Steve Schramm’s proposal team was bidding on 12 state government contracts per year and only winning two or three. He was frustrated by the amount of time and effort they were putting into RFPs with such a low ROI. So, Steve invested in support, and one year later, his team’s win rate increased from 25% to more than 80%! What are they doing differently? And what can you learn from Steve’s team to win more business with RFPs? Steve is Founder and Managing Director at Optumas, a strategy and actuarial consulting firm that specializes in the publicly sponsored health and welfare programs. Steve is responsible for the design, development and implementation of healthcare reform projects, helping his clients with strategy development, risk analysis and communications. On this episode of The RFP Success Show, Steve joins me to explain why ‘find and replace’ is not an effective RFP strategy and how his team pivoted their writing style from an internal to external focus. Steve describes how to tailor an RFP response to the specific needs of a prospective client, discussing how his approach differs when Optumas is the incumbent as opposed to being a new bidder. Listen in for Steve’s advice on collaborating with partners on a proposal and learn how responding to fewer RFPs has dramatically increased his win percentage and made his team more effective, efficient and happier! Key Takeaways  How Steve’s proposal team learned that ‘find and replace’ is not an effective RFP strategy How writing from the client’s perspective demonstrates your competitive advantage How to answer questions from a client’s perspective in your RFP response The challenge Steve faced in pivoting his team’s writing style from an internal to external focus How to tailor an RFP response to meet the specific needs of a prospective client How Steve’s RFP strategy differs when he’s the incumbent vs. new bidder Why you shouldn’t bid on an RFP if you can’t do the job better than your competitors How a cookie cutter response makes the client think the incumbent doesn’t value their relationship Why you need a writing guide to successfully collaborate with partners on an RFP What made Steve willing to invest in support with the RFP process How Steve’s proposal team increased their win rate from 25% to 80% in 12 months How responding to fewer RFPs makes Steve’s team more effective, efficient and happier Connect with Steve Optumas Steve on LinkedIn Connect with Lisa  Lisa’s Website Lisa on Twitter Lisa on Facebook Lisa on LinkedIn The RFP Success Company on YouTube The RFP Success Company on LinkedIn Subscribe on iTunes Email [email protected]   Resources   Book a Call with the RFP Success Company Dare to Be Influential: Maximizing Your Positive Influence While Still Being True to You by Lisa Rehurek The RFP Success Book by Lisa Rehurek The RFP Success Institute