Requests for Proposals and New-Business Pitches

If cold, warm, and hot calls are a proactive way to build business for a public relations organization, "requests for proposals" (RFPs) are a reactive way to build business. Calls involve contacting customers, but RFPs represent customers specifically inviting expert help. In this way, RFPs are tools that corporate, nonagency organizations use to solicit the help of qualified external firms. RFPs are not something used within a corporate, nonprofit, NGO, or other organization to obtain help from existing operating units. (The closest thing would be a formal written request for a meeting between one department, say R&D, and another, say public relations, regarding innovations the organization is creating.) Notice, however, that with a RFP, there are two sides-the inviting organization and the responding organization.