How to Write a Request for Proposals
A request for proposals (RFP) is a detailed statement by a person or organization that describes their intention to purchase a product or service. Businesses, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies use RFPs to acquire many kinds of products and services, such as equipment, software, consultant services, research, and public works services, including waste disposal, highway construction, and school transportation services. Organizations normally use RFPs when the expected purchase price is above a specified amount.
The RFP serves as an important communication device between the purchaser and the provider, ensuring that both parties understand precisely the needs of the purchaser and the responsibilities of the provider. It also helps to ensure that all potential providers of the product or service are aware of the intention to purchase and have a fair opportunity to bid. This promotes competition among providers, creating a market in which the purchaser can obtain the lowest possible price.
The RFP must meet certain criteria:
Completeness: The RFP must describe everything that the purchaser wants to buy. If the purchaser fails to specify an attribute in the RFP, then the respondents will not address it in their proposals.
Clarity: The RFP must be entirely unambiguous in its specification of the product or service. Any ambiguity at all is likely to lead to an unsuccessful purchase and legal proceedings.
Time Sensitive: The RFP must reach all potential respondents at the same time, give respondents sufficient time to provide the desired product or service, and specify when the respondent must deliver the product or service. It must also state when the purchaser expects to award a contract.
Cost Sensitive: The RFP must specify how much the purchaser has budgeted for the product or service, and that amount must be commensurate with the expectations placed on the product or service. The RFP must also avoid requiring that the respondents incur excessive costs in preparing their proposals.
Explicit Criteria: The RFP must state explicitly the criteria the purchaser will use in selecting a provider. It must also be clear about the relative importance of the criteria.
Organization of the RFP
Here is a suggested outline for your RFP. You may vary from this format, but remember the criteria stated above.
I. Introduction: Provide a brief statement of your organization’s intention to purchase the product or service. Do not provide detailed specifications in this section.
II. Background: Describe your organization briefly and state why it needs the product or service. What problems will it solve, or what functions will it serve? Who in your organization will use the product or service? Where are they located?
III. Specifications: Here is where you describe the product or service you wish to purchase in detail. Leave out nothing unless you really do not care about it. The provider will be responsible for meeting the specifications you state. You cannot hold the provider responsible for specification that you omit. This is the most important section of the RFP, and you must write this section very carefully and very clearly.
IV. Schedule: Provide exact dates when you will require specific deliverables from the provider, and where the provider must deliver them. Deliverables may include progress reports, interim presentations, prototypes, and the final product or service. If you do not ask for a specific deliverable on a specific date at a specific location, you cannot demand it later.
V. Budget: Specify how much your organization is willing to pay for the product or service, and state exactly how you will tie payments to the provider with the deliverables. Specify how you will assess lateness or other penalties. Specify if you will reward the provider for early delivery or other beneficial acts.
VI. Proposal Requirements: Specify who is eligible to respond, if appropriate. Tell respondents exactly how to respond to the RFP. State when (exact date and hour) you must receive the proposal and where (and to whom) the respondent must deliver the proposal. Add any other requirements that you deem necessary. Specify the consequences of failing to meet these requirements.