Setting yourself apart from other respondents, for the right reasons, is the name of the game in your RFP response. In this blog I will talk about one area where you have the opportunity to raise your score and set your response apart from others – the experience requirements.
The experience requirements are typically the first rated section of a RFP response. While scoring for this section is usually of lower value than the rest of the rated requirements, it is your chance to capture the eye of the evaluators and score extra points.
All respondents are answering the same questions as you, and many will have similar experience and skill sets. Knowing this is your chance to show that you have more to offer.
For example, stating you have 25 years’ experience is fine, but others may have the same. What sets you apart from others? Some of the ways to enhance your response and show evaluators that you have more to offer is by:
Emphasizing experience that is specific to the client’s project, requirements, or specific industry. Say more than you have 25 years of experience filling manager level positions.
If you have 25 years’ experience in IT recruitment, and the client is asking for Financial Business Analysts, spell out how many BAs and at what levels you have placed over the 25.
Break out the 25 years and show the growth of placing candidates (increasing yearly).
Highlight where they were placed, especially if they have been placed in big-name companies.
Show how your company has grown internal staff over that period…include sales and revenue high level numbers.
Indicate regional or national recruitment figures and its growth.
The above are just a few ways to improve your score in one section of a RFP response. Possibly more importantly though is the tone you will have established with the evaluators when they read your comprehensive response. The aim of such a comprehensive response is to grab the evaluators attention by showing them you have more to offer. Now, the goal for your RFP response team is to apply this principle to as many of the sections of the response as possible.
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