Discover processes and strategies you need to align your stakeholders and successfully win competitive RFPs
With a proven and repeatable process that places strategy at the center of your RFP responses
And show that your company is the best choice for the buyer.
You’ve responded to RFPs perfect for you but lost to a top competitor even though you know your offer is better.
You struggle to wrangle stakeholders—such as Sales and Technical SMEs—to get the valuable insights you need to create a competitive response.
You consistently score lower than anticipated on RFPs and are ready to figure out how to improve.
Your win rate is low for a company with your level of expertise.
You’re a small or mid-sized business going up against more established competitors, and you want to know how to position your company to win projects, despite your size.
You long for a repeatable, proven process that everyone in your company can follow to have a structured approach that wins more contracts.
You had a clear decision-making process that helped you pursue the right opportunities that allowed you to balance workload and not overwhelm the team.
You had a proven process for every RFP focused on creating a winning strategy, and everyone—from sales to technical SMEs to legal—contributed with creative ideas.
You knew how to position your company to overcome perceived competitor advantages to show that actually your company is the best choice for the buyer.
You had clear insight into your competitors that you use every time you respond to an RFP to mitigate their strengths so you too earn top points.
You had templates and guides to use at key points in the RFP process so you always knew what questions to ask to create a winning strategy and keep your team on topic.
What is a “good win rate” and why yours might be setting you up for failure.
The three main pieces of a solid win strategy.
Two types of Go/No Go Decisions & when to use them
Key questions to ask to better understand the buyer and create a strategy that speaks to their needs.
How to conduct a competitive analysis and use it to beat your competitors.
How to use the FOIA process to read through your competitors’ proposals and what to watch for.
How to define your unique selling points for the customer.
The proven process with the eight key meetings you should hold for competitive RFPs.
How to use a Planning Meeting to align the entire team
The Brainstorming Session that will help align sales, SMEs, and other stakeholders (and get them to share feedback!)
Why you need a Strategy Meeting for each RFP, and who should attend.
When to hold a Review Meeting and why it will help you win more RFPs
What is the “Compliance Review Meeting” and why it helps team camaraderie
Plus so much more!
Competitive Research Guides & Strategy Worksheets
Template of customer questions
Pain Points Worksheet
Competitive Research Template
FOIA Request Template
Competitive Analysis of FOIA Materials Template
Win Themes Worksheet
Key RFP Meeting Guides & Templates
Planning Meeting Template
Strategy Meeting Template
Brainstorming Session Template
Status Call Template
Review Meeting Template
Compliance Meeting Checklist Template
Debrief Meeting Template
Examples with a Real client and RFP
You will immediately be redirected to the course to start lessons! You will also receive a welcome email with instructions and links in case you accidentally close it before you save the link.
All content is available as soon as you enroll, and you can start working through it at your own pace.
24/7/365 lifetime access! This includes all videos, workbooks, checklists, templates, and any additional updates made to the course after you enroll.
There are seven hours of video lessons plus worksheets for nearly every video. You can either binge the videos all at once and then go back to complete the worksheets or complete the worksheets along with the videos.
The best approach is to complete the worksheets immediately after the video. The length will vary, but allocate about 10-15 minutes for watching the video and an hour to completing the work. Longer sections, like writing your project approach, might take several hours depending on if you’ve completed the other worksheets already and how long you spend perfecting the content.
You will need a reliable internet connection to complete the video lessons and access the resources.
All resources are available in Microsoft Word and PDF versions for you to download. You will need some sort of word processor for writing your content.
The content in this course will help you write stronger responses to RFPs AND provide you a framework to make sure you’re only responding to the best ones. It can be applied to any type of proposal, however, and RFPs are not required.
Note: This is NOT a federal procurement course. The content is geared towards any type of proposal, and we do not cover any of the federal specific requirements. While some of the guest interviews do dive deeper into federal procurements, the overall course is for any industry.
You’re still covered! All of the techniques in this course apply to any type of sales proposal, and Module 4 shares a deep dive into writing the most common sections to include in your proposal, along with a structure for when you don’t have a formal RFP.
Unfortunately, this course is focused on sales (for profit) proposals. While the strategies can certainly apply to other types of proposals, all examples and explanations are from a for profit perspective. You likely won’t get as much benefit from this course as you would from one specific to grants or sponsorships.
Mistakes happen! If you sign up and find the content doesn’t align with your business, reach out with 7 days for a full refund.
Yes! Each student receives a 1:1 Q&A session that must be completed within 6 months of purchase.
Bundle students will also receive a career conversation focused on growth as a proposal professional.
Yes. We know small companies require many hats, and sometimes the best step is to have a couple people responsible for proposals.
To quickly get your team members up to speed, all you have to do is share the login information with them, and they’ll be able to start taking over your proposals!
You have never responded to an RFP before and want a training that teaches you how to respond.
You rarely respond to RFPs.
You want to learn how to improve your writing.
You only respond to Requests for Quote or other solicitations that are awarded solely based on price.
MBA, APMP-Certified Proposal Expert
After years in the trenches winning RFPs totaling over $2 billion in revenue, I set out to help small- and mid-sized businesses yield the same results. I currently run Utley Strategies, a consultancy dedicated to refining the unique value of our clients so they can win more contracts.
I’ve helped clients:
Outcompete companies two and three times their size,
Rewin contracts despite aggressive (and venture-backed) competitors, and
Shift from winning less than a third of RFPs to maintaining a 50% win rate (with just an 8 week project).
We use the online course platform Thinkific for our online courses and workshop registration. You’ll be prompted to create an account to login and access the course following checkout. We’re here to help with any questions or issues, and we’ll respond to any inquiries within 1 business day.