As sales professionals, we are facing big challenges that we have no control over, like global economic recession and desperate competitors who are just trying to survive. We do have control over one thing though - how we choose to react to these challenges.

Here's an example. Most of us have responded to an RFP where we knew we had a superior solution and overall value, but almost no chance of winning. Why did we respond? We probably felt we had to so we didn't send the wrong message to the prospect. We don't want them to stop including us in their evaluation process, even if we have little chance of winning.

A different strategy would be to walk away from the opportunity. Done well, this might get us closer to winning than responding outright. How? By doing these things when we are walking away:


position your decision at all levels of the buying organization, including with the senior level decision makers
don't make your decision a personal attack against anyone in the organization
let your frustration show - not because of their convoluted process, but because you feel strongly that you could make a huge difference for them given a fair chance
give some insights into the impact you could make
be honest and tell them that you just don't feel you could effectively compete given their ground rules
share the conditions under which you would be willing to compete


Here's how it might sound when you tell a decision maker that you aren't going to compete:

"I wanted to let you know of a difficult decision we've made. We have decided not to respond to your RFP or compete for this opportunity. This is frustrating to me, as I truly believe that we have a superior solution that could truly help you drive customer retention to new levels by addressing your system responsiveness issues, thereby helping to hit your RONA target. We have decided not to compete because it seems your RFP criteria and buying process do not provide us the ability to adequately position our value and compete effectively. It would be a waste of everyone's time. If, on the other hand, we had a chance to make a presentation to you and your evaluation team where we could share our view of the fit between our companies, as well as our RFP response, I believe we could compete effectively. Would that be possible?"

There are a lot of decision makers who would be impressed by a potential supplier with this degree of knowledge, conviction and commitment, and who would want to hear what you have to say. They may just give you the meeting you want. This is an example that there are times when we can take control and improve our ability to compete, even by choosing not to compete.