Hey! I’m Justin 👋 

I founded Starbridge to help businesses win more government and education deals.

Welcome to the SLED Sales Brief — a newsletter for gov & edu sales leaders.

This is what I think when I hear the phrase “We need to go to bid.”

Today, I’m breaking down how to make RFPs a little less miserable.

Let’s dive in.

1.) Build a toolbox of alternative purchasing vehicles

Each state and system has its unique procurement policies, but most allow flexibility (call them side doors) that helps avoid a public bid.

These often require a lot of upfront leg work to build out, but once you have them, you’ll be able to expedite a lot of purchasing processes.

I’d suggest starting in the states that provide the best opportunity for your business. Document what’s available and socialize with your sales team frequently. You’d be surprised how often reps aren’t aware of these things.

When a prospect first mentions they might have to go to bid, ask questions like

“That makes total sense for something this large. Curious what makes you think you’ll need to go to bid?”

“This may not matter at all, but if you’re anything like [XX], they’ll want to avoid the energy that went into an RFP. Would it be worth walking through a few alternatives?”

If they show openness to it, explore whether any alternative purchasing vehicles may work for you.

Some ones that have previously worked for us include:

• Sole Source Agreements

• Competitively Awarded Institutional Contracts

• Consortium or State System Agreements

• Cooperative Purchasing Agencies

Difference procurement officers will have different preferences, make sure to run through all the options.

2.) If you have to go to bid, help write the RFP

If an RFP is unavoidable, the next best thing is shaping the bid itself. The test is a lot easier when you’ve written it.

Most people go about this all wrong. They send over beautifully branded documents with a list of RFP questions, including their company logo. Any good procurement officer is going to ignore an RFP draft with company branding.

Instead, create a list of “commonly used” questions in RFPs for your market on an unbranded Google doc. These questions should weigh toward all of your strengths and unique differentiators as a solution.

Then when you’re notified you’ll have to go to bid, you can make a humble suggestion like:

“We know it’s a lot of work to throw those requirements together. Would it be helpful if we shared a list of commonly used questions from across RFPs that we see?”

If they agree to it, send your pre-built list over to them. This will have a much greater chance of getting passed around internally and influencing the process.

3.) Use FOIA to build competitive intelligence

After an RFP process wraps up, file a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request to see what your competitors priced, how they positioned their product, and what swayed the buyer’s decision.

This data is a goldmine for refining intent signals and better positioning your product.

Public entities (gov agencies, K-12 districts, and higher ed institutions) are legally required to respond to these requests.

They can take up quite a lot of time, so if you’re trying to do this in-house you probably want to prioritize the most important RFPs.

Here’s an example FOIA request we use ourselves:

P.S. If you want help sending targeted FOIA requests at scale, check Starbridge out

Thanks for reading!

Next week, I’ll be sharing a SLED conference playbook - best practices and tips to help you make the most of your time out in the field.

If you have any questions, reach out via Linkedin. My inbox is always open.

See you next week,

— Justin