEO CONFERENCE WITH “BOSS.”]

KEYES: Hi, Boss. Nice virtual background. That’s the most artistic rendering of taxidermy I’ve seen in some time.

BOSS: Cut to the chase, Keyes. I’ve grown weary of these online meetings. Unless you have a solution to our revenue and inefficiency challenges, I’d rather you send me an email.

KEYES: You’re in luck, sir. It just so happens that’s why I requested this meeting.

BOSS: That’s what I like about you, Keyes. Always presenting answers instead of complaining about problems. Proceed.

KEYES: We can increase revenue by streamlining our RFP process.

BOSS: Brilliant! I like it…no, I love it! Let’s start immediately. Now…

What is an RFP again?

KEYES: An RFP is a Request for Proposal…when a company needs services and products like ours, they issue an RFP to identify the optimal vendor.

BOSS: Sounds like a no-brainer. Why haven’t we been doing this the whole time?

KEYES: We have responded to RFPs in the past, but it’s not exactly a turnkey process…yet. RFPs can be thousands of pages about pricing, functionality, technology, security, company basics, competitive differentiators, and more. Responding puts a strain on our subject matter experts, sales teams, and anyone else who needs to carve out extra time to help with the process.

BOSS: That doesn’t sound efficient at all.

KEYES: Well, then you have to take into consideration RFIs and RFQs, too.

BOSS: Enough with the acronyms, Keyes.

What’s an RFI? What’s an RFQ?

KEYES: Sorry, Boss. Request for Information and Request for Quote. RFIs tend to appear early in the vendor-selection process. Companies issue them to find out if any vendors can help them solve a particular problem. They’re more generic and open-ended and would likely be used to craft a more targeted RFP. RFQs usually show up later in the vendor selection process, usually after we’ve submitted an RFP. This is when the company wants to know specifics on how much our solution will cost.

BOSS: RFPs, RFIs, RFQs… anything else I should know about? Wait, what’s that?!

How to write executive summary
KEYES: Good eye, Boss. That’s a cheat sheet on writing an executive summary. The executive summary is high-level content that covers the issuer’s challenges and demonstrates how our products and services will help.

BOSS: Sounds like a cover letter.

KEYES: That’s a common misconception, Boss. The executive summary is different from the cover letter. In an executive summary, we provide an executive-level summary of how our solution fixes their problem. In a cover letter, we talk about how great we are.

BOSS: I’m better at that than most.

KEYES: Of course you are.

BOSS: And what do our RFP-winning executive summaries look like?

KEYES: I’ll let you know when we win one.

BOSS: I was afraid you were going to say that.

KEYES: Don’t get discouraged, Boss. I have a plan to turn it around. The right RFP automation software will help us write RFP-winning executive summaries. Just like it will help with DDQs and security questionnaires.

BOSS: What did I just say about acronyms?

What’s a DDQ?

KEYES: Sorry. Last one. The DDQ is the Due Diligence Questionnaire. It’s usually one of the last stages of the response process. In fact, it may come after we’ve already been selected, when the company is doing their final due diligence. It typically involves a few hyper-specific points as part of their standard vendor onboarding protocol.

BOSS: And how is that different from a security questionnaire? In fact….

What even is a security questionnaire?

KEYES: Great question, Boss. Privacy is a hot button, and any company we work with wants to make sure we meet their privacy standards. Security questionnaires generally deal with privacy issues such as compliance, infrastructure security, and data protection. Depending on the company, this questionnaire can be a few hundred or a few thousand questions.

BOSS: Yowza. How long does it take to complete that?

KEYES: Weeks, if we don’t have a response process in place.

BOSS: Excellent. Let’s get it implemented. I’m putting you in charge of it, Keyes.

KEYES: I think that’s a good call, Boss. We’ll start with the 8-step RFP response process.

[CUT TO GRAPHIC OF 8-STEP RFP RESPONSE PROCESS]

RFP process and steps

BOSS: Looks like I put the right person in charge. You have all the answers, Keyes.

KEYES: Speaking of answers, that reminds of something else that’s essential to a smooth-running RFP process machine.

BOSS: Yes, yes, that’s why I brought it up. What’s on your mind?

KEYES: The Content Library, Boss. It’s the secret to more efficient RFP content management. It’s what makes massive questionnaires answerable in a few clicks. It’s where content is marketing-approved and always ready to share. And if it’s intelligent—as it should be—it’s able to make recommendations along the way so that we can easily customize every RFP response. Plus, once a subject matter expert answers a question it stays in the library forever. From then on, they can take a reviewer role, saving them time and keeping them focused on their primary job duties.

BOSS: That’s it! You’re the winner, Keyes! Best video conference of the day.

KEYES: Thank you, Boss.

BOSS: No, thank YOU! Now, how do we get started. Will you—dare I ask—issue an RFP? Ha!

KEYES: Good one, sir, but no. I already have someone in mind.

[FADE OUT OF VIDEO CONFERENCE CALL AUDIO. ZOOM OUT TO SEE THE BACK OF KEYES. CUT TO BLACK. ROLL CREDITS]

[END]

How is your RFP process performing? Schedule a demo to see how RFPIO can help transform your RFP period piece into an action-packed RFP-process blockbuster.

Why you need a growth mindset and more time to learn

Why you need a growth mindset and more time to learn

People & Teams, Selling & Enablement

Whether your purview is proposals, products, relationships, or processes, business life cycles continue to accelerate at a breakneck pace. It’s extremely exciting. Heightened levels of technology, innovation and disruption create new markets and revenue opportunities seemingly out of nowhere. Alas, in all of our hustle and bustle to keep up, it’s all too easy to sideline time for personal growth. Unfortunately, if we continue to do so, we risk losing what makes us all so valuable as workers, executives and entrepreneurs: ourselves. 

According to a survey conducted by Professor Boris Groysberg of Harvard Business School, many executives estimate that 20% of their skills become obsolete annually. That estimate is twice what it was ten years ago. Thanks a lot, technology. And email. And meetings. And Zoom. And ends of quarters. And my underlings. And my overlings. And my family. And Hugo (my dog). Work and life consume time faster than we think. Sometimes our drive to succeed can cause us to forget to pull over for gas. We need to make time for rest… and growth.

