Track Two – Business Development
RFP Best Practices and
Emerging Trends
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RFP Best Practices and Emerging Trends
Introductions –
• Christopher Batio
Director, Marketing & Business Development
Pierce Atwood LLP
• Jeff Baron
Director, National Pursuit Team for New Business Development
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
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RFP Best Practices and Emerging Trends
Agenda –
• The Professional Services Firm Perspective
• The Law Firm Perspective
• Bringing the Perspectives Together – Discussion/Q&A
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RFP Best Practices and Emerging Trends
The Professional Services Firm Perspective –
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Why Proposals Still Matter
What Clients Seek
The Go/No-Go Decision
Value Propositions
Client Debriefs
The Emergence of Procurement-Driven Proposals
Role and Responsibilities of Marketing & Sales
Lessons Learned
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RFP Best Practices and Emerging Trends
Why Proposals Still Matter –
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It can “kick you out” in the first round.
The purpose of the proposal is to sell.
The proposal can differentiate your firm.
Internally, the process of building a proposal helps solidify the messages
your service team will use throughout the pursuit.
• A clear and concise Cover Letter and Executive Summary presents
differentiators up front.
• Know that even a favored firm may not make it to orals with a procurementdriven process.
• The proposal must be well done.
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RFP Best Practices and Emerging Trends
What Clients Seek –
• Value: Clearly differentiate your people, experience and value in both
written documents and oral presentations.
• Relationship: Develop relationships early and cultivate them during in the
process, also consider the impact of relationships by your Firm and the
competition before proposing.
• Responsiveness: Demonstrate that you are listening to the client and make
them feel they are important, also take the time to produce quality
proposals.
• Experience: Demonstrate knowledge and experience by providing a
roadmap of how we will get the job done.
• Commitment: Demonstrate commitment and enthusiasm, "hunger for the
work" is often cited as an intangible differentiator.
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RFP Best Practices and Emerging Trends
The Go/No-Go Decision –
• Personnel with the needed skills should already be in place, and critical mass
in the specialty areas exists.
• The right Partners and team must be made available to work on the pursuit
strategy and proposal, not just to perform the engagement.
• Relationships are critical.
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If it is considered a "long shot" we probably won't win.
• The "right" questions must be asked at the earliest stages.
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RFP Best Practices and Emerging Trends
Value Propositions –
• The Value proposition should resonate with the client and
differentiate your Firm.
• Value proposition meetings are critical. Conduct at the beginning of
the process followed by regular pursuit strategy calls.
 Focus on the pursuit, messaging, competitive landscape and
relationships.
 Revisit the value proposition frequently to "test“ value and
differentiators.
 The value proposition should be woven through the document.
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RFP Best Practices and Emerging Trends
Client Debriefs –
• Conduct a formal, independent debrief following the client decision.
• Carefully consider who conducts the debrief.
• Conduct debriefs regardless of whether you win or lose.
• Debriefs allow knowledge sharing around the procurement process with the
client.
• If a client won't meet in person, go for a telephone call.
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RFP Best Practices and Emerging Trends
The Emergence of Procurement-Driven Proposals –
• How we coach our teams and lead the process is impacted.
• Even a favored firm may not make it to orals with a procurement-driven
process.
• Understand who the economic buyer is.
• Be sure that the buyer remains actively involved.
• Know if a scoring matrix is to be used, and the implications.
• Keep focus on the client’s business requirements.
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RFP Best Practices and Emerging Trends
The Emergence of Procurement-Driven Proposals –
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• Respond to the questions asked, but also continue offering specific business
and industry insights.
• Effectively use the information gathered.
• Align proposal with the strategy of your actual client.
• Align proposal with buying strategy of your client.
• Make it easy to read and answer all the questions.
• Follow the procedures and make use of the ability to ask questions.
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RFP Best Practices and Emerging Trends
Role and Responsibilities of Marketing in the Proposal Process –
• Project manage the overall proposal effort; facilitate and manage team
information sharing.
• Help team develop the value proposition.
• Independently develop responses or facilitate responses from the Pursuit
Team related to complex RFP questions.
• Facilitate debrief with team after scoping meetings to ensure feedback is
discussed and addressed.
• Give independent review and make assessments for improvement.
• Leverage Knowledge Management resources, Research & Pursuit Management
Tools.
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RFP Best Practices and Emerging Trends
Role and Responsibilities of Marketing & Sales in the Proposal
Process – (Continued)
• Project manage the document; gather all final feedback and aggregate into
master file; manage production with graphic designer.
• Manage final production and conduct quality checks.
• Update CRM or other tracking databases.
• Prepare for oral presentations and/or additional requests for information.
• Facilitate debrief with team after orals or other meetings to ensure feedback
is discussed and addressed.
