A seller receives an evaluation document. It lists twenty requirements, every one of which the seller satisfies, and it carries a pricing table with a single rate per transaction. The seller reads this as an opportunity. It is closer to a result that has already been computed.
Look at what the scoring model can do. If every requirement names a capability that all qualified vendors possess, then every qualified vendor scores the same on capability. One column still varies. The award falls to whichever response holds the smaller number in it, and the committee will have followed its own published process correctly in awarding it that way.
What Is Still Open After Publication
A vendor cannot change the scoring model. A vendor can sometimes change the scope the model is scoring, and there are three places where new information is formally accepted.
- The clarification question window. Questions submitted during that window are usually answered to every bidder in writing, which makes it the one place a vendor can put a consideration into the shared record. A question of the form "how does the evaluation account for the cost of X" places X in front of the entire committee, including the members who never spoke to any vendor. Ask about a cost the document omits and that the buyer already carries.
- The assumptions section of the response. Most templates include one, and most vendors use it to repeat the requirements. It will hold a short, specific list of what the scope as written leaves to the buyer: the integration work, the exception handling, the staffing during the transition, the volume above the stated ceiling. Each line is a real cost that exists whoever wins, and writing it down is what makes the response readable a year later when those costs arrive.
- Any criterion that mentions risk, implementation, or total cost. These carry weight in the model and they accept narrative. They are where a Power Message belongs, which means a statement linking a capability you have to a problem the buyer carries that costs them money. A capability every bidder also has scores as parity here and earns nothing.
None of this reliably wins an award that was scoped to go elsewhere. What it does is make the response the document the buyer returns to when the awarded scope turns out to be partial, and that is a real outcome worth the effort of bidding.
The Work That Belongs Before the Document Exists
An evaluation document is written by people, and the requirements come from the people who carry the problem day to day. Those people are reachable months before procurement publishes anything, and what they say during that period becomes the document.
Which makes the sequence straightforward. Reach the contributors while the document is a draft. Establish what the current situation costs them in labor, delay, and risk, using their own figures. A cost they have named out loud is a cost that can appear as a requirement, and a requirement that names a cost cannot be scored by unit price alone.
This is surround sound, which means reaching every person who can stop the deal, including the people who contribute requirements and the people who review the award. In a committee process the signer is rarely the only decision, so a seller known to a single contact is exposed to reviewers who have never heard the argument.
Procurement Strategy: Common Questions
Why does a unit price evaluation favor the cheapest bidder?
Because the scoring model only has one variable that moves. When every requirement is written as a capability all qualified vendors possess, the capabilities score identically and the award falls to whichever column holds the smaller number. The document has decided the outcome before any vendor responds.
Can a published RFP still be reframed?
The scoring model cannot be changed by a vendor, and the scope sometimes can. The usable openings are the clarification question window, the assumptions section of the response, and any evaluation criterion that mentions risk, implementation, or total cost. Each one accepts information the pricing table cannot hold.
What is the clarification question window for?
Questions submitted during that window are usually answered to every bidder in writing, which makes it the one place a vendor can introduce a consideration into the shared record. A question that asks how the evaluation accounts for a cost the document omits puts that cost in front of the whole committee.
Should you bid an evaluation you expect to lose on price?
Bid when the account is worth a relationship beyond this award, and price the response to the scope as written while documenting the omitted costs in the assumptions. A disciplined response that names what the scope leaves out is what makes the buyer call you when the awarded vendor delivers only what was scoped.
What is the work to do before an RFP is written?
Reach the people who will contribute requirements while the document is still a draft, and establish what the current situation costs them in labor, delay, and risk. Requirements are written by the people who carry the problem, so a cost they have named is a cost that can appear in the document.
What is surround sound in a procurement process?
Surround sound means reaching every person who can stop the deal, including the people who contribute requirements and the people who review the award. In a procurement process the signer is rarely the only decision, so a seller known to only one contact is exposed to a committee that has never heard the argument.
Jeff Aragon, Founder, Jozu Revenue Systems