Originally presented at DrupalCon Denver (March 20, 2012).

1. No RFPs!
Why requests for proposal are bad for business
(and how we can stop them)
Crystal Williams, Brian Skowron, Todd Nienkerk, and Zach Chandler
DrupalCon Denver | March 20, 2012
#NoRFPs

2. Who we are
#NoRFPs

3. Who we are
• Crystal Williams
• Brian Skowron, Lullabot
• Todd Nienkerk, Four Kitchens
• Zach Chandler, Stanford University
#NoRFPs

4. Who we are
Favorite RFP memories
#NoRFPs

5. Why RFPs?
#NoRFPs

6. Why RFPs? ➜ Good reason
The Good Reason
There’s work to be done, and a customer is looking
for vendors to help
#NoRFPs

7. Why RFPs? ➜ Bad reasons
The Bad Reasons
“That’s just how we’ve always done it”
#NoRFPs

8. Why RFPs? ➜ Bad reasons
“I think I’m supposed to write an RFP”
#NoRFPs

9. Why RFPs? ➜ Bad reasons
“It’s a standard requirement”
#NoRFPs

10. Why RFPs? ➜ Bad reasons
Required to gather competitive bid for projects over
some amount of money
#NoRFPs

11. Why RFPs? ➜ Really bad reasons
The Really Bad Reasons
Pricing a project to gain leverage over an existing
vendor
#NoRFPs

12. Why RFPs? ➜ Really bad reasons
Free consulting: Get a blueprint, take it in house
#NoRFPs

13. Why RFPs? ➜ Really bad reasons
Risk aversion: Displace responsibility to the vendor
#NoRFPs

14. Why RFPs? ➜ Really bad reasons
Qualifying new vendors
#NoRFPs

15. Why respond?
Best-case scenario
#NoRFPs

16. Why respond? ➜ Best-case scenario (Crystal Williams)
Small shops, big projects
It’s not common (or easy), but it is possible for an
exceptionally well qualified team to break through
to the “Big Leagues” with RFPs
#NoRFPs

17. Why respond? ➜ Best-case scenario (Crystal Williams)
Practice “safe RFP”
Appropriate Complexity to the Size of Project?
Prior Relationship or Internal Advocate
If you can’t afford to lose this project, you might not
be able to afford to win in
#NoRFPs

18. Why respond?
Adjacent benefits
#NoRFPs

19. Why respond? ➜ Adjacent benefits (Lullabot)
Sending a bigger message
We knew there was a chance we’d lose a recent
RFP, but we also knew the potential of other
projects from the client
RFP response was a way to demonstrate
capabilities in a more comprehensive way to a wider
audience
#NoRFPs

20. Why respond? ➜ Adjacent benefits (Lullabot)
If you assume you’re going to lose, is there still an
upside?
#NoRFPs

21. Why respond?
Product analysis
#NoRFPs

22. Why respond? ➜ Product analysis (Lullabot)
Using RFPs to test a new service
With Lullabot’s new Videola service, RFPs helped us
encounter questions we hadn't thought of, in a low-
pressure setting
We were able to perform product and business
analysis driven by actual client needs
#NoRFPs

23. Why respond? ➜ Product analysis (Lullabot)
RFPs can teach you about your strengths and
weaknesses relative to a new market
#NoRFPs

24. Why respond?
Maybe you shouldn’t
#NoRFPs

25. Why respond? ➜ Maybe you shouldn’t (Four Kitchens)
30-40 hours per RFP response
$5,000-7,000 opportunity cost
Won only 22% of the RFP-driven proposals we
submitted
Only 16% of work resulted from RFPs
#NoRFPs

26. Why respond? ➜ Maybe you shouldn’t (Four Kitchens)
On the flip side...
84% of work involved no RFPs — just personal
connections and word-of-mouth
#NoRFPs

27. Why respond? ➜ Maybe you shouldn’t (Four Kitchens)
Conclusions
RFPs have driven a small, but not insignificant,
amount of business
It costs less for us to send a team to meet a
potential client than responding to an RFP
#NoRFPs

28. Why respond? ➜ Maybe you shouldn’t (Four Kitchens)
Collateral damage:
Word’s gotten out that Four Kitchens “doesn’t
respond to RFPs”
At least one client did not send us an RFP as a
result
#NoRFPs

