A Request for Information (RFI) is a formal business process used to gather written information about the capabilities of various potential suppliers for a specific good or service. It is typically the first step in a procurement process, allowing an organization to collect general information, understand the market, and narrow down a list of potential vendors before moving to more detailed requests.
The primary purpose of an RFI is to gather information to make more informed decisions. It helps a company understand the landscape of available solutions and suppliers without committing to a specific path. This initial exploration is crucial for developing a clear strategy for procurement and building a list of potential partners.
Its importance lies in its ability to save time and resources down the line. By pre-qualifying vendors, an organization ensures that only the most suitable candidates are invited to the more intensive Request for Proposal (RFP) stage. This streamlines the entire procurement process and leads to better final outcomes.
This is how you conduct the RFI process.
While both are key procurement tools, RFIs and RFPs serve distinct purposes at different stages.
A well-structured RFI is essential for gathering clear and comparable information from potential suppliers. While formats can vary depending on the industry and project complexity, most effective RFIs include several standard sections to guide vendors and ensure all necessary details are collected.
To get the most value from an RFI, it's crucial to be clear and strategic. Following best practices ensures you receive high-quality, comparable information from vendors. This sets the stage for a smoother procurement process.
Is an RFI legally binding?
No, an RFI is not a contract. It's an information-gathering tool to explore the market and vendor capabilities. Responses do not create a binding commitment for either the issuing organization or the responding supplier.
Can I ask for pricing information in an RFI?
While you can ask for general pricing models or ballpark figures, detailed quotes are typically reserved for the RFP stage. The RFI's main goal is to understand capabilities, not to solicit competitive bids based on price.
What happens after the RFI process is complete?
After analyzing RFI responses, you'll create a shortlist of qualified vendors. These selected suppliers are then typically invited to participate in the next stage, which is often a more detailed Request for Proposal (RFP).
Warm outbound is a sales strategy for contacting prospects who've shown interest in your brand through prior engagement, like website visits.
Sales workflows are a set of automated actions that streamline the sales process, helping teams engage leads consistently and close deals faster.
Rollback procedures are a set of steps to restore a system to a previous, stable version after a failed update, ensuring minimal disruption.
An Account Development Representative (ADR) identifies and qualifies new business opportunities, creating a pipeline for account executives.
Expansion revenue is the extra money a business makes from its current customers via upgrades, new products, or additional services.
Single Sign-On (SSO) is an authentication method allowing users to access multiple applications with one set of login credentials.
Load testing is a type of performance testing that determines how a system behaves under both normal and anticipated peak load conditions.
Event tracking is the method of collecting data on specific user actions, or 'events,' on a website or app, such as clicks or downloads.
Revenue Operations (RevOps) is a business function that aligns a company's sales, marketing, and customer service teams to drive predictable revenue.
Account-Based Selling is a B2B strategy where sales and marketing treat high-value accounts as markets of one, using personalized outreach.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) software helps teams coordinate personalized marketing and sales efforts to land high-value customer accounts.
Voice broadcasting is an automated system that delivers a pre-recorded voice message to a large list of phone numbers simultaneously.
A Content Management System (CMS) is software for creating, managing, and modifying website content without needing specialized technical skills.
Direct sales involves selling products directly to consumers in a non-retail setting, such as at home, online, or person-to-person.
Account mapping is comparing your customer list with a partner's to find common prospects and unlock new sales opportunities.
A sales funnel is a model illustrating the customer's journey from initial awareness to the final purchase, narrowing down leads at each stage.
A qualified lead is a prospect vetted as a good fit for your product. They match your ideal customer profile and show genuine interest.
Predictive lead generation uses data and AI to find prospects most likely to buy, helping teams focus their efforts on high-value leads.
A Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is a prospect who has shown interest based on marketing efforts but isn't yet ready for a sales conversation.
Psychographics categorizes people by their attitudes, interests, and lifestyles, revealing the 'why' behind their purchasing decisions.
A sales intelligence platform is software that provides sales teams with data and insights about prospects to help them sell more effectively.
