I’ve been working with a number of companies lately on big deals – deals up to $100M. The companies are on both coasts, in the midwest and in the southeast. They’re in very different industries and their customers are government, private, public and education groups. Diverse enough?

However, every one of these deals has had the following in common: they all required some sort of RFP response as a part of the process. In each case I served as strategist, RFP response coach and pitch doctor. There are bunch of great things to share with you out of these and I will over time, but today, I just want to talk about the RFP Frame. How do you frame your response? I use the 4 Cs of the RFP Frame.

Candidly, most people start with responses they used for past RFPs. Then they cut and paste and massage what they come up with and call it good. The problem is that they are thinking about the process of writing the response and what they want it to say, not the process of reading the RFP and what the readers are looking for. The 4 C’s focuses on building the guidelines for the response in the terms of the reader. Here goes…

Competency – Can you clearly demonstrate in your response that your company can do the work? Not sexy stuff–not the big “ah-ha” moments–just strong credentials?

Credibility – Is your company strong? In some contracting businesses, just being bonded by a credible firm is enough. In other businesses, strong financials are necessary. Still others are looking for the strength of your partners, vendors and banks. The core issue is your company’s strength and longevity.

Customization - Can you do this project in all of its specifications and nuances? We have rarely found a contract–whether it is building a hospital, manufacturing plane landing gear, outfitting a major retailer or staffing a medical center–in which the buyer did not believe that their project was incredibly unique and challenging. This means you have to demonstrate that you understand all there is to understand about this project and are conversant in an intimate way with the specs and nuances in your RFP response.

Consistency - Do you have a story that hangs together? We work on the 10% of the answer that has the greatest leverage. Most of the answers to an RFP are “check-the-box” quality. If you can check that box, that is good enough. Then there is the 10% upon which the final decision matters. That 10% has to be consistently found throughout the response.

Because the initial process of RFP responses is about not being disqualified, then the second level is being chosen as a finalist for interview or presentation, you need to make certain that your responses to each question are accomplishing in a distinguishing way at least one of these 4 Cs.

Whatever stimulus package president Elect Obama and the 2009 Congress come up with, it will mean lots of federal money flowing out into the economy. The outcome of that will be contracts. Because there will be regulatory oversight, there will be RFPs as a part of the process. If you want some of the money, start with these 4 Cs in framing the response.

And if you haven’t downloaded it already, I’ve written a free e-book with tons of tips for landing these huge deals through RFPs: http://www.huntbigsales.com/ebooks.php.