Vendor Archives - RFQPro: RFP and RFQ Templates for Buyers and Suppliers

The Dreaded RFP Response

Mark Bell — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 16:06:41 +0000

As a vendor or supplier of product or services, one of the biggest challenges in today’s marketplace is finding the time to respond to the constant stream of information requests arriving in your inbox each week. Your responses need to be professional, representative of your organization, accurate and detailed enough to ensure you are shortlisted for potential projectsThese information requests may include price and delivery inquiries, product specifications, tenders or quote requests, and-most time-consuming of all-the dreaded RFP response which is likely the most time consuming task out of all the inquiries presently filling up your inbox. RFPs continue to rise in popularity because many organizations now use them as a catch all tool for handling internal requirements submitted to the purchasing department.

When the purchasing team doesn’t receive a clear scope or specification, they often issue an RFP in hopes that a vendor will propose a solution. What is frequently overlooked by the Buyer is the amount of time and effort required for the Vendor to prepare a strong RFP response. You can’t blame them—purchasing teams have their own fires to put out—and most suppliers accept that responding to a request for proposal is simply a cost of doing business. Can you reduce the cost of responding to RFQs and RFPs? Yes and no, and we’ll address that shortly.

As a vendor you should keep track of your success rate and the approximate cost of preparing your response. If you are spending $10,000 to submit a response and being awarded a $150,000 contract then you can clearly justify your ROI. If you are spending the same $10,000 to be awarded a $15,000 contract then not so much unless it leads to further work or a long term relationship with a new client.

I am not sure most companies can answer how much it costs to deliver a RFP response or tender call however I do know that if they can find a way to do this quicker, save money and achieve better results then everyone would consider doing it. Having a clean versus cluttered response is a start and taking the time to have more than one person review the RFP request are two solid ways of improving your chances. While every RFP response requires a unique approach, many components can be standardized.

Your company references, testimonials, company bio, contact coordinates, past project successes, financials, safety and equipment lists can be prepared ahead of time. Other areas like your cover letter can also be saved in a format which allows you to tweak and go. All these pieces will help you get your responses out quicker and quicker means cheaper.

Since 2008, RFQPro has been helping both Buyers and Suppliers succeed with the request for quote and request for proposal process by providing web-based RFQ Software and editable procurement related word templates to help users expedite this process and improve departmental productivity. Why start from scratch? Visit the RFP Response Page for more details.

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Vendor Inventory

Mark Bell — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 20:57:27 +0000

There are many types of arrangements aka vendor contracts you can enter into with your suppliers. If you are looking at employing a partnership philosophy, one to consider is Consignment Buying. What is consignment buying or vendor owned inventory? A definition of vendor owned inventory or vendor managed inventory (VMI) is when a supplier (the company you purchase from) maintains an inventory bank in the buyer’s facility which is under the buyer’s control. The buyer assumes responsibility for perpetual activity or accounting for withdrawals or usage of stock from the consignment inventory, payment for quantities used and notification to the supplier of the need to replenish inventory. Verification of quantities remaining in inventory is jointly done at periodic intervals.

This strategy has advantages for both the supplier and buyer. The buyer benefits by having reduced inventory investment which can free up funds for capital or other investments and the supplier is assured supply or captive volume. This type of partnership arrangement is often used in the distribution industry.

Some of the other benefits the buyer gains is it removes or eliminates the risk of obsolescence. Obsolescence is often overlooked and it is when the inventory no longer meets your requirements and therefore is returned or sold as surplus. Under a consignment arrangement, the Vendor still owns it therefore they assume the risk.

There is a cost associated with tying your vendor into a consignment arrangement. You can be assured that you will be paying more for your inventory vs a spot buy for the same goods but as a business owner you have to weigh the pros and cons and make your decision based on your existing financial and staffing requirements. For some, the opportunity of using your capital elsewhere, eliminating dealing with obsolete stock, managing the inventory surpasses the extra cost incurred or paid for vendor inventory.

What should a consignment contract look like? What should be included? Stay tuned or subscribe to our feed as the next post will answer these questions and provide further insight on sample consignment or vendor managed inventory agreements.

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How To Succeed With Tenders

Mark Bell — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 23:23:19 +0000

Nine (9) Simple Suggestions to Improve Your RFP Response(s)

Preparing outgoing tenders are skills which are a critical component of the professional buyer’s job description, however, responding to a tender or RFP is a critical component to the success of any business. If you fail to succeed at receiving the award as a result of your tender responses it is likely you will not be in business very long.

Nine (9) simple suggestions which will increase your chances at winning more tenders.

