What To Know Before You Bid on a Project (1 Secret No One Tells You)

[00:00:00] Rob: Recently, I got a request for proposal, an RFP, dropped into my inbox, and as I read through it, I’m looking at it and I’m thinking, “Boy, this thing is perfect. I, I think this is written exactly for me. I’m gonna get this job. There’s no question.” But then all of a sudden I realized, what if, what if this was written by somebody who does exactly what I do, a competitor, and they’re gonna get that job because they helped write the estimate?

[00:00:26] Hadn’t thought of that, did you? Well, guess what? It happens all the time. So here’s the question: How do you know whether or not you have a legitimate chance of winning that RFP when you submit your estimate, or if you’re just the second or third bidder and they just need you to offset all the other ones?

[00:00:43] How do you know? Let’s get into it.

[00:00:48] So obviously the first answer to the question of how do you know? You don’t know, right? But, but there are things you can do to start to offset and figure out whether or not it’s worth your time. So number one, if you get an RFP, a request for proposal or RFQ, whatever terminology it is for your industry.

[00:01:04] If you get one, you have to determine how much time do I wanna spend investing in putting this together? Is it worth it? Do I even have a chance? And so before you make that decision, you need to ask some questions, and you need to figure some things out before you can make that decision. So the first thing is, I always recommend is do a little research.

[00:01:24] Look at LinkedIn and figure out who are the people connected to this organization and the person putting out this RFP. If you find out that they are connected to one other of your competitors in your area, and you see LinkedIn posts or you see overlaps or you see some sort of a connection there that’s more prominent, it’s unlikely you’re gonna win that estimate.

[00:01:49] So what do you do then? Well, I would still proceed a little bit. I would make some phone calls and see if I could talk to that person and ask them some questions. But let’s back up before we go there. If you start doing a little bit more research and you find out that there’s nobody else doing this that they know or that they’re connected to, you may have the possibility of winning this estimate.

[00:02:09] You don’t know, but, but you have to do some more work

[00:02:12] So this happened to me recently where I got an RFP, and they had sent it as a Word document. I get the Word document, and you know how in the information you can look and see who the author was? Well, when I did that, I looked and I found a name. And so I did a Google search, and I found out where that person worked, what they did.

[00:02:33] And then I realized, well, they don’t work with the organization putting out the RFP, but they’re doing this work for this organization. But they were another type of firm, not what I do. So then I started to say, “Well, who do they know?” So I started doing some research on who they’re connected to on LinkedIn that could also do the work that I do.

[00:02:52] And the more I searched, the more I found that they didn’t have the connections that I thought they might have to do this type of work. So I realize, okay, the first step is they probably don’t have somebody that can do this, or if they do, there’s a reason they’re looking. So the next step is then to make a phone call or to reach out and see if you can connect on a phone call.

[00:03:14] What you’re gonna wanna do is wanna start asking some very pointed questions. And that’s after you do some ease in questions, like where if you’re just, uh, asking about some more s-specific questions about the RFP that they sent you. But at some point, you’re gonna need to ask the question: What happens if you don’t do this and complete this RFP?

[00:03:32] What happens then? And you’re gonna find out whether or not they absolutely have to do this, and there must be a reason for doing it, and what the result is if they don’t do it. So there’s little pain questions that go into that. The other thing is, is why are they doing this right now? So maybe there’s a reason they have to do it now, or maybe there’s a reason they don’t have to do it now and they’re just putting it out there to see if they can get the ball rolling.

[00:03:54] There’s nothing worse than having a project that you could start and then they tell you, “Well, we really don’t need it for the next year,” when it should take you 40 days, a 60-day project. You don’t really want those, right? So that’s one of those that you can find out what they want for timelines. The other thing you can do is, is asking the question: Have you ever done anything like this before?

[00:04:10] Have you ever, have you ever completed a project like this before or worked on a project like this before? And what often I find is that sometimes the people on the other end of that line say, “You know, I’ve never done this before.” Uh, and that’s okay. And I always say, “Well, that’s okay. That, that’s not unusual.

[00:04:24] I hear that all the time.” I wanna nurture them a little bit, make them feel comfortable. But when they say that, the next thing that I get into is, “Well, w-what are some of the questions that might be popping up in your head that you wanna know answers to before we get too far into this?” So you start to find out what their issues are, what their concerns are with this project.

