Can’t find a good match? Your “profile” might be sending the wrong message. How to structure a solicitation to better find your soul mate.

Consistently not getting the kind of responses you want to RFPs, RFIs, or other solicitations for proposals or finding out that your selected vendors are not meeting your expectations can be a frustrating situation. You CAN do something about it. Structuring and focusing your request differently may help elicit vendors that understand your needs and can truly meet them.

This session will discuss common pitfalls in solicitation development (even non-formal requests such as simply requesting a proposal from a vendor over the phone for non-government attendees) and ways to better communicate with vendors up front so they provide better responses and in the end, better solutions.

Having worked both in government and for vendors, I have seen the struggle from both sides. Government and non-profits want to provide a lot of detail thinking that a vendor will better understand their needs that way, vendors want to be able to provide solutions based on their past experience and expertise and often have trouble fitting into the details laid out in the request. This doesn’t make them a bad match, in fact it may mean the vendor is a strategic, flexible, expert firm. By re-evaluating how the request is put forth it may allow organizations to see the expertise and value a vendor can truly bring.

https://www.drupalgovcon.org/program/sessions/finding-your-perfect-vendor-match