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Great, a Request for Proposal

13 January 2012

How pleased are you with a formal Request for Proposal (RFP) or a Request for Quotation (RFQ)? That depends…

Pleased with an RFP or RFQ?
If you think you are almost in business with a prospect, but the company decides to send an RFP or RFQ to you and a number of other contenders, you probably won’t be happy.

But you could also get an RFP or RFQ out of the blue. That could be a nice surprise. But you could also have mixed feelings. Maybe you are one of those parties who come to the buying process quite late just for a price comparison.

Of course you could just be pleased with an RFP or RFQ as this represents a chance for a great order. After all, orders after an RFP or RFQ are often of a serious size. It could also be that your business consists exclusively of sales via an RFP or RFQ route. Because you sell, for example, to customers who are legally obliged to give out certain jobs via a formal tender or purchasing process. In that case, reacting to RFPs and RFQs is part of your daily job and needs to be taken care of efficiently, simply and well.

Answering an RFP or RFQ is not easy
However you feel, if you decide to send out a proposal there are a lot of things to take into account. You need to play by the rules as formulated in the RFP or RFQ. Because more than one person from your organization will contribute to this offer, internal coordination is required but sometimes difficult. Another point is that you don’t want to lose unnecessary time answering frequently asked questions about your organization, strategy, product development, personnel policy…

The core issue to tackle when answering an RFP or RFQ, is to formulate a good analysis of the demands and then match these to your solution. Information that you often already have, but also information that you may need to request from your suppliers.

Software to support the RFP or RFQ process
If you are looking for software to support you in this process, we would be pleased to show you what we can do for you.

Marijn Schouten is Director Business Development at Sofon - supplier of sales support software. As Marijn has a lot of contact with clients, he has a clear insight into how companies that deliver customer-specific products and services can realize improvements within their sales and quotation process.

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