Why Enterprise Sales Teams Waste Months Chasing Deals They’ll Never Win

On paper, RFPs sound fair.
An organisation has a need, puts out a Request for Proposal, and invites vendors to respond. Everyone gets a shot. Best solution wins.

But anyone who’s spent time in enterprise sales knows it rarely works like that.

More often than not, the RFP is a formality. The buyer already knows who they want to work with. Maybe it’s an existing vendor. Maybe it’s the one who’s been quietly influencing stakeholders for six months. Either way, the RFP is just the paperwork.

Yet sales teams still scramble.
They drop everything.
They pull in solutions engineers. Rework decks. Chase internal approvals. Spend 40–60 hours on a document no one’s actually reading with fresh eyes.

And the worst part? They knew, deep down, they were never going to win it.

Why This Happens

RFPs give a false sense of opportunity.
They look structured, serious, and valuable — especially in slow quarters. You tell yourself, “Even if it’s a long shot, we can’t afford not to respond.”

But here’s what you’re really doing:

• Burning bandwidth from your most senior people

• Pausing high-probability deals to chase a low-probability long shot

• Creating false hope in your forecast

• Fueling frustration when you lose — because it feels like effort wasted

This isn’t just about deal loss.
It’s about opportunity cost.

What to Watch Out For

If you’re going to engage with RFPs, learn how to spot the red flags:

1. You weren’t involved before the RFP dropped.
If you’ve never spoken to the buyer before they issued the document, it likely means someone else has been guiding the spec. And it’s not you.

2. The requirements match a competitor’s product.
Sometimes the technical checklist reads like someone else’s website. That’s not a coincidence. That’s a fingerprint.

3. The timeline is suspiciously tight.
If the RFP gives vendors only a few days to respond, chances are the internal decision is already made. You’re being invited to make up the numbers.

4. Stakeholders won’t engage.
If the buyer refuses to hop on a call, clarify requirements, or talk beyond the document — it usually means they don’t need more input. Just signatures.

What Smart Teams Do Differently

The most effective sales teams don’t chase every RFP. They focus their energy upstream.

Instead of responding cold, they work early:

• Building relationships before the RFP stage

• Co-creating business cases with the buying team

• Helping define the success criteria and influencing the structure

• And when that’s not possible, qualifying out early — and saving their time for deals they can shape

Some are now using AI-powered deal scoring to flag low-probability RFPs based on historical data: entry point, timing, size, number of vendors, and stakeholder engagement. That means fewer gut decisions — and more strategic allocation of effort.

Final Thought

The RFP process isn’t broken. But it’s often misunderstood.

Yes, some RFPs are real. Some buyers genuinely want to discover new vendors. But many are just checking boxes, and if you’re not already in the mix, your odds are low.

Great sales teams learn to tell the difference.
They don’t chase every shiny document.
They chase winnable deals.

Because the best use of your time isn’t replying to 48 questions in a spreadsheet.
It’s building the kind of relationships that make you the one people write the RFP for.