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Totally understand and agree with your observations as a pro services firm. That is the funniest part of the university I work at - say your company implements

by lvspiff 11y ago

Totally understand and agree with your observations as a pro services firm. That is the funniest part of the university I work at - say your company implements a solution for us like Product X. Well then all the sudden we can explore your ENTIRE product/service catalog with you without consequence because we have an agreement with you (for whatever). So even though you sold us product X we can also look into service Y where I'm not as concerned with cost but getting the right one. To say however they LIKE not discussing price upfront seems a bit disingenuous - yes I would want to discuss the service first but I am going to want an idea of what its going to cost to put that into my budget/grant/etc to see if it fits, especially if funded by the state. My university may be different though as I've found out many times over. I imagine getting that first contract though wasn't easy - as that initial connection had to likely come through an RFP? and what is the ratio of RFP submission to actual customer?

enraged_camel 11y ago
>>yes I would want to discuss the service first but I am going to want an idea of what its going to cost to put that into my budget/grant/etc to see if it fits That's the thing though: it's an extremely wide range. For example, anywhere from $25,000 to over $1,000,000. It's impossible to say upfront whether it will fit your budget. The reason we take a consultative approach (as opposed to a traditional sales approach and leading with the price) is because we want you, the customer, to control the scope of the project. We work with you to understand your requirements, then prepare a preliminary proposal and SOW with the price. You can then say, "well, this is a bit out of our budget, but maybe we can postpone features X and Y until the next phase" and we go back and forth until the final scope and associated price are acceptable to you. I can't disclose our ratio of RFP submission to customer. But the thing about RFPs is that they are rarely objective. In the vast majority of cases, the client's preferred vendor helps the client write the RFP. And in a lot of cases we end up being that vendor, because the clients trust us after seeing our methodology.
- lvspiff 11y ago
  >>In the vast majority of cases, the client's preferred vendor helps the client write the RFP Thats surprising - In my state (NV) someone would be fired for that as it would be considered collusion.
  - enraged_camel 11y ago
    That's what many people think, but it's actually not true (at least not in the states I've worked in). There's a cottage industry that provides advice on how to navigate through the RFP process, and a lot of the advice is based on controlling what goes into the RFP when it is written. Take a look at this set of slides: http://www.slideshare.net/pmcloughlin1/how-to-help-your-customers-write-an-rfp-that-makes-sense-for-you-13915453 http://www.slideshare.net/pmcloughlin1/how-to-help-your-cust... The most important thing to understand about RFPs is that they aren't designed for making the "most fair" selection. They are designed for making the "safest" selection. An RFP is basically a CYA (cover your ass) mechanism for the procurement team. That's why collaborating with preferred vendors when the RFP is being written is a very common practice. Teams writing the RFPs rarely have the subject matter expertise necessary. So they receive help (which is a good thing).

by lvspiff 11y ago

enraged_camel 11y ago

>>yes I would want to discuss the service first but I am going to want an idea of what its going to cost to put that into my budget/grant/etc to see if it fits That's the thing though: it's an extremely wide range. For example, anywhere from $25,000 to over $1,000,000. It's impossible to say upfront whether it will fit your budget. The reason we take a consultative approach (as opposed to a traditional sales approach and leading with the price) is because we want you, the customer, to control the scope of the project. We work with you to understand your requirements, then prepare a preliminary proposal and SOW with the price. You can then say, "well, this is a bit out of our budget, but maybe we can postpone features X and Y until the next phase" and we go back and forth until the final scope and associated price are acceptable to you. I can't disclose our ratio of RFP submission to customer. But the thing about RFPs is that they are rarely objective. In the vast majority of cases, the client's preferred vendor helps the client write the RFP. And in a lot of cases we end up being that vendor, because the clients trust us after seeing our methodology.

lvspiff 11y ago
>>In the vast majority of cases, the client's preferred vendor helps the client write the RFP Thats surprising - In my state (NV) someone would be fired for that as it would be considered collusion.
- enraged_camel 11y ago
  That's what many people think, but it's actually not true (at least not in the states I've worked in). There's a cottage industry that provides advice on how to navigate through the RFP process, and a lot of the advice is based on controlling what goes into the RFP when it is written. Take a look at this set of slides: http://www.slideshare.net/pmcloughlin1/how-to-help-your-customers-write-an-rfp-that-makes-sense-for-you-13915453 http://www.slideshare.net/pmcloughlin1/how-to-help-your-cust... The most important thing to understand about RFPs is that they aren't designed for making the "most fair" selection. They are designed for making the "safest" selection. An RFP is basically a CYA (cover your ass) mechanism for the procurement team. That's why collaborating with preferred vendors when the RFP is being written is a very common practice. Teams writing the RFPs rarely have the subject matter expertise necessary. So they receive help (which is a good thing).