What to Ask in an RFP Instead of “Tell Us About Your Team”

“Tell us about your team.”

It’s one of the most common requests in an RFP, and one of the least revealing. On the surface it seems reasonable: you want to know who you’re going to be working with. You want to understand their experience, their capabilities, their bandwidth. But more often than not, this question yields the same predictable response: a list of names and titles, a few glowing bios, maybe a headshot or two, and a chart that shows who reports to whom.

What it rarely delivers is insight.

Because when you ask a question like this, what you’re really looking for isn’t just credentials. You’re looking for fit.

You’re trying to understand whether this group of people – not just on paper, but in practice – is right for your challenge:

• Whether they’ve solved problems like yours before.
• Whether they work well together.
• Whether they’ll push your thinking.
• Whether they’ll show up when it matters.
• Whether they’ll make you look smart in front of your boss, or your board, or your team.

And that’s not something you can glean from a list of resumes. This piece isn’t about surface-level details. It’s about reframing your RFP to elicit deeper insight into how a team actually works, collaborates, and thinks.

What You Actually Want to Know

The problem isn’t with the team. It’s with the prompt. “Tell us about your team” asks for information. But what you really need is perspective.

You want to know how this team sees the work. How they approach it. How they collaborate with each other, and with clients. How they navigate ambiguity. What they bring beyond what’s written on their LinkedIn profiles.

You’re not looking for a casting call. You’re looking for chemistry.

And when you ask better questions, you open the door to better answers.

Give Agencies Something to Respond To

No agency wants to guess what you want. But they’ll try, especially if the RFP is vague or overly templated. And when they guess, they often default to what they think sounds impressive, not necessarily what helps you make a better decision.

If you want more thoughtful responses, give them the space to be thoughtful.

That doesn’t mean you need to ask five separate questions about the team. It simply means signaling through tone, structure, and intent that you’re looking for more than bullet points and bios.

Something as simple as “Help us understand why your team is the right one for this work” can shift the answer from generic to meaningful.

And it signals something in return: that you’re not just checking boxes. You’re looking to build a relationship.

Choosing People, Not Profiles

Every agency proposal contains names, titles, and org charts. But the agencies that win don’t win because of their org charts. They win because of how they show up: on the page, in the pitch, and in the relationship.

Asking better questions doesn’t just give you better answers. It gives you a better chance of finding the right fit. Not just the smartest team on paper, but the one that will challenge you in the right ways, solve the problems you haven’t fully articulated yet, and help you do your best work.

So by all means, ask about the team. Just make sure you’re asking in a way that gets you answers that actually matter to you.

If you’re also thinking about how your RFP shapes the overall team you’ll ultimately get (and you should be!), be on the lookout for our upcoming post, “Getting the Right Team Starts With the Right RFP.”

Next up: How your Q&A process can shape the quality of your proposals.

Smart organizations know that stronger RFPs lead to better partnerships. We help teams clarify what they really need, sharpen their evaluation criteria, and structure the RFP to attract the right response from the right partners. Whether you’re looking for a topline diagnostic, a strategic rewrite, or a full-process tune-up, we can help. Let’s talk.

Featured image by Cory Billingsley via Unsplash