You grow some. You learn some.

I first heard of two types of mindsets by reading psychologist Carol Dweck. Permit me to oversimplify by saying that a fixed mindset is afraid of making mistakes, which results in shying away from challenges and new experiences. A growth mindset embraces mistakes and failure as the gateway to learning and discovery. It makes learning, not perfection, the goal. 

Take the microsite of a marketing campaign, for example. A fixed mindset wants to build the site with X amount of pages, Y functionality, and Z videos, graphics, and interactivity. Until the site checks every item on the XYZ list–which was likely composed by disparate stakeholders concerned only with how their product is presented–then developers will continue to try to hit an unrealistic target. This binary thinking that seeks black and white answers in a grey world hampers growth, sabotages innovation, and stifles creativity.

A growth mindset goes live with an MVP: minimum viable product. Get the basic design up and running, then let marketing do its work. Analyze heat maps. See where people are clicking and where they’re getting stuck. Dig into site visits and behavior to find areas to optimize. Let sales work its magic. Invite customers to give their input. Keep what works. Rejigger what doesn’t, or rethink whether you need it at all. Build and learn and you’ll find that the website looks and performs much different than the original XYZ design. It also provides flexibility to solve those disparity challenges that submarined the fixed mindset XYZ approach.

Be afraid of fear

Step one: eliminate fear. Failure is nothing to be afraid of. Ask Michael Jordan. He said, “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

A great place to start is by asking why. Pause and ask questions before making a decision. Before leaping to a “yes/no,” “good/bad,” or “right/wrong” answer, seek more information. Ask why a lot. Why were decisions made? Why did we lose? Why did we win? Why are we at this juncture? Why is this relevant now? Why am I still giving you examples of “why” questions? (Just checking to see if you’re still reading.)

Your ultimate goal is to be eager to fail because that’s an opportunity to learn. To get there, you only need one thing: time. Not as easy as it sounds.

Time management is a huge part of inhabiting the growth mindset. Build time in your schedule for learning. If you can’t do it every day, then do it every week. Make sure every direct report does the same. Learning time is too easy to sacrifice. No, it’s not client facing. No, it’s not problem solving. No, it’s not filling out your TPS reports. It’s more important than all of those because of math (everything always boils down to math). If 20% of skills become obsolete every year, then in five years without learning, what skills are left? Failure doesn’t sound so scary now, right? 

You cannot squeeze creativity out of people. Creativity needs space. Virtual environments can be tough because we’re cramming more into the day and not taking the time to walk with colleagues for coffee or lunch or…walks. You need rest and breathing space built into the day and its deadlines. 

Fear’s gone. Now what?

Feed the mindset. If learning and growth are not encouraged, then they might as well be prohibited. Every organization needs to set its own growth mindset parameters. For some, it may involve formal accreditation and advancement. “We’ll pay for you to get your MBA so you can become a VP.” In others, it may involve encouragement by leadership to add DNB (do not block) into your schedule. Find conferences, courses, podcasts, and whatever and block off time to do it. Don’t do yourself the disservice of multi-tasking while doing it.

At RFPIO, we take the growth mindset to heart. RFPIO is a place to manage company knowledge, after all. Why not manage your growth mindset knowledge on it? It’s a place where you can learn about the company, the story, the product, the mission, and the solutions. It breaks down silos between individuals, teams, and departments, by democratizing knowledge across organizations—making it easy to sharpen your skills and expand your knowledge.

If you’re looking for inspiration on how to keep growing, then I also recommend joining our user conference this year. It’s January 27-28. It’s virtual. It’s your chance to Realize Imagine Scale Expand and Unlock Potential (RISE UP). And it’s going to be fantastic.

Unlocking your team’s potential is affording them the freedom to learn and fail. If we don’t fail, then we’re not trying hard enough. It takes trust and acceptance in learning. There’s more than one way to do things. Identify where you’re going and educate yourself how to get there. Most importantly, make time for what matters most. 

Sometimes it’s work. Sometimes it’s family. Sometimes it’s peace. Right now it’s Hugo. Time for a walk.

You need RFP software. Here’s how to convince your boss.

You need RFP software. Here’s how to convince your boss.

Selling & Enablement

The first question will be, “Why do we need it?”

Tell your boss, “Because we can’t afford to gamble our relationships, and our contacts cannot afford to gamble on us.”

Now let’s crack open this fortune cookie and unpack its meaning.

In sales, relationships are everything. Many companies won’t even respond to an RFP if they don’t have relationships established with the RFP-issuing group. Sales professionals protect these relationships like they’re hoards of treasure. Much time and effort is put into cultivating them.

However, the art of the deal has changed over the many years I’ve been in the proposal game. The deal that used to be made via handshake with a high-powered decision-maker now has to be vetted by multiple stakeholders. A single decision-maker won’t gamble their career on selecting a vendor anymore—no matter how strong a relationship exists.

In a highly competitive RFP, multiple prospective vendors will have strong relationships within the RFP-issuing organization. You as a sales organization don’t want to gamble your hard-earned relationship by underperforming at the proposal stage and losing the deal.

In the modern sales landscape, your relationships plus a high-quality proposal will give you the best chance to win the deal. RFP software helps you create proposals that eliminate your contacts’ need to “gamble.”

Now that you’ve explained why you need RFP software, answer these three questions to close the RFP software deal with your boss:

  1. Which of our corporate initiatives does this investment support?
  2. What is the ROI and over what time period?
  3. Why do it now?

Build on these 4 initiatives

Find a way to align RFP software to a stated business imperative. Anything relating to revenue or margin impact is good thing, like the following:

Proposal value isn’t always obvious to an organization’s stakeholders. Aligning it with your business imperatives makes it harder for stakeholders to ignore the fact that response management is an essential cog in your sales lifecycle.

Cut to the chase: ROI in less than 2 months*

One of our more impressive recent data points is that Crownpeak saw a 5-6x ROI after using RFPIO for just a few months. If your bosses hang their hats on ROI, then don’t hold back. Calculate your ROI here to include an estimate in your pitch to your bosses.

