How to Respond to RFIs

When the federal government is considering a procurement, but is not sure about specifics or methods, they may issue a Request for Information (RFI). 

An RFI provides you with an opportunity to make suggestions regarding what they should include in the future RFP if it goes forward.  In cases where the government knows exactly what they need, RFIs are used to determine whether there are any qualified small and/or disadvantaged businesses that can do the work.  If there are, they may decide to set the work aside specifically for those businesses.  Otherwise, the procurement will become a full and open competition.

With some agencies, responding to an RFI is required if you want to be able to respond to the future RFP. In most cases, this will be stated in the text of the announcement. In other cases, it’s important to know the practices of the agencies to determine whether or not RFPs will only be issued to those companies that respond to the RFI.

According to www.CapturePlanning.com, when responding to an RFI, there are several things that you can try to influence, in order to give you a competitive advantage should an RFP actually be released. There include influencing the:

• Technical scope. Try to include requirements that will limit the field of competitors.
• Specifications. Make recommendations that you can comply with, but will be difficult for others.
• Contract Type. If you have a preference, here is your chance to make a recommendation.
• Contract Vehicle. If you have a contract vehicle that you think is advantageous, recommend its use.
• Small Business. If you are a small business and think you can do the work yourself, recommend that it be released as a small business set-aside.
• Pricing. With many programs, choices made early on can have a big impact on the price.
• Past Performance. If you don’t have any government project past performance, make sure you recommend that they consider relevant commercial experience.
• Certifications. If you have any relevant certifications, recommend that they become requirements to limit the competitive field.
• Methodologies. If there is a particular approach you would take, describe it so that they can make it a requirement.

Make sure that you describe your recommendations in language that can be included in the RFP. Keep in mind that if you make a recommendation and it ends up in the RFP, everyone will see it and bid accordingly. Sometimes this will level the playing field and you will lose the competitive advantage. These recommendations are better to save for when you are responding to the RFP, so that you can keep the advantage and stand out from the crowd.

For more information on responding to request for information or similar documents such as Sources Sought Notices and Market Surveys, visit www.captureplanning.com.

Know When to Bid or No-Bid

As a small business owner, it is very tempting to bid on every opportunity that flows into your inbox. Before making that next leap—wasting time, energy, and other resources—to bid on an unwinnable opportunity, consider looking for reasons to “no-bid” it.

Here’s a starting point:

1. You find out about the opportunity when the RFP is released.
2. The customer has not budget or can’t afford what is actually required.
3. Your competition is cheaper.
4. There are too many competitors.
5. There is a requirement in the RFP that you can’t live with.
6. The price risk is too high.
7. The performance risk is too high.
8. You have negative past performance.
9. The customer doesn’t like you.
10. You don’t like the customer.
11. The RFP is too vague.
12. The RFP is too specific.
13. You don’t have enough staff available to write the proposal.
14. The schedule is unrealistic.
15. You don’t have the staff to do the work.
16. You can’t promise delivery of key personnel.
17. You don’t know who the competition is.
18. The customer likes someone else.
19. Your awareness is limited to what is in the RFP.
20. Pursuing it would distract you from other opportunities.
21. Your started working the proposal after the RFP hit the street.
22. The customer doesn’t know you.
23. You can’t adequately perform at the price you plan to bid.
24. The technology requested is already obsolete.
25. There’s not enough profit in it.

You can find additional reasons to ‘no-bid’ opportunities and other related information atwww.captureplanning.com.

Future Planning for Your Business

You started your business with the “oh so important” business plan. Then you were told that your organization needed a full blown marketing plan. Now, it’s time to look beyond this year and develop a strategic plan—for the future. What gives? Why do you need a strategic plan?

Basically, strategic planning focuses on where an organization is going over the next year or more, how it’s going to get there, and how it’ll know if it got there or not. The focus of a strategic plan is typically on the development of the entire organization while a business plan focuses on particular products, services, or programs. Meanwhile, the marketing plan focuses telling the world and selling the world on your product, service, or program, and even more important, who in the world wants it.

There are a variety of perspectives, models and approaches used in strategic planning. The way that a strategic plan is developed depends on the organization’s leadership and culture, and complexity of the organization’s environment, size of the organization, expertise of planners, etc.

For example, there are a variety of strategic planning models, including goals-based, issues-based, organic, scenario, etc. Goals-based planning is probably the most common and starts with focus on the organization’s mission, goals to work toward the mission, strategies to achieve the goals, and action planning. Issues-based strategic planning often starts by examining issues facing the organization, strategies to address those issues, and action plans. Organic strategic planning might start by articulating the organization’s vision and values, and then action plans to achieve the vision while adhering to those values.

Some plans are scoped to one year, many to three years, and some to five to ten years into the future. Some plans include only top-level information and no action plans. Some plans are five to eight pages long, while others can be considerably longer.

Development of the strategic plan greatly helps to clarify the organization’s plans and ensure that key leaders are all “on the same page”. Far more important than the strategic plan document, is the strategic planning process itself.

The strategic planning process is preceded by a number of critical preparation activities including forming a strategic planning committee, reviewing and finalizing the planning timetable, finalizing information gathering and analysis strategies, determining who else to involve in the planning process and the nature of their involvement. 

The strategic planning process consists of:

1.       Gathering and Analyzing Information

2.       Identification of Critical Strategic Issues

3.       Development of a Mission Statement

4.       Development of a Strategic Vision Statement

5.       Development of Strategic Goal Statements

6.       Development of Strategies for Each Goal

7.       Development of Annual Objectives

In summary, if we were to view strategic planning as a journey, the first two steps of the process – information gathering and analysis and identifying strategic issues tell us where we are. The next step – developing a mission- reminds us why we’re on the journey in the first place. And developing a vision – helps us determine the destination. We get to the vision through the accomplishment of goals. We accomplish our goals by means of the strategies we devise for each goal. Finally, we translate goals and strategies into concrete action through development of objectives.

Adapted from the Field Guide to Nonprofit Strategic Planning and Facilitation, written by Carter McNamara 1997-2007.

Fill Your Pipeline with Qualified Leads

Small businesses with limited resources should resist the urge to put every opportunity they stumble upon into their pipeline. Moreover, small businesses should tread cautiously when tempted to bid on every single opportunity in the pipeline. Assess each opportunity wisely to ensure the resources you spend are worth the chase.

Before pulling an all-nighter to submit the next proposal, consider the following 10 bid factors:

·         Related Experience

·         Key Personnel

·         Pricing Strategy

·         Technical Proposal

·         Competition

·         Marketing Intelligence

·         Customer Environment

·         Management Approach

·         Staffing

·         Geographic location

Weigh the company on each factor and identify the grade that makes the most sense to pursue. Do you have the past performance to claim relative experience? Do you have personnel that are subject matter experts in this area and/or that have a relationship with the customer? Will the pricing be highly competitive and within your pricing structure? Can your business meet and/or exceed the requirements to support the effort? Is there a strong incumbent or has your research indicated that there is no competition? Do you have reliable intelligence on the requirements or was this an RFP you just identified this morning? Do you have a great relationship with the customer and/or are they familiar with your company? Does your organization have experience in managing an effort of this size? Is there a staffing plan in place to ensure that you always have access to top notch employees? Does your organization have offices close by for faster response?

These are all very pertinent questions that should be answered prior to having everyone in the company roll up their sleeves to dive into proposal development.  Determine a scoring system that will help your team to quickly assess whether this opportunity is winnable and worth the effort.