Tiger Woods and RFI responses

Any golf fans out there? Happen to notice anything odd in the last big tournament? Yes, that’s right: the amazing Tiger Woods failed to make the cut in the recent US Open, and so was eliminated after just two of the four rounds.

The golfer’s cut is, I suppose, the equivalent of the purchaser’s RFI. The field is scythed down: only the most likely winners survive.

When responding to an RFI, many teams have a simple view of the task in hand: to make it through the cull, so that they receive the RFP.

Simple – and, to my mind, somewhat simplistic. When responding to an RFI, I don’t merely want to make it onto the shortlist. Wherever possible, I want our RFI response to help to position us at the forefront of the customer’s thinking – at least being viewed as the “one most likely to” win, and ideally shaping the buyers’ views so that their subsequent RFP plays to our strengths.

This article was written by Jon on 30 June, 2006 and filed under Musings, Processes & best practice. If you found it useful, you can with others. To receive automatic updates, subscribe to The Proposal Guys via RSS or Email.

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