GO vs NO-GO: How to efficiently make the decision to participate in an RFP?

Typically sales people tend to get very excited when receiving an invitation to participate in an RFP. Yet, especially when you weren’t involved in the pre-process, you’d better think twice. 🤔

An important step is to understand how well you are positioned as an organisation to actually win this RFP. Why would you even consider putting in all that valuable time, if you don’t believe you actually have a fair chance of winning.

⚠️A key step early in the process is to identify so-called “red flags”. These are typical indicators that are telling you not to proceed, actually not even to put in the effort.

📑Traditionally you would need to read through the full document in detail to identify these “red flags”. That alone can easily take up half a day (or more) to identify all possible “red flags”. Only then, one can make an informed decision on whether “it’s a GO” or “it’s a NO-GO”. We believe that your valuable time would be better spent, by using a smart tool to do that pre-reading for you. 👍 Luckily today this can be handled by a smart tender response platform, saving a significant amount of time.

Here are a few of the more “common red flags” that could indicate potential issues with the project or the procurement process:

1. Unclear or vague specifications: If the specifications of the project are unclear or overly broad, it could result in a project that does not meet your expectations and lead to unanticipated costs or delays.
2. Heavy focus on low prices: If the project scoring is heavily focused on the price, it could indicate this is a project you don’t want to win (or that a typical price fighter stands a better chance in winning).
3. Little willingness to give clarifications or answers: typically this is a strong indicator that another party (probably somebody who influenced the tender pre-process) is in the driver seat.
4. Unusual payment terms: If the payment terms specified in the tender are unusual or unreasonable, it may indicate that the organisation is not committed to paying for the work that is being done or that they are looking to impose unreasonable conditions on the successful bidder (are you sure you want this business?).
5. Excessive or unreasonable penalties: If the penalties specified in the tender are excessive or unreasonable, it can indicate a high-risk environment for the project and a lack of commitment to working collaboratively with the successful bidder.

Sometimes it is better to walk away, before committing time and money to a project you simply cannot win. What mechanisms do you have in place to evaluate GO vs NO-GO?