(originally published 2/25/2009)
A lot of friends, with one eye on more US Government spending in one bill than most of WW2, are asking me about Government proposals.
My first, best piece of advice - read the RFP, and respond with exactly and only what the agency wants.
I wrote & bought off RFPs for 10 years, then spent 5 selling to them. The biggest RFPs we ever lost were ones where we bid, "to take the customer in a new direction." The worst criticism we ever got was from a customer of 15 years after we moved to a 'one-size-fits-all-because-we-don't-have-the-headcount-to-do-a-good job" business model.
Crash. Burn.
Increasingly, online purchasing systems are removing any capability to get creative with the RFP process. You buy the way Ariba (or SAP) tell you to buy. I think buyers miss a big opportunity by letting the machine do the work, but that's the way it is.
In this environment, sellers are well-served by a master agreement in place with the agency. Then, you can bid easily, even electronically, knowing that a consistent set of terms apply to all transactions.
Finding RFPs is another story, but once you've found them, here are a few key steps:
- Read the RFP
- Summarize the technical requirements for your engineers (delivery guys, etc) and give them as much time to figure out how to meet them as possible
- Start workign with suppliers and partners for special pricing, also early - the more time you give them to get approvals, the better
- Talk with Sales, while Government folks respect the quiet period of the RFP timeline (unlike their commercial counterparts), you can learn a lot of environmental (mission, pressures, changes at the top) that you need for the response
- Outline exactly what the response document must contain to be considered acceptable by the buyer
- Fight against putting anything more into the response, if you must, mark it as "Additional Information" and put it at the back - that flags a buyer not to review the marketing material
- Watch out for changes, amendments & extensions, different buyers announce them different ways
- If you will need an extension, ask for one EARLY
- Keep in touch with the technical team as they develop the solution - DO NOT wait until the last minute and yell, slow & steady engagement keeps it on their radar and gets the deadline met
- Learn the technology for how to submit the bid - most systems come with a thick manual, so be prepared to spend time learning how to use it
I will add some more as I think of them. A final note - the temptation is to put Public bids on a clerical person, because they contain a large amount of clerical effort. The problem is that purchasing is done differently by every one of the 20 or so big Federal bureaucracies, 50 states + DC, 100-odd cities, 120-odd school districts and 3200 counties... Getting on top of that, and keeping up as they evolve, goes way beyond bid clerking.
