Michel Theriault

Developing an effective RFP

Michel Theriault, Principal, Strategic Advisor
Friday, June 14, 2013

What are some tips for writing a request for proposal?

Procurement is the first step to a successful service. The main part of a request for proposal (RFP) is the set of questions used to evaluate bidders. If these questions aren’t right, then it may be difficult to differentiate the bidders and select the right one.

To make it easier, follow these five tips when preparing an RFP.

1. Ask clear questions.
Each bidder will interpret ambiguous or broad questions differently, and provide diverse answers that don’t match the client’s expectations or are hard to evaluate.

2. Ask questions that matter.
Only ask about things that matter to the service or to the selection of the supplier. Don’t ask basic, general questions such as those beginning with, “Describe your approach to …” Instead, ask specific questions such as, “When delivering the service, what technology will you use to communicate the status to us on a timely basis?”

3. Avoid multi-part questions.
Long questions with multiple parts are sometimes not answered fully and responses may be structured in ways that make them difficult to evaluate. Don’t make it hard to find the information required. Instead of asking multi-part questions, break them into separate questions.

4. Ask for evidence.
Instead of asking bidders how they will do something in general terms, ask them to describe a specific example of how they delivered something similar. Where relevant, ask for samples of existing documents such as the table of contents for an existing quality assurance program, training manual or process document.

5. Explain the line of questioning.
Even with clear questions, a client doesn’t always get what it is looking for. To get a focused response, the client should tell bidders what it is looking for, either within the question, as a preface to the question or in the section in the RFP.

Implementing these five techniques will make it easier for bidders to respond to an RFP. It will also make it easier to evaluate the responses and select the bidder that is best suited for the job.

Michel Theriault is principal of Strategic Advisor, a facility, property and asset management consulting firm.

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