28 pieces you should have in your pre-RFP content marketing library

Imagine the customer finding a web page providing insight into the issues they face in getting what they want. What would it look like? What would they do with the information? Below are a series of topics that a potential customer would find very helpful if you published the answers. Take a look at this list as you consider what the customer needs to know to write an RFP that results in them getting what they need:

1. Ways that we can work together that don’t require an RFP
2. How much should it cost?
3. What matters when selecting a vendor?
4. Pricing models that deliver the best results for this kind of service
5. What are the minimum qualifications to perform this kind of work?
6. Things that could cause this type of project to fail
7. Dealing with scalability
8. Options for risk sharing
9. Building risk mitigation into this type of project
10. What should be included or excluded from an SOW for this type of project?
11. Making sure inevitable tradeoffs are made the way you prefer
12. What makes past performance relevant to this type of work?
13. Comparing platforms, formats, and standards relevant to this type of project
14. What certifications should staff have to be qualified to do this kind of work?
15. Do performance bond and insurance requirements protect the customer on this type of project?
16. Should you require a product demonstration before making an award decision?
17. Are oral proposals worth it?
18. Best practices for oral proposals
19. Issues regarding project scheduling
20. How contractors cheat
21. How contractors lowball their pricing
22. What it takes to ensure a smooth transition
23. How to handle the intellectual property issues that can impact this project
24. How to avoid having a vendor conflict of interest negatively impact this type of work
25. Information you need to make decisions
26. Streamlining the acquisition process
27. Decisions you face on the way to procuring what you need
28. How various acquisition strategies can impact a project like this

Remember, the goal is to help the customer. Writing an RFP that gets what you want is harder than writing a proposal. Try it sometime. When you put advice out there, whether it’s on the web, on LinkedIn, hand delivered, or some other way, the customer is free to take it or leave it. Do it right, and it’s a valid part of their pre-procurement research.

If you don’t do this, someone else will. Someone else will help the customer decide amongst alternatives, set their priorities, decide trade-offs, and write the requirements. How much do you want to bet that what they publish will justify writing requirements that support their positioning, give them a scoring advantage, and potentially eliminate yours from consideration?

If you publish information like this on a regular basis you cast a net to attract customers dealing with these issues. You begin the process of relationship marketing in writing. You become their go-to source for getting what they need. You become recognized as an insightful expert who knows how to balance the issues the customer faces. At one per week you’ve got six months' worth above.