RFP to RIP, What Happened? – by Susan Murphy

Skills to Select the Right RFP If you are a business, independent consultant or nonprofit that responds to Requests for Proposals[1] you have something in common with the Improve Group. Many of our clients come to us through proposals we wrote in response to a posted RFP. We are pleased to say that our rate of return on proposals from RFP sources is continually rising and much of this is due to a system we have put into place for carefully assessing and selecting projects. In November of 2012, I was part of a presentation panel on Tips and Tactics to a Successful Approach with RFPs at the annual American Evaluation Association Conference. This conference brings together evaluation consultants from around the world to share knowledge and network on the latest information and best practices in the field of evaluation research. A few of my takeaways this session follow:

Know the unique core competencies of your organization and keep those at the forefront of your search for applicable RFPs.
Get to know the organization for which you are submitting your proposal. Do the research up front to find out if you are a good fit before committing time and talent to a proposal.
Other questions to help you make your decision include: Is there an incumbent that they are already working with? Should you find a partner or content expert to enhance your team? Will you be a prime or a sub-contractor? Is the budget sufficient for the scope of the project?

The first part of the Improve Group system is an Access database we developed to understand the ROI on our proposal responses. We record the source where we discovered the RFP, whether we decided to pursue, and the reasons why we did or did not receive the project. We note the time of year we found the RFP to help us look for trends on availability and cycles of projects. This data allows us to adjust our strategy and maximize where to look for opportunities and the odds for a successful bid. Streamlining and tracking has led to much greater success rates. The second part of our system is choosing which proposals to develop. At the Improve Group we developed a Bid/No Bid matrix that has key points to take into consideration when deciding to go ahead with a proposal. Some of our test criteria include:

Do we have the capacity?
Do we have reservations about the project?
Can we compete effectively?
Would this work lead to other opportunities?

Responding well to RFPs can be both highly challenging and extremely rewarding. Taking the time to assess efforts on both on the part of the RFP issuer and the responder will improve the process and ultimately save time and create better results for all.

[1] Or requests for qualifications, requests for bids, terms of reference, notices of funding availability, etc.!