Guy, thanks for revealing my secret ingredient (zzzzzs!).
Mark,
Guy gave you important tips, and he's very experienced in working with museums of all sizes and types to create relevant master plans. For more about his company and how they work with their clients, see
https://www.museuminsights.com/our_approach.html
To expand upon what Guy's suggesting:
- If you have a large number of firms receiving the RFP (>6), you may risk having the best firms submit a response. It takes time to produce a proposal and good firms are often busy, so the risk/reward of putting in a proposal may not be worth the time to them.
- Revealing your budget for the work is always a good idea for any RFP. You want quality, and if you set the price you have control over what you'll spend. I've written dozens of RFPs over the years and not once have I seen what some clients are afraid of - leaving "money on the table." A good firm will charge a fair price but if you don't tell them what it will cost, it will cost you more in the long run because they'll give a conservative estimate.
- Definitely limit the number of pages in which they can answer your questions. Fifteen is a good number. If you think you want more information, you can view the firms' websites and/or ask for marketing materials later.
- Leave sufficient time for the firms to prepare a proposal once you release it, a minimum of 3 weeks. It takes time to be thoughtful in their response, and if you're expecting them to drop everything to cater to your request you may not get the best firms responding (see the 1st bullet point above) and/or you're suggesting by your actions that you might be a candidate for "client from Hell", which isn't a good way to start and might also scare off good firms. If you have a complicated process that means you know now that you can't release it until X date, give a heads up to the firms which will be receiving it so they can block out some time to prepare the response.
- Ask those receiving the RFP to let you know if they're interesting in submitting a proposal by registering their "Intent to Bid" with you in writing. If you find there will not be enough respondents you'll have to widen your net of firms which receive it.
- Do everything in writing and include a question/response time period within the first week of the schedule after you release the RFP. If it's all in writing it prevents some participants in the process getting information not available to other participants and your proposals could be based on the apples and oranges they're aware of. Be clear that all questions and all answers will be provided to all registered respondents (and that questions will be listed anonymously, to encourage people to ask whatever isn't clear to them).
- Do not, repeat, do not answer anything by phone and have only a single point of contact for all information. There is a legal doctrine called "detrimental reliance" which means if one firm relies on the written instructions provided to all, but another firm somehow gets more or different information, if one of those firms which relied on the information provided to everyone doesn't get the project but someone with special information did, the losing firm may have grounds to sue you. (I was told this by a lawyer some years ago and I'm not aware that anything has changed since then).
- Be clear about the information you want in your answers and equally clear about how you will rate the information provided. It's only fair to reveal your scoring system, e.g. "Prior experience will be worth 25% of our score, references will be worth 25%, etc."
If you have any questions feel free to contact me directly.
Good luck! It's your institution's future, so be thoughtful but not paralyzed by the process. Have some fun with it and be as specific to your institution as possible. Generic information in = generic proposals generated.
Cheers,
Barbara
Barbara
Punt Punt Consulting Group
409 North PCH, Suite 326
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
(310) 937-3366
barbara@puntconsulting.com
When in Doubt...Punt!