Pre-Game Preparation: We love the sports or game analogy and preparing to respond to a RFP or a tender is no different. Prior to the game, athletes are practising and completing training to ensure they are successful on game day. Responding to a tender request is no different. Preparation is key and there are many areas you can prepare ahead of time or prior to responding to a RFP or RFQ request.
Training or investing in learning will always result in a great rate of return and improve chances! Keep all certifications and credentials current and readily available.
Tender responses almost always require details or specific profiles on your team, approach and methodology, management, price and past experience.
With the often restricted timelines to complete the tender response, it is crucial that time is allocated to ensuring the best possible solution to the project’s requirements is presented at the best possible price. Most effort needs to be dedicated to providing a solution and not a re-hash of past experience.
Obviously, a successful track record of implementing or past experience in similar activities will be evaluated and contribute to your success or failure for any tender. But this doesn’t imply spending countless hours to locate and compile a summary of past experiences is time wisely spent – this can be done now and on an ongoing basis.
All tender requests are likely to call for an array of details which exhibits your experience in past or similar activities. Information required almost always consists of the activity name, location and duration, client, project value, key personnel by name and title, and a synopsis of the activity.
Aggregating this activity is clearly destined to be a challenge if it requires searching for staff and past associates for details, relying on memory, etc. The answer is to encourage the habit of compiling relevant information as soon as a project begins, and keeping the information current.
This can be made even easier by capturing information from the start of a project consistent with how a future tender might require the information presented.
Major organizations request a Project Data Sheet (PDS) for each project example that you are including with your tender response. This is often a single page that captures all the information required in the evaluation of your response.

Can I use each PDS just as it is for any tender I submit?

Keep in mind that although this template is consistent with what is currently requested, it is important to check exact tender requirements before submission to ensure compliance.

Secondly, each tender has different considerations because each project is often unique, so a standard response is rarely successful. Likewise, each project your company has completed would have contained a range of activities or approaches. So, instead of simply adding a PDS example to a (RFP) tender response, consider what the tender’s (project’s) focus is, and ensure your PDS examples emulate this. Often a slight re-write to place greater emphasis on a key piece of relevance is important. So customize your response to reflect the client’s needs and wants.

The information that the PDS template captures is ideal for submissions direct to client, or as a data capture tool for drawing information from for developing capability documents, case-study information and the like.

Frequently, when dealing with small to mid-sized corporations, the RFP response process can be quite nerve-racking, time-challenged, and often lacking a process. Responding to RFQ’s or RFP’s can become the most unpleasant task, however, whether preparing a response for a complex project, or a proposal directly to a client, it is important that time is spent coming up with the best possible approach or solution to ensure implementation produces the very best results. Taking time away from this critical aspect of proposal development to prepare Project Data Sheets or other typical response details is not time well spent.

See VR220-Product Data Sheet.doc in the Vendor Pack if you are interested in looking at a sample template. Our pack has a variety of tender response templates which will help you produce a professional (RFP) tender response and help you improve your chances of winning more tenders.

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Definition of Vendor

Mark Bell — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 18:58:50 +0000

What comes to mind when you think of a Vendor . . . a coin-operated snack dispenser, a sidewalk food service, or perhaps someone selling flowers or handmade jewelry on the corner? In fact, these are all vendors, as well as the local bakery, the service station or corner store, and the door-to-door vacuum salesperson. Read on to get our definition of a vendor as it relates to purchasing.

A Vendor is defined as a company which supplies parts, materials or services to another company or individual, also referred to as a supplier. This includes all companies that you do business with and help you bring your project to completion or provide you with a service to help you accomplish your tasks. They may provide uniforms or a cleaning service, prepare payroll, accounting or financial statements, deliver office/shop supplies, produce graphic layouts or manufacture tools, parts and equipment, provide transportation of goods or international relations assistance. Some Vendors you may deal with on a daily, weekly or monthly basis others you may do business with only once a year.

Vendors can and do many things which can make your business successful. These are the persons that introduce us to new products and services to improve productivity, they can offer advice or recommendations to help address a current need or fulfill a requirement. They can be an excellent resource when researching solutions to an unfamiliar request and help keep our product knowledge current.

In this post we have touched on a wide range of various vendor types. RFQPro’s main focus is on vendors which warrant performing a Vendor Performance Review or Supplier Evaluation on. Our focus is on the strategic vendors vital to an organization’s long-term viability. Their products and services support businesses, regardless of industry.

You’re not going to worry too much about the vendor that sells you a hot dog or that cup of Joe, but if you are a purchasing manager, then you work for a company that likely has many vital vendor relationships. These vendors help your business remain profitable, they are paid by your company, and they make money from your business or orders.

So, our definition of a Vendor is one that is, in fact, a partner in our business. They are within the top 20% of all suppliers we do business (spend) with, and warrant spending hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars auditing, evaluating and providing feedback to on an annual basis. RFQPro has a first-rate Vendor Performance Review (RFQ30), available in both our Premium Pack and our Performance Pack. We are also the group behind the RFQ Software which has a built in Supplier Evaluation Tool. This on-line vendor performance tool is part of the Pro Version subscription of our RFQ Software.

Note: Our Software Business sold in 2024.

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