Our client issued an RFP for $30m that we created for them and won

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, and pressure us to lower their costs.

We didn't wait for that to happen. We got busy running these 4 plays to protect and grow the account during an RFP process before it was even on procurement's radar.

First, we proactively influenced the client's decision criteria, outlining the capabilities they need to hit their stated business goals from their POV.

Second, we helped our champion "shape" an RFP. We co-developed inclusion and exclusion criteria, building around real risks the client had experienced before, and we helped set the scoring toward our strengths.

Next, we asked our champion to issue an RFP with procurement as a way to validate and protect the current partnership, not replace it.

Finally, we ran these plays using our entire account team: finance, contracts, marketing, sales, and delivery. Everyone contributed to executing the plays we needed to run in order to win the RFP and protect our business.

The results:

Procurement eventually 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. When your system places you in the driver’s seat and in control of the outcomes, you can forecast with confidence.

Next week an RFP could land in your inbox. Will you be ready?

The RFP is one of the 21 Growth Drivers we address in the Vitality Index, The Key Account Growth System. We handcrafted 54 plays for this one driver at every level of partnership. Our system diagnoses and scores your accounts, builds the exact growth strategy the team needs now to increase sales, and guides execution until you become a Vital Partner to your accounts. So, if you are reacting to RFPs and losing them or losing your margins, this system could help you save time and money and avoid lost opportunities.

Growing key accounts can be complex, so we distilled this type of work into a system everyone can use no matter what level of experience you bring to the table. It was built from the same approach we used to create some of the largest partnerships in our industry that have lasted decades and are still running.

Winning, growing, and protecting key accounts has been our life's work for the past 30 years. In the Vitality Index, we don't tell you what to do. We show you, because we lived it. This is the system we wished we had years ago. But now, it's here! If becoming a top-producing account team is important to you, then the Vitality Index can help.

We made a sample for you to try. This is not the actual system, but it will show you a practical plan for growing a live customer in your portfolio. This snapshot will give you a diagnostic, analysis, and an actual growth plan for where you currently sit across two of the seven Domains: Relationships and Competitiveness.