Shining a spotlight on the moments when customer value is created in a live RFQ event.
Today’s post is by Dave Wenig, Senior Vice President of Sales and Services at SafeSourcing
If you’ve been reading this blog series in which we have been looking at the online Request for Quote (RFQ) as it progresses over time, you may be excited to read that this post is the conclusion of that series. In case you’re just joining us now, we normally focus on measuring RFQ value delivered as savings, but instead, we’re examining when the value is created and considering the vendor behaviors that go into that moment. If you need a primer on what an RFQ is, click here.
In part one and two of this series, we reviewed the first fifteen or so minutes of the RFQ. While the beginning and middle of the RFQ can be both interesting and valuable, the end of the RFQ will ultimately determine the success of the RFQ. This is the final opportunity for each of the vendors to participate and compete fully in the live RFQ.
In the example above, we’re able to see the final quote activity of each of the vendors. This particular RFQ was scheduled for 20 minutes plus extensions and this did not run as long as the average RFQ. You can see that some of the vendors represented by blue and green were caused to compete significantly to try to offer the most competitive quotes. Ultimately, they failed to do so, but the process was successful from the buyer’s perspective. This RFQ created a 47.57% savings opportunity. The green, blue, and orange vendors all happen to be some of the better vendors in this space and each would have been a great vendor partner.
As usual, this process delivered much more value than traditional procurement practices that don’t include an RFQ would have been able to deliver. Frankly, that statement was true in the first several minutes and it only got better as time went by.
If you would like more information on how SafeSourcing can help you, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service representative. We have an entire team ready to assist you today.