Efficiency is going to be your primary ROI metric. With RFPIO, organizations increase response management efficiency by 40%, on average. Broken down by role, we are currently seeing the following:

  • 63% of salespeople said RFPIO enables them to automate their process, so they can make time to pursue new business with RFPs.
  • 71% of marketers said RFPIO helps them centralize company content for easy access.
  • Subject Matter Experts (SME) gained back 39% of their daily hours with RFPIO.

RFPIO doubles as a knowledge management tool, which will increase proposal production for sales and reduce the burden on SMEs from legal, IT, security, procurement, contracts and other departments that typically contribute to responses. It’s a cost-effective method to give everyone at your organization access to your Content Library, while also empowering your proposal team to do more.

*On average, based on verified customer reviews collected on G2.

ROI calculator

See How Much You Can Save With RFPIO

Why do we need RFP software now?

For you, it’s about leveling the playing field. Harking back to my earlier reference of an RFP where five proposals are delivered and three of them likely have relationships with the RFP issuer…In this case, at least one of the vendors that responds will be using RFP software. They will have completed up to 70% of the RFP using automated features, which means they can put 100% effort on the remaining 30%. How likely are you to win any race when you give your competitors a 70% head start? (Flipside bonus you’ll want to call out to your bosses: On the off chance that you’re the only one using RFP software, then you will have a 70% head start!)

For your bosses, it’s about showing accountability to their commitment to success. If sales is the lifeblood of your business, then a fine-tuned RFP process will be as valuable as a multifunctional CRM, an integrated marketing strategy, a highly responsive customer service system, or any other support system that is already included in your budget.

But are proposals really that important?

YES!

The most common pushback you may need to address is that a proposal is just one part of a complex and lengthy sales process. That is true, and the best proposal in the world will not win you the deal on the spot. But a poor proposal will likely cause doubt in the issuer’s mind. At best, this will extend the sales cycle. At worst, you lose the deal.

A good proposal provides the opportunity to encapsulate everything you have learned during the sales process. RFP issuers never say they’re hemorrhaging clients or cash or taking a beating from their competitors, even though you understand that’s probably why they’re issuing the RFP.

The proposal is your opportunity to document how well you understand the issuer’s underlying needs or pains. You can do it passively (“We help with client retention by…” or “We’ve helped X clients increase revenue by X%…” or “3 out of 4 industry leaders rely on us to….”), but stating your solution to an unspoken problem validates your expertise. Ultimately, that’s exactly why they should choose to work with you.

And the only way to communicate that information to all stakeholders involved in the decision is through your response to the RFP.

Ready your pitch for RFP software

Twenty years ago, I expected RFPs to go the way of the dodo. Because of the Internet, you see. I thought that any generic information an issuer would need about a company could be found on the Internet. I was wrong. RFPs didn’t go away.

The way companies select vendors based on RFP responses is what changed. Out went the single decision maker, in came the decision by committee. The proposal management market is booming ($3.1B by 2024) and RFPIO has more than 1,000 customers only three years after signing its first.

RFPs have grown in complexity and require more customized responses. Part of a response is cookie cutter (another reason you need response management software), but the part of the response that requires more customization to explain your value—the part that shows you an issuer wants to deal rather than just kick the tires—is the part that you need to spend the most time on.

If you see any variation of this question, then you know the issuer is serious and in need of innovation: “What can your company offer that others cannot?

Want help prepping your RFP software pitch to your boss? We can help. Schedule a demo to get started.

Scale organizational content with a response management platform

Scale organizational content with a response management platform

Selling & Enablement

How many times have you written repetitive content in the past week? What about the past year? And, how is your content creation process going these days? While we’re at it…what about the rest of your organization?

Marketers are using a response management platform to eliminate repetition in the content creation cycle and improve their content creation process companywide. But these improvements are not solely reserved for RFP responses.

Hear about some of the creative ways marketers are leveraging RFPIO to support and scale content efforts throughout every facet of their organization.

An accurate knowledge base with less SME involvement

You need up-to-date marketing content all the time. Whether you are building out FAQs for your website or creating one-sheets for your sales team, you must have accurate information about specific products or services.

Today you are likely using a mish-mash of content management tools and methods to keep the latest company content within reach. You’re also enlisting the help of your SMEs (subject matter experts) to update and approve content specifics.

SMEs frequently become bottlenecks in the content creation process as their expertise in high demand. They respond to RFPs, RFIs, security questionnaires—and they help team members like you who rely on their expertise day in and day out. The last thing any of your SMEs want to do is slow things down, but that is precisely what happens without an accurate knowledge base.

Jeff Skott is the Manager of Sales Solution Architects at LexisNexis and he is also a subject matter expert. An account manager recently told him, “Thank you so much for getting RFPIO because now I can just look up the answers I used to have to call your team about.”

A response management solution like RFPIO serves as a knowledge base. It makes expertise transferable and accessible, enabling your marketing team to find the right information quickly. All SME-approved content lives in a centralized Content Library so you find accurate content without overly involving your subject matter experts.

Marketing Communication Coordinator Hope Henderson said anyone at Alera Group can simply “type in the product name or the question into RFPIO, then pull answers that have been audited by our subject matter experts.” It’s that easy when you and your SMEs use RFPIO as your go-to knowledge base.

Unify your organization with a single source of truth

Content is everywhere in your organization and you are the gatekeeper of every last sentence. You’re involved in the creation and polishing of branded documents across multiple departments. RFPIO’s unlimited user license model means that everyone at your organization has access to a single source of truth.

Soon after onboarding RFPIO, Sharon Ma of Yext used the platform for a multitude of response use cases: RFPs, vendor questionnaires, security questionnaires, and sales proposals. She quickly saw the opportunity to use the response management platform as a single source of truth for her entire organization, far beyond the Global Bid Desk department she managed.

Sales engineers and product managers experienced the same day-to-day challenges Sharon used to have when she manually responded to business queries—spending too much of their valuable time on a neverending search for documents.

Marketing Analyst and RFP Writer, Andrea Kameron, journeyed down a similar path with Reflexis. Andrea leveraged RFPIO to respond to RFPs and for other marketing uses, like creating marketing analyst reports. Her marketing team enjoyed the benefits of efficient content creation, while other departments still needed a solution.

