just out of interest does someone audit your Sales teams responses?
They do. The product people review every response before submission, and in certain cases it’s escalated to a director for further approval. (Oh crap! That’s me!). So, Sales do the selling, Product do the product. If sales over promise, it will be the product team that cannot deliver, so there’s a really good balance and audit in place for every response. Rather lucky that my sales and product teams work really well together globally. Hey, those post it notes won’t sell themselves, you know! 😉
What input have your competitors had?
This is a very, very good point. Wherever possible, I like to control the RFI/RFP process with/for a client so that the questions/responses are tailored towards my business and away from a competitor. Always analyse the tender documentation very closely to see if it’s been written to allow one supplier to win the business. If it’s really obvious, don’t even bother responding. They’ve already decided.