Is your bid management process so time-consuming and difficult that it hardly seems worthwhile to send out an RFP?
When you need a new vendor, you can go through the competitive bid process – which involves writing a request, sourcing vendors, communicating with vendors, comparing proposals, and choosing the right vendor.
With so many steps that can take weeks or months to complete, RFPs can seem difficult.
But, the competitive bid process doesn’t have to be complicated or suck up so much of your time. Instead, it can be an easy process that helps you land high-quality vendors at the right price.
Wondering how you can make your bid management process be easier? Here are 6 tips and tricks to do just that.
1. Include Quick Facts
One way to make RFPs easier is to include quick facts in your request.
Your request for a proposal can be a long document packed with questions. This makes it easy for vendors to get lost in your request – and not provide you the information you need. So, you put in all the time and effort to create an RFP without getting results.
To avoid this, you should begin your request with a quick facts section. In this section, you should list important info vendors need to know – like the type of project, response deadline, and vendor requirements. That way, vendors will notice the crucial aspects of your project and respond with the information you need.
2. Discuss Property and Management Company Info
In your request, you should also provide background on your property and management company. That way vendors know the property info necessary to create a relevant proposal. And, this background information can act as an elevator pitch to promote your management company.
The background section should contain information about your property – like size, type, and other relevant info. And, your company info section should be short and to the point. It can include things like your customers, your target market, and more.
3. Detail RFP Schedule
Including the schedule for your competitive bid process is another tip to make the process easier.
The RFP process can drag on for weeks or months – draining your limited time and leaving your property without a necessary vendor. To fix this, you should set a schedule for writing your request, when vendors need to submit proposals when you’ll choose a vendor, and a start date for your project.
While it’s great to have a schedule, you need to make sure vendors are aware of your schedule. Otherwise, your schedule will do little to keep the competitive bid process on track. So, you should include a detailed schedule with important dates in your request. That way, vendors will be able to stay on schedule – helping the process finish faster.
4. Lay Out Decision Criteria
Another tip to make competitive bidding easier is to include decision criteria.
When you send out a request, you have no idea what info you’re going to get back from vendors. Some vendors might include what you need. But, other vendors will provide incomplete information.
Without the right information, it’s difficult to choose the best vendor for your property. You might even eliminate the perfect vendor because their proposal doesn’t have the info you need.
To fix this, you should have a section that describes what’s most important to you and your team when choosing a vendor. This could be price, services provided, service history, and more. Laying out your decision criteria makes it easy for vendors to include the info you need – making selecting a vendor easier.
5. Summarize Your Project
You should also include a project summary in your RFP. That way, vendors know exactly what your project is and how they can help. This helps you only get proposals from qualified vendors – instead of any vendor who sees your request.
In your summary, you should provide a high-level overview of things like scope, goals, key performance indicators, targets, and more. So, at a glance, vendors can understand your project and what you hope to accomplish.
6. Go into Detail
After your summary section, you should provide a detailed look at your project. The more detail and relevant info you provide, the better vendor responses will be. Instead of vague proposals with minimal relevant info, you’ll get targeted proposals with solutions for your specific problems.
In the detail section, you should be specific about things like your service expectations, what products you want to be used, and want the finished project needs to do.
So, if you need windows replaced, you won’t get generic proposals that say they’ll replace some windows. Instead, you’ll get proposals that tell you what you need to know about getting 12 windows replaced on the 10th floor that don’t open. Having this specific info can help you make the right vendor decision for your property.
Wrapping It Up
The competitive bid process can be frustrating and time-consuming. But, this is the best way to source high-quality vendors at competitive prices.
If you need a great vendor for your property, these tips can make the process easier. In your request, you should include quick facts, background and contact info, RFP schedule, decision criteria, project summary, and project details. Including these important sections will help you get relevant responses from vendors that make it easy to choose the right one.
Want to make the competitive bid process even faster and easier? Consider using bid management software by Prism. With Prism’s Bid Management module, you can create requests in minutes from templates, source vendors from a trusted vendor database, generate a comparison table, and more.
Learn more about Prism’s Bid Management software by watching our Introducing Prism Bid Management webinar.
