Many contractors are frustrated with the success rate they have winning RFPs.
Several different factors contribute to the ability of a proponent being successful in the art of competing in the process of a request for proposal.
It is critical for contractors not only to have all the requirements to win an RFP process, but they also need to convey all the information in a concise manner.
It then needs to be written in a format that can be easily understood by the evaluation team marking the criteria that was set out in the document.
Poorly structured RFPs in which the municipality’s requirements are badly written, or in which vital information is scattered around the document, further reduce the success rate.
An RFP is not an alternative for market research by the client department and buyer, nor is it a substitute for negotiation.
Such research should be carried out by the purchasing and client department working co-operatively, before the appropriate procurement process is selected.
The goal of that research is to identify the range of products (or services) on offer in the market, the key contractors, the general price at which such products and services are available, the extent to which the goods or services of one supplier may be interchanged with another, the technological direction in which the market is heading, any particular risks to which the market appears to be exposed and so forth.
Where information of this kind cannot be readily obtained, a request for information, or request for expression of interest, can be issued as a prelude to the RFP.
However the background market research may be acquired, this information should guide the development of the product specifications.
In my 40-plus years of dealing with RFPs, I have often compared this process in the context of doing a very complicated 10,000-piece puzzle.
When all the pieces fit into place you get a perfect picture of what you are trying to see.
From the standpoint of the people evaluating the RFP process, the clearer the picture becomes, the better chances you have of winning the bid.
The secret sauce is in the way you write the RFP to advance the most positive aspects of your company’s strengths.
Being able to accurately portray you are the best contractor that is the most capable to complete the specific project will set you apart from the other bidders.
When you give stock answers to the questions being asked in the RFP, you do not receive the maximum points available in each section.
My advice to clients has always been to read each question with the view point of answering them incorporating every detail they are asking to see.
The staff in your company that responds to government RFPs should be trained as to how the evaluating team views your company’s overall abilities, and then can distinguish them on paper from your competition.
The fact is that it is not always the most qualified bidder that wins on RFPs, nor is it the cheapest price.
It is the company that has the greatest ability to write the answers that the owner is looking for in a way that justifies the most amount of available points.
Knowing what the municipality wants to see in the evaluation process, in the way of answers, unfortunately sometimes supersedes the better qualified contractor with a less detailed proposal.
As an evaluator, you can’t mark what you can’t see written in the document.
The easier you make it for the people scoring the RFP to give you points, the better off you will be.
Keep in mind many of these people scoring RFPs are not contractors and may not even fully understand all the nuances of complicated construction projects.
Stephen Bauld is a government procurement expert and can be reached at swbauld@purchasingci.com.
Some of his columns may contain excerpts from The Municipal Procurement Handbook published by Butterworths.
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