How do you stand out in the RFP process when everyone is using the same AI tools?

AI is reshaping sales faster than most of us can process. In this conversation with Antoine Drapeau, Senior Account Executive at Verndale, we get into what that really means for RFPs, discovery calls, and credibility. We explore how buyers are increasingly turning to large language models to define their problems before they ever speak to a seller, and why that creates both risk and opportunity. Antoine shares how he uses AI upstream to arrive at calls with a strong point of view, surfacing blind spots buyers didn't even realize they had.

We also unpack what's really happening inside modern RFP processes, where AI is often scoring responses behind the scenes. Antoine and I discuss how responding with polished, AI-generated fluff is a fast track to irrelevance, and why only offering "necessary" responses isn't enough to win. We critically challenge the idea of becoming an order taker and instead show how to stand out in a sea of sameness.

Topics covered during this episode include:

• How AI is rapidly reshaping buyer behaviour in sales conversations.
• Why buyers now arrive with predefined solutions and fewer nuances.
• How upstream AI research can sharpen credibility before discovery calls.
• The importance of building custom GPT projects with context files.
• Why vague AI prompts produce generic and unhelpful insights.
• How Antoine uses internal AI tools to surface patterns from past client conversations.
• The power of identifying recurring industry pain points instantly.
• Why strong sellers treat AI as an assistant, not authority.
• The danger of blindly trusting AI-generated RFP responses.
• How buyers increasingly use AI to draft and score RFPs.
• Why strict RFP response formats are becoming more common.
• The necessity of answering questions while adding unique perspective.
• What it takes to differentiate beyond standard compliance answers.
• Why procurement relationships must begin before the RFP is issued.
• How multi-threaded relationships greatly increase win probability.
• Why human judgment is more valuable now than ever before.

If RFPs feel harder than ever, this episode will change how you approach them!

Antoine Drapeau on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoinedrapeau/