If you’re in charge of purchasing promotional products, then this guide will be a game changer for your quoting process. As you may know, a promotional products RFP (Request for Proposal) is a formal document written and used by organizations to apply to get premium service and best pricing from potential vendors for a specific project, service, or products.
The proposal essentially acts as an outline that reflects the organization’s requirements. After you submit this document to several top promotional products companies, they come back to you with their best pricing, strategy of working, and qualifications.
Below outlines our 6 steps to building an impactful and successful RFP for promotional products to gather all of the answers your organization needs to make that next important decision in selecting the right promotional products company to work with.
Step 1: Know Your Company and Its Requirements
What Is Your Major Marketing Goal?
What is your company targeting? What is its major marketing goal? Is it brand awareness that tells people that your brand exists? Lead generation? Customer appreciation or your internet to blend them all?
What is Your Company’s Audience?
Every company caters to a specific audience. How old is your consumer? Where does the majority live? Which products and services capture their attention and investment? You should know the details, as this will help you draw the correct RFP for promotional items.
What Is Your Budget?
The part where companies get stuck. It’s about the budget. Large-scale companies don’t worry about the budget factor because they will eventually recover. However, small-scale businesses measure each and every aspect as they cannot afford to take big risks. That further impacts the quality of the products and services they offer to their purchasers. So, see your company’s budget to avoid going overboard with expenditures. Leading to a loss before even officially entering the market. A simple advice: be realistic.
What’s Your Brand’s Personality?
Brands speak for themselves. What’s your brand’s personality? Is it sleek and sophisticated? Or towards a fun side? Your style should reflect what your brand is about.
Step 2: Describe Your Promotional Items Mission
The Event
Briefly write a description of the niche of the event, where these promotional products RFP will be distributed or positioned so that people find it irresistible not to inquire about the product and the manufacturer. You should know the theme of the event and what people will be there.
Requirements Of The Product
What checklist does your target audience find in a product before spending money? Will your buyer think of the article as a durable, practical, and useful asset? If yes, then go ahead. If not, then see where it is lacking.
Desired Features and Quantity
Does your product need particular logos and slogans as part of its branding? What size and color should it be? Besides that, if you are participating in such activities then mention the quantity of the products you will need to promote your brand. First-timers must keep extra to be on the safe side.
Step 3: Include Timeline & Project Requirements
Specifications and Artwork Requirements
The heading only hints that you should mention the specifications related to your promotional product. This includes material, color, size, etc. The other part is artwork, which means to tell how you will provide your logo or any other branding elements that help your promotion to stand out.
Timeline and Assessing Criteria
The timeline should be mentioned to clarify how much time you can spare for receiving proposals, the samples, and the final product before the official day. The time will help you in choosing the right vendor, who will pitch in, and compare the price, quality, and delivery time. Plus how they treat their customers in providing you with your design for promotional items RFP.
Step 4: Describe Your Goals & Target Audience
Start With A Solid Introduction
Provide an informative introduction of your company and the purpose and goals behind your RFP. You need to describe what your ultimate goals are with this proposal.
Throw Light On Your Brand Story
Highlight your brand’s story in front of the potential vendors. They should become ready to facilitate your company with their services finding it worthy.
Step 5: List Out Your Budget Requirements Clearly
When requesting a proposal for promotional products pricing, it’s extremely to be as concise as you can about your promotional budget. This will be very helpful to promotional vendors and setting expectations on the types of products that will best fit your branding and budget needs.
Step 6: Evaluate Responses & Select Your Vendor
Once your RFP has hit the road, it is time to wait patiently for the correct responses.
Go through the proposals carefully. Read and compare the prices, delivery time, and customer service. RFP will unlock more opportunities for you to connect with new vendors.
Conclusion
This is how you should create a winning RFP, keeping the communication lines open without any misunderstanding and loopholes. Discuss your company and the budget it has fixed for promotional purposes so you don’t find yourself in a mess at the eleventh hour. iPromo is here to help with all of your promotional items needs, and you can submit your promotional products RFP today!