Putting Equity in the RFP Process
When I first started doing client work, I responded to a lot of Requests for Proposals (RFPs), spending hours a day on the process (or on the weekends when I was working a 9-to-5.)
At some point, I asked myself, “Is this really what I’ll have to do to get clients?”
More importantly, “Is this a good use of my time?”
I’ve already written about how I feel about the RFP process. In fact, I’ve slowed down on responding to RFPs altogether as a time management tactic and to prioritize current work.
Fortunately, I’m at a point where responding to RFPs is optional. Plus, I see more colleagues choosing not to participate in this process.. One reason being that the majority of my colleagues (and myself) get more work via referrals and networking than RFPs.
I’ll admit I initially didn’t like the RFP process because I grew weary of spending hours putting together what I thought was a good proposal only to not even get a “thanks, but no thanks” back.
However, whether my proposal was selected or not, I still walked away believing that there’s a better way to go about finding people to lead projects.
While I don’t respond to as many RFPs, I still do look at them, and I’ve notice something interesting.
Organizations are becoming increasingly better at recognizing what I’ll refer to as data collection fatigue, being mindful of inundating program participants, grantee partners, and other stakeholders with requests for completing surveys, being in focus groups, etc., while also ensuring that data collection activities aren’t time consuming.
Organizations recognize this now because their stakeholders are complaining about it.
Does this mean that consultants aren’t complaining? We are, yet organizations aren’t shifting towards creating RFP processes that are transparent, less time consuming, and collaborative.
The RFP process may be a standard way to seek out consultants to work with, but it’s not an equitable process. Before your organization sends out the RFP for its next project, evaluate your RFP based on consultant complaints:
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