If you’re finding yourself disappointed and frustrated when the pricing for your upcoming project has bid results ending up all across the board, chances are you could have done a bit more homework before sending out that RFP.

In a workshop that I will be giving for the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM) on August 25th, one of the topics I will touch on is how often an RFP is sent out without properly talking to the bidders first.

There are many reasons why just emailing an RFP to someone without having a conversation results in poor bid quality.  Without communicating to the people you expect to provide proposals, the following may happen:

1) You may end up sending your RFP to bidders who are too busy or uninterested in your project.  This can result in fewer complete and competitive bids.  If the vendors aren’t interested there is no motivation to sharpen their pencils.

2) Your vendors might take longer to respond than expected. When bidders have a heads up the RFP is coming, they can properly plan to respond to it and ask some questions in advance.

3) You may end up with bids from vendor who aren’t the best fit for your project.  Having that initial conversation with your vendors before sending out the RFP gives you a chance to vet out each company and if they have the appropriate skill sets.

4) You might miss out on key advice.  When introducing a project before it goes out to bid, your bidders may suggest a better approach to pricing out and performing the job.  Hear what they have to say!

It is definitely worth the time upfront to check in with your bidders in advance to save you troubles in the future…