One relic of the industrial revolution is the Request for Proposal. The RFP, a favorite tool of the purchasing department, is a document that outlines the requirements of a company and asks companies to respond in a standardized format. If all responses are basically similar than the company can feel good about going with the low cost provider.

The problem is that purchasing departments adopted this approach for just about everything. Unfortunately, the RFP process fails miserably when a company is looking for a differentiated, value based solution.

Image you are a company that has compelling research that a commercial using Justin Beiber would be the most effective way to sell a product. So they send out an RFP and ask companies to respond to the requirements. Only problem, there is only one Justin Bieber. An RFP would be a waste of time.

Do you offer a unique solution that can’t be effectively communicated through an RFP? If so, why are you still answering them?