Membrain

JUNE 27, 2021

Afterwards, an audience member who leads a marketing firm asked for advice on how to handle RFPs (requests for proposal). I recently gave a presentation on strategic pricing. Her question: “How can we sell value when we can’t even talk to decision-makers?”.

Sell 114

Sell Strategize Price Presentation 114

SaaStr

JANUARY 27, 2021

“RFPs are Too Much Work, and We Lose Them All Anyway.” RFPs are part and parcel of real enterprise deals. So don’t get frustrated with RFPs. RFPs aren’t for losers. What you really don’t know is how to win the ones you weren’t even in. Talk a lot more about those ones. And then 10.

Repeat business 118

Repeat business Engineering Pitch Closing 118

SaaStr

DECEMBER 8, 2022

HubSpot Still Has to Do RFPs : While just a passing comment from Yamini, it really resonated with me. If at almost $2B in ARR, and a market-dominating brand, HubSpot has to still do RFPs … even when selling to medium-sized businesses … well get used to it. Even HubSpot is seeing the same.

CRM 96

CRM Up-sell Sell Start-ups 96

Martech

MARCH 22, 2023

Consider this: 17% of companies are planning RFPs this year, according to the 2023 State of the ESP RFP. Among the clients for whom we manage RFPs, we see more requests for technology platforms that help marketers execute and innovate faster. If anything, they are accelerating.

Cross-sell 102

Cross-sell Education Price Campaign 102

Sales Hacker

SEPTEMBER 14, 2020

The key is to identify which RFPs give you the greatest probability of being chosen, and respond only to those. It seems simple, but let’s start with the foundational: what an RFP is, how to separate the good opportunities from the bad, and then how to begin responding to an RFP. To RFP, Or Not to RFP.

Non-Profits 93

Non-Profits Government Contact Price 93

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 1, 2024

This at a time when we are seeing: Companies hesitating to spend money Competition is becoming fierce Projects are being back-burnered or abandoned Procurement is becoming more difficult to deal with Decision-makers are more protected and harder to meet Phone calls go unanswered Voicemails are not returned Emails and LinkedIn messages are deleted before (..)

Consult 62

Consult Up-sell Service Sell 62

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 21, 2019

It seemed a big part of their “prospecting,” was trolling customers for RFPs and RFIs. I probed them on this, their response was, “It’s so easy, these are people who already want to buy, they’ve put together their requirements, all we have to do is just respond to the RFPs! You are wasting your time!

Education 81

Education Legal Price Sell 81

Hubspot

APRIL 13, 2021

RFI vs RFP. Both RFIs and RFPs are tools used when procuring new tools, services or vendors. However, a Request for Proposal (RFP) is different from a Request for Information (RFI) in a few ways, including the timing and the type of information required. 3 RFI (Request for Information) Samples. Need more inspiration?

Government 85

Government Education Contract Follow-up 85

Sales Hacker

JULY 12, 2021

Develop and deliver an insightful RFP template for customers. If there’s one thing that sales, marketing and customer success can agree on, it’s that RFPs kind of suck. Sales hates that RFPs represent a roadblock to closing the deal. How to write your own RFP template for customers.

Objectives and Key Results 85

Objectives and Key Results Assembly Line Contract Represent 85

Hubspot

AUGUST 31, 2018

The RFP doc becomes a way for you to quickly uncover the strengths and weaknesses of potential vendors in relation to your project without having to spend too much of your time hunting for them yourself. The good news is there are a number of tools to make creating RFPs easier and less stressful than you’re imagining.

Referrals 97

Referrals Price Follow-up Start-ups 97

Martech

APRIL 17, 2023

COVID-19 spurred companies’ dissatisfaction with martech Migrations are on my mind because more companies are now moving through the request-for-proposal process (RFPs) or migrating between platforms. Wrapping up In the last 23 years of being involved in RFPs and migrations, I’ve seen just about everything.

Contract 112

Contract Technology Technology Government 112

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 10, 2023

Usually, if they do an RFP (Request-for-Proposal/Quote), the winner is essentially pre-awarded before the RFP even goes out. RFPs are often mostly CYA and paper exercises, as well as ammunition for procurement to negotiate prices down. The 10x better solution for 1 particular big problem. But … not always.

