Know-How Exchange : Other

Sarah:

I feel your pain, as Bill Clinton used to (and probably still does) say! Marketing seems to get handed the dirty work of filling out the detailed RFP response 99 times out of 100....maybe more.

This is one of those things where some upfront pain is worth the gain. The best thing I've seen (and practiced) is to do more than a list of references, but instead to write up at least a paragraph or two about each reference in a consistent format. You can then categorize each one by as many buckets as you need to figure out which ones are appropriate for which RFP.

For example, categories might be:
- Size of reference
- Industry of reference
- Executive title/level of reference (if actual contact req'd)
- Type of problem (cost reduction, technology expansion, revenue growth, etc.)
- Type of solution (by timeframe, fees, breadth of products & services req'd, etc.)

Actual categories depend on your industry of course.

The upfront pain involved is interviewing someone in your company to get the details necessary for the 2 paragraphs. But once it's done, it's done. (Whether you include the actual reference write-up in the RFP response is optional.) That way you definitely cut out the middle man (Sales).

This way you can also track whether you are overusing any of your specific references - dont want to burn them out.

PS If references are truly important to your business, you should also consider how to keep building them. I've seen many a company offer a discount to companies who agree to serve as future references.