By Scott Gruher, Sales Benchmark Index (SBI)
Why are RFPs wearing you out? Because your offering is becoming more commoditized every day. Customers want to level the playing field. Your team is responding to RFPs that they have little chance of winning. You need to change course quickly to avoid the competitive blood bath. In this post we will discuss how to avoid the RFP plague.
Winning more deals at higher margins requires getting in early. To get in early requires a paradigm shift. It requires transformational thinking versus taking the easy path of what worked yesterday.
Moving upstream is what we call 
“selling in the orange” (see visual below). Selling in the orange involves influencing the buyer before a rep is present. It necessitates a shift in your sales strategy. It is much more difficult than selling in the white space shown below. Selling in the white space is becoming less effective each day. If you sell in the orange you will win more deals at better prices.
