Proposal Land

Better RFP Responses & Management
 
Proposal Land

Term: Bid Stage

The response period; the period during which the bid is being developed. Used primarily to distinguish from things that occur after contract award.

What Contractors Want from Technical Authorities – Part 2

Foster fair competition. Keep the end user’s senior staff visibly involved in all stages of the procurement strategy:

  • How to define the needed services or specify the goods/product
  • What contract model to require (firm price vs cost-plus, for example)
  • How and when to brief and consult with industry

The absence of these senior folks will ring alarm bells for potential bidders.

Tasked as Technical Authority on an RFP? Never done it before? Done it before but not entirely happy with how it turned out? This is one of six posts on what contractors hope you do in that position, but are reluctant to tell you to your face.

What Contractors Want from Technical Authorities – Part 1

Foster end user buy-in of competition. End users who pay for the required goods and/or services out of their own budget usually value strong competition. If that’s not the budgeting scenario – and it isn’t always – then see if there’s another way for the end user to benefit from a reduction the cost:

  • A share of the savings
  • A good program evaluation
  • Some recognition that they did the right thing for the larger organization

Tasked as Technical Authority on an RFP? Never done it before? Done it before but not entirely happy with how it turned out? This is one of six posts on what contractors hope you do in that position, but are reluctant to tell you to your face.