Responding well to a time-consuming request for proposal (RFP) can bring your company profit - or pain. The next time you decide to answer an RFP, follow these chronological steps to boost your chance of winning.

Winning an RFP can be a cause for celebration and significant multiyear revenue, but it can also mean a ton of time and effort that might go nowhere, especially if the potential customer is mainly looking for the lowest price possible.

"RFPs can be a blessing and a bit of a curse," says Mark Scanlon, Managing Director of CDP Print Management in London. "You're excited to have a seat at the table and the opportunity to explain how you can help a company solve its challenges and attain its goals, but many RFPs today are major projects unto themselves." One recent RFP administered by a large regional health care system in the USA took competing printers weeks to complete, involving the coordinated effort of principals, salespeople, estimators and marketers.

But while many RFPs undoubtedly are written by teams that don't know much about digital print, some brands seek creative proposals and not just a list of prices. Those brands want partners who have experience serving their vertical market and who have solved challenges similar to the ones they're now facing.

"It takes time to craft a good reply to an RFP," Mark says. "Sure, it can be laborious, and the rejection factor can be high, but it's well worth the effort if you secure that great client."

Impressing the prospect enough to get an RFP invitation is impressive, but how can you turn more of those invitations into actual business? And what mistakes should you avoid?

Dscoop spoke to several printers versed in answering and winning RFPs, along with some outside experts who handle RFP submissions for firms inside and outside the print industry.

Here is a guide that can help, organized chronologically:

BEFORE YOU WRITE ANSWERS

1. Start early, and read it completely. RFP responses can take time and resources away from existing client work. When the document hits your inbox, read it front-to-back and make notes about questions you'll probably have later when you begin answering. Make note of anything - a specific question, a vague direction, etc. - that seems amiss. Many RFP processes will allow a period of time for questions, so be aware of that window of opportunity.

2. Find the "North Star" and be able to reiterate it. RFPs usually include a section (often called "Scope of Work" or something similar) where the company outlines the deliverables it needs. Read this section a few times and understand what the firm seeks. What does it mainly want to do: save time, save money, streamline ordering, turn manual processes into automatic ones, etc.?

3. Establish a leader who sets intermittent completion goals, working backward from the response due date. You don't want to wait until the last minute. Managing an RFP response is the same as any other important project, so build a production schedule to properly manage it. Pick a project leader who ensures that everyone will do what they're supposed to and will put the response together in its final form.

4. Find out details your competitors probably won't know. No matter how involved your relationship is with the company, research as much as you can about it online and elsewhere. Later (for example, in the cover letter), you could weave in nuggets of information you found about their culture, recent successes and more. Kim Carpenter, Associate Partner/Executive VP at Austin, TX, USA-based print and marketing communications provider HCB Health , asks herself three questions at this RFP stage:

• Is there something the firm's current provider can't do or doesn't want to do?

• Is the company looking to fill a niche that's a better for fit for us?

• Does the company simply want to change vendors?

5. Have more than one person read the requirements, and create an RFP checklist. Most RFPs come with very specific response instructions. Pay close attention to any requirement or instruction it includes, and have others on your team confirm what they are. For example, some RFPs dictate that the pricing part of your proposal be submitted in a sealed envelope, or that the response includes separate tabs for each section. "The problem is, the week preceding a submission deadline is typically very busy - even frantic," said Dave Seibert, Principal at The Seibert Group, a sales consulting and writing services agency specializing in sales proposals. "In this environment, it's not uncommon to become so focused on finishing all of the answers to all of the RFP questions that we neglect reading the rest of the RFP - in sufficient detail - to ensure we are fully compliant with all of the RFPs requirements." He suggests writing each requirement down - line by line - on a separate piece of paper and referring to that checklist throughout the process. Seibert encourages printers to consider the following questions:

• Do the specifications as requested by the RFP make sense?

• Is the project doable as specified by the RFP?

• Can you come up with additional items that would add value and increase ROI for the project?

6. Create a response outline in the same structure as the RFP. Each RFP has its own structure. Follow it, and deal with each section as required in the same order as the original RFP. "The client evaluation committee will likely use this as their guide to try and match the components and requirements of the RFP to the response," Kim says. "In addition, you reduce the risk of leaving out any critical information you want the client to know about your services or experience." Having an outline of this nature to guide you through the process of drafting your proposal will make it easier for you to reply to the RFP clearly and concisely.

