Nobody reads your RFP's executive summary, because most of them are generic, recycled bullshit.
They're meant to convey your most razor-sharp thoughts on why you're the perfect partner.
They're meant to inspire. But somewhere along the way they became an instrument of torture. Death by bland, corporate drivel.
I have a solution. And since I started doing this on every RFP, my shortlist rate has gone up 40%.
Here's the story of my epiphany and the trick no one else is using.
I was staring at an RFP executive summary I needed to submit, trying to work out how to make it great.
I knew, looking at the page, that no one on the customer's side would ever read it. For God's sake, it was putting me to sleep just writing it.
Then I realised. The purpose of the exec summary isn't to condense 90 pages of "why us" into one. It's to make the buyer's team feel seen. To know we 'get them', and that we'd walk-through-fire to make their project a success.
The summary in front of me was a terrible way to make that point. Boring, corporate, no personality. It certainly wasn't going to make anyone feel inspired, or important.
So I walked into the founder's office and told him I wanted him to record a short video message, three minutes, no more, to my economic decision maker and the buyer's evaluation team.
Not a corporate sizzle reel. Not a generic "we're delighted to participate". A personal message to them, by name, that showed them the person at the very top of our company had sat down, read their actual requirements, and cared enough to respond.
The reason it works isn't complicated. Everyone knows written executive summaries are half-faked. Drafted by the AE, a PNG of the exec's signature pasted on the bottom.
A video from your founder can't be faked.
They can see it's really them.
They can hear they've done the reading.
You can't manufacture three minutes of a senior person wrestling with someone's specific problems.
Everything else in your response tells the buyer what you can do. This shows them they matter. An executive's time is the most expensive, most jealously guarded thing in any company, and the buyer's team knows it. Spending three minutes of it on them, by name, says more than thirty pages of capability ever could.
But there is a trick to it. Three things that make the tactic super-effective.
First, to prove the exec genuinely knows their requirements. They name two or three of the things they actually asked for in the RFP; speak to the constraint that's keeping that team up at night. If it feels generic, it loses its potency.
Next, offer a next step they're part of: an invitation to tour your offices, or a promise to get on a flight and come to them when the time is right.
Finally, give them a direct line. "If you need to reach me, here's how."
It makes the team on the other side feel important. And that's something you can't put a price on.
Looking back, it's so obvious it's almost embarrassing. My only regret is not working it out a decade sooner. I'd put money on almost none of your competitors doing it. I've barely seen anyone do it. Which is exactly why it's so powerful.
If you're running a serious RFP and your most senior person isn't on camera, you're leaving the one move on the table the other side won't even think of.
Try it on the next one. Drop me a note and tell me how the buyer responds.