RFPs ' What's Important in 2011?

In 2010, law firms received on average three times the number of RFPs than they received in 2007. This means much more work for high-level partners and law firm marketers.

Law firms are dealing with this dramatic increase by becoming more efficient, just saying no to more RFPs, and choosing carefully which ones deserve a full-court press. The following ten tips, long followed by those firms with the highest RFP win rates, are more important than ever in 2011.

1. Implement the 24-Hour Rule

“Every lawyer who receives an RFP must send a copy to the marketing group within 24 hours. No exceptions!” Many firms adopted this rule long ago, and it's now in place in most firms. If your firm is one of the few that still hasn't taken this step or if you're not rigidly enforcing it, do so now and stop wasting one of the most valuable RFP resources you have ' your time.

2. Quickly Triage RFPs

Within two or three days, decide whether you will: a) decline to respond to this RFP; b) deliver a pro forma response leveraging prior proposals; or c) devote significant firm resources to highly tailor your response. I estimate most firms' RFPs triage proportions should be 20%, 60% and 20%.

3. Interview the Prospect Before You Propose

Talk privately with RFP issuers to learn what they really want to accomplish through the competition. Persuade your current clients to talk freely with you before they issue an RFP and gain a big advantage over your rivals.

4. Tailor Your Proposal for This Client

Mention the client's name often in document headers and footers and throughout the proposal. Create a proposal cover that mirrors the client or its industry. Mirror the client's and decision-makers' language, cultural elements, personnel, pace, and style. In high-stakes competitions, you're limited only by your imagination, tempered by informed judgment about what decision-makers will value most.

5. Propose Specific Solutions for This Client

Your firm's qualifications alone will not win the day in high-stakes competitions. Instead, the winner will likely be the firm that says, “Your challenges are ABC. With our help you can resolve those issues and problems by doing XYZ.” These solutions must come from partners who are able to think creatively. Marketers must then present their solutions forcefully and persuasively in the proposal.

6. Propose AFAs This Client Cares About

All clients who ask for alternative fee arrangements don't have the same pricing issues. Does this client need lower fees or better fee prediction? Does it need fees that are better calibrated to each matter's actual value to the company? If you know what motivates this client's requests for AFAs, you can propose those it will find attractive.

7. Create Short Proposals That Are Easy to Skim

Reviewers don't read RFP responses cover to cover. Make their job easier by including page numbers, tables of contents with page numbers, large margins and white space, section headlines and subheadings, serif fonts for body text and ragged right margins. Use short sentences and short words. Write in plain English.

8. Include an Executive Summary

The busiest reviewers (decision-makers) often read only the executive summary, assuming you have given them one to read. Include here everything they must know to hire your firm, including your clearest value proposition (why the client should hire your firm instead of another firm), staffing, fees, value-adds, service plan, and references. If this information is not in the executive summary, it may not be considered.

9. Convert the Interview into a Conversation About the Client's Issues

Go to the interview anticipating the client's questions and knowing your best answers (and who on your team will answer them). Even more importantly, arrive with questions to ask them about their issues, challenges and past solutions that will get all of you talking together about how they can approach and resolve their challenges.

10. Debrief All Important Competitions

Only by doing this can you learn what you're doing well and how you can improve. Ask, “Why did the winner(s) win?” The client's answers will reveal what they were really looking for, what persuaded them best, and offer competitive intelligence about your strongest rivals.

Ann Lee Gibson, Ph.D., advises law firms on new business development. She consults, teaches, and coaches in the areas of high-stakes competitions, competitive intelligence, and sales presentations. She may be reached at 417-256-3575 or [email protected]. She also blogs about law firm BD and competitive intelligence issues at www.lawfirmci.blogspot.com.

Editor's Note: This insightful addendum to the RFP discussion was written by James A. Durham, Esq. Jim is the Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer at McGuireWoods LLP and leads the firm's efforts in responding to RFPs. He may be reached at 804-775-1337or [email protected].

It is amazing to me that over the past 20 years the formal process that companies use to select outside counsel has not, in most cases, evolved to any great degree. This is particularly surprising since the DuPont Legal Department essentially set the standard for selecting law firms over a decade ago. (In what it called “convergence,” DuPont reduced the number of outside firms it worked with dramatically, and created true partnering relationships.)

A few major companies have followed DuPont's lead, but for the most part Requests for Proposal (“RFPs”) are often not good at evaluating the essence of value in the lawyer-client relationship. Clients want a relationship of trust with their lawyers ' that is not built on the lowest hourly rate.

Yet, we are seeing onerous RFPs asking for reams of data that are not really relevant to real-world lawyer-client relationships. These RFPs are often driven by procurement departments that are accustomed to pricing widgets, not professional services. Their role can be invaluable if they really work collaboratively with the in-house counsel, whose needs must focus on the search for collaborative trusted advisers.

Some companies get it right. We are fortunate that a number of McGuireWoods clients have done it beautifully. They said: “Tell us about your firm's specific relevant experience; tell us who will actually do the work for us; if we select you, tell us how you believe you can positively impact our business over the next few years; and tell us how you are willing to share risk and bill creatively.”

To compete in this world of increasing RFPs (we are up over 50% this year), create a process for consistent professional responses. Invest in products that build proposals from the critical data you feed it ' which means setting up processes for feeding the system good data. If you are not specific in your responses these days, you will not make it past the first cut.

Do extensive research, ask the issuer of the RFP to engage in a conversation about value, and whenever possible, preempt the beauty contest by offering your clients creative, risk-sharing approaches to handle as much of their work as you are qualified to do.

Clients deserve incredible service, and they should get real value. Let's just hope that by having a meaningful dialogue we can keep the RFP process real.