7. Assign specific questions to employees best suited to answer them. Most print-related RFPs have sections that are probably best handled by different experts at your distributorship. The same person who explains the timeline for implementing your e-commerce site shouldn't be the same person answering questions about color production quality or customer service. Assemble a small team to meet, and decide who is responsible for each question or section.

WHEN YOU WRITE ANSWERS

8. Resist the urge to answer a boilerplate RFP with your own boilerplate proposal. You want to make your answers showcase your company's benefits, but not in a way that's conceited or preachy. "Discard generic qualification statements and canned case studies. We answer the questions in the RFP, but we try to be more expansive with our answers at every identifiable opportunity," Kim says. (Here's Dscoop's Guide to Better Case Studies .) Throughout the RFP, emphasize how you're different. Structure your proposal so it is persuasive and compelling, and include context by including "the why behind the what" when possible.

9. Be honest about what you can and can't do. Don't be afraid to take a value-added approach by identifying key items you can offer but others cannot. Don't embellish your capabilities. If you win the business, expect the company to "hold your feet to the fire."

10. Match your key advantages to the company's spelled-out needs. How, specifically, does what you do (and what you have done for other firms) mesh with the "North Star" need you determined in Step 2? A print provider recently received an RFP from a consumer products company with multiple divisions. The print firm's president contacted the purchasing managers of each division, and those people voiced a similar concern - unpredictable demand for collateral material often resulted in out-of-stock conditions and costly reruns. The print firm used that information prominently in the RFP, spelling out procedures for inventory and reporting that would solve the problem. It was awarded preferred vendor status.

11. Discuss your ability to quantify and prove cost savings and overall value. Show your ability to increase ROI and save clients money through examples, especially for others in the prospect's industry. Include references even if the RFP doesn't ask for them, matching the prospect's "North Star" needs with how you've helped clients solve similar challenges.

12. Establish a consistent "voice" that you think matches the culture or style of the prospect. A proposal written for Geico (a fun and whimsical brand) should likely sound different than a proposal written for a conservative financial services firm. Use the material you unearthed in Step 4 as a basic "voice" guide.

AFTER YOU WRITE ANSWERS

13. Create an executive summary, even if they don't ask for one. Use the knowledge you gained from Step 2 and Step 4, plus a synopsis of your specific answers, to craft a summary of your proposal. This will likely be the first thing the prospect will read.

14. Run your answers by your lawyer if possible. This is especially important if your signed response (and associated costs, promises, etc.) is considered official, as stipulated in a terms section of the RFP. (From a legal perspective, once you make an offer, that offer is valid until someone accepts it or you retract it.)

15. Proofread and review for style, consistency and voice. If you refer to one of the prospect's products, affiliates or divisions, do you think they'll notice if a letter isn't capitalized correctly? Remember, you're in the business of communication - show your editing and messaging chops here, and let the RFP response serve as a sample of your agency-quality work.

16. Create a personal cover letter. The purpose of the cover letter is to introduce the proposal, and it has a different audience. A proposal is from you to all the people in the customer's organization who are involved in making the purchase decision. The cover letter, in contrast, is between you and the person who has been your main contact. Therefore, it should read like a personal note, complimentary and appreciative.

17. Supplement your proposal with case studies and/or samples to distinguish your solution. Unless the RFP specifically says you shouldn't, provide supplementary pieces that give the prospect a tangible way to identify your products and services. One printer has won big business by creating and printing "pitchbooks" that serve as a complement to written RFP answers - especially valuable when the company goes after marketing-minded firms that appreciate graphic design and creative ideas.

18. Follow up. If you don't win, try to find out why, so you constantly improve your RFP approach. Start an RFP repository you can use next time. Each prospect's needs are different, but some questions will be exactly the same. There's no use reinventing the wheel when you've already created it. Start a file on a shared computer drive that includes your answers, organized by various categories (technology, customer service, print quality, etc.). "We consider replies to RFPs as part of our marketing plan," Kim says. "It can be laborious and you will occasionally be rejected; that said, it's well worth the effort when you secure that client who appreciates the time and effort put into the process."