RFx responses revisited – Bredemarket

Have you ever ever written a collection of paperwork, after which realized that it’s good to increase that collection…years after the actual fact? Right here we’re.

Again in February 2022, I wrote a four-part collection of weblog posts on Bredemarket’s proposal companies:

All these have been fairly good…for February 2022.

However I have to revisit the primary one.

What the unique “half one” submit coated

Not as a result of it’s unsuitable in any manner. It precisely coated a number of subjects.

Equivalent to the necessity for RFx response companies.

“RFx” is shorthand for quite a few “request for” gadgets, together with requests for proposals, requests for data, and requests for remark. These RFx paperwork ask entities to submit a proper response within the format dictated by the RFx doc. The response could also be one web page lengthy, 5 pages lengthy, or one thousand pages lengthy. 

And the variations between Requests for Data (RFIs) and Requests for Proposal (RFPs).

In the Request for Data stage, you continue to have a possibility to form the ultimate procurement (if a last procurement takes place). For instance, should you provide a inexperienced widget and your rivals don’t, your RFI response will make an vital level about how the shopper will profit from a inexperienced widget, and an answer with out a inexperienced widget is substandard.

(One vital level right here. I didn’t say that the RFI response ought to say that XYZ Firm presents a inexperienced widget that could be a technological marvel. I stated that the RFI response ought to say that the shopper will profit from a inexperienced widget.)

In the Request for Proposal stage, the time to form the ultimate procurement has already handed. (This is the reason you interact with a buyer years earlier than the shopper points an RFP.) At this stage it’s important to go all out and win the enterprise, telling the shopper how they’ll profit out of your answer.

And a few of the mechanics that Bredemarket makes use of to help my proposal purchasers.

The mechanics of writing an RFx response have diversified between my purchasers. In some instances, I’ve labored with one or two folks to give you the response, and the shopper then despatched it out. In different instances, I’ve labored as a part of a crew of dozens of individuals in a number of firms to give you the response, and adopted a number of processes to make sure that the proposal isn’t solely sound, however is authorised on the company degree of the shopper. Some processes are dictated by the shopper, however some purchasers don’t have any processes which signifies that I have to implement a easy one to get the job achieved.

I suppose you may be forgiven for considering, like Ed McMahon did many instances previously, that John (really Johnny) coated EVERYTHING that there was to say about RFx responses.

And also you in all probability do not forget that John (really Johnny) normally advised Ed that he was WRONG.

As a result of I by no means talked about full-fledged proposal MANAGEMENT.

Six examples of proposal administration

It’s one factor to put in writing just a little piece of a proposal. Subject material consultants do it on a regular basis. They flip of their little bit, after which they’re achieved.

However I’ve additionally spent years managing proposals, together with these six elements.

1: Venture administration

An RFx response is a complete challenge, and identical to another challenge, it has deadlines.

However these deadlines aren’t internally set; they’re externally set.

• If your organization is engaged on a brochure for April 10, your CMO has the authority to alter the date to April 20.
• However should you’re submitting a proposal to the Division of Wrecking Historic Buildings, you’ll be able to’t change the due date; solely the DWHB can change that date.

I’ve run into many instances the place the DWHB or its equal has set due dates to their very own comfort. For instance, a proposal can be due on January 2. The DWHB doesn’t care that this implies you’ll lose your Christmas vacation to finish the proposal. The DWHB desires accomplished proposals to learn once they get again from their vacation.

Mix that along with your firm’s inside processes. For giant firms, these can grow to be very onerous. Should you work for the U.S. department of a multinational that’s headquartered in a European nation, then proposals with sure costs and/or margins require headquarters approval. And that doesn’t occur in an hour.

So how do you make sure that your RFx response reaches the shopper by the due date?

By managing the challenge.

Work backwards. If the proposal should be submitted electronically by 4:00 pm Jap Time on January 2, and if you wish to account for points with the digital submission system, and in case your proposal wants approval from Paris, plus all the chief approvals at your individual agency, and if folks have to overview it, and if material consultants have to contribute to it, and if it’s important to account for modificiations to the RFx from the query and reply interval…effectively, you’d higher get began in November.

Anyway, somebody wants to have a look at what must be achieved, set a schedule, talk the schedule, and drive folks (together with executives) to stay to the schedule.

Typically, that challenge supervisor has been me. And over time I’ll have despatched a strongly worded electronic mail or two when folks don’t get their act collectively for my proposal.

Sure, MY PROPOSAL. Typically the proposal supervisor is the one one that can concentrate on the challenge. So I do.

2: Questions and solutions

I beforehand alluded to the query and reply interval. For many RFx paperwork, potential bidders get the chance to ask clarification questions. The dates for this course of are outlined within the RFx schedule:

• December 1: Company releases RFx.
• December 10: Final day for bidders to submit questions.
• December 25: RFX releases solutions to questions, a few of which can change all the scope of the RFx.
• January 2: Proposals due.

And between you and me, typically these solutions are very useful, and typically they’re not.

Bidder query 35: Part 7 of the RFx says that the system will course of 100 topics an hour, whereas part 9 says that the system will course of 200 topics an hour. Which is appropriate?

Reply to bidder query 35: Please discuss with RFx sections 7 and 9.

Usually the solutions aren’t that dangerous, and typically the solutions present vital clarifications, or even perhaps a rest of onerous necessities.