' James A. Durham

In 2010, law firms received on average three times the number of RFPs than they received in 2007. This means much more work for high-level partners and law firm marketers.

Law firms are dealing with this dramatic increase by becoming more efficient, just saying no to more RFPs, and choosing carefully which ones deserve a full-court press. The following ten tips, long followed by those firms with the highest RFP win rates, are more important than ever in 2011.

1. Implement the 24-Hour Rule

“Every lawyer who receives an RFP must send a copy to the marketing group within 24 hours. No exceptions!” Many firms adopted this rule long ago, and it's now in place in most firms. If your firm is one of the few that still hasn't taken this step or if you're not rigidly enforcing it, do so now and stop wasting one of the most valuable RFP resources you have ' your time.

2. Quickly Triage RFPs

Within two or three days, decide whether you will: a) decline to respond to this RFP; b) deliver a pro forma response leveraging prior proposals; or c) devote significant firm resources to highly tailor your response. I estimate most firms' RFPs triage proportions should be 20%, 60% and 20%.

3. Interview the Prospect Before You Propose

Talk privately with RFP issuers to learn what they really want to accomplish through the competition. Persuade your current clients to talk freely with you before they issue an RFP and gain a big advantage over your rivals.

4. Tailor Your Proposal for This Client

Mention the client's name often in document headers and footers and throughout the proposal. Create a proposal cover that mirrors the client or its industry. Mirror the client's and decision-makers' language, cultural elements, personnel, pace, and style. In high-stakes competitions, you're limited only by your imagination, tempered by informed judgment about what decision-makers will value most.

5. Propose Specific Solutions for This Client

Your firm's qualifications alone will not win the day in high-stakes competitions. Instead, the winner will likely be the firm that says, “Your challenges are ABC. With our help you can resolve those issues and problems by doing XYZ.” These solutions must come from partners who are able to think creatively. Marketers must then present their solutions forcefully and persuasively in the proposal.

6. Propose AFAs This Client Cares About

All clients who ask for alternative fee arrangements don't have the same pricing issues. Does this client need lower fees or better fee prediction? Does it need fees that are better calibrated to each matter's actual value to the company? If you know what motivates this client's requests for AFAs, you can propose those it will find attractive.

7. Create Short Proposals That Are Easy to Skim

Reviewers don't read RFP responses cover to cover. Make their job easier by including page numbers, tables of contents with page numbers, large margins and white space, section headlines and subheadings, serif fonts for body text and ragged right margins. Use short sentences and short words. Write in plain English.

8. Include an Executive Summary

The busiest reviewers (decision-makers) often read only the executive summary, assuming you have given them one to read. Include here everything they must know to hire your firm, including your clearest value proposition (why the client should hire your firm instead of another firm), staffing, fees, value-adds, service plan, and references. If this information is not in the executive summary, it may not be considered.

9. Convert the Interview into a Conversation About the Client's Issues

Go to the interview anticipating the client's questions and knowing your best answers (and who on your team will answer them). Even more importantly, arrive with questions to ask them about their issues, challenges and past solutions that will get all of you talking together about how they can approach and resolve their challenges.

10. Debrief All Important Competitions

Only by doing this can you learn what you're doing well and how you can improve. Ask, “Why did the winner(s) win?” The client's answers will reveal what they were really looking for, what persuaded them best, and offer competitive intelligence about your strongest rivals.

Ann Lee Gibson, Ph.D., advises law firms on new business development. She consults, teaches, and coaches in the areas of high-stakes competitions, competitive intelligence, and sales presentations. She may be reached at 417-256-3575 or [email protected]. She also blogs about law firm BD and competitive intelligence issues at www.lawfirmci.blogspot.com.

Editor's Note: This insightful addendum to the RFP discussion was written by James A. Durham, Esq. Jim is the Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer at McGuireWoods LLP and leads the firm's efforts in responding to RFPs. He may be reached at 804-775-1337or [email protected].

It is amazing to me that over the past 20 years the formal process that companies use to select outside counsel has not, in most cases, evolved to any great degree. This is particularly surprising since the DuPont Legal Department essentially set the standard for selecting law firms over a decade ago. (In what it called “convergence,” DuPont reduced the number of outside firms it worked with dramatically, and created true partnering relationships.)

A few major companies have followed DuPont's lead, but for the most part Requests for Proposal (“RFPs”) are often not good at evaluating the essence of value in the lawyer-client relationship. Clients want a relationship of trust with their lawyers ' that is not built on the lowest hourly rate.

Yet, we are seeing onerous RFPs asking for reams of data that are not really relevant to real-world lawyer-client relationships. These RFPs are often driven by procurement departments that are accustomed to pricing widgets, not professional services. Their role can be invaluable if they really work collaboratively with the in-house counsel, whose needs must focus on the search for collaborative trusted advisers.

Some companies get it right. We are fortunate that a number of McGuireWoods clients have done it beautifully. They said: “Tell us about your firm's specific relevant experience; tell us who will actually do the work for us; if we select you, tell us how you believe you can positively impact our business over the next few years; and tell us how you are willing to share risk and bill creatively.”

To compete in this world of increasing RFPs (we are up over 50% this year), create a process for consistent professional responses. Invest in products that build proposals from the critical data you feed it ' which means setting up processes for feeding the system good data. If you are not specific in your responses these days, you will not make it past the first cut.

Do extensive research, ask the issuer of the RFP to engage in a conversation about value, and whenever possible, preempt the beauty contest by offering your clients creative, risk-sharing approaches to handle as much of their work as you are qualified to do.

Clients deserve incredible service, and they should get real value. Let's just hope that by having a meaningful dialogue we can keep the RFP process real.

' James A. Durham