Customer buying signals are the actions, behaviors, or statements a prospect makes that indicate they are moving towards a purchase decision.
Learn about B2B data, including sources and types of B2B data, leveraging B2B data for sales success, & ensuring the accuracy of B2B data.
De-duping, or data deduplication, is the process of eliminating duplicate copies of data within a dataset to improve accuracy and save space.
Regression testing ensures that new code changes don’t negatively impact existing features. It's a key step to maintain software quality after updates.
Event marketing is a strategy where brands engage directly with target audiences through live events like trade shows, conferences, or webinars.
Outbound lead generation means proactively reaching out to potential customers who haven't yet expressed interest to introduce them to your brand.
Learn about big data, including understanding big data characteristics, benefits of leveraging big data, & challenges in managing big data.
Order management is the end-to-end process of tracking customer orders from placement to fulfillment, ensuring a seamless customer experience.
A Representational State Transfer (REST) API is a web service that uses a simple, stateless architecture for systems to communicate online.
Chatbots are AI-powered programs that simulate human conversation. They interact with users via text or voice, typically for customer support.
A marketing automation platform is software that automates marketing actions. It helps manage tasks like email campaigns and lead nurturing.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a focused B2B strategy where marketing and sales collaborate to target and convert high-value accounts.
Learn about brag book, including crafting your outstanding brag book, essential components of a brag book, & brag book vs. resume: unveiling the differences.
Sales enablement content refers to the materials and tools that empower your sales team to engage prospects and close deals more efficiently.
A performance plan is a formal document outlining an employee's goals, expectations, and metrics for success over a specific period.
A lead generation funnel is a systematic process that guides potential customers from initial awareness of your brand to becoming qualified leads.
Learn about buyer intent, including understanding buyer intent signals, strategies to capture buyer intent, & buyer intent vs. customer interest.
Enrichment is the process of adding third-party data to your existing customer profiles to get a more complete picture of your leads.
Demand generation is the process of creating awareness and interest in your products to build a pipeline of qualified leads for your sales team.
A buying committee is a group of stakeholders within an organization who are jointly responsible for making major purchasing decisions.
Trigger marketing uses customer actions or events to automatically send highly relevant, personalized messages at the perfect moment.
Buyer’s remorse is the sense of regret or anxiety that can arise after making a purchase, often questioning if it was the right decision.
Responsive design is an approach where a website's layout adapts to the user's screen size, providing an optimal experience on any device.
A sales demo is a presentation where a sales rep shows a prospect how a product or service works and solves their specific problems.
Lead routing is the automated process of distributing incoming leads to the right sales reps based on predefined criteria.
HubSpot is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform with tools for marketing, sales, and service, all aimed at helping businesses grow.
A Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) API is a web service that uses XML to exchange structured information between different applications.
Sales automation uses software to streamline and automate repetitive, manual sales tasks, freeing up reps to focus on selling.
An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is a software application that manages your entire hiring and recruitment process from a single dashboard.
A Salesforce Administrator is a certified professional who manages and customizes the Salesforce platform to meet a company's specific business needs.
Feature flags let you remotely control features in your app without new code. This enables safe testing, gradual rollouts, and quick rollbacks.
Lead scoring is the process of assigning points to leads based on their attributes and actions to determine their sales-readiness.
Marketing Operations (MOps) is the engine of a marketing team, managing the technology, processes, and people to run campaigns effectively.
Inside sales is a remote sales process where reps sell products or services via phone, email, and other digital tools instead of in person.
A talk track is a script that guides sales reps during calls. It ensures they cover key points and maintain a consistent message with prospects.
Product recommendations are a marketing strategy that uses customer data to suggest relevant products, boosting sales and customer engagement.
A buying signal is any action from a prospect that indicates they are interested in making a purchase, helping sales teams prioritize leads.
A headless CMS is a back-end content repository that delivers content via API to any front-end, decoupling the content from its presentation layer.
Pipeline coverage is a key sales metric. It's the ratio of your total open pipeline value to your sales quota for a specific period.
