Rethinking RFPs: Innovative Solutions for Business Challenges

I've dedicated over a year to researching requests for proposals (RFPs) and speaking to people whose careers revolve around them. It's clear: RFPs are not the future of work.

As a mechanical engineer, I find it outdated that we still use a Word document to solicit companies and experts to solve our organizational problems. In the age of remote work and robot pizza delivery, we should have technology better suited for B2B problem-solving.

The "future of work" has ushered in an era of democratized entrepreneurship accompanied by a surge in startup innovation, service firms, and freelance consulting. It seems that we’ve been given the opportunity, for the first time in history, to work on our own terms, to enjoy the freedom of geography and time while still working towards financial freedom. Not only that, but we can now choose who we work for and fulfill our innate human desire for purpose.

While startups provide tools for repetitive or familiar tasks, agencies and consultants provide invaluable expertise in niche problem-solving. Even selecting a new tech tool involves navigating a complex landscape and assessing what fits best with existing systems. You’re better off hiring an expert who’s done this before to do the work for you and recommend which ones are best suited for your organization instead of reinventing the wheel. Small consultancies and agencies harness their capability and niche problem-solving experience to take on projects for clients in need.

Historically and economically, specialization is required for society to optimize progress. After all, working together is how we progressed from apes with rocks to the top of the food chain with blockchain. Innovation trends show that the world is becoming increasingly complex, and many obscure & esoteric business problems require outside help. Now more than ever, businesses need to do a better job honing in on their core offering while recruiting specialist partners to care for everything else. Yet we still use the RFP or request for proposal to ask other businesses to help solve our problems.

Rethinking the RFP: Beyond the Traditional Approach

The RFP is simply a means to an end. While we believe the RFP is the best way to go about things, that is only because of the effects it provides.

Think about it: an RFP works because it forces the person writing it to organize their thoughts and receive adequate input from the rest of the team. It’s also easy to distribute to people you know because everyone has a word processor on their computer, so most people generally have access to whatever it is you’re sharing. 

However, in recent analyses conducted by Prosal, several inherent problems with the RFP process have been highlighted, revealing its limitations in modern business environments:

Expertise Mismatch

Hiring through an RFP often means you are looking for expertise you lack. This raises the question: how can you effectively judge and select the right expert without being an expert?

Misdirected Focus

RFPs typically require you to specify what you want, but without proper expertise, you risk addressing symptoms rather than root causes, potentially leading to ineffective solutions.

Underestimated Resources

There's a common tendency to underestimate the time and resources needed, leading to unrealistic expectations and planning.

Resistance to Change

Substantial effort put into creating an RFP can lead to reluctance to adapt or revise it, a manifestation of the sunk cost fallacy.

Contractual Complications

Since RFPs often directly transition into contracts, a poorly crafted RFP can result in vague objectives and scope creep, leading to delayed timelines and budget overruns.

Lack of Human Consideration

The RFP process tends to be overly transactional, overlooking the human elements of collaboration, which are crucial when working with creative and fast-thinking individuals.

Exclusion of Creative Solutions

The rigid structure of the RFP process can stifle creativity and exclude potential contributors who might not excel in traditional proposal writing but could offer innovative solutions aligned with your mission.

Instead of rethinking the RFP, we need to rethink our problem-solving frameworks and develop an alternative method that focuses on people and allows discovery rather than prescribing solutions. Otherwise, we’re just temporary fixes rather than addressing foundational issues. Ironically, the problems with rethinking the RFP mirror the challenges imposed by traditional RFP processes themselves.

Prosal proposes a process where problems are the focus, and solutions are built dynamically with the help of experts who have solved this problem hundreds of times before. Technology and data should be readily available to help you make decisions without requiring extensive training or cost an arm and a leg.

We imagine a future where finding another business to solve a problem is as easy as asking an internal team member to take on a new project. Prosal is here to do that for you.