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• RFPs are a great source of information about customers` objectives, providing insight on the decision process and clearly outlining customers needs and requirements
  
• Applying resources to capture and analyze RFP data can reap big benefits, providing valuable insights for marketing and product management and improving future RFP win rates for your sales teams

Unlike consumers who typically have a less structured approach to purchases, enterprises and public sector organizations explicitly and publicly document their "wants" and requirements through Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and other forms of requests to tender. [1]

RFPs are structured methods for public and non-public organizations to receive competitive bids for needed products and services and thus every month, thousands of RFPs are posted on the internet and /or send directly to selected vendors. The RFP process is meant to bring structure and transparency to the procurement decision, while reducing risk through open requirements and discussion.

Sales personnel and bid management teams spend a considerable amount of effort in answering customer questions and preparing an offer. However what happens after the sales team completes the RFP? Too often, not much, as sales and bid teams turn their focus to the next RFP.

RFPs are a great source of information about a customer’s objectives, their evaluation and decision process, and the customer’s needs and requirements – providing you with Voice of the Customer (VoC ) insight [2] .

2020 has arrived... a new decade has begun. As a marketing and sales professional planning future projects, campaigns or strategies, you likely have spent time in the past days and weeks in  evaluating what worked well, what didn’t and what to improve as you map your priorities for the year ahead.

To help you find new ideas, learn the latest insights and spark inspiration to help with your marketing and sales strategies and programs, we'd like to share six of our favorite marketing and sales blogs from HubSpot. Happy reading! 

Have you ever worked hours creating a fantastic blog with great insight...but then after you post it, you end up with only 3 likes on Facebook or LinkedIn? How do you capture the attention of your target audience and motivate them to actually read your post? And equally important: how can you increase visibility for your blog on search engines and social platforms?

Before you begin to write your blog, here are 4 important elements to keep in mind:

1. Goal: What is the goal of the blog?

2. Structure: How will your blog look like? 

3. Style: Who are you writing for? 

4. Strategy: What are you trying to achieve?   

...and don't forget SEO - you need to optimize your blog to improve ranking on Google! 

Now let's look at each of these 4 points in detail....

Content Marketing Trends for 2019 show that many marketing tactics no longer work. We produce so much content nowadays that it becomes increasingly difficult to create a message which stands out and is findable on Google and other search engines. You could argue that content marketing seems to be undermining its own success. You have to ask yourself which approach works? How to deal with the decreased organic reach of social media and Google?

Based on feedback from Dutch marketing thought leaders, the following are some of the top trends for 2019: decreasing reach of social media and organic search, personalization (e.g. "people do business with people"), targeted, reader-specific content, and the rise of video and podcast.