#rfpresponse

While responding to a Federal contract many times we come across statements like this one

“In addition, TGC Section 2157.0685 requires that state agencies procuring more than $50,000 worth of services from DIR Contracts must submit their draft and final Statements of Work to DIR for review and approval prior to making payment to a DIR Contract Holder.” The reading between the lines and understanding of the meaning and referring to the TGC Section 2157.0685, becomes a challenge for even seasoned professionals writing a RFP response.

The key steps that one needs to follow in a Federal RFP response are listed below:

1.      Check the qualification and submission details

If your firm is registered in Florida and you want to respond to a RFP that is floated by a department for Arkansas, check whether the qualification criteria allows “out of state” bidders to bid for the proposal. Also check if there are other qualification criteria such as set-aside, company turnover etc. Alongside these factors check the important dates for the questionnaire, reference submission and final submission. All these details should be noted and put in the tracker so that they are not missed.

2.      The format of the response

The format of the response can be a 2 part, 3 part or even more depending upon the RFP that you are responding to. In the most common scenario, the respondent has to answer to the technical and the commercial sections of the RFP. In a different case, you may need to add additional documentation for special cases such as MBE/WBE set asides, Company information, experience details, Insurance details, W9 forms, certification of good standing etc. Ensure all these documents are in place before the final submission date.

3.      The response structure

This is the most important part wherein the real skill of the response writer comes into play. For example in some cases, there may be a requirement to write a specific section on marketing your services if your company is shortlisted for the contract. This is when you are responding to a Master Services Contract.

Now suppose you are working on any multilateral agency RFP and you are required to respond to how you will manage a facility management service. In that case, the challenge will be to explain how the company will manage the entire work depending upon the scope of the work provided in the RFP document.

Similarly, whether you are responding to a dental service checkup contract for the military or a software solution development, writing the technical part of the response calls for specialized skills.

You can face challenges in multiple sections. It can be Health and Safety at Work, Contractual Mobilization, Quality Control etc.  For each of these sections, you have to understand and curate the content to make it appropriate for the response. The way to resolve this is to understand the situation very well by reading the RFP and also referring to existing material and aligning the responses to the queries put in the RFP.

All the mandatory sections of the RFP need to be responded. The evaluation team has to go through multiple responses so one way to disqualify a bidder is to see if they have omitted anything that is mandatory. Therefore your response should not miss out on anything important if it has to be a winning RFP.

Companies like ours specializing in federal government proposal writing services can be beneficial for supporting your team.  

4.      The financial response

The financial section calls for clinical precision to make the quote become L1 or in the Top 3. There are different types of formats in which the financial proposal needs to be responded. In the first category, if it is only about providing resources then the hourly rates including all benefits needs to be included in the quote. In the second case, if it is a solution that is being offered, or a comprehensive quote for any services for a given period of time then it has to be a competitive yearly quote for 3 years + 2 optional years (in most cases).

Finally do not forget to attach the documents in appendix. In some cases we have worked on addendums that have run to 50-60 pages that had CV’s of professionals, Purchase orders snapshots, company credentials, client compliments etc. Some may be relatively simple that will only require your W-9, Insurance credentials and references.

A final thorough quality check needs to be done and all the items in the tracker need to be ticked for conformity. The final step is the submission. In some cases you may need to login to the portal and submit the response while in some cases it will be to a specified email id. Ensure that you do not wait till the end moment to submit the response. It should be done atleast a day before the final date. Do not try and submit too early as you may miss out on any additional addendums that may be released late.