Is getting competitive bids from vendors tedious and time-consuming – to the point where it hardly seems worthwhile?
Sending out RFPs can be a manual and time-intensive process. After putting in the work to write your request, choose vendors to send it to, and sort through the responses, you’re not even guaranteed to find the right vendor.
But, if you conduct the competitive bid process the right way, you can save thousands on vendor expenses. And, you can save time on administrative tasks – further reducing your operating costs.
How can you do the RFP process the right way to help you reduce operating costs? Read on to find out 4 ways you can lower expenses with your RFP process.
1. Find a Lower Priced Vendor
The first way your RFP process can help you reduce operating costs is by helping you find a less expensive vendor.
When you need a new vendor, you likely get referrals or turn to previously used vendors. While this will help you get a new vendor, it does little to get you the lowest priced vendors. If you’ve already worked with a vendor, they likely increase their prices yearly – which can cost you thousands over time.
And, referred vendors might work well for other properties, but they might have higher prices than comparable vendors. So, if you only look at referral vendors, you could have high operating costs due to your vendors.
Your RFP process can help you reduce operating costs by getting bids from a variety of vendors – ensuring you get a lower price. While you could spend hours researching online for new vendors, an easier way is to use RFP automation software. This software has a database of trusted vendors. So, you can explore new vendors – without spending a lot of time searching.
One way your RFP process can help you reduce your operating costs is by finding you lower-cost vendors.
2. Hire a Quality Vendor
Another way your RFP process can help you reduce operating expenses is by finding you high-quality vendors.
Hiring a new vendor can be a gamble. You never know if they’re going to do good work, show up on time, or even create a positive experience for your tenants. If your vendors don’t do good work, you might have to hire another vendor to get the job done – increasing your operating expenses.
And, if your vendor creates a negative tenant experience, it could increase tenant turn over. Finding new tenants is more expensive than retaining current tenants. So, poor quality vendors could increase your tenant-related operating expenses.
Your RFP process can help you reduce these operating costs by aiding you in finding high-quality vendors. While you could pour over online reviews, check countless references, or verify vendors other ways, this can be time-consuming.
Instead, you could use RFP automation software with a vendor database. Each vendor in the database has been verified. And, you can see reviews, service history, and more to help you find high-quality vendors – and reduce your operating expenses.
3. Spend Less Time on Vendor Communications
Another way your RFP process can help you reduce operating costs is by helping you spend less time communicating with vendors.
Throughout the competitive bid process, you have to communicate with vendors. From sending the RFP, to following up with vendors, to chasing down unresponsive vendors, you have to spend hours (or even days) on vendor communication.
This time-consuming vendor communication increases your administrative operating costs. For every hour you spend communicating with vendors, that’s an hour longer you have to spend on everything else you have to do. And, an hour increase in your administrative operating expenses.
A more efficient vendor communication system can help you reduce the time you spend on vendor communication. The easiest way to reduce vendor communication is to use RFP automation software that automates aspects of vendor communication.
With this software, you don’t have to worry about following up with vendors or chasing down unresponsive vendors. Instead, your software can automate these time-consuming vendor communication aspects – freeing you up to get more done. And, reduce your administrative operating expenses.
Spending less time on vendor communication is another way your RFP process can help you reduce operating costs.
4. Effortlessly Compare Vendors
Along with finding high-quality and low-priced vendors and spending less time on vendor communication, your RFP process can help you reduce operating expenses by making vendor comparison easy.
Once you get vendor proposals, you then have to sort through them. However, the vendor proposals might contain different information – making comparison difficult. Or, the proposals could have information in different places, which can make comparing them time-consuming.
But, the only way to find the best vendor is by comparing the proposals. So, you spend days pouring over the proposals – taking you away from everything else you need to do. This increased administrative work makes your operating costs higher.
To lower your operating expenses, you need a more efficient way to compare proposals. While you could create a response template and ask vendors to fill it out, it takes time to create. And, many vendors will ignore your request and submit their traditional proposal.
Instead, you could use RFP automation software that generates easy to use comparison tables – all without any work on your part. That way, you can see which vendor has the lowest price and is the right fit at a glance – saving you time and reducing your administrative operating costs.
Wrapping It Up
The competitive bid process can help you find new vendors. It can also help you reduce your operating costs.
To reduce your operating costs, your RFP process can help you find a lower-priced vendor. And, it can make it easier to find high-quality vendors who do work right the first time. Plus, your competitive bid process can help you reduce administrative costs by lessening the time you spend on vendor communication and comparison.
You can further reduce your operating costs by using RFP automation software that makes the process even easier. That way, you can find a new vendor in days – with minimal effort – instead of weeks.
Looking for bid management software to help you reduce your operating costs. Consider using Prism. With Prism’s Bid Management module, you can find lower-priced vendors, higher quality service providers, automate communication and comparison, and more.
Read our quick five-minute guide to learn how you can leverage technology to help reduce your operating expenses while keeping tenants satisfied.