Today Andrea’s enterprise organization uses RFPIO in many departments, from financial services to legal, from administration to customer support. Andrea said, “RFPIO basically touches every single aspect of operations within our company.”

Document automation for lean and agile project management

Continuous improvement, lean, and agile principles have advocated for document automation as a powerful tool for years. RFPIO integrates document automation seamlessly, not just for RFPs but other aspects of enterprise and project management as well.

Delaney Seebold, Business Development Coordinator with Boundless, said that with RFPIO, “our Content Library is always up to date. We can access the library for RFI answers and find the right verbiage and collateral.”

All of the hard-working individuals at your company don’t need dozens of variations of a document—and neither do you. As a marketer, broken document management processes bring more brand inconsistency than you can handle.

In the Definitive Guide to America’s Most Broken Processes, team members in various departments of the enterprise revealed the following challenges:

  • 49% said they have trouble locating documents
  • 43% have trouble with document approval requests and document sharing
  • 33% struggle with the document versioning

RFPIO’s Content Library stores the most updated and approved versions of documents in one place. Export functions also help you to format documents to your specific brand guidelines. Every department has what they need, when they need it. Over time, a centralized Content Library supports lean and agile project management in a way that manual processes can’t.

Your marketing team (and your organization) are ready for a better approach to content management and creation. Schedule a demo of RFPIO to achieve more with a single solution.

Why RFP software is every responder’s solution of choice

Why RFP software is every responder’s solution of choice

Selling & Enablement

Responders like you add tremendous value to your organization’s sales process. Your team’s collective knowledge is what makes RFP responses great…and what helps win deals.

When an RFP is afoot, your response management team likely experiences a mixture of emotions. Some are excited about the big opportunity and others are running for the hills. Everyone understands that collaborative content ultimately helps the organization succeed, but that content takes time to create.

High-performing organizations maximize the time of all their resources by turning to all-in-one technology platforms. RFP software has become the solution of choice for responders. Let’s look under the hood at the ways RFPIO supports your response process and frees up your valuable time.

Clear up your process with centralized RFP responses

43% of subject matter experts said their top challenge was spending too much time on RFP responses. 68% of salespeople struggle with focusing on sales activities. 43% of marketers feel they do not have time for extra projects. 50% of proposal managers said keeping up with response content is their biggest challenge.

Much of this “lost time” feeling with responders is spent chasing down previously answered RFP questions. Your RFP response process should be like a road sign—obvious and direct. RFP response software champions a clear process with its core feature: a centralized library with built-in content automation capabilities.

RFP responses are stored in the Content Library, so all responders have quick access. This eliminates Q&A déjà-vu—all responders have to do is answer a question once. From that point forward, draw from previous content with each subsequent RFP and customize as needed.

Since the proposal manager also has quick access to Content Library content, they easily fill in responses before assigning questions or sections to subject matter experts. All that’s required of SMEs is a simple “yay” or “nay” approval.

Across departments, everyone saves time when response content is automated, allowing your team to recapture hours spent hunting for RFP responses to focus instead on other high-value work.

RFP language translation assists global teams

Multi-lingual teams need RFP response software that builds bridges across language roadblocks. RFPIO’s language translation capabilities are designed for global teams, allowing your organization to enjoy authentic communication internally and with customers.

Within RFPIO, all you do is:

  • Click on the Q&A pair that needs to be translated.
  • In the “source language” drop-down, select the current language of the Q&A pair.
  • In the “target language” drop-down, select the language you want the Q&A pair to be translated into.
  • Click “translate” after that and you’re all set.
  • Bonus: Save translated content for future use.

Clarification needs are much more challenging when you speak a different language than your proposal management team or your customers and prospects. RFPIO’s translation tool helps your team translate response content into many different languages to improve global communication.

Everyone uses one solution for efficient content creation

Responders at your organization represent a vast ocean of talent. That’s why RFP response software like RFPIO supports an infinite sea of users (aka unlimited user licenses).

To create compelling and accurate RFP responses, multiple responders across the organization must be involved. Having unlimited user licenses means large collaborative teams get involved to efficiently craft the best possible content. Resource needs are divvied up in the response process, protecting resources so contributors never feel overwhelmed by too many RFP responsibilities.

Since everyone is using the same solution, the response process becomes more systematic and protected. For example, if down the road, a proposal manager or SME transitions out of a role or moves on to another job opportunity, a rich Content Library is left behind for the rest of the response management team.

Flexible and adaptive to support how you work best

When RFP response software is married to a streamlined process, your team experiences across-the-board efficiencies. Since RFPIO is easy to get off the ground, you can be up and running within a week and see immediate improvements.

Navigate the Content Library with ease

RFPIO’s user-friendly tagging and search capabilities allow your team to file away your content to be retrieved later at the drop of a hat. Tag content based on author, topic, language, vertical—or any other tags your team uses to organize the Content Library.

Up-to-date knowledge base

Since your content is centralized in the Content Library, it’s easy to update RFP responses so your team always finds the most current company information. Pre-scheduled content audit cycles help you stay on top of your content as well.

AI-powered answer recommendations

RFPIO’s recommendation engine is powered by artificial intelligence, automatically delivering the most relevant content in seconds. Automation eliminates the way your response team used to work, repeating content creation unnecessarily. Now key subject matter experts can focus on fact-checking and customization to increase the impact of your response content.

RFPIO is the solution of choice for thousands of responders. See why RFPIO is the best solution for you too.

Modernize your RFP process to support the healthcare sales cycle

Modernize your RFP process to support the healthcare sales cycle

Selling & Enablement

Technology continues to rapidly change the healthcare industry every year. Successful organizations are those who integrate technological tools to automate work and streamline processes. Those who don’t automate and streamline simply won’t be able to compete in today’s landscape.

In healthcare organizations, the RFP process is a vital component of securing new business. Prospects consider your organization’s RFP response as a determining factor in the vendor selection process.

Your team must balance the creation of compelling response content with healthcare compliance. By modernizing your RFP process with automated technology, you will effectively support your healthcare sales cycle, win more deals, and grow your organization.

