“What’ll it take for us to make a deal right now?”
We’ve all heard that phrase from car dealers. It’s their last-ditch effort to prevent us from walking out the door. Usually the sales manager says it. The sales manager, of course, was brought over when we told the salesperson that the price he or she gave us was too high. And I guess that’s all just a normal part of the “car buying process” that we pretty much expect. Sometimes we’ll make a deal. Sometimes we don’t.
Well, today, I realized that there’s a much easier and much more logical way to buy a car. It’s so simple! We should approach car buying using the exact methodology that some buyers of training programs use to select vendors. We should begin the car buying process by sending out RFPs (requests for proposals).
Let me tell you what inspired this great idea:
As a training consultant (I teach presentation skills), I receive my fair share of RFPs And when I receive one, I’m always pleased. After all, an RFP is the first step toward making a sale, and, obviously, the requestor, for whatever reason, already has listed me as a “contender.”
Sometimes, after completing the RFP, I get the business. Sometimes I don’t. And, of course, when I don’t, I always say to myself, “That client is stupid! They hired the wrong firm! I could have done a much better job! They’re going to regret their decision! They’re going to get a mediocre program—but I would have given them a great program! They made the wrong decision! They should have hired me!”
Then, when I get over my anger, I tell myself that the company that did get the business only got it because its proposal looked better than mine.. Yeah, that has to be it! The guy who got the business got it only because he wrote a better proposal—certainly not because he’ll do a better job.
Then I mope for a few minutes. Then I move on.
It’s not quite as involved as the well-known “Five Steps of Grieving” (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance). When an RFP is rejected, there are only three steps: anger, excuses, acceptance.
Dania Automobile Company: Section 1
Well, recently I received an RFP from a huge, well-known automobile manufacturer. I won’t tell you the name of the manufacturer for several reasons that I’ll get into a bit later. I’ll just call it the “Dania Automobile Company.” (There’s no particular reason for calling it that. I just made it up.)
Like most RFPs, the document has several sections. The first section asks for basic company information. Things such as type of company (corporation or sole proprietorship), names of owners, number of employees, years in business, products and services sold, previous clients, etc. It certainly makes sense for a prospective buyer to want to know those things. After all, a company such as Dania wouldn’t want to buy a program from just some guy off the street. Nope, it would want a company that’s been around for a while with an impressive reputation and an impressive list of current clients.
In my case, I love completing that section. It gives me what I always consider to be a “competitive advantage.” I love saying to prospects, “I’ve been in business for more than 30 years! My company only specializes in one area of training—and it’s the exact area your RFP is addressing! And my client list contains the names of some of the most well-known companies in the world! Nobody in the industry, smaller or larger, has more expertise, more experience, or a more impressive client list!” (Of course, the form forces me to say this in far fewer words.)
And, in my proposal to Dania, there’s another selling point I can add. I can truthfully say, “P.S. As you’ll see on my client list, one of my clients is Goodyear! And, as you certainly know, Dania’s top-of-the line model, the Dania S650, is equipped with Goodyear’s top-of-the-line tires!” I also can add, “I’m sure that your primary concern in this project is results. So all you’ll need to do is to contact Goodyear, a company you certainly trust, and ask it about the results of my programs!”
Of course, I can’t really say that to Dania in “section one” of the RFP—because there’s no place on the form to say it. The form just contains a bunch of boxes to fill in. But I’ll figure out a way to do it later.
For some reason, the form asks for the Websites of three current clients. I can’t imagine why they’d like to see the Websites of my clients, but it doesn’t bother me too much. My clients are well known, and their Websites are all impressive. And I’ll find a way to get the “just call Goodyear to find out everything you need to know about me” line in another section of the proposal. Maybe I’ll just have to mention it in my cover letter, but all I can do right now is to list Goodyear as one of my clients.
Obviously, at this point, I’m feeling good about getting this program, and I loved completing Section 1.
Dania Automobile Company: Section 2
Now it’s time to move on to Section 2. And Section 2 is a lot different from Section 1! Section 2 is titled, “Financial Information and Credit Authorization.” And the questions are incredible! They want me to list my bank name, bank contact, bank account number, current balance, tax ID number, and credit references.
My first reaction is that maybe they sent me the wrong form. Maybe this form is intended for someone who’s trying a buy a car. If someone wants to finance a Dania, they’d certainly be asked about employment history, bank account number, current balance, social security number, and credit references. But I’m not trying to BUY something from Dania—I’m trying to sell it something. So, why in the world would Dania want financial information from the seller?!
