What Every Sales Team Gets Wrong About RFPs

From Fire Drills to Forward Motion

For many sales teams, RFPs still feel like a fire drill. They’re something to survive—fast, chaotic, and reactive. But here’s the truth: when rushed and treated as a last-minute task, RFPs don’t just risk deals. They erode trust.

I’ve heard the line more times than I can count. I’ve said it myself:
“Just give them anything.”

I still remember the last time a sales rep came to me and said,
“Hey Ben, can you help me with this RFP—just one last time?”
I nodded—but I knew there wouldn’t be a last time. Because there never is.

The Psychology of the RFP

RFPs aren’t just time-consuming — they’re mentally draining. Context switching between documents, Slack threads, and spreadsheets forces the brain into constant gear shifts. That’s not just frustrating; it’s cognitive overload.

When people spend hours chasing down approvals or rewriting the same answer, decision fatigue sets in. The quality drops, errors creep in, and burnout follows.

Iris doesn’t just make RFPs faster — it restores focus. By removing the noise, it lets people do their best thinking. That’s not automation for efficiency’s sake. That’s automation for clarity.

The RFP Loop: Patchwork, Pressure, and Burnout

The cycle is always the same:

• Pulling content from six different teams
• Filling gaps while someone’s out on PTO
• Piecing together outdated answers
• Missing deadlines
• Losing momentum

Eventually, it doesn’t feel collaborative—it feels like being nagged to “finish your part.” It’s exhausting. And somehow, we keep doing it. Again and again.

When RFPs are treated this way, responses feel generic. Buyers notice. And the opportunity to actually differentiate is gone.

What Great Teams Know That Busy Teams Don’t

Busy teams are always reacting. Great teams design systems that prevent chaos in the first place.

The difference isn’t headcount — it’s process.

• Busy teams rely on memory. Great teams rely on structure.
• Busy teams scramble. Great teams delegate with precision.
• Busy teams chase deadlines. Great teams move on rhythm.

Iris gives teams that rhythm. With automated routing, version control, and AI assistance, the RFP process stops being a series of emergencies and becomes a repeatable advantage.

From Answers to Advantage

RFPs aren’t just requests — they’re a reflection of what your buyers care about most. Every question reveals a clue: how they think about risk, what they value in a partner, where competitors are winning, and where they’re falling short.

Most teams treat those clues as one-and-done answers. But in reality, every RFP your company completes is a data set — one that can shape how you sell, position, and compete.

That’s where Iris changes the equation.

By turning every response into structured, reusable intelligence, Iris helps teams spot patterns across deals:

• Which answers lead to wins
• What questions come up most often
• How buyer priorities shift over time

Instead of letting great responses disappear into shared drives, Iris captures them, refines them, and feeds them back into your process — so every deal starts smarter than the last.

The result? RFPs stop being paperwork. They become a performance engine.

Because when your answers become insights, every response isn’t just a submission — it’s a step forward.

We Needed Jetsons-Level Solutions for Flintstones-Era Problems

That’s been my line for years, and it still holds up.

My grandfather used to complete RFPs for Lockheed Martin—on a typewriter. Decades later, we’re doing them with AI.

But here’s the catch: most RFP tools don’t feel like the future. They’re new tech duct-taped onto the same broken workflows. Flashy UI, same chaos behind the scenes.

Why Iris Is Different

We built Iris because we’ve lived through this mess. We know what it’s like to chase down subject matter experts at midnight. We’ve scrambled through Slack threads trying to get something—anything—over the line.

We didn’t want to just automate RFPs. We wanted to fix the process entirely.

Unlike generic AI tools or fragile custom builds, Iris delivers:

• Deterministic AI trained only on your internal, approved content
• Zero hallucinations, and no risky web-sourced data
• Real collaboration—tag teammates, assign reviews, and track progress
• Clear audit trails for every answer, so compliance isn’t a blocker
• Dynamic knowledge base that evolves with every response

Iris isn’t a new layer on top of an old problem—it’s a different foundation altogether.

AI as an Extension of Institutional Memory

Every team has tribal knowledge — the unwritten answers hiding in inboxes, Slack threads, or someone’s head. The problem is, people leave. Systems don’t.

Iris acts as that system. It remembers what your best people knew and makes it available to everyone. When someone searches for “SOC 2 compliance” or “integration summary,” Iris surfaces exactly what worked last time — vetted, approved, and current.

That’s how organizations preserve expertise at scale. Not by documenting everything manually, but by letting AI learn from what’s already there.

The End of the RFP Graveyard

Every company has one: the dusty SharePoint folder full of old RFPs no one wants to open. It’s where good work goes to die.

Inside those files are your team’s best answers, but they’re buried — locked away in PDFs, forgotten drives, or mismatched naming conventions. Iris brings that knowledge back to life.

By turning every past RFP into searchable, structured intelligence, Iris transforms a graveyard of forgotten work into a living, learning knowledge base. Every response fuels the next one.

What Happens After the RFP

The biggest opportunity most teams miss isn’t in the submission — it’s in the follow-up.

Every RFP reveals what buyers care about most. Which features they prioritize. Which competitors they mention. Which objections they raise.

Iris captures that data and turns it into actionable insight.

• Sales leaders use it to refine messaging.
• Product teams use it to prioritize roadmaps.
• Marketing uses it to sharpen positioning.

Because the real power of AI in proposal management isn’t in how fast you can respond. It’s in how much you can learn from every response.

Leave the Fire Drill Behind

RFPs don’t have to be a burden. When done right, they become a strategic advantage. At Iris, we’re helping teams move from chaos to clarity—and finally make RFPs work the way they’re supposed to.

👉 Ready to see how Iris can help your team win faster and work smarter? Schedule a demo