Key Components to Managing RFPs (or, Staying Sane Under (Proposal) Fire) -
RFPs are like snowflakes; no two are alike. But while there is no fits-all solution to make the job easier, there are key components in the RFP lifecycle that you can control to enough of an extent to keep your sanity (most days).
Better to drive the bus than be in the path of the bus. Proposals in response to RFPs are quick moving project management tests. Whether you have one week or one month to respond, you need to manage the process to produce the best deliverable in the time you have. Some RFPs are all specific questions that become your checklist for completion. Others ask general questions and don’t offer a specified format, so you have to be more diligent in reading them to make your own checklist. Either way, you need to take stock of what story needs to be told, and what resources you’ll need to tell it.
Setting deadlines to collect content and produce and edit drafts is key to managing the process. Sometimes it can be like herding cats to follow up on these deadlines, but if you can start out organized, identify the long poles in the tent to jump on, and set some reasonable interim deadlines, you will be in much better shape than if you let the process take on a life of its own. Hopefully you have a kick-off call (with attorneys present) to review all this and better still send a copy of your proposal project plan around for confirmation.
No need to reinvent the wheel; just keep air in the tires. Proposal automation systems can sound like a magical solution to make responding to RFPs easier, but if those are not in your budget, the same can be achieved just by good housekeeping. If you don’t already have a template for consistent proposals, make one. Bonus points if you have style sheets to keep all the formatting consistent (and easier to edit). While the goal is always to customize a proposal for our clients’ issues and industry, we almost always use canned content to start the ball rolling. Take care of this content. Identify subject matter experts you can ask to review content on a regular basis to keep it current. Keep content organized and accessible however your team is set up to best share.
Once you do customize a proposal it’s dangerous to recycle them (oops, sorry client, we forgot to change all the instances of the last company we sent that to), so having a template and easy access to plain content makes it less stressful to create a draft to customize. Find your own shortcuts, too. I keep sticky notes (the electronic kind) on my desktop with things like our DUNS number or other short snippets that are asked for all the time and I can just cut and paste from my desktop.
Make it easy for them to pick your firm. Many companies these days have added requirements to RFPs limiting page count or even specifically saying not to include anything that can be found on your firm’s website. When there are no such restrictions it can be hard to convince your attorneys that less is more, but it’s a battle worth fighting. There are three C’s of a good RFP response: it should be complete, concise and compelling The goal should be to impress the client with your skills and experience in solving problems like the ones they are facing in as few pages as possible. Just because 100 attorneys could support the matter, does not mean 100 resumes should be sent to the client.
I consider some of the best RFPs to be those where the need is obvious, and the questions are such that you can tell they want to compare apples to apples quickly. So look for those key ingredients and don’t hide them in a lot of irrelevant fluff. Tell them your relevant experience, give them quality references, and remind them what differentiates your firm from all the others. They don’t need to know the history of your firm or about everything you do beyond what they are asking. Think about who is reading your proposal; they are looking to solutions to their problems, not the complete story of how great your firm is.
In part two of this RFP blog, I'll talk about bid decisions and debriefs.
Be sure to listen to the ILTACON 2016 session “RFPs: Is There a Better Process?” for additional insights on the RFP process from both the law firm and law department perspective.