Otherwise, if I am too risk averse, I might fold too early without seeing the other cards where I could have actually won the round.įor Solutions Consultants, the same is true. This requires me to play some of my chips, but then allows me to fold with a better understanding of whether I have a good hand or not. In many cases, it is worth me staying in for the first three cards being dealt on the table (known as the flop). However, there is risk associated with doing this. I quickly found that if I fold as soon I see that I have been dealt a poor hand, I mitigate the risk of spending any of my chips where I am unlikely to win. Going back to our poker analogy, the same is true. That’s why it is important to decide when to qualify out. Timing it keyįor larger tenders, there will frequently be multiple steps to go through, ranging from prequalification questionnaires, request for questionaries, request for proposal, functional, technical and legal questionaries. It should include spending more time on discovery, understanding the business needs, the current challenges, building a strong relationship with stakeholders, and then ultimately creating a thorough proposal that is based on our understanding.įor this reason, the decision to qualify out of an RFP is critical as it frees up resources to spend on opportunities where a win is more likely. And that doesn’t just mean answering functional questions. In my experience, in a lot of cases, the more time we spend on a proposal, the greater the chance we have of winning it. Solutions Consultants’ time will always be finite so there should always be tactical prioritisation needed. If all RFPs are treated the same, then the same allocation of resources will be going to requests that have are almost certainly going to close as those which will almost certainly be lost. Yes, from a sales perspective, it might seem that the more deals we run with, the greater chance we have of one landing. Unfortunately, this is a common misconception when it comes to responding to RFPs. One of my US-based sales colleagues used to frequently quote American football coach, Vince Lombardi “Quitters never win and winners never quit”. “Quitters never win and winners never quit” – Vince Lombardi
Much like poker, if a mentality exists that you must respond to every RFP to maximise your chances of winning a deal, soon the finite resource of Solutions Consultants’ time will be depleted. This dilemma of whether to play or to fold has its similarities with responding to RFPs. The challenge is to determine the criteria which will decide whether you bet on a hand or to fold.įortunately, I see myself as a far better Solutions Consultant than a poker player. Instead, it is a better strategy to fold when you have a hand that has little chance of winning, and conserve your chips until you can bet on a stronger hand. However, playing this strategy is a sure-fire way to lose all of your chips because you end up betting on hands where you have little chance of winning against competitors. It was easy to assume that playing each hand (rather than folding) would maximise my chances of winning.
I quickly found that having a mentality of ‘in it to win it’ wasn’t effective. Unfortunately I learned this the hard way. One of the most fundamental skills to learn in poker is deciding when to fold. I had barely played poker until just under a year ago, so I have learned almost all of the rules and techniques from scratch. Over lockdown, I have started playing small-stakes online poker with friends.