Today, I wanted to share with you some of the lessons learned from my first ever experience with a banking RFP process (which we did not win, but it was a great lesson after all).

So, what may help to win the mandate, if the process involves RFP?

✅ Build the relationship before

The very reason we were approached to take part in this RFP was through personal networking. Otherwise, I would have never known about this opportunity, since it was not public. Unfortunately, I did not take the time to try and learn more about the needs of the bank and the different priorities of the teams, even though it was not too difficult to ask. 🤦🏼

So, loud and clear lesson – make the most (in a respectful and compliant way, obviously) from your existing relationships to learn about the details of the project, key stakeholders, and their priorities.

Another lesson learned – relationships can start or grow from a lost RFP. It’s never too late.

✅ Be specific, don’t answer “yes” – explain how you will deliver

One of the biggest mistakes I made when completing the document was to answer “yes” to a few questions such as “confirm that you can deliver XXX services” or “do you have the capacity to provide YYY”.

Those questions looked so simple and self-explanatory, that it did not even occur to me to add details or share how exactly this can be done. Next time, I would make sure that every single answer will be long enough and will provide additional context.

✅ Do your homework and understand how this project or service is aligned with the overall goal of the client

We were lucky that the overall background story of why the bank initiated the RFP and what were the problems that needed solving was clear. However, several smaller pain points that had been important for some departments were not mentioned in the RFP document, so we missed them. Flashback – remember point 1 about building relationships, it could make a difference.

What I felt we did well was our research of the public information about the potential client, their financial statements, annual reports, organizational structure, and even recent news. It allowed us to wrap some of our answers around that context and it was perceived quite well. It is always a good idea when the answers are linked to the knowledge of the company.

✅ State clearly how you are different so that your documentation or pitch are memorable

A lot of bidders will look exactly the same with respect to service levels, experience, and other factors. So, there has to be something special about your service that’s different and ideally, this factor is addressing some of the pain points of the client or otherwise is aligned to their vision of where they need to be.

In our case, this differentiating factor was our ability to provide examples, metrics, and data based on quite unique experiences that others probably did not have, and also explain why a more generic approach [of our potential competitors] would be just a short-term fix, but won’t address the underlying root cause of the problem.

From the debrief session, we actually learned that we got some of the highest scores for our potential ability to meet the company’s strategic objectives, and my speculation is that it was due to this differentiating factor.

We could have done much better had we added one more differentiating factor (which we had, but did not use – our ability to provide insights and advice on recent trends and new developments related to the service). I mean, we would have done it anyway but it would be perfect to mention it. Well, flashback point 2 – spell everything out!

✅ Ask for a debrief

Well, the reason I’m able to write this is that we had a great debrief conversation and from now on are able to do it better.

I’m curious to learn from you about your RFP experience! 😊