Requests for proposals or RFPs are a popular way in many different industries for a company to find a new partner for a particular project. In the simplest terms, it’s a business document that announces a project, outlines the goals, bidding process, and contract terms. Competing companies spend hours (and sometimes days) filling out these complex requests for information and much of the time don’t even receive an email thanking them for their submission, let alone a response. 

At WARP, if you send us an RFP, you’ll likely receive the following response from our team:

“Thanks for reaching out to WARP! We typically don’t respond to RFPs, but we’d love to learn more about what you’re looking for in order to develop a customized solution to your supply chain challenges. If you send us your data, we’ll provide you with a free, transparent analysis with hard numbers that show you how we can optimize your supply chain, either with cost-savings or time in transit. The choice is up to you.”

We swear we’re not trying to be difficult, but we truly believe that in the time it takes you to write out that lengthy RFP, read all the responses, interview the top 2-3 companies and then choose a company to move forward with, we could already be saving you time and dollars. That’s right, we also pride ourselves on our fast onboarding process, so that your freight is moving as quickly as possible. 

The efficiency of an RFP is an illusion. We believe freight should be judged and bucketed not by mode but by the specific price + time in transit requirements per piece/pallet. Any company can spin up a pretty looking deck with bells and whistles, but if there aren’t any real numbers behind it (which you won’t find out till much later in the process), then it’s a HUGE waste of time. 

At WARP, we work to find out what makes your company unique. What are your unique challenges, and how can we use our team and technology to solve them? We want to start every client relationship with trust and integrity. In our opinion, that starts with a face and a name. With an RFP we’re just another logo on a piece of paper. We’re a small team here at WARP, afterall it’s our technology that is doing most of the heavy lifting, so we’re able to concentrate on customer service and success first and foremost. We prefer to learn the ins and outs of your business, your goals, who your customers are, and your budget before we put together a recommendation. An RFP simply leaves no room for that. 

So you really want to know why we declined to participate? 

1. Existing customers always come first. We’re busy, and we’re busy for a reason. We’re good at what we do and we’re focusing on our current customers first and foremost.
2. We don’t work for free. Sometimes a company will put out an RFP, just to get new ideas and once they have them, they have everything they need to solve it internally. 
3. Your RFP is vague. We don’t have time to guess about the challenges you’re trying to solve (see #1 above). 
4. You want us to provide the cost, without you providing a budget. 
5. Your RFP is way too long. Which means that once we add in our responses, the chances of you actually getting through it and reading it are slim. No thanks.
6. We value your time. That’s right, by not responding we’re saving you from reading one less response. 
7. RFPs encourage the status quo. You’ve written an RFP to try and find a company that fits into your box. That’s backwards. The reason you should be putting out an RFP is because your box is broken. You should be looking for a company that thinks outside the box, not in it.
8. There is no conversation. A Q&A isn’t a conversation. Enough said. 
9. You’re wasting money and time which is the opposite goal of what we do at WARP. Our brand was born to save money or time based on whatever your priority is.

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