How to Address Financial Questions in Your Proposal
You just received a new RFP, and as you scroll through the document, you check all of the boxes. Qualified team? Yes. Compelling solution? Check. Share your financial statements? Wait..
More and more RFPs are asking potential bidders to share their financial statements as part of the proposal. For large, publicly traded companies, this is an easy answer -- they just include a copy of their 10-K or insert a link to their investors page. Private companies, especially small businesses, aren’t able to take this approach. Instead you have to make the decision: to share your financial information or not.
Unfortunately, there is no black and white answer to the best approach. On the one hand, sharing financial statements can draw attention to the fact that you are a small business, which in some cases may convince the buyer to go with a larger organization to ensure stability for the project. On the other hand, not sharing the financial information will raise questions and cause them to fill in the blanks on their own, which leads back to the first issue and might even result in you being deemed noncompliant.
In either case, it is essential that you include a statement alongside your financial statements (or lack thereof) to explain that your organization is fully capable of supporting the project and the customer in the long-term (if that is a concern). This is especially important for solutions, such as SaaS products, that require a monthly subscription or long-term use of a product. Before investing in training their team on your product, they want to know that you’ll be around next year.
Back to the question at hand: how do you actually address this in your proposal in a way that complies with what is being asked without making your company look bad?
The short answer is “it depends” because every case is unique. However, an approach that often works is to share what financial information you can. Examples include:
Bank statements,
Audited financial returns for the past year,
A letter from your CPA or bank,
Proof that you have a high level of insurance,
Letters or statements from vendors who have invested in your company in some way (i.e. lines of credit on products),
Letters or statements from investors, and
Proof of investment and funding.
These are just a few examples, and what you provide will be dependent upon how much information you are willing to share and what you are able to provide.
To accompany these financial statements, you will need to include a statement to address why you aren’t fully complying with the question. Example language that we have included is:
As a privately held company, Company XYZ does not disclose financial information. However, we have the capacity to support Customer for the duration of this project and beyond. Over the past five years, our company has grown by X% each year, and our customer base consistently provides positive feedback on working with us. We recognize that working with a financially stable company is essential to the success of this project, and we will be here to help you in the long run. As part of our proposal, we have included [documents that you include from the list above] to speak to our financial capability. Below are also testimonials from our existing clients, who can speak to the quality of our product/work.
This language will need to be tweaked based on the exact question being asked and your company’s financial situation, but it gives you a starting point to begin crafting your own response.
While this language is helpful, it does not guarantee that you will be awarded the project. Some buyers will still choose to award the project to a larger organization, but by including this, you are addressing the question and sharing what you are able to provide.
If you have a different approach you take to the financial statements question in RFPs, let us know!