Coordinate teams with a collaborative RFP process

Winning competitive deals requires specialized knowledge and input from team members across departments. A collaborative RFP process integrates the best minds of your organization. Compelling data and insights are incorporated into any documents your team responds to—RFPs, RFIs, sales proposals, DDQs, and security questionnaires.

Departments frequently work in silos, but you still need to get the right minds involved in the RFP process. Establishing a collaborative RFP response process holds team members accountable. Empowering your team with RFP management tools makes it easier to gather appropriate subject matter experts when and where they are needed most.

Without leveraging technology in the RFP response process, teams do their best with what they’ve got: paper documentation, email chains, text files, and spreadsheets. As healthcare teams co-author content, RFP software gives them greater flexibility to keep content up-to-date and accurate.

Strengthen compliance in the healthcare sales cycle

Healthcare is one of the most regulated industries in the world. The need for compliance is only expected to grow in the United States, with the Bureau of Labor and Statistics projecting compliance officers to increase by 8% over the next several years.

From privacy laws and rules to state and federal regulations, healthcare compliance is a key factor when submitting RFPs in your industry. It’s the responsibility of each RFP contributor to respond with the most accurate and factual content available.

RFP software makes it easier for your team to handle compliance demands throughout the healthcare sales cycle. The Content Library stores all of your response content in a centralized location.

Whether a salesperson is answering a prospect email or a proposal manager is responding to an RFI, the most current product or service content is readily available. Now, if your compliance or legal teams need to get involved, they only need to partake in a quick sign-off rather than spending time tracking down or reworking compliant responses.

Supporting the healthcare sales cycle with RFP software

Due to heavy industry regulations, healthcare organizations have historically been slow to adopt new technologies. It’s very easy for teams to be set in their ways, continue using antiquated systems and workarounds for the sake of familiarity.

But, familiarity doesn’t translate to efficiency in most cases. It also doesn’t translate to winning deals, as responders fall into a habit of submitting subpar content when they rush the RFP response process.

Those teams who modernize their process with RFP software see noticeable improvements in productivity and quality soon after adoption and onboarding.

Save time

RFP software offers an intuitive interface that requires minimal training so teams across departments can hit the ground running. The platform integrates with tools you’re already using, such as Slack and Microsoft Teams, as well as popular CRMs, such as Salesforce and Hubspot. Powered by artificial intelligence and auto-respond features, the Content Library is built for speed and accuracy.

Store knowledge

Collective knowledge from your subject matter experts is stored in a centralized Content Library. If an SME leaves the organization, your content is safe and sound. If an SME is unavailable during an RFP project, responders have access to SME-approved content. With a stronger knowledge repository, RFP software protects your team during company transitions or tight project deadlines.

Maintain compliance

RFP software gives your team the ability to stay on top of audits, so Content Library content is always groomed and up-to-date. Set a reminder at your preferred content audit cadence (i.e. monthly, quarterly, annually). Your “content gatekeepers” then field Q&A pairs to ensure only the most compliant content is selected by other responders at your organization.

When you combine a collaborative RFP process with RFP software, your team submits responses with greater confidence and efficiency. Modernize your process with RFPIO.

Emphasize your messaging with RFP brand storytelling

Emphasize your messaging with RFP brand storytelling

Selling & Enablement

Stats and facts are powerful in messaging. But stories are remembered up to 22 times more than facts alone, which makes a pretty strong case for developing a brand storytelling strategy for your RFPs.

When responding to RFPs, we marketers typically think about making the messaging professional and concise. We also work hard to ensure accuracy and compliance. Your competitors’ marketing teams are going through these motions as well.

As we’re ticking off the messaging requirements boxes, we’re missing something with our RFP content. That je ne sais quoi that hooks the reader and keeps them engaged until the end. We’re missing the brand story. This is how you make your RFP content more impactful.

Use brand storytelling to build a trusting relationship

81% of people say trust is a deciding factor in their purchasing decisions. When we feel connected to someone or a brand, we develop trust. We are more likely to call on that person or turn to that brand when we need help in their area of expertise.

“Doing business” is not just about what you do. It is about who you are. Brand storytelling is designed to build trusting relationships and deepen the personal connection with your prospects. Below are two examples of how organizations are using brand storytelling to develop trust and connect with their customers.

IBM

IBM launched a health care initiative “outthink melanoma,” which focused on the early detection of melanoma. They developed an AI-powered product called Watson that could detect cancer with 31% more accuracy than the naked eye. This technological advance can mean the difference between life and death for thousands of people.

Going after a passion project alongside IBM’s “business as usual” technology made a huge impact on their customers. IBM showed not only do they care about being at the forefront of technology, they also care about helping people.

The New York Public Library

The New York Public Library used brand storytelling to increase their Instagram following by 75% in 2019 with their “Insta Novels” campaign. The library literally brought storytelling into their branded content by sharing full-length classic novels like Alice In Wonderland as Instagram stories.

Using Instagram stories to bring the classics beyond their brick and mortar library building, people around the world were able to have a memorable experience with their brand. It goes to show that even more established brands can succeed with a modern brand storytelling strategy.

RFP response examples that use brand storytelling

When you receive a request for a proposal, much like IBM and The New York Public Library, you have a choice about how you are going to tell your brand’s story. Are you going to tick off all the basic requirements? Or, are you going to try your hand at brand storytelling with RFP responses?

You might be thinking…the RFP questions we receive from issuers are always a complete snooze. What is your organization’s approach? What are your competitive differentiators?

It’s true that you will need to work a bit harder to find the story when you’re responding to RFPs. But, the point is…you can still find it. Below are some RFP response examples that will inspire you to infuse more brand storytelling into your content.

Tell your why

Because you’re a marketer, you already know all about Simon Sinek’s “Start With Why.” You might be sick of it, but guess what? It’s a classic gut-check for almost any content you produce, even RFP responses.

What is your organization’s why? Why did your CEO/Founder/President start the company in the first place? Why does your product or service exist? Why are you here?