[00:04:42] But if they go, “Yeah, we’ve wo- I’ve worked on a project like this before,” then you can start to have some conversation about, “Well, really tell me about what that was. How did that go? What type of vendor did you u- Did you use a vendor before? How did they perform? Would you mind sharing who that was?” And sometimes they just say it and by, “Oh, we use this company,” and that’s okay. Like that they, they, they have every right to say that. And sometimes they’re very protective, and they say, “Well, I can’t really tell you who that But as you gradually get into that conversation, what you’re gonna wanna do is start to ask the question: What did you like about that vendor?

[00:05:15] What did you not like about that vendor? And, and why aren’t you reaching out to them now? Because they’re, they could do this project, no? And they may say to you a couple of different things. One, “We’ve worked with them forever, and we probably will work with them again. Um, we’re just looking to see if we can get some p- other possibilities.”

[00:05:36] Is that a good sign or not a good sign? Leave me a comment to tell me if you think that is a red flag or not.

[00:05:41] And so if they give you some answers about that other vendor, you’ll start to get a sense for whether or not they’re gonna continue with that vendor or not continue with that vendor. Maybe they say something like, “Well, they price it so high, and we don’t really like that, and we think they should be less,” but you’re not gonna be any less.

[00:05:58] S- what happens then, right? And so ask that question. There are no questions that you can’t ask because it’s not right for you to ask. You have every right to ask any of those questions. But here’s what happens. Sometimes they get very defensive and very closed in, and they don’t wanna tell you the answers.

[00:06:16] That’s a different story. So the question then becomes, when they do that, does that mean that that’s unlikely that you’re gonna get that project? And the answer is probably it’s unlikely. So what if they say something like, “You know what? Everything you need is in this RFP. Why are you asking these questions?”

[00:06:35] And so what I would say would be, “Yeah, okay. Thank you. You know, I, I appreciate you telling me that, and, and I’ll continue to review through that. M- would you mind if I ask one more s- maybe a stupid question, but would you mind if I asked?” And they’re like, “Yeah, go ahead.” And when I ask the que- next question, I usually get a couple different responses, but here’s the question I ask.

[00:06:52] “Let’s say I decide I don’t wanna submit an, uh, an estimate for this RFP. Are you guys gonna be taken care of? In other words, are you gonna be okay? Is it gonna be okay that you have somebody already that you could work with? Do you have that already?” And, and it’s interesting what the answers can be, ’cause sometimes they go, “Yeah, actually, we are gonna be okay.

[00:07:12] We’ll be fine.” And the way that they say it and the tone that they say it, you get a sense that they’ve already made the decision. Now, when they give me that answer, guess how much time I have just saved trying to put together an estimate that has no chance of winning? This is critical to be able to get to the bottom of whether or not somebody actually has a need and wants to work with somebody new or wants to work with you.

[00:07:36] Or if they have somebody, and they’re just using your estimate to beat them up or try to get some different things going on, right? So think about it in terms of asking that question. Just take me out of the equation. Are you gonna be able to do what you need to do with this project?

[00:07:53] And if you can, are you gonna be okay with that? And if they answer, “Yeah, we’ll be f- totally fine, it’s okay,” then you’re not gonna get the project

[00:08:03] Now what if they said, “Well, here’s the thing, I need three bids”? I had a pro… I had an RFP come in one time where the guy said, “Uh, okay, listen. I, I’m, I’ma tell you right now, I know, yes, I know what you just asked me, and I’m, I’m pretty much, yes, I’m gonna use this other company. But I kinda need three bids.”

[00:08:17] What do you do then? And so here’s what I do. What I say is, “All right. No, no problem. Do me a favor. Send me the bid that you’ve gotten that you like. I’ll kinda reformulate it a little bit, and do you want me higher or lower? And what number do you want me to be at?” Now, it does two things. One,

[00:08:35] I get my competitor’s estimate in hand. I get a chance to take a look at that. I don’t care if they remove the number or not, I’ll know that the number that they want me to be at is either gonna be higher or lower based on what they tell me. But the key is, I get a chance to look at their estimate and get an idea of how I would compare if I did my estimate at the same time

[00:08:52] So can gain some information when they say that by their tone. But if they say, “Listen, I need three bids, and quite honestly, the one we always work with is way too high. They’ve been too high, and we just can’t work with them anymore.” Or they’re diffi- I had somebody one time tell me in an RFP, “They’ve been difficult to work with, and I don’t enjoy working with them.