A commission is a service charge paid to an agent for a transaction. It's typically a percentage of the sale, rewarding performance directly.
Consumer Relationship Management (CRM) is a strategy for managing all of a company's relationships and interactions with its customers.
A Call for Proposal (CFP) is a document that solicits proposals, often through a bidding process, for a specific project or service.
Learn about bottom of the funnel, including maximizing conversions at the funnel's end, & strategies for nurturing bottom-funnel leads.
Revenue forecasting is the process of estimating a company's future revenue, using historical data and market trends to guide strategic planning.
Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM) is the portion of the market your business can realistically serve with its current products and sales channels.
Mid-market companies are businesses larger than small businesses but smaller than large enterprises, often defined by revenue or employee size.
A persona map visually outlines a target customer, detailing their goals, behaviors, and pain points to help your team build genuine empathy.
Lookalike audiences are groups of potential customers who share similar characteristics and behaviors with your existing, high-value customers.
Lead enrichment tools are platforms that automatically add missing data to your leads, like contact info, firmographics, and buying signals.
Data enrichment is the process of enhancing raw data by adding missing information from other sources, making it more complete and actionable.
Net Revenue Retention (NRR) is the percentage of recurring revenue kept from existing customers, including upsells, downgrades, and churn.
A landing page is a standalone web page created for a marketing campaign. It’s where a visitor “lands” after clicking an ad or email link.
Revenue intelligence is the process of collecting and analyzing customer data to provide insights that help sales teams make smarter decisions.
Contact data is the set of details, like names, emails, and phone numbers, used to get in touch with a person or business for outreach.
Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) is a web security vulnerability that allows attackers to inject malicious scripts into trusted websites.
Learn about B2B intent data providers, including evaluating intent data quality, leveraging intent data for growth, & B2B intent data: key providers comparison.
Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) is the predictable, recurring income a business expects to receive each month from all active subscriptions.
A Customer Data Platform (CDP) centralizes customer data from all sources to create a complete, unified profile for each individual customer.
AI data enrichment uses artificial intelligence to automatically enhance and update raw data, making it more complete, accurate, and valuable.
Sales enablement provides sales teams with the necessary tools, content, and information to help them sell more effectively and efficiently.
Total Addressable Market (TAM) represents the maximum revenue a company can earn by selling its product or service in a specific market.
Cold calling is a sales tactic where reps contact potential customers by phone who haven't previously expressed interest in their product or service.
Learn about B2B, including what is it, its key elements, the benefits of B2B partnerships, the differences between B2B and B2C, and strategies for effective marketing.
Marketo is a marketing automation platform used by B2B marketers to manage lead generation, nurturing, email marketing, and analytics.
Competitive intelligence (CI) is the ethical gathering and analysis of market data to inform strategic business decisions and gain an advantage.
An Operational CRM is a system that automates and improves customer-facing business processes like sales, marketing, and customer service.
Cohort analysis is a behavioral analytics tool that groups users with common traits to track their actions and engagement over time.
Lead nurturing is the process of developing and reinforcing relationships with buyers at every stage of the sales funnel.
A canary release is a deployment strategy where new software is rolled out to a small user group first, minimizing risk before a full release.
Sales objections are reasons or concerns raised by a potential customer as to why they are hesitant or unwilling to make a purchase.
A marketing attribution model is a framework for assigning credit to the marketing touchpoints that lead a customer to convert.
Learn about business continuity, including understanding key components, steps to ensure continuity, common challenges, & best practices.
Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) is the predictable income a company expects to receive from its customers over a one-year period.
Account management is the post-sales practice of building and nurturing long-term relationships with a company's most valuable clients.
A Target Account List (TAL) is a focused list of high-value companies that a business specifically aims to convert into customers.
Customer relationship marketing is a strategy for building lasting connections with customers to foster long-term loyalty and engagement.
Firmographics are descriptive attributes of organizations, used to segment companies by characteristics like industry, size, and location.
A product champion is an internal evangelist who drives a product's adoption and success by ensuring it solves real problems for their team.
A knowledge base is a self-serve online library of information about a product, service, department, or topic.