If we use ourselves as an example (because we too respond to RFPs), our RFP response may look like…

Before founding RFPIO, we were RFP responders too. We often worked overtime to meet deadlines and we spent 30% of our time responding to RFPs manually. We understand how inefficient the process can be. That led us on a mission to make life better for response management teams like yours.

Share a testimonial

Customer experience is a big part of your story. We all read online reviews before we make purchasing decisions and your prospects are no different. Testimonials are an easy way to bring brand storytelling (and customer validation) into your RFP responses. An RFPIO example may look like…

Here is the detailed outline of how RFPIO’s customer success team supports your proposal management team. Lori Coffae, a longtime customer and content writer with SHI, is proof of our commitment to your success. “The team at RFPIO has been tremendous in terms of helping me get other people on board, helping to push the tool forward so we are all using it in the same way…I feel like Andrew works just for me and everyone on the team feels eager and accessible to help.”

Show you’re human

What are you doing in your business that goes above and beyond? In what ways are you giving back to your community? Your team does many great things together, whether you are team-building outside the office or going above and beyond for your customers. Show the human side of your business with RFP response brand storytelling. Our RFP response may look like…

Each quarter RFPIO gives back. Most recently we donated to March of Dimes and supported an organization that believes every baby deserves the best possible start. By giving back, we receive so much more. We not only love to serve our customers but we love to serve our community.

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” Simon Sinek is right. Reach your prospects on a personal level and demonstrate why you are the obvious choice as a partner. Use brand storytelling to build trust from the moment they read your first RFP response.

RFPIO saves you time, allowing you to focus on bringing more brand storytelling into your RFP content. See how our solution helps you produce quality content.

Why every proposal manager deserves a round of applause

Why every proposal manager deserves a round of applause

People & Teams, Selling & Enablement

Proposal managers are the front line of the organization. Your influence is never more apparent than during the RFP response process.

You’re accountable for implementing the RFP response process and flow. This includes all aspects of that process, from assigning tasks and maintaining content quality to leading your team and crafting the overall proposal narrative.

You’re an honorary member of the sales team, a skilled content manager, and an unmatched project manager. In celebration of proposal managers everywhere, here are just some of the reasons you deserve a round of applause for all that you do.

Proposal managers are an extension of the sales team

RFP responses are critical components for winning new business. As a proposal manager, you play “an assist” in closing the deal, passing the ball to sales so they can shoot and score. Ultimately, you’re an extension of the sales team—and they need all the assists they can get.

68% of salespeople do not have enough time to devote proper attention to sales activities. It behooves the organization to provide an automated RFP process so you properly assist your sales department to do what they do best: Land big deals.

Effective proposal managers recognize that RFP responses are an opportunity to tell a narrative in such a way that distinguishes the organization from the competition. As RFP responses are often the first impression for a new prospect, it’s crucial that you and your team nail the messaging.

It’s up to you to craft the most compelling narrative and weave it through each RFP response to capture the attention of prospects and clients. Pull all of this off and you help your sales team land big deals, making you a major value-add to your sales organization.

Proposal managers are masterful content managers

Content management used to be reserved for the marketing department. Now, with the surge in content creation needs throughout the organization, proposal managers are taking their rightful place as skilled content managers.

Often RFP responses involve multiple writers from various departments. As you already know, getting everyone’s contributions well before the deadline is mission-critical. And, it’s certainly no easy task.

Effective proposal managers draw from an updated content library and coordinate responses across many SMEs to deliver the highest caliber RFP. So, how are busy proposal managers pulling this off exactly? They’re using technology to do the heavy lifting.

RFP software offers a myriad of content management benefits so proposal managers like yourself easily curate a centralized content library, ensuring the best and most accurate responses are always within reach.

Centralized and updated

A centralized RFP content library is your go-to source for organizing, storing, and accessing company content. Within the content library, you initiate and schedule content audit cycles, effectively auditing content at your chosen schedule and not during a pressing RFP deadline.

User-friendly and searchable

RFP software is user-friendly and searchable. The technology learns from you—the more you use it, the smarter it gets. RFP software delivers a content library that suggests highly relevant responses to save you time. Automated responses can be revised and customized to suit messaging themes and requirements.

Accurate and compliant

Response content must be factual, accurate, and compliant. RFP software functions as a risk management tool as well as a content management tool. Thanks to the Content Library functionality and unlimited user licenses, simply set up quarterly compliance reviews as part of your content audits and assign new responses to a compliance officer for final approval.

Proposal managers are dexterous project managers

Although you may have the best intentions with execution, internal processes may not support your admirable efforts. When it comes to your day-to-day responsibilities, the stakes are high. This pressure can easily lead to proposal manager burnout.

84% of proposal managers are mired in antiquated RFP processes where Google Docs, text files, spreadsheets, paper documents—and even emails—are the norm. Of course, this fragmented “process” is hardly a process at all. If you still rely on this type of manual RFP response process, you’re technically more of a magician than a project manager.

You deserve an intuitive RFP process, which is made possible when you take advantage of RFP software. RFP software accelerates efficiency, saves time, and elevates the RFP process into an expertly-coordinated strategy.

Whether you orchestrate all of your RFP projects manually, or with the support of RFP software, you’re doing what it takes to help your organization succeed. This is far beyond being a great project manager; this makes you a champion for your organization.

RFPs may not be a priority for everyone within your organization, but you know what they don’t: that responding to RFPs is a direct path to growth. Your organization would not be where it is today without your hard work. You are your organization’s superhero, and that deserves a round of applause.

Alright, superhero…ready to do even more in your proposal management role? RFPIO is here to help you drive efficiency and results.

Elevate the RFP process in your asset management organization

Elevate the RFP process in your asset management organization

Selling & Enablement

In asset management, the RFP process is critical to winning new business. The prospect directly references your RFP document during the sales conversation. You must convey your organization in the most professional, appealing manner possible.

You’re here looking for ways to improve your RFP process flow. You’ve heard that RFP software manages your RFP process from beginning to end, but you’re wondering how. If you’re ready to empower your team, stand out in a competitive industry, and win more deals…keep reading.

Gain a competitive edge with a collaborative RFP process

Asset management is easily one of the most competitive industries out there. Right now you’re seeing a deluge of RFPs coming from institutional investors. When you’re submitting an RFP to a large pension investor, know that they are receiving 30-40 other RFPs for that single mandate.

