RFPs, Proposals, and Feedback (or the lack thereof)

October 21, 2011 by Taylor Studios in Other

Earlier this summer, wrote a blog post describing the frustration many of us feel when we respond to RFPs. I’ve been thinking about what he wrote for months because he hit the nail on the head for many of us.

The majority of my time goes toward responding to RFPs. Sometimes they are so convoluted I have to read it multiple times with my highlighter in hand trying to ensure the requirements in one section line up with the requirements in another (most of the time they don’t) and making sure that I catch all the proposal requirements mentioned. While there is typically a section labeled “Proposal Requirements,” there are normally several other requirements scattered throughout the rest of the RFP that I have to be sure to find. RFPs like that certainly make me appreciate the ones we get that are clearly well thought-out and only a few pages in length vs. 50+.

When we receive clear and concise RFPs, it’s usually from clients who understand the process and respect the fact that it takes firms a lot of time and money to put together a thorough and thoughtful proposal. They don’t request frivolous information or free design work and they don’t request that the entire company attends the interview presentation if they ask for an on-site interview at all. (OK, so we’ve never been asked to fly all 35 of us across country, but sometimes it feels like that.)

Just because a RFP is well written, however, doesn’t mean that that client will be any more courteous when it comes to returning phone calls or providing feedback on the proposal after the decision has been made. One of our core values is constant improvement, so we spend a good deal of time trying to make contact with organizations after we submit a proposal to find out what we could have done to improve our submission. Quality feedback helps us improve each proposal we produce and it lets us have a better understanding of the nuances of each client which helps when we receive RFPs from them in the future.

dedicated one of their issues to the RFP process in 2007. It’s a great resource and we reference it often. Paul provided links to several of the articles in his , so I’ll send you to his site to read what he had to say on the issue.