RFPs: Building an Effective Competitive Bidding Process

Call them fire drills, beauty pageants, dog and pony shows or just simply a royal pain in the bum, there’s no escaping the steady pounding of Requests For Proposals (RFPs) on legal marketing and business development departments. Increasingly, in-house counsel are using the competitive bidding process to identify the best law firms to handle their matters, reduce their legal spending and improve the efficiency of their outside counsel relationships – a trend not likely to go away anytime soon.

On Wednesday May 7, 2008 Eric Dewey presented "Building an Effective Competitive Bidding Process," to members of LMA Ohio in Columbus at the offices of the Columbus Bar Association. A 25-year sales and marketing veteran, Eric Dewey, MBA, CFMP oversees the RFP response process for Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease, LLP. Having responded to more than 100 RFPs in the past two years, Eric’s team has steadily improved its win rate and is now winning more than half of the firm’s RFP competitions. On May 15, Jill Rako of the Columbus office of Bricker & Eckler LLP addressed the same topic at The Forum Conference Center for in Cleveland in place of Eric, who was unable to be in Cleveland on that date.

Attendees of both presentations gained that law firms who understand the goals of in-house counsel and their procurement departments, as well as those who are able to write compelling responses, stand a better chance at winning these important competitions. Eric and Jill’s perspectives on how to build an efficient process and write a compelling response provided insight on how to succeed at what can often be challenging drills.