29. Try this at home
#NoRFPs

30. Try this at home
Calculate your “hit rate”
List all RFPs you’ve ever replied to, and mark those
you won
#NoRFPs

31. Try this at home
Calculate how reliant you are on RFPs
List all projects you’ve ever “won,” and mark those
that actually followed an RFP-proposal process
#NoRFPs

32. Try this at home
Calculate the cost of responding to an RFP
time spent writing proposal,
communicating with client, etc.
× your blended rate
opportunity cost
+ travel expenses
cost of responding
#NoRFPs

33. Try this at home
Now weigh that cost against
• Project’s revenue
• Will you actually make money?
• Likelihood of RFP win
• Are there other projects you are more likely to
win?
#NoRFPs

34. Meanwhile, on the client’s
side...
#NoRFPs

35. The client speaks
Clients like RFPs because they creates a sense of
rigor around the selection process
...and it’s familiar...
#NoRFPs

36. The client speaks
We can build a better
process
#NoRFPs

37. The client speaks ➜ Build a better process
• personalized invitation to bid
• expository sketch (not a specification)
• presentations
• Q&A period
• documented vendor review process
• executive summary
• SoW should be collaborative and iterative
#NoRFPs

38. The client speaks ➜ Build a better process
This results in more work, but a better result, for the
client and the project
#NoRFPs

39. Advice to clients
#NoRFPs

40. Advice to clients
Require speaking to the people who are going to
work on the project
Salespeople should be facilitators, not the
mouthpieces of the vendor
#NoRFPs

41. Advice to clients
Beware of low bids
They are often too good to be true
#NoRFPs

42. Advice to clients
Pre-select, research, and vet vendors
No open bids
#NoRFPs

43. Advice to clients
Do not create an exact specification in advance
#NoRFPs

44. Advice to clients
Check references
Word of mouth is not always right
#NoRFPs

45. Advice to clients
Be open about your budget, and ask vendors if they
feel it is feasible
You may be wasting many vendors’ time only to
discover your budget is way off the mark
#NoRFPs

46. Advice to vendors
#NoRFPs

47. Advice to vendors
Ask clients how many other vendors they’re inviting
to bid
#NoRFPs

48. Advice to vendors
Be open: Ask if it’s really worth your time to
respond
#NoRFPs

49. Advice to vendors ➜ Ask if it’s worth your time
“Why were we invited to bid?”
“Are vendors with existing relationships under
consideration?”
“How did you find out about you us?”
#NoRFPs

50. Advice to vendors
Ask if another vendor had been hired to write an
RFP or evaluation
In these cases, it’s likely that vendor will get the job
— not you
#NoRFPs

51. Advice to vendors
Ask about the selection process
#NoRFPs

52. Advice to vendors
Require a phone, video, or in-person meeting
Evaluate client consensus around requirements,
goals
#NoRFPs

53. Advice to vendors
Ask if the client has ever embarked on a project like
this before
If not, their expectations in terms of cost and
difficulty may not be realistic
#NoRFPs

54. Advice to vendors
Does the client respect your work and industry?
Or are you just a bunch of “techies”?
#NoRFPs

55. Advice to vendors
Offer alternatives to the RFP-proposal process
As part of any sales or negotiation process, the
evaluation system itself is often negotiable
#NoRFPs

56. Advice to vendors ➜ Offer alternatives
Offer to write an evaluation rather than a proposal
See “Stop Writing Project Proposals” by Jonathan
Wold, Smashing Magazine: cog.gd/3l2
#NoRFPs

57. Advice to vendors ➜ Offer alternatives
Suggest RFI instead of RFP
“Do you want to proceed?”
“Not sure if we’re a fit. Let’s tell you more about
ourselves.”
#NoRFPs

58. Where do we go from
here?
#NoRFPs

59. Where do we go from here?
• Crystal Williams
• Brian Skowron, Lullabot
• Todd Nienkerk, Four Kitchens
• Zach Chandler, Stanford University
#NoRFPs

60. Where do we go from here? ➜ Final words
Responsible bid process
#NoRFPs

61. Resources
#NoRFPs

62. Resources
• Stop Writing Project Proposals
Jonathan Wold, Smashing Magazine
http://cog.gd/3l2
• RFPs: The Least Creative Way to Hire People
Greg Hoy, A List Apart
http://cog.gd/28b
#NoRFPs

63. Resources
• 6 Steps to Writing a Better Request for Proposals
Confluent Forms
http://cog.gd/3l3
• Buying Wins
Joe Rinaldi, Cognition
http://cog.gd/30p
#NoRFPs