Proposal Writing: Reviewing the Request for Proposal (Part 2)

In yesterday's blog, I discussed the first steps to evaluating a RFP. Today I'll wrap up the best practices for completing that initial assessment.

Just to recap, in yesterday's post I discussed:

• Your initial read-through of the proposal, noting the submission requirements
• You've assembled your team and assigned every line-item in the RFP
• You've set and internal deadline for your team members to prepare their questions
• A designated person has been identified to submit the questions and distribute the answers

Before You Submit the First Question

Submitting questions can be the first impression your organization makes on a potential customer. Before a single question is submitted, someone has to review each question and ensure it's in the form of a question (not just "CPU"). You want to present a professional appearance. 

All questions should be in the same font and the same style of bullets (or no bullets at all). And you must get the customer's name right. If ABC Corp. goes by "ABCC" in their RFP, that's what you have to refer to them as. Not ABC Corp., ABC, not the Awesome Blue Caterpillar Corp., and, please, not ABCD, ABCB or anything else that mangles their name.

When you read the RFP, you'll need to take special note of two things in regards to questions:

1. What is the policy on contacting the customer? Do all communications go through the same person? Is there a notice that contacting other employees is grounds for your proposal to be dismissed?
2. Are Q&A going to be distributed to all vendors?

You'll need to inform your entire team if there are restrictions on who can be contacted at the customer's organization. This means your network guru can't pick up the phone and call their network guru, even if they know each other. If this RFP is from a customer you're currently doing business with, you need to assure that anyone already working with the customer understands the new RFP can't be discussed outside of the RFP instructions. If possible, use employees from your organization that aren't already working with the customer to complete the RFP.

Don't run afoul of the customer's policies before you've even submitted a proposal. You don't want to be disqualified.

If the Q&A are going to be distributed to all vendors, you may need to discuss a "question strategy" with your team. You may want to word your questions carefully. For example, instead of asking "will your accept proposals for 17 inch monitors instead of 15 inch monitors," you may want to be generic and ask "will you accept proposals for items that exceed the specifications requested". You may want to conceal your strategy from competitors, or you may not want them to even know you're responding to the RFP. So don't show all your cards if the questions will be shared, and assure that no question you submit identifies your company by name or product or service.

I've noticed a lot of RFPs don't specify if Q&A will be shared among vendors. Some don't specify a date the customer commits to having all questions answered. In this case, I highly recommend you call the RFP contact (following the RFP instructions) and ask for the answers to both.

Th Clock is Ticking

Because RFP's often have a short turn-around-time, and the Q&A can make the difference in how your team responds, or if they chose to not respond. Your team may also need to submit follow-up questions, so time is a big factor in the Q&A:

• Get line-item owners to commit to submitting questions by an internal deadline
• Submit questions to the customer as soon as possible
• Assure that answers to the questions are distributed to the entire team, and as quickly as possible
• Let team members know to submit follow-up questions by an internal deadline that assures you meet the customer's question deadline

Did you have any idea that there could be so many steps just to get through the Q&A process? I promise if you follow these best practices, you won't regret it. This will give your organization an edge when you begin crafting the proposal.