The Other Side of Sales<\/a>,\u201d where he shares his perspective after 15 years in procurement. Here he is with today\u2019s tip:<\/p>\nMark Schenkius: I\u2019m sure you have all participated in a Request for Proposal or RFP process at one point in time during your career. And if you think about it. Do you actually know why buyers run RFPs?<\/p>\n
The answer to this question is pretty straightforward: it\u2019s because they work. Buyers achieve significant savings from doing RFPs. But how come they work so well for buyers? The answer to that is Power. Let me explain that in a bit more detail.<\/p>\n
First, there are 2 perspectives on power: actual power and perceived power. Actual power is the level of power you actually have and perceived power is the level of power people think you have. Negotiations are always about perceived power, not about actual power. The party with the highest perceived power wins the negotiation.<\/p>\n
When you are participating in an RFP, you often do not know who your competitors are. This way buyers create a high level of perceived power and they use that to pressure you into making better offers. I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve all heard a phrase like this: \u201cOne of your competitors has offered us a better rate. Is there something you can do about your pricing?\u201d<\/p>\n
Not something you\u2019d like to hear, because you have put a great amount of effort into making a good proposal to your customer.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s explore how this particular question relates to a real-life example:<\/p>\n
Imagine you\u2019re going to a grocery store where they sell apples and bananas. You notice bananas are cheaper than apples so you decide to ask the store owner the following:<\/p>\n
Can I buy the apples for the price of the bananas?<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure we can all agree that this is actually quite a weird thing to do, yet this is exactly what happens during RFPs. As an experienced buyer of fruit, you know the cost structure of apples is different from bananas. Bananas originate from typically cheap labour countries, however incur higher logistics costs than apples. So, it\u2019s hard to compare the two from a costing and pricing perspective.<\/p>\n
Yet, that\u2019s often exactly what buyers do in RFPs. They will tell you that you\u2019re too expensive, however, do you really know who you are competing against? And probably more importantly: do you know if these competitors can provide the same quality and service standards as you can?<\/p>\n
In summary, during an RFP process, buyers will always make you believe every competitor is equal to you in terms of quality and service which allows them to use power to reduce your prices.<\/p>\n
In reality, you have different levels of quality and service versus your competitors so it\u2019s impossible to compare. Make sure you provide a fair price for your product or service and make sure the buyer knows what you offer.<\/p>\n
Alternatively, try finding out what the buyer needs exactly. By going through this process, you\u2019ll have a chance to eliminate at least part of the competition.
\nHappy negotiations everyone!<\/p>\n
Scott Ingram: For more about Mark and his book \u201cThe Other Side of Sales<\/a>,\u201d click over to DailySales.Tips\/507<\/a> and we\u2019ll have everything for you there including a transcript of his tip.<\/p>\nOnce you\u2019ve done that. Be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“Make sure you provide a fair price for your product or service and make sure the buyer knows what you offer.” – Mark Schenkius in today’s Tip 507 Do you know why buyers run RFPs? Join the conversation below and learn more about Mark! ROI 10 The Other Side of Sales Mark Schenkius on LinkedIn…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"content-sidebar","footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3061","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-daily-sales-tips","8":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\n
Sales Tip 507: Dealing with RFPs - Mark Schenkius - Daily Sales Tips<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/sales-tip-507-dealing-with-rfps-mark-schenkius\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sales Tip 507: Dealing with RFPs - Mark Schenkius - Daily Sales Tips\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"“Make sure you provide a fair price for your product or service and make sure the buyer knows what you offer.” – Mark Schenkius in today’s Tip 507 Do you know why buyers run RFPs? Join the conversation below and learn more about Mark! ROI 10 The Other Side of Sales Mark Schenkius on LinkedIn...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/sales-tip-507-dealing-with-rfps-mark-schenkius\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Daily Sales Tips\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-06-09T09:30:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-06-09T05:27:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/11\/Mark-Schenkius.