What is the point of RFPs?

RFPs are used by many companies as a fair and unbiased method of purchasing products or services. They help buyers decide which is the best product for the best value. Note I don’t say the lowest price, as that is not always the goal of the RFP. Sometimes companies need the lowest price possible, and sometimes they are more interested in the value of the product or service you are providing.

So why are there so many types of procurement vehicles and what is the point of them?

• RFP – Request for Proposal. A common procurement vehicle that includes questions, pricing, contractual details and a timeframe for a decision. Contracts are made between the Client and one or more Organizations. Companies will often use an RFP to make a purchasing decision, without any other steps.
• RFI – Request for Information. When a company doesn’t know what they need, they can issue an RFI. RFIs usually include a general overview of the client requirement, and the responses include a detailed description of the product or service to help narrow the focus of the next stage, which is usually an RFP.
• RFQ – Request for Quote. These are often used to procure commodities that are easy to price, or as a precursor to an RFP. The company knows pretty much what they need and wants to know how much it will cost them. Or they need to know how much their budget should be for what they need (and this is their way of getting you to do the research for them).
• VOR – Vendor of Record. Mostly used in the Public Sector, a VOR is a fancy RFP that collects information and pricing for solutions that can then be purchased by other agencies. Picture a municipal government buying office furniture – they know they need it, but based on the design of the offices the furniture is going into, there may be 3 or 4 companies they can choose from. It creates a catalogue of sorts that is refreshed every 1 to 10 years.

When all is said and done, procurement documents are time-consuming to respond to, have very specific strategies and methods, and can be very complex. In a word, they are tedious. But because they provide a consistent way to purchase products/services and remove the subjectiveness of the decision (or reduce organizational conflict of interest), they are also required by many organizations. So, it is useful to understand them and how to use them to your benefit.

What does all this mean for you? Well, as a small or medium business, open RFPs are a good way to sell your products and services to larger organizations. There are a variety of strategies that make this easier, including a database of content that you can use when responding to some of the standard RFP questions makes the response much easier to put together.

The flip side of the procurement process is that any organization (including non-profits) can use RFPs to obtain services. You are under no obligation to make a purchase when you release an RFP, but you can get the information you need (and sometimes information you didn’t even know you needed) to make an informed purchase. Mobile devices, accountancy or legal services, technology … RFPs can be a useful tool to purchase almost anything. In the case of a non-profit, this can help lower administrative costs and make a higher percentage of funds available for programs and services.

How can ReidWrite Consulting help you with your RFPs? As a certified APMP Practitioner with over 20 years of experience, I can help you respond to RFPs, create a database of reusable content, assist with locating RFPs to respond to (outside of your normal sales strategy), and more. I can also help you create an RFP for the services you need to purchase! There are key elements that will get you the best information possible, and after 20 years I have seen the good, the bad and the downright interesting. 

Book a complimentary 30-minute consultation session to discover how ReidWrite Consulting can help you with your RFP and procurement needs.