The truth about RFPs

It is a common belief that RFP’s are the way companies buy; and to close business, you need to participate.

My answer: Maybe, but probably not!

There are some organizations (primarily governmental entities) that handle purchases through RFP, but this is more of an exception than a norm.

Request for Pain (RFP)

For growing companies, RFP is often short for Request For Pain.

Typically, an RFP is:

• A “fishing” expedition to find out what products and services are out there.
• An exercise to justify a due-diligence process for purchasing a competitor’s product

And they take a lot of precious time, effort, and money to respond to--especially when you consider your chance of winning and ability to influence the decision!

What to do if you get an RFP

Follow this rule, if you didn’t write it or heavily influence it, don’t respond to it.

I promise, it will save you time, money and heartache.

In summary, for companies that are trying to grow, it’s easy to be seduced by RFP’s. An RFP is only worth replying to if you wrote it or heavily influenced it.

Reader Note: I’ve treated RFI, RFQ and RFP as interchangeable in this article.