Top Tips to Producing an RFP Built for Differentiation

Remember the standard final exam in college? Part I was always the multiple choice section and Part II was the essay. On the multiple choice section, everyone was the same on page. The answers were black and white, factual, with no opportunity to expound upon.

The word ‘essay’, on the other hand, struck fear in many but to some it was their chance to excel. If writing came easy to you, then you relished the chance to express your thoughts or positions in an essay. It gave you a forum to more fully get your point across, to let the professor know exactly what you knew; to distinguish yourself from your peers. Even though the grading of an essay was largely subjective, the opportunity to tell your story enabled you to present your teacher with a much more complete understanding of what you knew.

In relating that to the publishing of a Request for Proposal (RFP), an RFP is analogous to an exam. You are putting a series of questions in front of a potential vendor to see who scores the highest. That company therefore gets the opportunity to sell its offerings. Typically, the RFP is very much geared toward the quantifiable. You compile a matrix of functionality that your business requires. Based on the vendors’ answers, you tally up a score and pick a winner.

Quantifiable RFP’s are designed to level the playing field. They are designed to minimize the subjectivity so that the evaluation is fair, but also so the final decision can be justified when you turn to your management and ask to spend the budget money. This, of course, is very important. But, does it really tell you all you need to know?