It’s a bad idea to have a training company actively selling in your organization while requirements are being defined.
I’ve taken some heat recently from sales training company executives regarding my position on sales training RFPs. They would be happy, of course, never seeing an RFP again. But I know from experience that under the right circumstances, an RFP can make the difference between your company selecting the right sales training partner and the wrong one.
Coming out of sales, sales consulting, and sales training, I have a love-hate relationship with RFPs. I love them when I’ve written them for a customer or influenced their content and, as a result, have exerted some control over that customer’s buying/decision criteria, leading to a win. On the other hand, I hate RFPs (actually I’m unemotional - I no-bid the opportunity) when one surprisingly pops into my inbox.
When we first started sending RFPs to sales performance improvement companies on behalf of our sales training buyer clients, the responses from sales training companies were as you would expect: resistance, frustration, even anger. After all, many of those sales trainers train their clients’ salespeople on how to get around the RFP process. They ask me why they should have to do what they teach their clients not to do - respond to RFPs. After all, they say, RFPs have been written or influenced by one supplier, putting anyone else who chooses to bid in a disadvantageous position. As a seller, I couldn’t agree more.
On the buy-side of the equation
When we are involved in a client’s evaluation process for sales training, we perform the requirements analysis and definition. We do that independently of any provider or any influence they might have among the client’s stakeholders. It’s a bad idea to allow a training company to write your requirements, or have a training company actively selling in your organization while requirements are being defined. Your requirements tend to mirror what those trainers do best.
Sell to the customer in the way they want to buy
From the buy side, we expect anyone bidding for the business to understand how the customer (our client) wants to buy — by employing this RFP process - and to demonstrate a willingness to work under those parameters. You can imagine how important it is for our clients to understand how each potential supplier matches up against the prioritized criteria as stated in the RFP — criteria derived directly from that comprehensive and objective assessment we performed.
We’ve found over the years that it is important to reassure each RFP recipient that:
• It’s a real opportunity.
• It has senior executive sponsorship.
• It is budgeted.
• The timing of the events including launch are short term.
• We have performed the requirements definition and wrote the RFP without any influence at all from any supplier.
• No supplier has been in the account since we were involved.
• Every provider that receives an RFP has an equal opportunity to win.
If you will be employing an RFP process and you want to increase the number of participants, you might try reassuring them with those seven points.
The short list
After the responses are read, analyzed, and ranked, a short list is determined. At that point the client meets with representatives from each short-listed company to answer any and all questions. That’s also the time when the client and the short-listed firms get to know each other.
During finalist presentation day each short-listed provider offers insight into how they will contribute to the customer achieving their sales performance goals and objectives. At that point the client evaluates each presentation among other factors and makes a selection.
The bottom line
As a result of this process, whichever provider is selected is almost guaranteed to have a successful implementation because all the risks, rewards, strengths and challenges of both provider and client will have been identified and discussed openly by both parties before a contract is signed. This is one of the surest ways to avoid a sales training train-wreck.
ES Research Group’s in-depth industry research and independent evaluations of sales training companies helps companies make the right decisions about sales training programs. Learn more at ESResearch.com.
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