LinkedIn Posts
I need to know about every RFP in my key account before it's released.
An RFP that lands without warning puts your team on someone else's timeline.
I need to know about every RFP in my key account before it's released.
An RFP that lands without warning puts your team on someone else's timeline. Teams that know how and why the client releases RFPs get invited in early, and sometimes help write them.
Five questions to see if your team can do this job today:
- Does your team know which RFPs in your service area it missed last year, and why?
- Does your team understand who releases RFPs at the client and how they decide to?
- Does procurement know your team's full capabilities?
- Has your champion asked procurement to include you in every RFP in your specialty area?
- Does procurement consult your team before an RFP is written?
Two or more no's, and the next RFP may reach your team after the decision criteria are set.
We had an account increase its spend with us to $10M in revenue, a 100X increase in just 18 months. Based on that spike, we knew the client's finance and procurement team would eventually target our business for discounts and pricing drops.
We didn't wait for that to happen. First, we proactively influenced the client's decision criteria, outlining the capabilities they needed to hit their stated business goals from their point of view. Second, we helped our champion shape an RFP. Then we asked our champion to issue it with procurement as a way to validate and protect the current partnership. We ran these plays using our entire account team: finance, contracts, marketing, sales and delivery.
Procurement issued the RFP 3 months later at the request of our champion. The procurement manager consulted with us to help them write the document. We won the RFP that we helped create and signed a new 5-year contract worth close to $30M in total spend.
Do not wait for an RFP to land in your inbox. Influence the strategy, decision criteria, and scoring before it's on procurement's radar.
Our system, the Vitality Index, shows your key account teams where they stand today, the work it takes to level up, and how to do it, until they reach a vital partnership that lasts.
When did your team last hear about an RFP in your key account before it was released?
We built a free, 4-minute Key Account Risk Assessment. It gives you a risk score for your key accounts across team alignment, account planning, account transitions, and visibility. Link in the comments.
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