What is the RFP process, step by step?

What is the RFP process?

The RFP process is the sequence of steps a buyer follows to run a request for proposal: confirm the need, prepare and issue the RFP, answer suppliers’ questions, receive and evaluate proposals, negotiate where the rules allow, award the contract, inform the other bidders and sign. Each step leaves a record that justifies the choice.

What an RFP is, what it contains and when to use one rather than another request is explained in the RFP guide. This page is about running one. The RFP process sits inside strategic sourcing: sourcing decides what to buy and how to go to market, the RFP process runs the competition, and the result becomes a contract managed under contract management. In the wider procurement process, it is the “select the supplier” step for complex needs.

An example: a company wants to replace its payroll system. The RFP process starts when the HR director and the procurement lead agree the need and the budget. It ends when the contract with the chosen vendor is signed and handed to the team that will manage the implementation.

Do you need a full RFP, or a call-off from a framework?

Before writing an RFP, check whether suppliers have already been selected for this kind of need. In large organisations and public bodies, suppliers are often referenced first: a tender appoints several suppliers to a framework agreement or a panel for a set period, with terms agreed but no volume committed. Each specific need then goes out as an RFQ or an RFP to the suppliers on that framework only, often called a mini-competition. An open-market RFP is the route when nothing covers the need.

The steps below apply to all three routes. A mini-competition is shorter, because suppliers have already been checked and the contract terms are already agreed, but it still needs clear requirements, published criteria and the same answers for every supplier.

What are the steps of the RFP process?

The RFP process runs in twelve steps. Their names vary between organisations and laws, and a small RFP can combine some of them, but leaving one out usually shows up later as a complaint, a delay or a contract that does not fit the need.

1. Confirm the need, the budget and the owner. The business owner states the problem and the expected result; finance confirms the budget; one person is named to lead the RFP.
2. Research the market. Talk to suppliers, read their offers, or send a request for information. Public buyers may consult the market before a procedure, as long as no supplier gains an unfair advantage.
3. Choose the route and plan the timetable. Check frameworks and panels, choose the procedure, and set dates for each step, including the time suppliers need to answer.
4. Write the RFP. Requirements, draft contract terms, instructions to suppliers, the pricing format, and the evaluation criteria with their weights and scoring method.
5. Set up the evaluation panel. Name the evaluators, give each one the criteria they will score, and collect a declaration of any conflict of interest before they see a proposal.
6. Issue the RFP. Publish the notice or send the RFP to the invited suppliers at the same time, with the deadline and one contact for questions.
7. Answer questions. Answer in writing and send each answer to every supplier, without naming who asked. If an answer changes the RFP, issue an amendment and consider extending the deadline.
8. Receive proposals and check compliance. Keep proposals sealed until the deadline, then check that each one is complete and meets the mandatory requirements before scoring.
9. Evaluate. Each evaluator scores alone against the published criteria; the panel then meets to agree a score and write down the reasons. Price is often scored separately.
10. Shortlist, demonstrate and negotiate. Where the procedure allows, invite the best proposals to present or demonstrate, check references, negotiate, and ask for a best and final offer (BAFO).
11. Award and inform. Approve the award decision, tell every bidder the result with the reasons, offer debriefings, and in public procurement wait for the standstill period to end.
12. Sign and hand over. Sign the contract and give the contract manager the file: the RFP, the winning proposal, the negotiated changes and the commitments made by the supplier.

Do not skip the last step. A contract manager who never saw the proposal cannot check that the supplier delivers what it promised, so the winning proposal, or the parts the contract refers to, goes into the contract file.

Who does what in an RFP process?

An RFP needs several people, and each has a different job. The procurement lead owns the process; the business owns the need. Problems start when one person does both, or when nobody owns the timetable.

From issue to award, suppliers talk to the procurement lead only. If a vendor calls the business owner directly, the call is redirected: information given to one bidder and not the others makes the competition unfair, and in public procurement can be grounds for a challenge.

How long does the RFP process take?

The time depends on the complexity of the need, the number of suppliers and the rules that apply. The table below is an illustrative planning example for a private company buying software, not a benchmark or a rule: replace each duration with your own estimate.

Public RFPs add legal minimums. An EU open procedure gives suppliers at least 35 days from the contract notice, or 30 with electronic submission; a US federal solicitation above the simplified acquisition threshold gives at least 30 days for proposals, except for commercial products or services. After the award decision, EU buyers wait at least 10 calendar days before signing when the decision is sent electronically, and UK buyers eight working days. The full table of response times is in the RFP guide.

How are proposals evaluated during the process?

Evaluation is a sequence, not a single meeting. Each step filters or scores on the basis the RFP announced, and leaves a written reason that can be shown to a supplier who asks.

1. Compliance check. Is the proposal on time, complete, signed, and does it meet every mandatory requirement? A proposal that fails is set aside, with the reason recorded.
2. Individual scoring. Each evaluator scores the parts assigned to them, alone, with a short reason for each score.
3. Moderation. The panel compares scores, discusses large gaps and agrees one score per criterion, with the reason. The agreed scores, not the average of individual ones, go into the decision.
4. Price evaluation. Price is scored by the method the RFP stated, often by finance, and in some organisations only after the technical scores are fixed.
5. Ranking. Weighted scores are added to rank the proposals. How weights and scoring methods work, with a worked example, is in the RFP guide.

Questions to a supplier during evaluation must stay within limits. Clarifying an unclear point in a proposal is normal. Letting one supplier change its offer is not, unless the procedure provides a negotiation stage open to every supplier still in the competition. US federal rules draw the line in FAR 15.306: clarifications are limited exchanges, such as correcting a clerical error, while discussions, which allow proposals to be revised, must be held with every offeror in the competitive range, the group of most highly rated proposals.

Can you negotiate after proposals, and how is the award made?

Whether the buyer can negotiate depends on the rules that apply. A private company is free to negotiate, but the process stays fair only if every shortlisted supplier gets the same chance to improve its offer, by the same deadline. Public buyers can negotiate only in procedures that provide for it.

A best and final offer, or BAFO, is the last round of a negotiation: each shortlisted supplier submits its final price and terms by the same deadline, and the buyer scores those final offers. In US federal buying the same step is called a final proposal revision, with one common cut-off date for all offerors. Many buyers announce a single BAFO round in the RFP: if suppliers expect more “final” rounds, they have a reason to hold back their best price.

Debriefing unsuccessful bidders is part of the process. It explains the scores and the reasons, so the supplier understands the result and bids better next time. Under US federal rules, it does not include a point-by-point comparison with other proposals or their trade secrets and confidential commercial information.

Where does the RFP process usually go wrong?

Many RFP failures start in the first steps and become visible only at evaluation or after signature. The table lists common ones, the symptom and the prevention.

Can the RFP process run in software?

Yes. An e-sourcing or e-tendering tool publishes the RFP, keeps proposals sealed until the deadline, records every question and answer, sends amendments to all bidders, and lets evaluators score in one place. US federal rules allow electronic issue and receipt of RFPs when the RFP states the methods, and electronic submission is the rule in EU public procurement. Where e-sourcing fits among procurement systems is explained in what is e-procurement, and how to choose a tool in the procurement sourcing software guide.

Searches for “RFP software” often mean tools that suppliers use to write their answers. A guide that separates buyer-side and supplier-side RFP software is in preparation.