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The Request for Proposal (RFP) Process
Learning the RFP process is an essential discipline that everyone in the business community should master. An effective RFP can help you:
- Eliminate inferior vendors
- Formalize your problem or opportunity
- Reduce project cost
There is no perfect method for selecting a vendor. However, the typical RFP process consists of the following steps:
1. Determine Your Evaluation Criteria
To start the RFP process, determine what criteria you are going to use to evaluate the vendors' proposals and establish the weight each criterion will hold in relation to the others. Common criteria include experience, team strength, project understanding, differential advantage and price. Evaluations based on established criteria will help to eliminate any situational bias that may occur.
2. Vendor Research
Next, select a series of possible vendors and form a list with their contact information. Your list can consist of any number of vendors, depending on the amount of time you want to dedicate to the RFP process. Try to diversify your list in the areas of price, expertise and any other factors you feel are important.
3. Request for Information (RFI)
The next step, which is commonly forgotten, is to submit a request for information (RFI). The responses you receive will allow you to eliminate all obvious inferior vendors. Following this simple step can save hours of evaluation time and help you to initially narrow your vendor search.
4. Write the RFP and Send to Vendors
Once you have eliminated the inferior vendors, write an RFP and send it to those who remain on your list. By following this step, you typically have eliminated 50% of the vendors from your original list.
5. Review the Proposals
After receiving all the proposals, holistically evaluate each proposal based on your evaluation criteria. Once your evaluations are complete, eliminate the bottom 25% from your vendor list.
6. Interview Vendors
The most important, albeit time-consuming, step in the RFP process is the interview. Once you have narrowed the search, develop a standardized interview outline. This allows you to evaluate each vendor equally and, ultimately, help you select the vendor that will best fit your project and organization.
7. Select Your Vendor
If the RFP process went smoothly, the last step of selecting a vendor should be narrowed to only a few lucky companies. If you remain undecided, it is not uncommon to request a final interview, wherein another project stakeholder evaluates the vendors independently.