Press Releases

Study Reveals RFP Responses and Formal Proposals have the Greatest Impact on Closing a Sales Opportunity

CINCINNATI; May 23, 2007... The Sant Corporation today announces the results of a study on the importance of Request for Proposals (RFPs), formal proposals, presentations, and other documents in the business-to-business sales process. In May 2007, 95 sales and marketing professionals completed the online survey. Findings disclosed that RFP responses and formal proposals have the greatest impact on closing a sales opportunity.

Respondents were asked to rate the relative importance of various documents used in their sales process. The respondents used a scale of 1 to 10 (1 = unimportant, 10 = extremely important) to rate each document’s impact on closing a sales opportunity.

Summary of impact rating:

Relevant statistics:

• 93% of respondents said that proposals are increasingly more important to the success of their sales process.
• In the last 12 months, 72% of respondents indicated the volume of RFPs they received has increased, 5% indicated the volume has decreased, and 23% indicated the volume has remained the same.
• In the next 12 months, 67% of respondents expect the volume of RFPs they receive will increase, 5% expect the volume to decrease, and 28% expect the volume to remain the same.

In follow up questioning, respondents were asked to select the activities they complete during a typical RFP response. Collaborating with co-workers on RFP questions was the activity most frequently cited. Respondents are most likely to collaborate with Sales People - 78%, Legal - 76%, Proposal Team Members - 70%, and Information Systems - 69%.

Summary of most common activities:

Buyers are most likely to issue RFPs in MS Word, MS Excel, or web-based formats. According to study findings, 97% of respondents receive RFPs in Word, 73% in Excel, and 68% in web-based RFPs. Respondents are typically required to respond to the RFP in the same format received.

“For the past twenty years, we have seen a steady increase in the importance of proposals and RFPs to the sales cycle,” according Dr. Tom Sant, founder of The Sant Corporation. “This research shows how important proposals and RFPs are to winning. Even a great sales process can be derailed by a poor effort on the proposal. Our products and services are optimized to help sales professionals create documents that win.”

About The Sant Corporation

The Sant Corporation is a provider of proven software and expertise that improves sales effectiveness. We help companies who provide value-based solutions win more business by accelerating the production of persuasive proposals, RFP responses, presentations, and related documents.

Sant is a privately held corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, and has sales offices in North America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and South Africa. For more information, please visit www.santcorp.com.