Sales Busy Work

Subs. When there was one in school, it meant one thing: busy work. Not only do I remember it as a kid, but there was a brief point in my life where I actually was a substitute teacher! Rocker by night, sub by day. That's right, I handed out the busy work! Sure it was pointless but it kept the little rug rats busy so I could nurse my hangover. Depending upon the subject and grade level, I could actually answer a question about the pointless exercise. It was good training for the busy work tossed at me in sales.

What's the sales busy work? RFPs, better known as "Resource and Financial Pissaways." Nothing triggers wishful thinking, the spotlight effect, self-fulfilling prophecies and all the other ghoulish nightmares that annihilate sales quotas quite like the RFP.

Hey everybody! Let's spend three weeks and tens of thousands of dollars working on an RFP response that's just going to boil down to a price comparison spreadsheet. FUN! Unfortunately, most salespeople (but not you of course) jump at an RFP like a dog drooling for "Beggin' Strips."

Salespeople will say they have a shot--wishful thinking! They will tell you the client likes them more than everyone else. And they will push everyone to the limit with the response.  After all, "someone is going to win." Yeah, and doing 100 Calculus problems will help you in the real world.

Like busy work, 99% of RFPs are pointless shams, despite organizations like the California Association of Public Purchasing Offices trying to spin RFPs: "To avoid unfair practices, giving all qualified vendors equal opportunity." When we damn well know a vendor has already been chosen and RFPs are done to satisfy a corporate edict, or just educate a prospect with no intention of buying.

What's worse is when RFPs are doled out by clueless "subs" who have no concept of the product, the market or what will ultimately lead to success. I've seen instances in which prospects asked for rates to be delivered in a certain manner (makes it easier to plug into the old spread sheet if its uniform). Once the rates were delivered, the prospect couldn't understand them and had to ask for them another way. Kind of like a kid asking me a Calculus question -- I couldn't begin to answer it let alone understand it. 

Look, RFPs aren't going to go away until we flat out refuse to respond to them. Repeat after me: they are a waste of time.

One day I subbed a high school car mechanic class. These delinquents refused to do the busy work. So what did we do? Talk about fixing cars! And guess what? I learned a whole lot and managed to identify with them. Busy work would have given me nothing. Refuse the RFPs and make your prospects take the time to learn why you are the best.

Comments

[Editwizard]

Well, I mostly agree. RFP's suck. When I was schlepping corporate computer network sales I used to respond to them all the time until I could crank through them without hardly thinking.

One finally paid off, BIG TIME. The purchase order totaled about $600K. Even better, it had been so long since the RFP that all the hardware pricing had gone way way down! Commission... way way up!

So that one was good but all the rest sucked.

That's a nice photo by the way.

[You Sell Like a Second Grader]

That was your 1 out of 100! As for the picture, I put that on for our female readers.