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Business Plans and Strategies”
Do You Want More Revenues?
RFPs?
“Who needs them?”
“They are complicated and way too much work.”
“I don’t have the time to reply to them.”
If this sounds like you, then you really need to keep reading.
Do you bring in $1,000 per hour in sales for your business? Would you like to land a really big customer? Someone who writes cheques for over $100,000 without worrying about it? Would you like more business from a company that always pays its bills?
You owe it to yourself and to your small business to check into RFPS. The Federal, Provincial and municipal governments issue RFPs totalling billions of dollars each year. Not interested in doing work for any layer of government? How about doing work for or selling goods or equipment to your electric or water utility? Still too big? Would you want to do business with your local school or hospital?
Maybe you’re more interested in working with sporting events, like the FIFA World Women’s Cup, Canada Games, Provincial Summer games?
As you’ve probably guessed, all of these “businesses” use RFPs to get the goods and services they need. If you’re thinking that “RFPs always go to the lowest bidder”, you are wrong! In most of the thousands of RFPs that I’ve reviewed, the price is usually a fairly small component of the evaluation process, Generally, most government agencies want to know that you are an expert in your field and that you can do the job without causing any problems,
That’s why you got into business, wasn’t it? To do the job right, the first time, at a fair price. So, use RFPs to get business. We would be pleased to help you as we have helped other small businesses gain sales and profits from RFPs.
March 10th, 2011 by barryHow Much RFP Business Are You Planning To Lose?
Do your hands go clammy when you see those dreaded letters…RFP ?
Do you hate prospects who ask you what you do and how much you charge?
95% of business people answer those two questions with different answers. I don’t get it.
Requests
F or
P roposals
are exactly that. Someone (and that someone is usually a national or international company or a public agency or a branch of government) wants you to give them a proposal. That means they want you to make them an offer! Are you making so much money that you don’t want to make an offer to a large, potential customer?
Does your business plan state that you are going to ignore large prospects? Probably not!
Like most owners of Canadian small businesses, you pay taxes to the federal government, your provincial government and municipal government. You probably also contribute to the revenues of the power company, phone company, various insurance companies, airlines, automobile companies … well, you get the picture. You are paying a lot of money each year to very large organizations. Wouldn’t it be nice to get some of it back and maybe get a very profitable return on your contributions?
Every one of those large organizations has a purchasing department, and every one of those purchasing departments is mandated to get the best deal they can for their organization. Virtually all of their external purchases are tendered through RFPs. That’s billions of dollars every year.
This is an important topic, so stay tuned for more instalments….
February 2nd, 2011 by barry