Writing Business Bids and Proposals For Dummies. Cobb Neil

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Proposal,” later in this chapter). Your goal with this type of proposal is to get “out in front” of the request – to be collaborating with the customer so you know when a problem is about to reach a breaking point and force the customer to seek a solution – and not be scrambling to pull together a response under duress. To win this type of bid, you need to know as much as possible about the customer as you can and as much about the specific opportunity before your competitors get wind of it.

      

You normally write a reactive proposal in response to a Request for Proposal (RFP). The RFP identifies the buyer’s current problem and needs in specific terms and requires you to solve the problem in whole or in part. Think of an RFP as a game where the buyer sets all the rules. The buyer may already think you’re the right company to solve its problem, but it may not be able to legally give you the business without you meeting the requirements of an RFP. You have to abide by the buyer’s rules if you’re going to win the business.

      

An RFP is sometimes known as an Invitation to Tender (ITT) or Invitation to Bid (ITB) depending on your location.

      In the following sections, we take a look at the RFP, some of its sibling request types, and ways for you to stay ahead of the curve and play within the ever-changing rules of the game.

       Joining the game: The invitation to bid

      An RFP is an invitation to do business. Some are open invitations, posted publicly so any company can respond. Some are private invitations, sent to a select few providers. And some require that potential bidders prove their mettle by meeting strict requirements in a qualification step before being formally invited to submit a bid.

      RFPs can be simple and small – a few pages that identify a need and ask for a solution in relatively broad terms – or they can be complex and large – hundreds of pages of precise requirements, often in the form of nested questions. Bidders must read the RFP carefully and be on the lookout for requirements meant to disqualify careless, would-be suppliers. Bidders must answer each question thoroughly, preferably in a consistent manner, and read between the lines to discover unstated requirements that can mean the difference between winning and losing the business.

      

RFPs are not for the faint of heart. In some cases, they can mean future employment of participants or even the long-term viability of a company.

      RFPs are the standard way of doing business for many industries for several reasons, including the following:

      ❯❯ They establish a supportable and repeatable rigor for procurement.

      ❯❯ They create tangible and comparable views of alternative approaches to solving a business’s problems.

      ❯❯ They quickly weed out the pretenders from the viable providers.

      RFPs are a way of business life throughout the world. What was once a staple of doing business with only the largest companies and government entities is now a recognized standard throughout all industries and markets.

      Sometimes, the RFP isn’t the first stage of the process. You may need to work through a Request for Information (RFI) or a Request for Quote (RFQ) first. You may even find that you have to undergo a pre-qualification step before you can move forward. In the following sections, we outline these possibilities in more detail.

       Understanding requests: RFPs, RFQs, and RFIs

As you gain experience in business development activities, you may run across some relatives of the RFP. Table 2-1 lists the different types of requests that potential customers may have, listed in the sequence they normally follow, and what they mean to you.

TABLE 2-1 Common Types of Customer Requests

We provide some examples to guide you – see the appendix for more information.

       Narrowing the field: The infrequent pre-qualification step

      Although some RFPs are open to all bidders, some companies whittle down the competition by requiring prospective bidders to fill out a pre-qualification form. These forms are usually questionnaires – some actually call them PQQs, or Pre-Qualification Questionnaires – but they come in a variety of sizes, formats, and structures, and you can count on them requiring the following:

      ❯❯ Information about your company, including its size, location of offices, scope of resources, type of company, and how long you’ve been in business

      ❯❯ References and evidence of how well you’ve performed on similar jobs in the past

      ❯❯ Human resources data, such as minority ownership and sustainability programs

      

You need to always be ready to respond to qualification questionnaires, because they’re gatekeeping devices designed to reduce the number of bidders and they tend to pop up at the most inconvenient times. If you respond quickly and thoroughly (and with the least amount of effort), it may offer you a competitive advantage – the less time you spend dealing with these pre-qualification forms, the more time you can spend crafting your solution and responding to the RFP itself. If you receive a lot of qualification questionnaires, consider building a customer-facing website that provides pre-approved, standard questions and answers. While your customer may not use the site, simply publishing the questions and answers will give you a legup on responding.

       Following instructions: Compliance and the case for responsiveness

      To win with your RFP response, you must comply with your customer’s requirements. If you fudge, hedge, or dodge, you lose. It’s that simple.

      A compliant proposal is one that clearly and directly

      ❯❯ Meets the customer’s detailed requirements

      ❯❯ Follows all the customer’s submittal instructions

      ❯❯ Answers the customer’s questions

      

The most important aspect to responding to an RFP is that you carefully read it from beginning to end, note all statements and even hints of need, and build your proposal to clearly respond to every one of them.

      To maximize your chances, you need to

      ❯❯ Respond to and meet every requirement your customer identifies

      ❯❯ Structure your proposal exactly as your customer instructs

      ❯❯ Adhere to all the formatting and packaging guidelines that your customer specifies

      ❯❯ Stay within the page limit your customer sets

      ❯❯ Build a compliance matrix to show your customer where in your proposal you respond to a requirement (see Chapter 4 for how)

      And then there’s responsiveness. Being responsive does compliance one better. Responsive proposals address overarching goals, underlying

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