And let me spill one secret: typically, even when my firm had determined NOT to submit a proposal, we ended up asking questions anyway, simply to make issues tough for the rivals who WERE responding.

3: Compliance

Now should you discuss to the Shipley people and everybody else, a successful proposal has to inform a narrative that units the bidder other than the competitors. However you continue to should be sure to meet the essential necessities otherwise you’ll get thrown out.

A few of you could have heard this story earlier than, however as soon as upon a time I used to be managing a proposal through which the RFx clearly acknowledged that the company wouldn’t pay a dime till the system was utterly delivered and operational.

I used to be advised by administration that my proposal HAD to incorporate a down cost at contract signature…so I submitted our proposal that manner.

Nicely, in the identical manner that bidders can ask businesses questions earlier than the proposal is submitted, businesses can ask bidders questions after the proposal is submitted. And the primary query we obtained from the company was principally, “Didn’t you learn our RFx, you idiots? No down cost!”

Anyway, somebody must learn the RFx, work out what is important to be compliant, and decide whether or not the bidder and the bidder’s answer really IS compliant.

That somebody has been me. I received’t go into particulars, however I’ve needed to increase crimson flags when our proposal would NOT be compliant. Generally we modified the proposal. Generally, similar to within the case above, we didn’t…and paid the value.

4: Writing

Fairly than go into element right here, I’ll simply make a single level: your proposal has to learn as if it got here from a single firm. Sure, proposals normally DO come from a single firm, however when you have a whole lot of material consultants, they’re all going to put in writing otherwise. They might even use completely different names to your product or your organization itself. Sure, you’ll be able to situation a method information for all proposal writers, however that’s no assure that the writers will comply with it and even learn it. So permit a while for edits.

5: Submission

Generally proposal submission tales are scarier than any Halloween story. It doesn’t matter whether or not you’re submitting by paper as we did within the Nineties, or should you’re submitting electronically as we do in the present day. One thing can all the time go unsuitable.

Such because the time when two firms have been working collectively on a proposal, and the work took as much as the final minute. As in “assembling the proposal within the taxicab” final minute. And the businesses didn’t ship the proposal earlier than the deadline. Sorry.

I’ll share one which has a happier ending. I lately labored on a proposal that was due at a selected date and time. EASTERN time. Simply to make sure no hiccups, I made a decision early on that we’d submit the proposal the day earlier than the due date. Which is sweet, as a result of as we have been filling out the digital submission kinds…we encountered one thing sudden that prevented us from submitting the proposal that day. We stepped again and requested rework from an issue skilled, and regrouped on the due date…early within the morning Pacific time, to verify it was achieved earlier than the expiration. (We have been.)

6: After proposal submission

One of many drawbacks of the proposal world, and the explanation why I left Proposals twice, is as a result of there are too many instances through which you’re known as in when the RFx drops, and dismissed when the proposal is submitted.

That may be actually unfulfilling, which is why I as soon as grew to become a product supervisor (to handle issues for profitable proposals) and I as soon as grew to become a strategic/product markter (to set the stage for profitable proposals).

However typically I’ve had the chance to proceed with a buyer after a profitable proposal. There are advantages to everybody from this, as a result of I already know the subject material from engaged on the proposal and don’t want a whole lot of time to stand up to hurry.

One solution to make use of proposal managers post-proposal is to have them work on the necessities.

“Wait a minute, John,” it’s possible you’ll be saying. “There’s already an RFx, and already your proposal. Don’t these two paperwork dictate EVERYTHING about what must be achieved?

Cue Johnny.

Typically there are additional clarifications which might be required above and past the proposal, and a doc (similar to a necessities doc) resolves these nagging points.

I’ve been writing necessities paperwork for many years, relationship again to my days as Omnitrak product supervisor, so I’m a pure at writing necessities paperwork for a selected buyer implementation.

Particularly once I’m already accustomed to the underlying proposal.

Oh yeah, Bredemarket obtained a brand new testimonial

For the previous year-plus, Bredemarket has labored on a number of proposals for fingerprint {hardware} and software program firm Built-in Biometrics.

Earlier than you leap to conclusions, let me level out a few issues.

• Built-in Biometrics, as a South Carolina enterprise, by no means required abroad proposal approval. That was…one other agency.
• Built-in Biometrics by no means submitted a proposal with a down cost when a down cost was prohibited. That was…one other agency.
• Built-in Biometrics by no means tried to assemble a proposal in a taxicab, lacking the due date and time. That was…one other agency.

However Bredemarket has managed a number of proposals, together with profitable ones, for Built-in Biometrics. This work has included challenge administration, questions and solutions, compliance, writing, submission, and post-proposal necessities administration.

And David Deady, “The Recent ‘Prints” and Director of Advertising for Built-in Biometrics, was type sufficient to offer Bredemarket with this endorsement.

(From David Deady, Director of Advertising at Bredemarket shopper Built-in Biometrics, October 2025)

John,

You bought huge props on the huddle tonight (our exec crew assembly). We’re very grateful for the standard of your work and your means to know what must be achieved with a fast turnaround. The FBI RFI response was talked about particularly, however all initiatives have been equally appreciated. Thank you.

And thank YOU.

However what about YOU?

If you’re with a fingerprint agency and wish help for federal authorities proposals, I in all probability can’t enable you.

However should you want proposal help that doesn’t create a battle of curiosity for me, let’s discuss.