PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 12

Nuts & Bolts
How to Stand Out in an RFP
ACCORDING to experts, five differentiators
are key for helping an adviser
stand out when replying to an RFP.
1) Navigating today's RFP processes
effectively. Middleton considers this
one of the most important differentiators
currently. " Can the adviser navigate
the RFP process to not get kicked
out of it? " he says. " Because more
organizations are adopting a process
to evaluate the potential hiring of a
fiduciary adviser, you have a broader
range of organizations doing RFPs, and
their approaches have unique flavors. "
Advisory firms need to be able to
adapt to different RFP processes and
platforms for submitting a response,
Middleton says. " For example, in some
cases, you can talk to the key decisionmakers
before putting together
the response. In other cases, they say,
'If you try to do that, you'll be kicked
out of the RFP process.' "
Also, organizations use different
platforms for issuing their RFP, and
some require a very quick initial
response, such as within two business
days. Some advisory practices
may have prepared only boilerplate
answers that exceed a platform's
response character-limit, so they have
to scramble to rework the responses
to fit, Middleton says.
As RFPs increase, and the need to
DO YOU WANT " a seat at the table for the finals, " as Greg
Middleton puts it? Increasingly, advisers are being asked
to answer requests for proposals. " We're living in a new age
of RFPs-everybody's doing [them] now, " says Middleton,
senior director, marketing at CAPTRUST in Raleigh, North
Carolina. Advisers, thus, have a new element to navigate
in competing for plan sponsor clients, he says.
12 planadviser.com | Fall 2023 | Practice Management Art by John Cuneo
navigate the RFP process effectively
intensifies, having a specialist RFP
response team is becoming more
common among advisory firms, says
Jeff Gratton, managing director at
SageView Advisory Group in Minneapolis.
" We've had a team for 10 years,
and it's a major offloading of work for
the advisers when you have a team
that's doing 90% of this for them, " he
says. " We try to not give boilerplate
responses on RFPs. We want to give
customized answers, and that's what
our [specialist] team can do. "

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PLANADVISER - Fall 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of PLANADVISER - Fall 2023

At the Core
A Need to Show Value
The Talent Pipeline
Inside the Deal
Demand Performance
Are They Legally Binding?
The SEC on Cybersecurity
From Managing to Leading
Can You Predict Client Stress?
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - C1
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - FC1
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - FC2
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - C2
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 1
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 2
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 3
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 4
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 5
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 6
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 7
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 8
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 9
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 10
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 11
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 12
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 13
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 14
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 15
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - At the Core
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 17
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 18
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 19
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - A Need to Show Value
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 21
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 22
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 23
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 24
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 25
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - The Talent Pipeline
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 27
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 28
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 29
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - Inside the Deal
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 31
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - Demand Performance
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 33
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - Are They Legally Binding?
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 35
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - The SEC on Cybersecurity
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 37
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - From Managing to Leading
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - Can You Predict Client Stress?
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - 40
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - C3
PLANADVISER - Fall 2023 - C4
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