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I’m suggesting that the Project Manager’s goal in crafting and distributing a Request For Proposal (RFP) is three fold: First, to disqualify Vendors who will not be finalists as quickly as possible; Second, to communicate as much as possible to the Vendors what the important issues are in the Project; Third, to encourage the Vendors to make a substantial effort to win the business.

Let’s look at that third goal:

Contrary to the opinion of many, you have to encourage the vendors. You are going to devise a comparison and evaluation process that will (hopefully) lay bare the differences between the Vendor offerings. You are going to ask for a substantial effort on the part of the Vendor.

In our case, we asked each finalist to put up a test set of documents for head-to-head comparison of search functions. This required a lot of work on the part of each vendor.

They make evaluations, too, about the effort and reward relationship embodied in your Request. They need to feel that they have a shot at the business to expend a significant effort. There is nothing more embarrassing for a Project Manager than to prepare a 300 page RFP, and then to have most Vendors decline to respond. I’ve done it – gotten the RFP, thumbed through it, and deemed it so onerous that I didn’t want to work with those who put it together.

And, there is the Revenge aspect. If you really break the (spheroids) of the vendor in the RFP process, and select them, they will find a way to get even. Software pricing, in particular, is so arbitrary, it is hard to tell when you are being gouged.

One vendor slipped in a site license for their search product for internal users, in addition to the per server license for the web-based product. Both internal and external search users would use the same web-based server interface, so the internal license was completely redundant. When I pointed this out, the rep I was working with was no longer on the account, and the new rep blamed the “mistake” on his predecessor.

Then there was the Rep that, after two phone-based product review sessions, was angry at me for having additional questions. I had to apologize for my ignorance, share my fear of never ever understanding his wonderful product, and ask nicely for a session with his Sales Engineer (who was excellent and very helpful). But I digress…

So, make it as easy as possible for them to respond. I use an Excel workbook as the Vendor Response Document. All they have to do is go through it and fill it out. More about this later.

So, in Summary, Differentiate, Communicate, and Encourage with your RFP. If you do it right, the Vendors will do most of the hard work, which will leave you free to do your hard job, which is to guide your Selection Committee to the best choice.