3 Ways to Unify your Sales and PreSales Teams Through the RFP Process

“The Mantra of Teamwork:

When there’s resistance, there is friction.

When there’s friction, there is fire.

When there’s fire, there is a breakdown.

When a breakdown occurs, teamwork crumbles.”

― Joey Lawsin, Creation by Law.

Friction has its benefits, and with the correct amount, Sales and PreSales teams can partner for success. But if there is too much friction, relationships can rapidly spiral into a pointless blame game (“It’s PreSales fault for losing the Bid!”), and if there is too little collaboration and adaptability, silos start to form (“It’s Sales’ fault for not providing us with what we need to generate a winning proposal!”). 

If this sounds familiar, it’s OK; we’re here to help.

Collaborate on the Executive Summary

Creating effective Executive Summaries takes time, and clients can tell the difference between a summary prepared by a Bid Writer and one written by a Sales Executive who has been working closely with a prospect. A Bid Manager may have knowledge of a prospect’s business challenges, but Sales Executives should be able to clearly articulate how their solution will address a prospect’s business objectives within their own environment, and differentiate itself from the competition. 

If a Sales Executive can’t write a compelling Executive Summary, it demonstrates that they don’t fully understand a prospect’s objectives, and therefore poses the question, “Why are we bidding for this opportunity in the first place?” The best strategy for success is to avoid playing the ‘blame game’ at all. PreSales and Sales teams are most effective when they collaborate on an Executive Summary, combining both of their perspectives to clearly demonstrate that they understand the needs of their prospect, by communicating a strong value proposition for their solution. The Executive Summary is often the key element of an RFP response that ultimately determines whether or not you’ll win or lose a deal. 

Create a centralised knowledge base on a single platform 

If your ‘content library’ is currently managed on G-drive or SharePoint, do not accept this as the norm. Take prompt action to establish an up-to-date, centralised content repository. Not only will your collaborative efforts be more organised, but you can ensure that the content is accurate and up-to-date. Never assume that your often outdated content is still appropriate for your next Bid.

By using an RFP automation solution such as the Avnio Response Cloud, you can quickly and easily establish a content library that’s both current and accurate. The Avnio Response Cloud is designed for clients who want to increase win rates, process more responses and gain greater insights to enable better decisions. Making sure that everyone on your team has access to the most recent and accurate information will ensure that you are submitting bids with high precision and accuracy to win the right business.

Enable Effective Communication

In order to create effective collaboration, communication is vital. The Avnio Assistant, enables teams to work more productively, as you’ll benefit from internal knowledge sharing. You can query your Response Library, ask if you have any questions assigned to you, get response updates and answer directly from a channel of your choice. Strong internal communication has a cascading effect that improves customer interactions and generates greater win rates.

It’s important to remember that everyone in your organisation is striving to achieve a common objective: to win more business. Through enhanced collaboration, Avnio ensures a 360-degree view of your response, enabling better decisions that increase revenue, decrease costs, and ensure compliance. Organisations that collaborate more effectively, create a centralised knowledge base on a single platform, and ensure active communication regularly outperform their competition, and although every machine has its friction, dollars flow where resistance is low.