I was working with a client's sales leadership team this week. Not surprisingly, they are wrestling with their RFP response strategy. They know that they win a really small percentage of the RFPs they respond to, and that number is miniscule if the RFP came in cold. Yet, they spend a large amount of time on the RFPs. Why? Probably because the activity associated with these "opportunities" keeps people busy and keeps the top of the pipeline full. Imagine how people in the company would feel if they changed course and became more selective as to which RFPs they respond to.

Here is what they said they wanted to accomplish:

• Pursue more qualified opportunities
• Identify the right opportunities to work on
• Reduce the number of RFPs pursued
• Improve the hit rate on RFPs by leveraging the best resources on the best opportunities
• Reduce unproductive activity
• Increase focus on proactive prospects where they can drive demand rather than respond to it.

If you were in this position, what would you do? Or better yet, if you were in this position, what did you do?