Tom Mills

Many say the RFP process is "used to get the best possible price".

I'm sorry. It’s not. Even Wikipedia is wrong.

I don’t like semantic battles

And I know many in Procurement are being tasked with cutting costs for Q3 of 2026

Particularly with the continued bleak economic forecasts and widely held viewpoint that AI can drive efficiency savings.

But if you employ that approach to assess outcomes, the most likely long term one for your business is failure.

So, what exactly is an RFP used for?

RFP is short for “Request for Proposal.”

But perhaps it should be rebadged as “Request for Partnership”.

The goal of an RFP is to evaluate multiple options and get the maximum return on any investment your business makes.

It's about learning what’s available as efficiently and objectively as possible.

Maximising value while minimising risk.

Not creating a low cost MVP solution for your business.

The evaluation stages of an RFP often cause greatest confusion.

Once the RFP has been sent to suppliers, many evaluate the responses based on pre conceived criteria of ‘what good looks like’.

And the worst go on to over inflate the importance of cost while completely dismissing the significance of value.

In a Vendr interview here https://lnkd.in/g9S86SKH

re-evaluation of key performance indicators (KPIs) is discussed, particularly the shift away from focusing solely on cost savings.

Dr. Elouise Epstein advocates for using revenue as a more effective guiding metric and turning cost centres into profit centres where possible.

Another approach I heard recently and loved is using the term "solutions workshops," rather than supplier or product demos when it comes to the presentations in an RFP.

The emphasis being on collaborating with suppliers to learn and develop understanding

Rather than pitching suppliers against each other in a race of doom to the bottom.

You can learn more about how I believe we should progress the profession here (20,000+ now get my weekly insights for free): https://procurebites.com/

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P.S. I created a cheat sheet “How to create an RFP”. You get a hi res PDF version of this and all the other cheat sheets I've created (80+) the moment you sign up for free too.

Repost ♻️ if you found this helpful.

I don’t judge you for using AI to comment or Claude to create your posts now. 70% are doing so I reckon.

I remember how scary it felt when I hit publish on my first ever post on here, and that was me, with the inherent privilege that comes with being a native English speaker.

I can also reflect on many of my own posts; a number of them follow a very template style.

Sometimes I’ll admit that comes down to a pure time play thing.

Most of my ‘success’ on here has been through consistency.

I’d struggle to show up every single day with originality, without some repetition of the styles I just know will work.

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The worry I do have for you though is that by using AI in this way, you’re hurting your own reputation.

It’s the fastest way to just blend into anonymity.

AI comments all do the same thing:

* summarise the post
* agree with everything
* avoid saying anything remotely risky

Safe. Polite. Forgettable.

Exactly the opposite of what builds a reputation.

If you’re going to comment, make it count:

* Disagree with me (respectfully of course)
* Add a real example from your perspective.
* Ask something you’re genuinely curious about (ideally don’t start with the word ‘curious…’ because nobody speaks like that IRL)

Or just back my posts properly.

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In a world where everyone’s looking for shortcuts, I wonder if the truest ‘hack’ is refusing to use AI to actually write for you

Because once everything you say could’ve been written by anyone…

what actually is the point of saying it?

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P.S. Greetings from Belgium 🇧🇪 where I’ve just delivered my latest keynote on the elevated importance of soft skills (communication) in the world of AI.