What are good questions to ask a government entity that wants a reply to an IT Request for Proposal-RFP?
One good question is "What is your budget?".
I want to ensure that our RFP response contains a discussion and/or a rudimentary analysis of the client’s business situation and the project objectives.
Certainly, I can ask the specific technical questions that are germain to the I.T. solution(s) they are looking for. But the President of our company says reading through these RFPs is "tedious" (and he's right!), so I'd like a lot of good "ammo" (general questions that I can ask the RFP requester) before I tailor a response. Thank you.
Re: What are good questions to ask a government entity that wants a reply to an IT Request for Proposal-RFP?
I'm not trying to put you off this opportunity, but statistics show that unless you have prior knowledge of the opportunity prior to the RFP being issued then the chances are that you are going to struggle to get the work.
In almost every case when a Govt RFP is issued or even in large corporations there has been some engagement with a potential supplier at the business planning stage. Late entrants to the game are at a severe disadvantage.
If you are at the stage where you are only going to have a "rudimentary response" to the the client's business situation then you aren't in a strong position to know the client's real business need and background to the problem. And I guarantee that one of your competitors does.
Does your company get much of its business through RFPs? I'm guessing not if you boss feels that they are tedious. Beware spending a lot of time on an opportunity like this that you may have a low probability of winning, even if it looks a good fit for your product. If your boss isn't into RFPs, then they might not consider the effort putting a bid together valuable use of your time. Get buy in first, that's all.
My first question would be simple "Can I have a meeting to discuss this with you?" On Govt procurements the answer may be "no" due to fairness etc, but then ask them if they have talked to any other potential suppliers before the RFP was issued. If the answer's "yes" then explain why you are now at a disadvantage. If they won't tell you or the answers "no", I wouldn't bid. It's a bit extreme but if I felt they were hiding something I definitely wouldn't bid, but I'd also send in a freedom of information request.
If you are interested in bid/no-bid and qualifying opportunities I can provide some very good consultancy. Better qualification leads to more productive time being spent on opportunities you can win. You win more, job satisfaction improves, your business does better and you earn more commission.
