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Let’s say you go to your dentist because you’re experiencing some tooth pain.

You’ve done your (Google) research to determine what the cause of the pain might be, and have decided that it’s a cavity. You contact your insurance company to see how much it’ll cost to fix the cavity.

You get to your dentist’s office and tell them you need a cavity filling based on what you’ve discovered in your research. Without any questions, the dentist fills the cavity.

A month later, you’re back at the dentist’s office with more tooth pain. That pain ended up being way more than a cavity, and it’s about to cost more to find out what the real cause it. You’re frustrated because you told the dentist that you’re still experiencing tooth pain and the cavity filling didn’t solve the problem.

But can you really be upset with the dentist? After all, they only gave you a solution based on what you thought the real problem was.

This is how it feels to go through the Request for Proposals (RFP) process. If you’re not familiar with what an RFP is, it’s a document developed by an entity looking for a particular service. In my case, it would be consulting services.

The RFP process can be frustrating, and it’s a process I only participate in if the project sounds interesting (or if I’m interested in the prospect of working with a prospective client). The majority of my clients have not come by way of an RFP process, which pretty much gives you the answer to this month’s Ask Nicole question.

But do I really feel that all consultants should abandon the RPF process? Not really, but I do feel that we need to take nonprofits, foundations, and social service agencies to task on how ridiculous this process is in the hopes that they develop a better process that’s beneficial to everyone. There’s a lot left to be desired about the RFP process, but here are five things that bug me about it:

1) It’s an extremely vague process, focusing more on deliverables rather than being open to identifying what’s needed to get to those deliverables (and also figuring out if the process to get to the deliverables is even feasible within the budget and timeframe identified by the client. Which leads to the point #3).

2) The RFP is designed around what the organization thinks they need. As with the dentist example, if you tell your dentist what you think the solution is, it prevents them from doing a further examination to discover what the underlying needs really are and give you an appropriate diagnosis and treatment. I can’t develop an appropriate proposal for a prospective client just based off of what’s in the RFP without knowing some background information on the organization or program that’s more than likely not listed in the RFP.

3) Clients are weirdly vague about how much all of this is going to cost. If we’re being honest, an organization knows how much they’re willing to budget, but none are upfront about it. They’re either afraid to list it because of the belief that the most talented individual or group will believe the budget is too small, or they think they’ll have the upper hand at negotiations.

( I do not know of anyone willing to apply to a job posting that doesn’t have the annual salary listed. It’s tacky and unethical to deny someone the right to determine whether working for an organization will result in pay equity and livable wages. Plus, we all know an organization will eventually go with the consultant or group that costs the least.)

4) The focus is more about how many hours it’ll take to complete a task and doesn’t take into consideration the steps that go into completing a task. An organization may want to conduct several focus groups, but no consideration into how to develop the focus group questions, the number of focus groups to conduct, where to conduct them, how many people to recruit (and from where), or how long it’ll take analyze the group recordings. And conducting a survey can be just as complex. There have been countless times I’ve been asked to administer a survey and close it by a deadline, only for the client to request extending the deadline due to a lack of responses. That time adds up.

5) Clients will cherry pick your proposal to determine its merit (again) based on what they think they need, so it becomes more about how well can you follow directions. I’ve completed RFP processes feeling drained, even when I’ve won the contract. It’s a disservice to me and to the prospective client to not allow this to be a participatory process, and a realistic process based what an organization allocates funding for.

When I ask for the budget range, I’m looking for a few things: 1) Is what’s outlined in the RPF matching up to what the current budget is in terms of money allocated and time spent? 2) Is it financially feasible for me to take on this project, and does it help to move me towards my business financial goals? And if we’re also being honest, some organizations are looking for someone willing to do $50k worth of work on a $25k budget, so seeing how much they can get based on what they’re willing to spend adds more reality to the situation. I’ve taken on projects that had smaller budgets, and I did so mostly because I was the first consultant the client had worked with before and/or they were a significantly smaller organization, so what’s considered a high or low budget is relative.

Key takeaway

If you are an organization and you recognize yourself in some of what I’ve outlined above, I encourage you to think more about how you go about your RFP process. How can you make the process more transparent? How can you create a process that allows you to be open-minded in how you get to the destination? How can you create an RFP process that allows consultants to showcase their expertise and creativity? Do you even need an RFP process if you’re able to do this?

Whether consultants should stop responding to RFPs is a personal decision. I’m grateful that I’m in a space in my business where I don’t have to rely solely on them anymore, and I’m also grateful that many organizations are waking up to understanding what’s wrong with this process. Timing and budgets are important, but so is allowing consultants to get to the root cause of what you need.

Raise Your Voice: What is your process for responding to RFPs? If you’re an organization, how can you create a more equitable RFP process? Share below in the comments section.