RFPs: How to get what you want
summary
Practical how-to for writing RFPs that get comparable bids: shows a worst-case RFP that is 27 pages with a half‑page scope, 214 vendor questions, 19 firms bidding $35,000–$235,000 and no decision. Recommends 3–5 page RFPs, state specific goals and constraints, publish a budget range, list internal resources and content status, give detailed integrations specs, allow Q&A and at least 10 business days (ideally 3–4 weeks), and never ask for spec work.
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chapters (33)
- 0:00Introduction
- 1:38Why this talk
- 5:18Do you really need to write one
- 9:33Other phrases that mean nothing
- 12:15Worst RFP ever
- 16:23Outline
- 16:58List
- 18:45Specific constraints
- 19:25Budget
- 21:16Specific exclusions
- 23:31Internal Resources
- 24:33Outline the Status
- 24:59RFP Database
- 26:16Give us time
- 26:44Allow for QA
- 28:07Dont ask for spec work
- 29:18Streamline paperwork
- 30:06Decisions matrix
- 31:20Youre buying a process
- 33:14Summary
- 34:19Feedback
- 35:55Clients as a Service
- 37:04MM Rider
- 38:06Project from Hell
- 41:06Good RFP vs Bad RFP
- 43:21How to get a good RFP
- 44:40Change order
- 45:16Content of speech
- 45:39Where do I start
- 47:21Cure analogy
- 48:09Content strategy
- 49:03Content ownership
- 49:19Sales
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