Rule 1: Cut your RFx in half
The median RFx we see has 84 questions. The best-performing RFx we see has 22. Long RFx documents drive serious suppliers away — they only get filled out by suppliers who use them as marketing exercises.
Cut every question that doesn't change your award decision. If two answers wouldn't make you pick a different supplier, the question doesn't belong in the RFx.
Rule 2: Score on outcomes, not capabilities
'Do you have ISO 9001 certification?' tells you nothing useful. 'What was your on-time delivery rate for your three largest customers in the last 12 months?' tells you everything.
Replace capability questions with outcome questions. Require evidence (a screenshot, a customer reference, a metric).
- On-time delivery rate (last 12 months) — require source data
- Defect rate per 1,000 units — require source data
- Average response time on RMA — require source data
The three questions that always matter
Across categories, three questions consistently separate winning suppliers from losing ones:
- What would cause you to walk away from this contract in year 2?
- Which of your current customers most resembles us, and what's their renewal status?
- If we doubled the volume in 18 months, what breaks first in your operation?