Your organization’s RFP responses must stand out. With the sheer volume of RFPs that growing firms experience, the pressure is compounded. You need the best possible answers from all subject matter experts (SMEs) to make the final product shine.

But to do that, you need a better RFP process. RFP software rises to efficiency challenges, transforming RFP process management into a well-orchestrated strategy.

With a simple user interface—and helpful integrations with communications tools like Slack and CRMs like Salesforce—your team saves valuable time. A robust content library that’s easy to navigate puts quality information at everyone’s fingertips. There’s even an auto-respond feature to automatically and appropriately populate responses.

Optimize collaboration by saving time and streamlining communication. When collaboration improves, the quality and quantity of the final product improve exponentially. And that’s the name of the game—better and more RFPs.

RFP software content management benefits

As the financial service industry tends to have complex products and services, your RFPs and security questionnaires contain a wealth of valuable information.

You want to protect that precious data and curate a centralized content library. Gathering all the best responses into your Content Library is just the beginning when you use RFP software.

Review cycles and content audits

The Content Library gives you review cycles to simplify the daunting task of managing content during RFP projects and content audits. On a quarterly basis, question and answer pairs are sent to relevant subject matter experts for review. This way, you ensure that whatever goes out to prospects and clients is always accurate and current.

User-friendly and searchable

The structure of an RFP software Content Library is highly user-friendly and easy to search. With the help of artificial intelligence, the Content Library suggests relevant content and offers an auto-respond feature that populates answers with one click. Use what you need, then customize messaging and requirements at will.

Accessible knowledge and empowerment

RFP software empowers everyone on your team by organizing company information and making that knowledge widely accessible. Implement a custom tagging strategy so your team accesses the right question/answer pair easily whenever they need up-to-date content for RFPs, RFIs, security questionnaires, sales training, or prospect emails…the RFP software use case list goes on.

Easily build compliance into your RFP process flow

In asset management, you know the importance of compliance oversight. Financial institutions like yours must comply with an ever-growing complex web of regulations.

Not only is compliance harder than ever, but the cost of failure is crippling. Anything your organization sends out to clients or prospects, from RFPs to DDQs, must be approved by your hard-working compliance team.

RFP software doubles as a risk management tool. The Content Library was built with compliance oversight in mind. Answer library reviews can be set up so that your compliance officer is a moderator. Any time response content is changed or new content is added, your compliance officer must approve and finalize it before the RFP goes out the door.

RFP software takes on compliance requirements, turning them into a win for financial services organizations. As you respond to a myriad of business queries, your organization will be safeguarded by a compliant RFP process.

Elevate your asset management RFP process with RFPIO.

Sell smarter with data-driven RFP process management

Sell smarter with data-driven RFP process management

Selling & Enablement

An RFP response may not seem like the quickest path to achieving sales success. But what if we told you there was a way to exponentially increase the odds of that RFP putting money into your pocket? And what if you could submit higher quality RFPs faster, raising the opportunity to land more deals?

No, we don’t have a magic wand, but it comes close. Modern technology is pretty amazing, and it’s that kind of wizardry we’re talking about. Data and analytics, driven by powerful AI capabilities, provides sales organizations with a new game plan—business intelligence.

How does business intelligence help you sell smarter in the request for proposal process? With data-driven RFP process management, you and your sales team gain intelligent tools to shorten the sales cycle, close more deals, and save time.

What is data-driven RFP process management?

For any organization, the RFP process must be a thoughtful, well-coordinated effort. When you leverage data analytics and business intelligence, rather than spinning your wheels, you advance your process. You evolve RFP project management into data-driven RFP process management.

Data-driven RFP process management ensures your time is well-spent on carefully selecting business opportunities and balancing resources to craft winning RFPs.

  • You assess incoming bids to determine if the organization is a good fit before you allocate time and resources to responding to the RFP.
  • Your proposal managers clearly estimate and predict the time needed for various tasks and deliverables to effectively schedule, allocate resources, and distribute workloads.
  • Your Content Library is always in good health, providing accurate, marketing-approved content for use throughout the sales process—even beyond RFPs.

86% of salespeople are looking for opportunities to shorten the sales cycle and close more deals. Besides giving you more qualified opportunities, data-driven RFP process management saves everyone time. The request for proposal process is transformed into a well-oiled machine.

RFP Response Process Steps

Powerful analytics for your request for proposal process

You want to submit the best RFP to your prospects and win more business from your organization’s collective effort. However, your entire livelihood is dictated by the sales cycle—time is always money in your world.

These analytics and reporting tools in RFPIO will help you accomplish your most ambitious sales goals with greater efficiency.

1. Intake management

Business intelligence is the key to excellence during intake management. Analyzing trends and/or past responses to similar RFPs informs business decisions. Trend analysis offers responders a detailed win/loss analysis and creates visibility into which deals your organization is winning—targeting the most worthwhile RFPs and improving the odds for a win.

2. Executive dashboard

The executive dashboard is the birds-eye view of your RFP process. Review historical data for patterns of success and opportunities for improvement. This analysis precipitates decision-making. Sales executives and proposal managers determine any resources needed to improve the RFP process for your team.

3. User report

The user report shows the bandwidth of the entire response management team. Is someone being overwhelmed and overworked? Maybe that’s you. Your RFP response workload—assigned questions and sections for responding and/or reviewing—are visible. If you need resource support, the user report helps you make a case to your proposal manager and executive team.

“Some people call this artificial intelligence, but the reality is this technology will enhance us. So instead of artificial intelligence, I think we’ll augment our intelligence.” —Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM

4. Trend analysis

When you create a new project (RFP, RFI, etc.), click on “Analyze Trends” and you’ll see a trend analysis that shows past resource requirements for similar projects. Trend Analysis helps you understand how many days similar projects have taken to complete.

Additionally, this feature shows how many questions have been answered using auto-response/stored answers versus manual responses, which also provides insight into ROI. Combine the trend analysis with the user report to ensure resources (that includes you!) are allocated properly.

