Sharpen the Axe - Proposals and Strategic Selling with RFP

Key Takeaways

• Lead the initiative. Engage IT stakeholders first, then bring procurement in. Help co-author the RFP, define requirements, and participate in scoring so AHEAD is positioned as the customer’s strategic advisor.
• Create customer value beyond price. Consolidation can reduce a customer’s VAR count from 15+ to roughly 2–5, improve governance, shift control toward the customer, and align IT with procurement.
• Differentiate with proof, not generic capabilities. Competitors often sound alike; lead with documented deliverables, measurable savings, technical expertise, and specific examples of work completed for the customer.
• Engage early. AHEAD has the most leverage when involved during discovery and solution evaluation—not just when the customer needs a quote. For preferred pricing, engagement may need to begin at least six months before the purchase order.
• Structure the commercial model carefully. Favor service credits or an “innovation fund” over cash rebates, apply rebates to hardware and software rather than maintenance renewals, and challenge cost-plus models in favor of auditable percent-off-list pricing.
• Use tailored differentiators. Marketplace advisory, FinOps, Foundry, Hatch, warehousing, enterprise licensing, and deep technical score carding are more compelling when tied directly to the customer’s objectives and measurable outcomes.
• The model has produced significant expansion. Examples included winning all network business at Marathon, growing that account from approximately $200K to $5M in margin, and ranking first in eight of nine Cardinal Health evaluation categories.
• Enablement takeaway: The new proposal template should make it faster to convert account evidence into executive or comprehensive proposals; the required training was described as approximately 25 minutes.

Call to Action

1. Identify accounts with fragmented VAR relationships or white space.
2. Lead the initiative yourself: engage IT stakeholders, then bring the strategy to procurement.
3. Ask existing VARs for documented deliverables, designs, proposals, and savings evidence—not just quotes.
4. Build a reusable body of proof showing AHEAD’s differentiated value and engage early enough to influence pricing and solution decisions.