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scott Ingram\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ScottIngram\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@DailySales_Tips\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scott Ingram\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/sales-tip-507-dealing-with-rfps-mark-schenkius\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/sales-tip-507-dealing-with-rfps-mark-schenkius\/\",\"name\":\"Sales Tip 507: Dealing with RFPs - Mark Schenkius - Daily Sales Tips\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/sales-tip-507-dealing-with-rfps-mark-schenkius\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/sales-tip-507-dealing-with-rfps-mark-schenkius\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/11\/Mark-Schenkius.jpg?fit=1600%2C1600&ssl=1\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-06-09T09:30:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-06-09T05:27:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/#\/schema\/person\/269f371a9450426541cdda80397a8548\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/sales-tip-507-dealing-with-rfps-mark-schenkius\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/sales-tip-507-dealing-with-rfps-mark-schenkius\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/sales-tip-507-dealing-with-rfps-mark-schenkius\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/11\/Mark-Schenkius.jpg?fit=1600%2C1600&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/11\/Mark-Schenkius.jpg?fit=1600%2C1600&ssl=1\",\"width\":1600,\"height\":1600},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/sales-tip-507-dealing-with-rfps-mark-schenkius\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sales Tip 507: Dealing with RFPs – Mark Schenkius\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/\",\"name\":\"Daily Sales Tips\",\"description\":\"A Daily Podcast and Blog for B2B Sales Professionals\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/#\/schema\/person\/269f371a9450426541cdda80397a8548\",\"name\":\"Scott Ingram\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b608fbca687fcf4fc5d4d70f1be7f0093166028da70809b0d79cf63e7fd52865?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b608fbca687fcf4fc5d4d70f1be7f0093166028da70809b0d79cf63e7fd52865?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Scott Ingram\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/top1.fm\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/ScottIngram\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sales Tip 507: Dealing with RFPs - Mark Schenkius - Daily Sales Tips","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/sales-tip-507-dealing-with-rfps-mark-schenkius\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sales Tip 507: Dealing with RFPs - Mark Schenkius - Daily Sales Tips","og_description":"“Make sure you provide a fair price for your product or service and make sure the buyer knows what you offer.” – Mark Schenkius in today’s Tip 507 Do you know why buyers run RFPs? Join the conversation below and learn more about Mark! ROI 10 The Other Side of Sales Mark Schenkius on LinkedIn...","og_url":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/sales-tip-507-dealing-with-rfps-mark-schenkius\/","og_site_name":"Daily Sales Tips","article_published_time":"2020-06-09T09:30:03+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-06-09T05:27:20+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":1600,"url":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/11\/Mark-Schenkius.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Scott Ingram","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ScottIngram","twitter_site":"@DailySales_Tips","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scott Ingram","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/sales-tip-507-dealing-with-rfps-mark-schenkius\/","url":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/sales-tip-507-dealing-with-rfps-mark-schenkius\/","name":"Sales Tip 507: Dealing with RFPs - Mark Schenkius - Daily Sales Tips","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/sales-tip-507-dealing-with-rfps-mark-schenkius\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/sales-tip-507-dealing-with-rfps-mark-schenkius\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/11\/Mark-Schenkius.jpg?fit=1600%2C1600&ssl=1","datePublished":"2020-06-09T09:30:03+00:00","dateModified":"2020-06-09T05:27:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/#\/schema\/person\/269f371a9450426541cdda80397a8548"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/sales-tip-507-dealing-with-rfps-mark-schenkius\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/sales-tip-507-dealing-with-rfps-mark-schenkius\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/sales-tip-507-dealing-with-rfps-mark-schenkius\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/11\/Mark-Schenkius.jpg?fit=1600%2C1600&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/11\/Mark-Schenkius.jpg?fit=1600%2C1600&ssl=1","width":1600,"height":1600},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/sales-tip-507-dealing-with-rfps-mark-schenkius\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sales Tip 507: Dealing with RFPs – Mark Schenkius"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/#website","url":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/","name":"Daily Sales Tips","description":"A Daily Podcast and Blog for B2B Sales Professionals","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/#\/schema\/person\/269f371a9450426541cdda80397a8548","name":"Scott Ingram","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b608fbca687fcf4fc5d4d70f1be7f0093166028da70809b0d79cf63e7fd52865?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b608fbca687fcf4fc5d4d70f1be7f0093166028da70809b0d79cf63e7fd52865?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Scott Ingram"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/top1.fm","https:\/\/x.com\/ScottIngram"]}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/11\/Mark-Schenkius.jpg?fit=1600%2C1600&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/top1.fm\/DailySalesTips\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/11\/Mark-Schenkius.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1\")
“Make sure you provide a fair price for your product or service and make sure the buyer knows what you offer.” – Mark Schenkius in today’s Tip 507<\/p>\n