Do your own homework to determine whether or not going after an RFP is the right decision for your company.
Here’s a link to an interesting site that helps you do that by going through a decision tree (just a three-fold heads up – 1. this is not a simple process to go through but they do outline all the steps for you; 2. be aware that this is put up by a vendor that specializes in helping companies make this determination; 3. they offer a very interesting perspective on going after RFPs)
http://blog.confluentforms.com/2009/10/developing-your-gono-go-decision-tree.html
RED FLAG?
Some agencies, like one group in the UN, want to see the entire job finished in the bid. Or they want to see your solution in the bid. We don’t DO the job before we have the JOB. It’s called spec . Some private sector firms are notorious for asking for spec and then taking the idea and giving it to their buddies to do. I’m not suggesting that the UN does this.
A “DO” FOR YOU
If you can, I highly suggest that you attend the pre-bid meeting. Here you get to meet, or at least see in action, the people who issued the RFP. You also get to ask questions about the RFP AND you get to hear other people’s questions. You get to see some of the competition and maybe meet them – this is good for two reasons. First you may be able to subcontract to the “prime” vendor who is awarded the RFP, and second you get all kinds of valuable information in general and about the competition and about who’s bidding. After all this information gathering you may decide this is the perfect RFP for you or that you don’t belong in this pool of bidders.
Sandra Holtzman teaches CEO 035: Licensing.