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No one wants it to happen, but it can! That is getting a poor response to your RFP, which then leads to a restricted vendor choice or project delay. So what can be done to avoid this situation – how do you avoid getting a poor response to your RFP? We list six suggestions, which can help.
1. Think about what you are requesting
Consider what you are requesting from the vendors. Have you followed the RFP guidance within the RFP/RFI sample, the most important points on an RFP and tips for improving the RFP process pages? If not have a look!
Bear in mind that the quality of response will be in proportion to the quality of your RFP document. So is your RFP clear and easily understood? Can you improve the quality and content of your RFP document? And hence improve how well the vendors receive it and ultimately respond to it?
Or, is there anything in your RFP document that would help to persuade vendors to respond?
2. Get confirmation from vendors that they will respond
You can do this in a three ways.
Firstly, if the vendor is part of a RFI process, you will already have some indication of how interested they are. If they have not replied to your (brief) RFI, then it is unlikely that they will bother with your (much longer) RFP.
Secondly, you will probably have built up some rapport / communication with the vendors during the RFI process, so it is possible to simply ask them whether they would respond to your RFP.
Thirdly and formally, you could request that vendors complete (and submit before the bid deadline), a Notification of Intent to Participate in your RFP process. This can be a simple form, to confirm or not, whether a vendor intends to respond to your RFP – at least at the time they fill the form in.
3. Look at things from the vendor’s point of view
You may have been too pre-occupied think of anything else other than your software needs and preparing your RFP. However, it is always useful to look at things from the other side’s perspective.
Whilst receiving RFP’s is vital for vendors and they may receive many, vendors may also choose not to respond for various reasons. Vendors are in business and have to consider “what’s in it for them”. They cannot afford to spend time and money upfront, which they cannot recoup later on.
Therefore, at this stage it is worth looking at some of the reasons why vendors do not bother to respond to an RFP. These include:
- Unreasonable rules and requirements for responding to an RFP.
- Unreasonable time scales in which to respond to the RFP. If the workload is too great to respond in the time available, a vendor may not respond, or if they do, will rush and give a poor quality response.
- Issuing the RFP to too many vendors (or indeed to any number of vendors, eg under an open bid process). How many will bother to spend time and money responding, with only a low chance of being successful?
- Software system requirements, which are vague, ambiguous, lack summarised or background information and which then require a lot of time by the vendors to understand.
- Poor communication. If the organisation issuing the RFP is unwilling or unable to communicate with vendors, then if vendors have questions that are unanswered, they may just ‘pull out’ of the process.
- Not providing any indication of budget available for the software project – so vendors do not really know whether their solution is in the right ‘ball-park’ to even be considered.
- Requesting a fixed price quotation. How many vendors can afford to risk doing this, especially for large or complex software projects?
- Requesting confidential vendor financial information. Published annual accounts may be one thing - they are openly available, but many vendors will not wish to provide other confidential financial information.
If your RFP falls into any of the above categories, you may well wish to amend it!
4. Send your RFP to other vendors
If you have not achieved a satisfactory response from the original group of vendors you sent your RFP to, consider sending your RFP to other vendors (always assuming they are capable of meeting your needs).
5. Determine why vendors will not respond
If you are getting a poor RFP response, you need to find out why. Contact those vendors who have not responded to find out why they have not replied and what their problems were with your RFP.
6. Change your strategy
Consider changing your RFP strategy. There are a number of options including open bid, sealed bid, competitive bid and negotiation. Bear in mind the reasons why you have had a poor RFP response and then change your strategy / amend your process as required to get a better response next time.
For more RFP information visit: RFP / RFI sample / Most important points on RFP / Tips for improving RFP Process / RFP / RFI evaluation / RFP scoring guidelines / Rating criteria for rfp
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