• Communicate the “lessons learned” of the win or loss.
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RFP Best Practices and Emerging Trends
Lessons Learned –
• Be enthusiastic - externally and internally.
• Employ tactics for success to ensure a robust pursuit strategy.
• Provide value through each interaction.
• Present your best team of people.
• Leverage relationships and knowledge at the beginning of the
process.
• Hold “Go/No-Go” as process begins.
• Breadth and depth of relationships is typically a differentiator.
• Understand the players and dynamics, especially with a procurement
driven process.
• Bring the best to orals, and conduct formal “orals” rehearsals with all
team members physically present.
• Timely and responsive follow-up is critical.
• Fees are extremely competitive, and rates are declining especially
with the involvement of procurement.
• Your competitors are getting more sophisticated and aggressive.
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RFP Best Practices and Emerging Trends
The Law Firm Perspective –
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What Are RFPs Used For In the Legal Services Environment?
How Are Legal Services Proposals Different?
Procurement, Convergence and Consultant-Driven RFPs
Building a Proposal Process Without Dedicated Resources
Supporting the Go/No-Go Decision
Discerning What Your Lawyers Know vs. What They Think They
Know
• Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
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RFP Best Practices and Emerging Trends
RFPs in the Legal Services Environment –
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Simple qualifications for a evaluating a new provider.
Competition for a specific project, deal or litigation.
Assembling a panel or preferred provider list.
Assessing existing outside counsel following a management or ownership
change.
• Procurement or consultant driven exercise to reduce legal costs.
• Convergence designed to reduce # of outside law firms and increase
leverage over fees.
• Information gathering exercise related to specific issues, i.e. diversity,
sustainability.
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RFP Best Practices and Emerging Trends
How Legal Services Proposals Differ –
• Often focused on communicating individual skills and experiences in a
team or institutional format.
• Need to customize bios and link experience there to body of the proposal.
• Diverse fee proposals (especially these days)
• Seek to communicate the intangible clear and concisely.
• Little historical process to draw upon.
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RFP Best Practices and Emerging Trends
Procurement, convergence and consultant-driven RFPs –
• Why would law departments involve procurement in choosing outside
counsel?
• How can you recognize the stamp of a consultant or procurement officer?
• What are the true goals of this type of RFP?
• The DuPont and Pfizer models.
• Myths of convergence (a nod to Rees Morrison).
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It’s just an exercise, if we go through the motions nothing will change.
The proposal doesn’t matter if our relationship is strong.
Q&As are the best RFPs to respond to.
The GC is the decision maker.
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RFP Best Practices and Emerging Trends
Building a Proposal Process Without Dedicated Resources –
• Catalog your tools, skills and resources.
• Understand your firm’s business development goals and the place RFPs
play in those goals.
• Build a proposal library that is accessible and easily updated.
• Start by offering the basics and slowly work towards delivering strategic
value, not just product.
• Seek to be more than just the “Recording Secretary.”
• Communication, persuasion, education.
• Track your progress and report on it regularly.
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RFP Best Practices and Emerging Trends
Supporting the Go/No-Go Decision –
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Foster opportunities for attorneys to make a Go/No-Go decision.
Share your analysis of the RFP.
Research the business and its decision makers.
Arm your team with data that supports a conversation about the value of
the potential business contained in the RFP.
• Encourage the attorneys to ask questions of each other and the potential
client.
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RFP Best Practices and Emerging Trends
Discerning What Your Lawyers Know vs. What They Think They
Know –
• Are they jumping right to message?
• Are their statements grounded in data and experience or speculation?
• Encourage the airing of differing views.
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• Listening begins with asking the right questions.
• Has the client articulated their key needs/concerns?
• Can your firm address the client’s key needs/concerns or develop a strategy
to do so?
• Link specific people, experiences and capabilities to the client’s key
needs/concerns.
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RFP Best Practices and Emerging Trends
Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them –
• Pitfall - KitchenSinkitis.
– Solution – Strong value proposition.
• Pitfall - Too Many Cooks.
– Solution – Apply the Law of Input Reduction.
• Pitfall - Bad Proposal Inertia.
– Solution – Strong Go/No-Go process.
• Pitfall - The Political Proposal.
– Solution – Clear direction from firm leaders.
• Pitfall - The Remote Control Proposal.
– Solution – Clear communication with Team on expectations and process.
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RFP Best Practices and Emerging Trends
For more information • Christopher Batio
Director of Marketing & Business Development,
Pierce Atwood LLP
cbatio@pierceatwood.com
207-791-1244
• Jeff Baron
Director, National Pursuit Team for New Business Development
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
jeffrey.a.baron@us.pwc.com
202-841-1050
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