[00:09:12] In fact, I… Based on our conversation we’ve had already so far, I feel like it might be a much easier conversation ’cause you’re already asking the really good questions that they didn’t even ask me.” So there’s things that you can do that will position yourself a little bit differently, but getting that information and getting an understanding of what the other vendors look like compared to you make a big difference in whether or not you decide whether or not you’re gonna spend the time writing out that estimate.

[00:09:37] Because if it’s not worth it, don’t do it.

[00:09:39] And by the way, if you’re listening to this as a podcast and not watching this on YouTube, I’m now posting these on YouTube, and you can see me doing these on YouTube. So why not subscribe there too so that if it’s easier to watch rather than listen, you can do it there too.

[00:09:54] So let me, so let me give you two other examples that came up for me one time. One example was I got a call, literally a call, followed by an email with an RFP request to send, uh, an estimate. And what they suggested was I should submit it because they would like to be able to work with us at some point.

[00:10:12] Now, here’s the thing. They had requested us to send estimates a few times in the past couple years, and I never won it. I never was able to get a good conversation, and I always had the sense that something wasn’t right. They already had somebody they wanted to work with. And so the last time that they called me, they said to me, “Hey, we would like to have you submit for this as, as an estimate.”

[00:10:32] And I said to them, “Boy, in the past, as what I’ve seen before,” ’cause this was a governmental agency. I said, “I’ve noticed that you’ve used the same company as you have the last several times. Every time it’s put out for an RFP, it’s always the same company. Is it just the case that you’re using them again and you’re just needing a third estimate?”

[00:10:51] And that conversation did two things. One, I found out I didn’t have to submit because I already knew the answer, and they– ’cause of the way that they answered. And number two, I knew who was gonna win that estimate before anybody else did, right? And the third piece that came out of that, which was even better, is they stopped reaching out to me because I– they knew they were getting called out, and I, I was never gonna win that anyway.

[00:11:13] So why, why do it, right? They decided not to call on me. Now, what’s weird is because this is a government agency, we do get referrals from them or from their service in an indirect way, and that does pan out. So I think they appreciated the fact that I was honest and, and, and made a comment to them that they felt like, “Hey, we got called out, but I also appreciate what he’s saying.”

[00:11:33] And the last example I wanna give you is one time I was on the other side of this. I had somebody reach out and said, “We wanna hire you for your services. However, we need three bids.

[00:11:43] We need some help putting this RFP together so we can send that out.” So I flat out asked them, “If I help you write this RFP, what are my odds of actually winning this RFP?” And they said, “Well, I mean, if you do this the best way, I would think you’d be able to win it, but I, I can’t guarantee that ’cause there’s a group of us that have to make this decision.”

[00:12:02] I said, “Okay, but if I work through this with you, I would get a little bit of an understanding that I’m helping you with this piece and investing some time in this.” And they said, “Oh, absolutely.” And so w- what you had to know is they put together the estimate or what they wanted to put as an RFP out, and then I helped them edit that a little bit, had some conversations with them, and explained why they had to word it this way versus that way because of the industry that I was in, right?

[00:12:26] And when they did that, they said, “Okay, I would’ve never thought of that. Thank you.” They put the RFP out. They said, “Make sure you submit,” and we ended up winning that project. I would not have known that RFP was coming out had they not reached out and said, “We need some help.” This was a previous client that had worked with us once before through another process, and they then reached out because they saw our work and they wanted to work with us again.

[00:12:50] That’s the key, was the relationship, and knowing that you can get the relationship before the r- RFP ever comes out. So your best case scenario on any RFP is to have the relationship, help them write the RFP so that you can submit and win the RFP. That’s the moral of the story, but that doesn’t always happen.

[00:13:11] And so when it doesn’t happen, you have things in your tool belt such as questions and approaches and thoughts and research, and you can put all that stuff together so that you increase your odds of winning that project, or you have the option to walk away because you don’t need to take the time.

[00:13:30] And if you write the estimate, you have to think about it in terms of the time that I’m gonna spend putting this together versus the possibility of several other clients that could be entering into my pipeline if I just did the things that I should be doing from a sales perspective versus the time writing this estimate.

[00:13:48] It’s a trade-off, and you have to decide when is it time to write the estimate and when is it time not to write the estimate. If you found this to be helpful, make sure you like and subscribe because there’s more content like this coming out in the future.