Negotiate 101

Negotiate Price Contact Market share 101

Adaptive Business Services

JUNE 8, 2022

Don’t respond to RFPs – RFPs, unless you wrote them, generally suck. These are both the new yellow pages. Set aside time each day to prospect – Not doing so is the most common reason behind the commission roller coaster. Create the deals! The same holds true to call-in leads. Now it is your search ranking.

Prospecting 71

Prospecting Appointment Referrals Cold Call 71

Iannarino

JUNE 25, 2021

” The worst of these approaches is an RFP, with three possible partners getting an hour or ninety minutes to speak with the decision-makers. RFPs are generally an outdated genre, as evidenced by their unchanging templates. We can describe these approaches as “legacy buying approaches.”

Contact 220

Contact Clients Prospecting Up-sell 220

Iannarino

JUNE 28, 2021

Before you pull up last year’s files and dust off your copy and paste keys, you would be wise to remind the client that quite a bit has changed since they started using the RFP template. RFPs are often released in cycles, so use the time between them to learn what you need to know and position yourself as your contact’s preferred partner.

Clients 199

Clients Presentation Contact Up-sell 199

Martech

APRIL 17, 2024

As I’ve viewed product demos in RFPs and talked with clients, I’ve seen something promising: Companies are improving how they give you access to data for insights. Aside from incorporating language models like ChatGPT for creating content, many email platforms are working on using AI to get users closer to their data.

Technology 129

Technology Technology Niche Campaign 129

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 17, 2022

Avnio is the only 100% Salesforce native Request for Proposal automated solution, helping organizations win more of the right business by answering complex RFPs in seconds and turning your company knowledge into your most valuable asset. Get out of the endless loop of searching for the right information.

Technology 71

Technology Technology Finance Engineering 71

SaaStr

AUGUST 25, 2023

#7 “Let’s not bother with RFPs. RFPs are a part of it too. Eventually… You will get bigger and steal a deal on an RFP. No matter what, going upmarket, being compliant, doing SOC 2, and doing RFPs are all part of closing bigger deals. They’re too much work, and we lose them all anyway.”

GTM 71

GTM Engineering Closing Start-ups 71

KO Advantage Group

MARCH 15, 2019

However, RFPs sometimes boxes you your strategic approach. Find out more about my experience with RFPs during my time at American Express and what our team eventually decided on regarding it—to keep the practice in our business process or let it go—in my new book: “Sell More. It takes at least a week to put together.

Prospecting 69

Prospecting Clients Strategize Conversion 69

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 30, 2020

Don’t fear the RFP. RFPs are so much work, and sometimes, the game is already rigged against you. But as you specialize the sales team, find a way to get them some help on RFPs. Almost everyone waits too long to specialize the sales team. You can do it even at $2m ARR. A bit more here. Get good at it. Get good at them.

Closing 109

Closing Negotiate Drivers/motivators Price 109

Engage Selling

AUGUST 30, 2019

Their sales VP told me, “Colleen, we have a long and proud history of losing all the RFPs where we have the incumbent … Read More » Years ago, I had a client based in Northern Europe and they were a ships services company.

Sell 72

Sell Clients Sales Service 72

Martech

JULY 18, 2022

Once you have satisfactory answers to the above questions, you can start drawing up a list of vendors to contact with RFPs. Get the daily newsletter digital marketers rely on. Processing.Please wait. For a deeper dive into what those questions mean, and profiles of leading ABM vendors, download our new ABM marketing intelligence report here.

B2B 101

B2B Cross-sell Contract Pipeline 101

The Advantexe Advisor

JUNE 23, 2021

As most businesses knows, answering a Request for Proposal (RFP) is a thankless, painstaking, and time-consuming task that too many times is a farce because the procurement department forces stakeholders to go out to bid even when they have already verbally awarded the contract to an existing provider or friend of the firm.

Contract 52

Contract Closing 52

Martech

JANUARY 10, 2023

We’re starting to see ‘metaverse budgets,’ RFPs and internal ‘metaverse teams’ as companies formally commit to the metaverse beyond simply ‘testing the waters.’” Virtual worlds and tokens are new for consumers and marketers alike. said Alex Howland, President and cofounder of virtual world platform Virbela.

Gaming 104

Gaming Retail Technology Technology 104

Hubspot

MARCH 5, 2021

In the business world, the process includes having vendors or companies submit RFPs (request for proposal) or RFQs (request for quote) so you can compare their products and services. That's similar to what businesses do when they need to purchase something as well, except it's a slightly more formal process.

