How to Manage the RFP Process to Your Advantage

The RFP process can be a big source of frustration or a critical point of competitive leverage. All too often, it is the former, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

Over the past few months, I’ve encountered two situations in which clients drafted RFPs that were not in their best interest and caused great difficulties for the providers.

The first concerned a distributor who had developed an extremely productive relationship with a major client. The supplier had utilized its unique abilities to improve the client's production process. The results were stellar. What happened next? At contract renewal time, the client's purchasing group issued an RFP for the products without the related services and made it clear that lowest price (not most value) would win the business.

The second situation concerned a major transportation and logistics company. Like the distributor, this company had developed very innovative services that greatly improved the client's ability to operate flexibly and efficiently and to penetrate new markets. In our discussions, the company’s executives reflected that it didn’t seem to matter what they did for their client because in the end, the RFPs were all about price.