It’s that time of year again… Time to snuggle into our houses, light the fire, find a warm nook, and wait for spring.
If anyone is in the Pacific Northwest like me, you’ve probably been enjoying two solid weeks of rain. If you aren’t in the Pacific Northwest, please don’t rub it in.
As we near the end of the year, we like to reflect on the year we’re leaving behind. For our small but mighty content team, that means better understanding our readers—and seeing how we can improve for next year.
In 2021, our blog posts were viewed more than 200,000 times… a 50% increase from the same time period in 2020, when we recorded just under 150,000 views on our posts.
From those 200,000 views, we learned a lot about you, our readers.
First, you love learning, growing, and improving. Almost all of our top blogs offer strategies, templates, and best practices for up-leveling skills, streamlining processes, and improving collaboration.
Second, you’re looking for new ways to collaborate with your team (and your boss). Nearly 50% of our top blogs touch on improved processes, strategies for better collaboration, and tactics for having tough conversations with your boss.
Finally, you are careful readers. The average read time for some of our blogs is upwards of six minutes (industry average for blogs is 2-3 minutes).
With that, let’s get to the good stuff! Here are our 11 most popular blogs from 2021.
Follow along as I craft an RFP executive summary
Your executive summary needs to persuade your reader (usually an executive) that your product or service is exactly what they need to solve their problem. And you need to do it in just a few pages.
In this blog, our Senior Sales Director, Keith Norrie, shares an example of a beautifully crafted executive summary—based on the executive summary writing guidelines he outlined in the prequel to this blog, “How to write a winning RFP executive summary—er, briefing.”
Ready to home your executive summary writing skills? Read our blog(s) to learn how to write an awesome RFP executive summary that blows your reader away.
How to respond to an RFP like an all-star champ
RFPs are issued as questionnaires of up to thousands of questions and requests for specific content. If your company has a solution to the problem put forth by the issuer, then you respond with a proposal that includes all the answers and requested content.
The issuer compares your RFP response with all of the other RFP responses received from your competitors.
In order to have a chance to be on the shortlist, you have to compose an RFP response. Read this blog to learn how to put your best foot forward, every time.
Guide to a great RFP response process
Bottom line: Responding to RFPs is easier if you have some kind of process in place. The better the process, the easier the response.
If you don’t have a process, but want one, how do you get started? If you have a process, but it’s not that great, how do you make it better?
This blog—written by Tara Konlinsky, an APMP-certified Customer Success Manager at RFPIO—answers all those questions and more.
How to improve your RFP response process in 5 simple steps
If you have an RFP process, that’s great news. You’re already a step ahead of the game.
Now you need to think about how to turn your RFP response process into the best one that ever was.
Read this blog for our 5 simple steps to create an RFP response process that others will drool over.
E-signature for sales and proposal teams: Autograph
This year we released our snazzy new e-signature feature—and our readers wanted to learn all about it.
This blog explains what e-signature is, and how you can use Autograph to sign contracts, proposals, and all kinds of other documents.
How proposal teams can prepare for 2021
How is technology aiding the request for proposal (RFP) response process? To find out, we surveyed members of the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) to gain insight into current and future trends in proposal management processes across 10 industries.
If you liked this blog, keep your eyes peeled for new research debuting in 2022. 👀
How to write a proposal cover letter [with example]
A proposal cover letter has to be short, sweet, and dense. To write a proposal cover letter with nary a wasted word, you first need to understand its strategic significance in the overall proposal.
In your proposal cover letter, you need to demonstrate you’ve reviewed the RFP requirements and that your solution meets all those requirements—that is key.
Read this blog learn how to write a proposal letter that blows your issuers away.
5 steps to healthy RFP collaboration between sales and presales
Friction can be a good thing. With the right amount, sales and pre-sales teams share productive exchanges, respectful pushback during disagreements, and shared admiration for jobs well done on all sides.
Too much, and those relationships can quickly flare up with resentment or burn out in an unwinnable blame game. Too little, and silos develop, making collaboration difficult and agility nearly impossible.
How do you maintain that ideal level of friction? Glad you asked. Read this blog to find out.
How to build a business case for a full-time RFP content manager
For those of us in the weeds of proposal development, it’s fairly obvious that there’s so much an RFP content manager can do for an organization.
That’s why it can be especially difficult to justify the need for one with upper management.
Read this blog to learn how you can help change mindsets that dedicated RFP content managers aren’t just a “nice-to-have”—they’re a “need-to-have”.
Improve user adoption in 7 steps
Introducing new software into your sales enablement tech stack and workflow is no joke.
As soon as I get my chance to work with the person or team in charge of deploying RFPIO, I recommend inhabiting the following mindset: “How do I set myself up for success?”
My answer? Follow 7 steps to improve user adoption. Read this blog to roll through them.
Internal Knowledge Base: What it is, how to use it, and how to create one
Knowledge is a company’s most valuable asset, and being able to access it quickly and easily is essential to enhancing productivity and achieving goals. To make that a reality, you need to create and maintain an internal knowledge base, also known as a company knowledge base.
This is a guide to making that happen.