Contract 100

Contract Price Contact Service 100

SaaStr

JULY 26, 2022

Often can avoid procurement, RFPs, and so many other headaches. Customers don’t expect as much in terms of security, compliance, etc. Customers often can deploy on their own. There is often just 1 stakeholder to sell to. Customers don’t expect you to build a feature before they buy.

Growth 141

Growth Start-ups Up-sell Strategize 141

Eliminate Your Competition

DECEMBER 6, 2020

DayDream Consulting doesn’t get many leads for the software, but it does receive a steady stream of RFPs (Requests For Proposal) to fill out. DayDream is very diligent about filling out these RFPs, but Ben regularly complains that they need better resources to complete those RFPs.

Territory 52

Territory Manufacturing Sports Retail 52

Martech

JULY 26, 2022

The most effective RFPs only request relevant information and provide ample information about your brand and its needs. This is an individual preference. If you run a formal process, be sure to give the same list of capabilities to each vendor to facilitate an apples-to-apples comparison. It should reflect high-level strategic goals and KPIs.

Customers 92

Customers Strategize Launch Campaign 92

Martech

MAY 13, 2022

Integrations, RFPs, measuring KPIs, and similar activities are not always easy. His resume shows that he has advanced and thrived professionally at companies of significant consequence like SAP. If he can, so can all of you. The difficult stuff. Don’t get me wrong.

Niche 110

Niche Technology Technology Represent 110

Martech

AUGUST 16, 2022

As World Vision conducted their CDP search, they identified four key themes that they wrote into requests for proposals (RFPs). See terms. 4 key areas of customer experience helped by CDPs. Digital data integration. Prior to their transformation, World Vision’s marketing strengths were in live events and traditional print catalogs.

Prospecting 96

Prospecting CRM Technology Technology 96

Martech

JULY 29, 2022

Decide whether or not you need to engage in a formal RFI/RFP process. The most effective RFPs only request relevant information and provide ample information about your brand and its ABM needs. Submit your list of the ABM capabilities you’ve identified, and set a timeframe for them to reply. Questions to ask at the demo.

Contract 112

Contract B2B Technology Technology 112

SaaStr

JUNE 29, 2020

Inside Sales Leaders Don’t Love Mapping Out All the Stakeholders, Doing Demo-after-Demo, Filling our RFPs, Getting on Jets (When We Can Again). If you are used to managing dozens of inside sales reps, you don’t want to talk to every stakeholder, do a dozen demos, fill out that RFP … unless it’s a crucial deal.

Inside sales 124

Inside sales Sales Contract Closing 124

SaaStr

JULY 10, 2019

The more RFPs you do, the better you get at the game. I remember we would get RFPs. It’s just generally, they can’t use these standards if the risk is perceived to be too high / too mission-critical. And you’re gonna have to lose a lot of ’em to get good at it. Just Be Honest. There’d be 14 DMP providers.

Gaming 44

Gaming Launch Start-ups Prospecting 44

Hubspot

FEBRUARY 22, 2017

You just might start seeing an increase in the number of RFPs landing in your inbox. Good for the upper-end of the sales pipeline, but you'll increase your chances of converting a prospect to a client if you treat your RFP responses like the strategic sales tools they're meant to be -- and that means avoiding these six hazardous pitfalls.

Gambling 69

Gambling Clients Territory Pipeline 69

Openview

MARCH 5, 2018

And finally consider this: if you are in the habit of waiting for RFPs to tell you what a company thinks it needs, you’re missing the boat. The smartest and most successful sales organizations aim to get ahead of RFPs by knowing what the company is trying to accomplish and helping them define what they need to do to get there.

Pitch 74

Pitch E-commerce Objectives and Key Results Manufacturing 74

Anthony Cole Training

FEBRUARY 9, 2015

If your sales team isn''t normally engaged in sales that are international in nature, go through 8 stages of RFPs, committee meetings, procurment vetting and finalist presentation and are sales that generate millions or billions of dollars then just maybe the research isn''t relative to your situation).

Management Consulting 180

Management Consulting Sales Consult Account management 180

SaaStr

APRIL 7, 2019

Usually, if they do an RFP, the winner is essentially awarded. RFPs are often mostly CYA and paper exercises, as well as ammunition for procurement to negotiate prices down. But every once in a while — not usually, but once in a while — an RFP also creates a significant new learning for a prospect/customer. But … not always.

Negotiate 73

Negotiate Price Contact Market share 73