You Need to Fill Out My Application
That’s when I came up with the idea to use an RFP (Dania’s RFP) the next time I buy a car!
If I were buying a Dania, and if I decided to finance the car with Dania because it was offering a super low rate, the sales guy (or the financial guy) would said, “OK, we just need you to fill out this credit application.”
I’d say, “Fine,” and I’d fill out the application. It would seem like a normal part of the transaction that I’ve gone through with other car dealers in past. And I’m sure you’d do the same thing.
But, as I learned from Dania’s RFP, before buying the car, I should be saying to the finance guy, “Before I complete your application, I’ll need you to complete my application. And mine is pretty simple. In fact, it’s very similar to yours. your application asks for my full name, social security number, banking information, employer, length of employment, income, current credit accounts, references, etc. Well, my application begins by asking how long you’ve been in business; names, addresses, and phone numbers of all owners; and names of recent customers. I’m sure you won’t mind giving me that information.
“Then, of course, I’ll need to know the same things about you that you’ll want to know about me. I’ll need your banking information (account number, balance, and name of banking contact) tax ID number, Dunn’s number, and credit references—just the usual credit check stuff.”
Obviously, if I said that to the Dania dealership, the finance guy would say, “Are you nuts?! That’s ridiculous! All of that information is highly confidential! We’re not asking you if you want to buy our dealership! We’re trying to find out if you’re qualified to buy the car!”
And, I, of course, would respond, “You’ve got it backwards! Before I decide whether or not to buy a car from you, you have to prove to me that you’re financially qualified to sell me a car!”
And the dealer would say, “That’s not the way it works! The buyer is the one who needs to disclose financial information. Asking the seller to do it is completely ridiculous! There’s no way in the world Dania is going to give you our confidential financial information!”
And I’d reply, “That is the way it works! You have to give me all of your confidential financial information. I’ll compare it to other dealers, and that’s the first thing I’ll investigate before deciding where I want to buy the car. And I can prove that’s the way it works. Here’s an RFP I received from Dania! As you can see, on the RFP, Dania is asking me for all of my confidential financial information before it will even consider hiring me for its project!”
At that point, the dealer undoubtedly would say, “Sorry. I’ve never seen an RFP before, but we don’t give out that information. I suggest you shop around and try to find a dealer who’s willing to comply with your request. But I highly doubt you’ll find one who will do it.”
Do You Really Need this Information?
After reading that diatribe, I’m sure you can guess what I did with Dania’s RFP.
I decided to decline bidding on the project.
I suppose I could have submitted a proposal and just written “confidential” as my response to the financial questions, but I’m sure some of my competitors would be happy to answer those questions, so I’m presuming that my answers of “confidential” would have been a deal-breaker.
Maybe I was wrong to do so. And, although I would have loved to add Dania (the real name is very impressive) to my client list, I simply sent an e-mail to the requestor saying, “Thanks for sending me the RFP. The project you described is a small one, and although I’d love to add Dania to my client list, and although I’m confident you won’t find a better firm than mine to give you the results you’re seeking, the RFP asks for information that I refuse to disclose, and trying to get around it would be much more trouble than it’s worth.”
I haven’t received a response (and don’t really expect one), but I hope that those of you who are sending out RFPs will look over your “forms” and ask yourselves, “Do we really need this information to determine which vendor we should hire? Is there any reason we need to know where a vendor banks, how much he has in his banking account, or any other financial information?”
As far as I can tell (or even imagine), you’ll need banking information only after you’ve decided on a vendor. And the only reason you’ll need it then is so you’ll know how to pay the vendor.
Still, if you think that asking for financial information should be the first section (or any section) of your RFP, then the next time you’re car shopping and the dealer says, “What’ll it take for us to make a deal right now?” just respond, “Before I give you that number, you’ll have to prove to me that you’re financially able to sell me the car. That’s the way I do business!”
Joel Hochberger is president of Effective Presentations Inc. He has been a professional trainer and speaker for more than 30 years. Hochberger has conducted Presentation Skills Workshops in 39 countries; has trained more than 25,000 individuals; and has been a guest lecturer for colleges and universities, including the University of Chicago, University of Illinois, University of St. Thomas, University of Wisconsin, University of Michigan, University of Notre Dame, and Northwestern University. Contact Hochberger at joelspeaks@aol.com or joel@effectivepresentationskills.com
