Sealed Bids vs Request for Proposals

In the not too distant past, when a government agency had a project that they needed built, they would simply put out plans and specs to solicit bids from different contractors. Upon receipt of these bids they would have a public bid opening and award the project to the low bidder. This did not always provide them with the best option to complete their project. These types of bids (IFB) are slowly becoming a thing of the past. They are being replaced with a Request For Proposal (RFP).

When looking at advertised government projects now it is much more common place to see phrases like "best value to the government" or "lowest price technically acceptable". What this does is place more emphasis on the qualifications of the contractors and less on the pricing of the project. These types of projects are also considered to be negotiated procurements which allows the contracting officer to open discussions with companies submitting bids to request more information or perhaps a best and final offer.

In preparing the qualifications proposals, many new contractors or those who have only worked in the commercial arena don't know the importance of providing the contracting officer a clear understanding of their capabilities. The normal information requested in these situations is specialized experience, past performance, key personnel and an organizational and management narrative. In deciding which projects to list, make sure they are at least similar in in size and complexity of the proposed project and make sure to list a good point of contact so that the source selection committee that is review your proposal will be able to verify the information that you have sent. When preparing your narratives, try to include things that you as a contractor do that go above and beyond what is required to complete the project.

Contracting officers are looking for anything that sets you apart from the rest of the submissions and sometimes this can be as simple as extra steps you take to keep construction and design personnel involved throughout the completion of the project. One area that many companies miss is making sure that they follow the directions in the proposal concerning exactly where each piece of information is supposed to go.

After you have a rough draft of your proposal put together, go through the instructions in the RFP and make sure that you have each question answered and that each piece of information they are requesting is in the proper section of your proposal. Keep in mind that the source selection board may be reviewing dozens of proposals and they will not spend time looking through other sections of your proposal for information that is not in the proper section.

While preparing one of these proposals can seem like a daunting task to someone not familiar with the process, it is best approached with the attitude of here is my best chance to show that we can offer the government the best value for their construction dollar because if you don't get selected as qualified to perform the project, there is a very good chance that your pricing model will not even be reviewed.

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