5. Answer library report

Answer library reporting helps your organization build and maintain a healthy content repository. This report allows you to audit your content from a holistic view. You know how much content is currently in a review cycle, how much content is overdue with reviewers, and how much content has been assigned to moderators. Answer library reporting makes it easier to keep your best content up-to-date, so you can quickly respond to RFPs with current and relevant information.

6. Activities report

Team members across departments respond to RFPs. The activities report is your audit history for the entire system. You can filter by date range or by user—and by entity to see what type of change was made to the Content Library. If a mistake was made, you’ll find the edit history here in the activities report so you can correct it.

AI proposal software: Helping you work smarter

Artificial intelligence is everywhere. Your entire online experience is propelled by recommendations and advertising based on your historical data. Smartphones and GPS plan your day and navigate your path.

How does AI transform the world of RFP response? AI proposal software isn’t the way of the future…it’s already happening.

Artificial intelligence systems are the man behind the curtain in the aforementioned data and analytics tools. AI drives the business intelligence used for win/loss analysis, which helps your organization make informed decisions about RFP intake management and process planning.

AI proposal software automates repetitive tasks, such as exporting and formatting documents. The answer recommendation engine automates content as well, producing basic boilerplate responses and answering common questions.

In combination with data-driven RFP process management, AI proposal software helps you work faster and smarter on RFPs. By moving quickly and intelligently, you shorten the sales cycle, maximize every RFP opportunity, and gain the time and energy to focus on the next big deal.

Business intelligence helps sales organizations make better decisions, increase sales performance, and save valuable time. When your sales team operates with data-driven RFP process management, you’ll have the winning advantage. Leverage the power of data-driven RFP process management. Schedule a demo of RFPIO to optimize your sales process.

How to improve RFP response time management long-term

How to improve RFP response time management long-term

Selling & Enablement

The average professional works a mere three minutes straight before changing tasks. As a subject matter expert (SME), one of those tasks is regularly contributing to your proposal management team’s cause, helping them produce high-quality RFP responses with your organizational expertise.

Every time you’re asked to collaborate on an RFP, RFI, or security questionnaire, you’re taken away from your main job requirements. To speed up the process, you repurpose old content. Then, you spend most of that time you thought you were saving searching folders and files—or relying on Control+F to navigate a massive Content Library spreadsheet with 20+ tabs.

You’re a key player with multiple roles to fill, but know that RFP responses will get much easier when you have the right toolset. Discover ways to improve RFP response time management and lead your organization toward long-term success.

A central RFP repository built for quick collaboration

Process confusion happens with many SMEs, whether you respond to hundreds or handfuls of RFPs, RFIs, and security questionnaires. Each time you’re brought into the RFP response process, it can feel like a fire drill. Your expertise is needed…ASAP.

Establishing a central RFP repository is the first step in improving time management. One of RFP software’s core features is the Content Library, a central repository that stores all of your organization’s content.

That means instead of answering the same question over and over again, you search and select relevant content from past responses. You quickly customize the response as needed, then move on with your day. Having this content accessible to your proposal management team allows them to even fill in responses ahead of time so you only need to step in when it’s time to approve the content.

However you decide to manage your workflow, with RFP software you skip the information hunt by letting technology do the majority of the work for you. It’s a much faster way to collaborate with your proposal manager.

Over time, you build a well-oiled machine by continually adding and updating response content within your Content Library. Your legacy will live on, even if you decide to move on to another professional opportunity. If you transition out of your role, you won’t leave your team hanging.

Global collaboration with RFP language translation

You’ll also save time when different languages come into play with RFP responses. RFP translation capabilities within RFPIO help you overcome language barriers with both team members and prospects.

Global collaboration with internal team

If your proposal management team is headquartered in another country, you’ll need to take quite a bit of time to clarify what is being asked. Conversely, they’ll need to understand your answers in their own language.

Global collaboration with prospects

If a prospect resides in another country, the RFP must be compiled accurately and professionally in the native language of the issuer. A substantial amount of time is literally lost in translation.

RFPIO is currently available in 17 different languages, so multi-lingual teams can navigate the RFP response process in their own language. The Content Library is powered by Google Translate as well. You can store the same answer in different languages, using tags to differentiate the content. From there, it’s just a matter of fine-tuning responses, rather than translating from scratch every time.

Optimize your time and create better RFP responses

In addition to wearing your SME hat when helping with RFP responses, the rest of your day is booked solid with primary responsibilities. Our 2019 RFPIO Responder Survey showed that our customers are just like you: 43% of subject matter experts revealed their top challenge was spending too much time on RFP responses.

When a response management platform like RFPIO supports your process, you contribute on your own time—you spend less time participating so you can focus the majority of your energy on primary responsibilities.

Here’s how RFP software helps you rise to the time management challenge…

Automation

You may have used an ad-hoc process to create and submit RFP responses up until this point. RFP software automates and simplifies this process, saving valuable time for you and your team.

When it’s time for you to jump into an RFP, you receive an email alert from your proposal manager. You can tag or filter RFPIO emails in your inbox, then complete your assigned questions or sections when you have a little extra focus time.

Workflows in RFPIO are a great way to automate business processes. You start by creating a rule. Based on the specific criteria you set, RFPIO handles a number of tasks, like sending an email, creating a task, or even updating a status.

Bulk answering is another big time-saver. The next time you face a security questionnaire with 2,000 Q&A pairs, bulk answer common questions within a response project instead of marking each answer one-by-one.

Audits

Your organization relies on your expertise in the RFP response process—but it doesn’t end there. When you audit your RFP Content Library, your job is to keep content fresh, accurate, and up-to-date for anyone who needs it. RFP software helps maximize everyone’s time with content audits too.

Set up audit alerts at a chosen cadence (quarterly, monthly, annually), so you receive an automatic reminder when it’s time to update response content. Your team always has access to your audited content—no phone calls, emails, or meetings are required. All RFP response efforts are aligned internally, which ensures your best content is always within reach.

RFPIO allows you to collaborate across a single platform to maximize your time investment. You’ll capture content more efficiently and craft high-performing RFP responses that help your organization win more business. Schedule a demo to see more ways RFPIO optimizes your time.

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