Finding a good barber is hard.

Is there anything worse than walking into a barbershop for the first time and putting all of your trust into new hands with sharp scissors? I don’t think so.

A friend of mine recently asked, “Can you explain how an RFP works in third-grader terms?”

I said, “Of course,” and here’s where I started.

The Search Begins

The journey to find a new barber in a different place can be daunting.

Who can I trust? Do they know how to cut my hair? The list of questions goes on, and sometimes even online reviews don’t show how effective the barber really is.

So you start scouring the internet for potential barbers. You read reviews, look at photos, maybe ask a friend for recommendations, and eventually, you narrow down your options.

You probably already know what you like. For example, how short you want it, what kind of style you’re going for, and the little preferences that matter to you.

That’s basically what an RFP is.

A long list of questions designed to find someone who understands your needs, has the right experience, and won’t leave you regretting your choice for the next three months.

The Barber Questionnaire (aka: Your RFP)

Imagine you compiled a list of “barber questions” and sent it to the top 10 shops in your area:

• Do you do walk-ins?
  
  
  

• Can you handle curly hair?
  
  
  

• What’s your cancellation policy?
  
  
  

• How long does a typical cut take?
  
  
  

• Do you offer coffee or tea?
  
  
  

Then, each barber responds in their own unique way. Some send back detailed, thoughtful replies. Others give vague, one-sentence answers like “Yup, we do hair.”

You sift through all the responses, compare notes, and finally make your decision.

That’s the RFP process in a nutshell: a bunch of questions, a stack of responses, and a decision that hopefully doesn’t result in regret.

The Barber’s Side of the Story

Now flip the script.

Imagine you’re the barber. You’ve just received ten different “questionnaires” from potential customers asking everything from your pricing to your favorite brand of clippers.

You’re already booked solid with appointments, and now you have to drop everything to fill out form after form, just for a chance to win new business.

You answer the same questions over and over again:
“How long does a cut take?” “What’s your specialty?” “Do you do color?”

It’s exhausting.

That’s how proposal and sales teams feel when they’re buried in RFPs. They’re juggling active projects, trying to close deals, and still expected to manually answer hundreds of repetitive questions all while under tight deadlines.

Enter Settle: The Barber’s Secret Weapon

That’s where Settle comes in.

At Settle, we help the “barbers” (the vendors, sales teams, and proposal managers) respond to RFPs accurately, efficiently, and in record time.

Instead of cutting and pasting from old documents or chasing down subject-matter experts, Settle’s AI Proposal Manager instantly surfaces the right, approved answers from your knowledge base.

So while your competitors are still fumbling with their scissors, you’re already delivering a polished, professional response, and getting back to what actually matters: the work itself.

Because no barber wants to spend more time filling out questionnaires than cutting hair.

The Perfect Cut (and the Perfect RFP)

When it all comes together; the right questions, the right answers, and the right fit, everyone wins.

You walk out of the barbershop feeling confident and trimmed.
Your vendor wins the deal and makes a tip.
And no one leaves with an uneven fade or a missed deadline.

The Moral of the Story

Whether you’re choosing a barber or responding to an RFP, it all comes down to three things:

1. Trust. You need confidence that the person on the other end knows what they’re doing.
   
   
   

2. Clarity. The better the questions and answers, the better the outcome.
   
   
   

3. Efficiency. Time spent on the wrong process is time lost doing great work.
   
   
   

So, next time you’re knee-deep in an RFP, remember this: finding the right tools is a lot like finding the right barber.

Once you do, everything gets smoother, faster, and a lot less painful.

Settle helps teams look sharp on every proposal.
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