KEEP CALM AND DO A RFP

At some point in your professional experience, working in a small or large company, you will come across an acronym that causes panic in many professionals: RFP

We live in a reality in which Compliance is the general rule in all important and serious companies in the country and in the world and, therefore, filling out an RFP (Request for Proposal) becomes an obligation.

We are a family owned and operated business.

What is an RFP?

It is nothing more than a proposal that an applicant for a supplier sends to a company in order to win an account or a job. In turn, for those who receive the RFP (Request For Proposal), it works as an efficient way to select who best meets the needs of the company, whether by skill, price or - what is more common - a combination of both items.

And now? How to assemble one?

There are a number of ready-made templates on the market that can help you save time and quickly fill out your proposal. At the end of this text, we leave a template to help you create yours quickly and efficiently.

We are a family owned and operated business.

1 - Header or Cover

On the cover you will always need to fill in the following data:

Project Name or Description:

Company Name:

Address:

City (*): State (*) Post code (zip code):

Contact person for purchases:

PCP phone number:

PCP email address:

And now, let's go item by item:

2 - Introduction

We are a family owned and operated business.

Here you will need to include the basic and useful information of your company: history, what services you offer, what is different about the competition and where your company is located.

We are a family owned and operated business.

In addition, please also describe why this RFP is being carried out.

We are a family owned and operated business.

We are a family owned and operated business.

3 - Goals and Scope

We are a family owned and operated business.

It is time to describe the project and the goals you would like to achieve. Be as specific as possible and describe the individual tasks and criteria.

We are a family owned and operated business.

We are a family owned and operated business.

4 - Early selection schedule

We are a family owned and operated business.

Have a detailed schedule, including deadlines for suppliers, including a window so that questions can be asked about your delivery. Set a deadline for all participants to submit questions, and another date for submitting responses to questions. Remembering that all questions and answers should be sent to all participants so that the process is transparent.

We are a family owned and operated business.

Here the ideal is to present a detailed schedule.

We are a family owned and operated business.

We are a family owned and operated business.

5 - Time and place of submission of tenders

Indicate dates and times of shipments from the beginning so that your suppliers can organize themselves and send you the best work possible. Also establish the presentation formats. For example: sending by e-mail, face-to-face presentation, file formats, etc.

We are a family owned and operated business.

6 - Timeline

We are a family owned and operated business.

Using a timeline, you eliminate suppliers who are not able to work within the time frame of interest. If there is flexibility, it is interesting to include this variable with a text that says something like: “We hope to complete the project in 3 months, but we are open to negotiation in the face of the ideal project”.

We are a family owned and operated business.

7 - Elements of the proposal

Be clear and specific about what you expect bidders to include in their returns, outlining a checklist of items you expect to receive. This is an efficient way to see if the applicant is able to deal with the demands of your company, after all, if he is not able to include the items that you consider essential in the proposal, he will most likely not be able to complete your project . Example of elements of the proposal: service capacity, presentation of cases, available structure, etc.

We are a family owned and operated business.

8 - Evaluation criteria

Describe your expectations for delivery. This will help to eliminate suppliers that do not meet these demands. It is interesting that you and your team elaborate the questions that will be used to evaluate the candidates. Items such as examples of previous work, history of successes in other similar demands, experience and technical ability to meet these demands, in addition to service costs, are some options that you can consider.

To make it easier, we suggest creating a spreadsheet with the items that will be evaluated and grades from 0 to 5 that will be given by all the evaluators involved in the process.

We are a family owned and operated business.

9 - Obstacles on the way

It is important to present to the bidders what obstacles will be faced. A personalized website for example, limited resources need to be indicated, receipt of materials in other languages, use of specific platforms, etc.

This can allow you to be able to assess competitors from facing these challenges.

We are a family owned and operated business.

10 - Budget

Fundamental. Be clear and objective in the amounts you are willing to pay for your services. Or, establish here the criteria that companies should use to compose and present their price proposals. For example: man hour, service table, monthly fee with dedicated structure.

Ideally, you should provide the exact format of how the price proposal should be presented, so that everyone uses the same criteria and facilitates the comparison between the proposals.

We are a family owned and operated business.

We are a family owned and operated business.

11 - Appendix - Influencers

We know that the importance of digital influencers in people's purchasing decisions is increasing. So it is not uncommon for you to need to create an RFP focused only on these professionals.

As a complement to what we talked about, we list some fundamental elements in the creation of an RFP focused on digital influencers.

· First of all, ask yourself: where and how will I use this influencer. What actions are you looking for? What are your KPI's? And how will you measure the success of the action? Informing this to the eventual partner is essential for him to clearly understand what is expected of him.

· Look for high quality influencers, who meet or exceed the average benchmarks in the industry and develop quality content, after all it is your brand that will be in focus. Analyze his past, other campaigns he was involved in and whether his values ​​are in line with those of his company.

· If this is not your first time working with influencers, provide the material you’ve worked on before, so that your potential new partner will quickly understand what type of content you’re looking for.

· Explain your brand, values, do's and dont's and target audience.

· Ask about the type of content that the influencer is able to produce, with examples of materials used in other brands' campaigns previously.

· Include a note about the content review before it is published.

· Look for influencers who design a complete campaign for your brand, with clear steps and goals.

· Ask about the future use of content created by influencers. How long it can be used and whether it can be reworked internally.

· Find out how the influencer acts in relation to paid media. And if he is inside an agency that manages his content, how is the internal process of both billing and execution and support.

· Prevent fraud and think about your company's Compliance. Check what are the mechanisms that the influencer or who uses it to avoid these problems.

Now that you know how to do it, we leave you with a visually creative and easy-to-apply model for you to fill out your first RFP today.