Most prospect “opportunities” are over before any meaningful conversation even starts. This is true whether the prospect sent out an RFP or the producer asks for a chance to quote.
The failure results because both an RFP and a quoting contest skip the most critical conversation: problem diagnosis. It’s the diagnosis that allows both the prospect and the producer to clearly understand the prospect's needs.
An RFP has already picked a winner
Being on the receiving end of an RFP is no reason to celebrate. Without knowing it, you’re about to play a game that can’t be won, or at best has ridiculously low odds.
Especially when your pipeline is empty, there is an adrenaline rush from having something to work on. This is almost always nothing more than a placebo.
When a prospect starts their selection process by sending out an RFP, your biggest advantage to win new business—diagnosing needs before offering solutions—has been taken away.
An RFP levels the playing field. Every agency is required to answer the same questions and check the same boxes. Nowhere does it give you an opportunity to do anything beyond confirming your ability to meet the minimum expectations. Because it was most likely written by their current broker, this is by design.
Of course, you know this because you have likely been on the writing end of RFPs for your clients. Yet, you still take the time to respond and cross your fingers that, by some miracle, you are chosen for the finalist round. Which, of course, only wastes more of your time.
Every agency that takes the time to respond does so because it can make itself look good (enough) on paper. When a buyer is holding ten responses that all read the same, they default to the name they already know, the incumbent.
Win by controlling the rules of the game
The unwinnable game is also being played and initiated by producers whose prospecting and sales approach is built around offering free quotes and look-alike capabilities presentations.
Practice quoting may be an even bigger waste of time than responding to RFPs. Every broker who quotes on an opportunity will go to the same carriers, who will quote the same plan designs at the same rates to everyone. Once again, the buyer is left with ten proposals that are identical, save for the agency name on the front page.
Knowing that, the next play in this playbook is to break out the also look-alike capabilities presentation. Because every buyer expects you to have the tools and resources to serve them, this is seen as nothing more than another way to emphasize your ability to meet the minimum expectations.
The most successful producers long ago abandoned competing with spreadsheets and capabilities decks. In its place, they compete with a conversation focused on the likely problems their prospect faces. They ask questions that allow the buyer to paint their own picture, one they usually find to be uncomfortable to discuss.
However, as uncomfortable as the initial confession may be for the prospect, it leads to a conversation that makes them feel more comfortable with each step forward. The right questions asked for the right reasons demonstrate more value than a spreadsheet and capabilities presentation ever could.
Price and products are still important, but must come later in the conversation. They are much more compelling once the buyer understands they have a problem that makes the products necessary.
Your clients don’t want to buy your products; they want to buy the peace of mind you deliver with them. They want the confidence that comes with knowing they have an advocate on their side who will do the worrying for them, long before a small problem turns into a fire that reaches the CFO's desk.
Confidence lies in the process
We have all witnessed, or been, a new producer who freezes in front of a prospect. Whether you’re the witness or the frozen producer replaying the meeting that night, the conclusion is usually the same: there was a lack of confidence that led to the awkward moment.
The assumed fix is just as automatic. It seems that the logical way to overcome the lack of confidence is for the new producer to push through and get enough reps under their belt.
That prescription is usually wrong, or at least incomplete. A majority of the lack of confidence stems from a lack of process rather than a lack of experience.
Sure, getting reps in is an important part of the producer development. But, without an effective sales process, additional reps just continue to erode confidence.
A producer without a process to lean on is winging it at every step and guessing what to do next. When the producer hasn’t been given a process to follow, the fear of the unknown grows.
There are few things we fear more than the unknown. In sales, you’ll never eliminate those fears completely, but having a well-defined, buyer-focused process that the producer can practice and trust is as close as you can get.
The process should be built first; ideally, before you even hire the producer. For one, seeing a path to success guided by an established, proven sales process will make the producer more confident about selling for you. That confidence will continue to grow as they practice it and make it their own. They become productive within weeks or months, rather than years.
None of this requires a bigger budget or a sharper pitch. It requires a viable, more effective option for responding to RFPs or begging for a chance to quote.
We’d like to suggest that our MORE System, which we train and coach employee benefits producers, would be a perfect fit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should an agency still respond to RFPs?
Sometimes, when the relationship already exists, or the opportunity is worth the effort. But the RFP itself rarely decides a winner. The conversation that happens before it, where a producer diagnoses the buyer's real problem, determines whether the response even has a chance.
How does the MORE Sales System tip the odds in a producer’s favor?
The MORE System is Q4i's sales process, built in three phases: Executive Briefing, Strategic Analysis, and Alignment Plan. It gives producers a repeatable way to diagnose a buyer's situation and build a plan around it, instead of leading with products or improvising a pitch.
How do agencies build confidence in new producers faster?
Give them a process to run, not just more meetings to sit through. A producer who trusts the structure of a conversation stops improvising under pressure, and the confidence owners are waiting for shows up as a result of that structure, not before it.
Content originally published by Q4intelligence
Photo by JK_kyoto